Singapore
Unfortunatley, Singapore did not go exactly as planned. The airport is amazing however! After a 6 hr flight, we arrived at Changi, probably the nicest airport we have been too. We intentionally checked our luggage (we pack carry on for all our trips) so we wouldn't have to mess with it during our 16 hr layover in Singapore. Smart thinking Will! We knew this portion of the trip would be rough because we had 2 overnight flights back to back! This is also the part of the trip that both Will and I discovered that Dubai Taco Bell Quesadilla's and sensitive American stomachs don't mix, and we have been suffering the consequences ever since! But hey, if it is a parasite, I have a great doctor!
We arrived at the airport around 7:30am and were completely worn out. We had time to kill because stuff wouldn't be open. Luckily for us, Changi has special napping areas, so we rested for about 3 hours on these little lounge chairs....the only bad thing was that it was right next to the Hard Rock Cafe, so loud music didn't help much.
We left the airport around 11 and thanks to Singapore Airlines, we got half off our tour bus ticket. What we didn't know is that is was more like a shuttle bus rather than a touring bus like the Big Bus tour I wanted to take. Will and I were both so tied and there was no commentary to keep us awake, so we ended up taking cap naps on the 2 hr city tour and didn't get off at any of the sights.
We wanted to ride this giant ferris wheel, but it was closed, so we walked to this newly developed area that has building that would rival Dubai any day. (just not as many). One building looked like a broken egg shell and the other had three towers with a boat on top. We later found out that it was a casino and a museum. It was hot and muggy, so we found a Starbucks to cool off. My boss Benny had forwarded the name of a band director that recently moved to Singapore, so we contacted him and he met us at the Starbucks. My plan to have authentic Asian food did not happen because our stomach still were not happy. So we found a local pizza joint in the bottom of a mall below street level. Tim had been looking for a decent pizza place and he said that restuarant was the closest thing he has found so far...so i am glad we could help. We had a really nice visit with Tim and shared our travel stories and learned more about the Sinapore culture.
One of the coolest things for me was that while we were at Starbucks, all these tiny band students started showing up. They were giving performances next to the lake so we got to watch those! These kids were tiny too! They only looked to be in third grade and were playing middle school level music. Yes, I heard Lady Gaga a few times. Some things I learned about band over here are:
Band kids only meet 2 times a week for rehearsals!
Instruments are selected for the kids, not the kids select the instrument.
Students are in school year round.
Tutoring is viewed as a way to get ahead, not remedial. Students finish their day around 1 but stay late for tutoring trying to advance. The individual drive is much higher over here.
I really enjoyed seeing all the band kids and learning how they teach in Singapore.
We headed back to the airport around 7 to take showers! Yes, they have a really cool lounge that offered a hourly sleep hotel, and a spa type place that offered nail, hair, and shower services. It was a great airport to have a long layover. While walking around, we say a butterfly sancuary and a choy pond.
We took showers and went back to wait for our 12:30 am flight to Sydney! We felt tons better after taking showers.
Fyi...do not spit on the grass, chew gum, or bring food on the trains...you could get fined!
Oh..and Singapore Airlines really was amazing. The flight attendants are beautiful, food looked good(I could not eat it) and they gave out Givenchy travel bags that contained a socks, and a tooth brush. Every person got a menu with was would be served and there was free wine and beer the whole flight.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Dubai
Dubai
Dubai was one of the coolest cities i have been too. Yes, I admit that i was scared to death, but soon learned to adapt to the culture. A think it was more a fear of the unknown and not understanding the people or their customs. Once you be the basic understanding (and no, I do not agree with everything) you learn to adjust rather that be scared.
The Furman's
We stayed with Dave and Gloria Furman and their 3 kids, Aliza, Nora, and Judson. I knew both Dave and Gloria back in college. (dare i say 12 years ago!). Dave is now the Pastor of Redeemer Church which meets in the lobby of hotel located in one of the large malls. They have 2 sevices and a congregation of 500-700 people. Dubai is "open" to other faiths, but doesn't allow but one church building inside this city. There is one Protestant and one Catholic building inside the city and all others must rent buildings to hold services. The Holy Day is Friday, so church meets at that time. More on that later.
Arrival
After we arrived at the Furmans, we visitied for a little while and then took a nice long 4 hour nap! It felt soooo good considering the night i had just had on the airline...i learned later that Will counted...I used 5 barf bags, and made that many trips to the bathroom. Praise the Lord it was night and most people were sleeping and that we had seats to ourselves so I wasn't crawling over someone every time. I became one with the airplane bathroom that night! Inpraynnever to do that again. But the little barf bags work pretty good!
That evening Dave too us to all the "souks" or markets. There seems to be a souk for everything. We went to the fish market first and I didn't barf! Thank goodness, I knew I must have been better since I survived that. The shark fin is a speciality in Dubai, but also illegal. That doesn't stop the fishing...we saw at least 100 dead sharks just waiting to be bought. It was quite interesting to walk around this area too. Men do the shopping in Dubai, and I really didn't see many other women either...let alone any blonde, white girls! I stuck close to my guys and was fine...but did get lots of stares. I learned that it is a Muslim sin to look at a women twice, but ok to get a single long stare. If a man looks again, it is a sin. I did dress very respectfully too. I knew lots of other tourists would not be as respectful, but this was important if we were going to be with the Furman's and representing Jesus. That meant pants and covered shoulders. Every place in Dubai hasTexas-cold air conditioning...so it really was not too bad. Even the bus stop have ac! It was hot walking around the markets, but at night when the sun goes down, it does not cool off...but is do-able. We visitied then all imported fruits snd veggy market, the gold market, spice market, Little India, we crossed Dubai creek and went to dinner in the "oldest commercial building" in Dubai. We let Dave order for us (thank goodness) and had a meal of beef, chicken, and lamb kabobs, pita bread and humus, french fries (yes, they love french fries over there) and a few other things that I do not know the name of. We enjoyed a typical meal from Dubai! More on that later...
The next day, Dave turned us loose in the city! I was not nearly as nervous as before and I knew we were doing more touristy things. We started off at the Mall of the Emerates, which is the largest Mall in the world! Originally, we were going to try out the indoor snow skiing(yer, you heard me right) but Will's leg was not in the right condition for that. So we walked around the mall and found the Hop on, Hop off bus. We took this tour around the city and got to see all the crazy buildings....everything you hear about the buildings in Dubai is true! There is even an apartment building that rotates with the sun! We saw the Wind Sail building, the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world) and the Palm Jumerah. The Palm is a man made island with homes on each "frond" and the hotel Atlantis at the very end. There are even man made islands in the shape of the globe and each island is privately owned. Simply amazing and unreal! The housing crash as hit Dubai hard....for example, we saw 50 skyscrapers in the process of being built, and all looked to be abandoned. The other interesting thing I noticed is that you would expext to see concrete roads surrounding these sites, but instead it was all sand. After the bus tour, Will and I arranged to go sand dune bashing! That has probably been the funnest thing of the trip so far! We knew it was going to be good since our vehicle smelled of barf from the day before. The car had been cleaned, but day old barf roasting in a hot Dubai car does not go away easily! On a postive note, I did not get sick off the smell, so another sign I was better. Hey, when you are traveling as a guest in another country, your perspective changes a little....I could choose to be miserable or choose to enjoy the experience. We did tell the driver and he added a strawberry air freshener...but then we had strawberry scented barf! One other thing, people in this country are poor. 85% of people living in Dubai are foreign workers and most are trying to get a better life and send money back to their families. For example, taxi drivers work 12 hour shifts and sleep in cots and share with the guy on the opposite shift. Tips mean a lot to the drivers and a standard cab fare is really cheap for Americans. Oh...and you only enter to cab on the passanger side. Back to the dune bashing....our car had roll bars! We drove to a tiny stip mall where you can buy gifts and while we were doing that, the drivers were letting air out of all the tires and using air hoses to blow all the sand out of the engine..you know they mean business now! Dune bashing is compared to riding a roller coaster and I would agree with that! When you are sliding down sand dunes sideways and when sand is washing over your car like water....dude. It was a blast and I think every one should travel to Dubai to go dune bashing! After an hour of that, we stopped at a little village in the middle of the desert and got to ride camels! That was so fun too! They were so tall and make ugly noises. Thank goodness their mouths were covered, I understand why they are known for biting and spitting. It also feels like you are about to get thrown off the camel when the get up and lay down....tons of fun. After that, we had opportunities to go shoppings, get henna on our hands, make sand art, or moke a hooka. Dinner was served and we had to form two lines, one for women and one for men....for the first time in my life the womens line was shorter! We basically had the same meal that Dave had introduced to us the night before. The evening entertainment consisted of belly dancers and a guy that did a spinning dance for 5 minutes straight. He wore numerous long skirts that would twill and then he would layer them all at once while spinning. I am still confused at how belly dancing would even be acceptable in such a conservative county. We did see a Muslim man with his 4 wives there and none of them watched the show. One of the best things about this trip was meeting all the people and other tourists! Our car had people from Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Brazil. We had tons of fun sharing stories about our travels and learning about our new friends....our commonality was English. The Brazilian guy had just spent 6 months in Australia learning English and was on his way back home to get a job. How cool! We really had a great time!
Friday
Friday is the Muslim Holy Day and also the same day that the Redeemer Church meets. We got there early and had Costa Coffee in the mall while waiting for the second service to begin. Dave was not preaching that day because they had a guest speaker in town. We enjoyed a typical worship service followed by a great sermon. The church meeting in the confernece area of a hotel and is about to gp through so beg renovations, please pray that Redeemer is able to find another space adequet to house such a large crowd. Following the service, we went down to the fellowship hall (a.k.a food court) and had lunch. Will and I grabbed a quick Taco Bell Quesedilla and sat with an ex-pat American family that now works in Dubai. We learned tons about the culture and customs of the United Arab Emirates.
Our flight left at 7 pm so Dave took us to the Dubai mall. This mall is unreal...actually all the malls in Dubai are outrageous! Northpark has no comparison Dubai. I had no idea that shopping was considered a tourism activity! This mall had the largest pane of glass for the indoor aquarium. It had it own gold souk inside the mall with 220 gold stores, 1200 stores total, a theme park, retractable roof themed shopping area...and too much more to write about. At first, i was like "oh boy, we are going to a mall"....but now I understand. There are 14000 parking spaces and little green and red led lights that you seento let you know if a parking space is available. As you walk in, there are signs saying..please don't forget where you parked! The mall is attached to the tallest building in the workd so we got some great photos there. We had quesidialls for dinner at Baja Fresh inside that mall too.
Leaving the airport was easy! Time for a 6-7 hr flight to Singapore.
Fyi...i have been buying Starbucks mugs and Christmas ornaments in all the countries we have visited....Dubai didn't sell Christmas ornaments. Wonder why?
Dubai was one of the coolest cities i have been too. Yes, I admit that i was scared to death, but soon learned to adapt to the culture. A think it was more a fear of the unknown and not understanding the people or their customs. Once you be the basic understanding (and no, I do not agree with everything) you learn to adjust rather that be scared.
The Furman's
We stayed with Dave and Gloria Furman and their 3 kids, Aliza, Nora, and Judson. I knew both Dave and Gloria back in college. (dare i say 12 years ago!). Dave is now the Pastor of Redeemer Church which meets in the lobby of hotel located in one of the large malls. They have 2 sevices and a congregation of 500-700 people. Dubai is "open" to other faiths, but doesn't allow but one church building inside this city. There is one Protestant and one Catholic building inside the city and all others must rent buildings to hold services. The Holy Day is Friday, so church meets at that time. More on that later.
Arrival
After we arrived at the Furmans, we visitied for a little while and then took a nice long 4 hour nap! It felt soooo good considering the night i had just had on the airline...i learned later that Will counted...I used 5 barf bags, and made that many trips to the bathroom. Praise the Lord it was night and most people were sleeping and that we had seats to ourselves so I wasn't crawling over someone every time. I became one with the airplane bathroom that night! Inpraynnever to do that again. But the little barf bags work pretty good!
That evening Dave too us to all the "souks" or markets. There seems to be a souk for everything. We went to the fish market first and I didn't barf! Thank goodness, I knew I must have been better since I survived that. The shark fin is a speciality in Dubai, but also illegal. That doesn't stop the fishing...we saw at least 100 dead sharks just waiting to be bought. It was quite interesting to walk around this area too. Men do the shopping in Dubai, and I really didn't see many other women either...let alone any blonde, white girls! I stuck close to my guys and was fine...but did get lots of stares. I learned that it is a Muslim sin to look at a women twice, but ok to get a single long stare. If a man looks again, it is a sin. I did dress very respectfully too. I knew lots of other tourists would not be as respectful, but this was important if we were going to be with the Furman's and representing Jesus. That meant pants and covered shoulders. Every place in Dubai hasTexas-cold air conditioning...so it really was not too bad. Even the bus stop have ac! It was hot walking around the markets, but at night when the sun goes down, it does not cool off...but is do-able. We visitied then all imported fruits snd veggy market, the gold market, spice market, Little India, we crossed Dubai creek and went to dinner in the "oldest commercial building" in Dubai. We let Dave order for us (thank goodness) and had a meal of beef, chicken, and lamb kabobs, pita bread and humus, french fries (yes, they love french fries over there) and a few other things that I do not know the name of. We enjoyed a typical meal from Dubai! More on that later...
The next day, Dave turned us loose in the city! I was not nearly as nervous as before and I knew we were doing more touristy things. We started off at the Mall of the Emerates, which is the largest Mall in the world! Originally, we were going to try out the indoor snow skiing(yer, you heard me right) but Will's leg was not in the right condition for that. So we walked around the mall and found the Hop on, Hop off bus. We took this tour around the city and got to see all the crazy buildings....everything you hear about the buildings in Dubai is true! There is even an apartment building that rotates with the sun! We saw the Wind Sail building, the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world) and the Palm Jumerah. The Palm is a man made island with homes on each "frond" and the hotel Atlantis at the very end. There are even man made islands in the shape of the globe and each island is privately owned. Simply amazing and unreal! The housing crash as hit Dubai hard....for example, we saw 50 skyscrapers in the process of being built, and all looked to be abandoned. The other interesting thing I noticed is that you would expext to see concrete roads surrounding these sites, but instead it was all sand. After the bus tour, Will and I arranged to go sand dune bashing! That has probably been the funnest thing of the trip so far! We knew it was going to be good since our vehicle smelled of barf from the day before. The car had been cleaned, but day old barf roasting in a hot Dubai car does not go away easily! On a postive note, I did not get sick off the smell, so another sign I was better. Hey, when you are traveling as a guest in another country, your perspective changes a little....I could choose to be miserable or choose to enjoy the experience. We did tell the driver and he added a strawberry air freshener...but then we had strawberry scented barf! One other thing, people in this country are poor. 85% of people living in Dubai are foreign workers and most are trying to get a better life and send money back to their families. For example, taxi drivers work 12 hour shifts and sleep in cots and share with the guy on the opposite shift. Tips mean a lot to the drivers and a standard cab fare is really cheap for Americans. Oh...and you only enter to cab on the passanger side. Back to the dune bashing....our car had roll bars! We drove to a tiny stip mall where you can buy gifts and while we were doing that, the drivers were letting air out of all the tires and using air hoses to blow all the sand out of the engine..you know they mean business now! Dune bashing is compared to riding a roller coaster and I would agree with that! When you are sliding down sand dunes sideways and when sand is washing over your car like water....dude. It was a blast and I think every one should travel to Dubai to go dune bashing! After an hour of that, we stopped at a little village in the middle of the desert and got to ride camels! That was so fun too! They were so tall and make ugly noises. Thank goodness their mouths were covered, I understand why they are known for biting and spitting. It also feels like you are about to get thrown off the camel when the get up and lay down....tons of fun. After that, we had opportunities to go shoppings, get henna on our hands, make sand art, or moke a hooka. Dinner was served and we had to form two lines, one for women and one for men....for the first time in my life the womens line was shorter! We basically had the same meal that Dave had introduced to us the night before. The evening entertainment consisted of belly dancers and a guy that did a spinning dance for 5 minutes straight. He wore numerous long skirts that would twill and then he would layer them all at once while spinning. I am still confused at how belly dancing would even be acceptable in such a conservative county. We did see a Muslim man with his 4 wives there and none of them watched the show. One of the best things about this trip was meeting all the people and other tourists! Our car had people from Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Brazil. We had tons of fun sharing stories about our travels and learning about our new friends....our commonality was English. The Brazilian guy had just spent 6 months in Australia learning English and was on his way back home to get a job. How cool! We really had a great time!
Friday
Friday is the Muslim Holy Day and also the same day that the Redeemer Church meets. We got there early and had Costa Coffee in the mall while waiting for the second service to begin. Dave was not preaching that day because they had a guest speaker in town. We enjoyed a typical worship service followed by a great sermon. The church meeting in the confernece area of a hotel and is about to gp through so beg renovations, please pray that Redeemer is able to find another space adequet to house such a large crowd. Following the service, we went down to the fellowship hall (a.k.a food court) and had lunch. Will and I grabbed a quick Taco Bell Quesedilla and sat with an ex-pat American family that now works in Dubai. We learned tons about the culture and customs of the United Arab Emirates.
Our flight left at 7 pm so Dave took us to the Dubai mall. This mall is unreal...actually all the malls in Dubai are outrageous! Northpark has no comparison Dubai. I had no idea that shopping was considered a tourism activity! This mall had the largest pane of glass for the indoor aquarium. It had it own gold souk inside the mall with 220 gold stores, 1200 stores total, a theme park, retractable roof themed shopping area...and too much more to write about. At first, i was like "oh boy, we are going to a mall"....but now I understand. There are 14000 parking spaces and little green and red led lights that you seento let you know if a parking space is available. As you walk in, there are signs saying..please don't forget where you parked! The mall is attached to the tallest building in the workd so we got some great photos there. We had quesidialls for dinner at Baja Fresh inside that mall too.
Leaving the airport was easy! Time for a 6-7 hr flight to Singapore.
Fyi...i have been buying Starbucks mugs and Christmas ornaments in all the countries we have visited....Dubai didn't sell Christmas ornaments. Wonder why?
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Berlin to Dubai
Berlin
Wow, where do I start? Is am currently in Sydney, Australia and it is 6:30am and I am wide awake. I think my time clock might be off a little considering we have jumped forward about 6 hrs in the last 24hrs i think. We also haven't been taking any train rides lately, so my updates have been a few countries behind.
Our last day in Switzerland was at our favorite hotel. Will and i judge hotels by the breakfast, and since this one didn't have haggis.....the only weird thing about Switzerland is that queen beds just don't exist. Everywhere we have been shoves two twins together. Weird...
We left Switzerland at 9 and took the train to Zurich at 2. We had a 1 hr flight to Berlin and a five hr layover. Will is much braver than I so actually got out of the airport and explored Berlin! This is NOT in my character, because I am scared to miss a flight and I do not have my Rick Steves book with me! It was about a 40 min bus ride to the Brandenburg Gate, so we walked about, saw where the wall use to be and saw a few memorials, and the old parliment building. It is fasinating to see pictures of the demolished buildings from the war and then see what the Germans have done with it now. The destructions from WWII is really hard to describe when you are looking at all the photos! Yes, we also bought our piece of the Berlin Wall attached to a post card...you can't get more touristy than that!
Out plane leaving Berlin was about a hour late because of maintence problems. They ended up switching aircraft on us completely! They gave us a smaller airplane which required a stop inTurkey to refuel. Does this mean I can say I have been to Turkey now? I will never forget that flight because I became profient at using the barf bags! Yes, this was a new experience for me! Will and i had dinner in the airport right before we left and I ordered a pretzel. (Germany=pretzels to me. Normally really good!). About 3 hrs later, i got really sick and stayed sick until we landed. Praise the Lord no one was sitting next too us and that most people were asleep on the flight. I was up and down then entire flight. Will did an excellent job taking care of me, but it sure was not a memerable experience. I think they gave me the week old display pretzels out of the window...and truthfully, I was really nervous about going to Dubai. i wonder who else my family has that problem (Kimberly!).
Reason why i was freaking out about Dubai.
No Rick Steves guide book let alone any guide book. You go to your local book store and see if you can find anything on Dubai. Good luck!
I read lots on Dubai on the internet and there are not good stories out there about Americans getting in trouble for bring in prescriptions medicine and to much PDA and not following the customs of a very traditional Muslim country.
I was really worried about customs because i had benedryl and that medication wasn't on my doctors permission note. (yes, you have to get a doctors note saying you are approved to take the following medicines-and I did that, just left off benedryl. I know it is stupid, but if there is something at all to worry about, i will find it.). You get off the plane and all you see are the tradition dress...men in the white floor length coverings with the headress and women wearing black from head to toe. Not everyone weres it over here, but sure more than what I am use too. There are also guards standing at the front of the lines directing poeple where to go...just lots of official type scary people everywhere in my mind, and here i am barfing all night too! So, we get off the plane and i barf in the bathroom, then standing in the immigration line, all i am thinking is "please don't barf here." They will think i am on drugs and i will get arrested! THEN...when Will feels bad for me, he tends to give me a kiss on the check and he attempted to do that in line at immigration! I almost punched him! I am sure we would get arrested for doing both! Anyway, we made it through immigrations, I barfed one more time and was done. We grabbed a taxi and drove straight to the Furman's house with no problems at all!
Wow, where do I start? Is am currently in Sydney, Australia and it is 6:30am and I am wide awake. I think my time clock might be off a little considering we have jumped forward about 6 hrs in the last 24hrs i think. We also haven't been taking any train rides lately, so my updates have been a few countries behind.
Our last day in Switzerland was at our favorite hotel. Will and i judge hotels by the breakfast, and since this one didn't have haggis.....the only weird thing about Switzerland is that queen beds just don't exist. Everywhere we have been shoves two twins together. Weird...
We left Switzerland at 9 and took the train to Zurich at 2. We had a 1 hr flight to Berlin and a five hr layover. Will is much braver than I so actually got out of the airport and explored Berlin! This is NOT in my character, because I am scared to miss a flight and I do not have my Rick Steves book with me! It was about a 40 min bus ride to the Brandenburg Gate, so we walked about, saw where the wall use to be and saw a few memorials, and the old parliment building. It is fasinating to see pictures of the demolished buildings from the war and then see what the Germans have done with it now. The destructions from WWII is really hard to describe when you are looking at all the photos! Yes, we also bought our piece of the Berlin Wall attached to a post card...you can't get more touristy than that!
Out plane leaving Berlin was about a hour late because of maintence problems. They ended up switching aircraft on us completely! They gave us a smaller airplane which required a stop inTurkey to refuel. Does this mean I can say I have been to Turkey now? I will never forget that flight because I became profient at using the barf bags! Yes, this was a new experience for me! Will and i had dinner in the airport right before we left and I ordered a pretzel. (Germany=pretzels to me. Normally really good!). About 3 hrs later, i got really sick and stayed sick until we landed. Praise the Lord no one was sitting next too us and that most people were asleep on the flight. I was up and down then entire flight. Will did an excellent job taking care of me, but it sure was not a memerable experience. I think they gave me the week old display pretzels out of the window...and truthfully, I was really nervous about going to Dubai. i wonder who else my family has that problem (Kimberly!).
Reason why i was freaking out about Dubai.
No Rick Steves guide book let alone any guide book. You go to your local book store and see if you can find anything on Dubai. Good luck!
I read lots on Dubai on the internet and there are not good stories out there about Americans getting in trouble for bring in prescriptions medicine and to much PDA and not following the customs of a very traditional Muslim country.
I was really worried about customs because i had benedryl and that medication wasn't on my doctors permission note. (yes, you have to get a doctors note saying you are approved to take the following medicines-and I did that, just left off benedryl. I know it is stupid, but if there is something at all to worry about, i will find it.). You get off the plane and all you see are the tradition dress...men in the white floor length coverings with the headress and women wearing black from head to toe. Not everyone weres it over here, but sure more than what I am use too. There are also guards standing at the front of the lines directing poeple where to go...just lots of official type scary people everywhere in my mind, and here i am barfing all night too! So, we get off the plane and i barf in the bathroom, then standing in the immigration line, all i am thinking is "please don't barf here." They will think i am on drugs and i will get arrested! THEN...when Will feels bad for me, he tends to give me a kiss on the check and he attempted to do that in line at immigration! I almost punched him! I am sure we would get arrested for doing both! Anyway, we made it through immigrations, I barfed one more time and was done. We grabbed a taxi and drove straight to the Furman's house with no problems at all!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Switzerland
Switzerland
Greetings from the Alps!
Will and I have spent a very pleasant 4 days here in the Alps. The first thing we did when we arrived was to go to the local grocery store and buy food and chocolate for the week. It is kinda cool that we know where everything is in the grocery store since this is our 3rd year back! This year, we learned how to use the grocery carts, you have to put a coin in to unlock the cart and then lock it back up to get your coin back. We bought tons of chocolate too! Last year we planned on bringing chocolate back to the States, but we had problems with that and never made it. This year, if it survives the desert, we will be doing good. I also bought 3 bags of my favorite kind of chocolate cereal! It is sooooo good. You can also buy cheese samples, so our diet while in Switzerland has been made up of chocolate and cheese!
Day 1
Last year we started a hike and had to quit midway because of bad weather and we would not make it to the end in time to catch the train down. That was a miserable hike downhill. This year we were determined to finish it and we did! We woke up at 5am, caught all the trains and lifts to the hike and started around 9. Last year the trail was packed with snow and it took us forever. This year the weather was perfect and we finished in about 7 hours. It was a pretty hike along the ridge of the lakes and fairly level. The only thing that slowed us down was Will got a really bad "charlie horse" in his calf muscle that never worked it's way out, so he was in pain the last 2 hrs of our hike. At least we were towards the end if the hike.
Day 2
We relaxed most of the day while waiting for Will's leg to feel better. We slept in and hiked up to Murren which is an easy hr hike away. In Murren, we had our favorite Swiss meal, Rosti. Rosti is made of hash browns, ham, and you guessed it....Swiss cheese! (not the Swiss cheese with holes in it...cheese from Switzerland)
Day 3
Will's leg was feeling better, so we hiked up to Wengen. (about 1.5 hours) and then he hiked up to the Mannlichen while I rode the cable car. Those are my kind of hikes. I officially don't like my new hiking boots because they give me blisters, so I wore my tennis shoes most of the time. The top of the Mannlichen has amazing views and you can see both sides of the valley, the 3 huge mountains (Jungfrau, Monch, and Eiger) and all the little towns in the region. It is an incredible view! The pictures really don't do it justice. We also switched hotels and went to our favorite in Lauterbrunnen. One of the advantages of traveling to Switzerland is that you know where everything is! You don't miss trains, you know where the stations are and what to expect. We feel like the experts and often helped other tourists figure out what hikes to take or food to try or where to stay. It was fun visiting with the hotel staff in Gimmelwald and Lauterbrunnen again and learning new things about the town and how Switzerland works...example, you cannot burn any wood you want. If it is designated to be building wood, you must use it to build...even if it is old and would make better firewood. Anything with a nail it it you can't burn. It is little stuff like that that makes learning the culture so fascinating. We also realized that we did a ton of stuff last year while in Switzerland. The weather this year was perfect too! We couldn't have asked for nicer days.
It is really hard to described how beautiful Switzerland really is....like the color of the lake water. It is a sky/aqua/green color. I have never seen anything like it and it changes when the sun shines on it. Right now we are passes fields and fields of sunflowers...how cool is that!
And let me tell you about the chocolate! We bought 40 Swiss francs worth of chocolate....tirimisu, cafe, mocha, caramel Macchiato, hazelnut, chili pepper, orange....so good!
And...are getting faster at counting money! It is pretty bad when you are at the cashier and you are flipping coins trying to figure out the denomination of each. I was finally getting use to using pounds in Scotland and then we switched to franks, at one point I told Will I had 5 Swiss Pounds on me and he just laughed. Your weight is not calculated in pounds in Scotland either...you weigh yourself in "stones."
We are on the train headed to Zurich, take a plane to Berlin, 5th layover, and then on to Dubai. We arrive at 5:30 am. Should be fun!!! We can't wait to see our friends the Furman's.
See you in Dubai!
Tami and Will
FYI...I didn't blow any fuses this time either!
Greetings from the Alps!
Will and I have spent a very pleasant 4 days here in the Alps. The first thing we did when we arrived was to go to the local grocery store and buy food and chocolate for the week. It is kinda cool that we know where everything is in the grocery store since this is our 3rd year back! This year, we learned how to use the grocery carts, you have to put a coin in to unlock the cart and then lock it back up to get your coin back. We bought tons of chocolate too! Last year we planned on bringing chocolate back to the States, but we had problems with that and never made it. This year, if it survives the desert, we will be doing good. I also bought 3 bags of my favorite kind of chocolate cereal! It is sooooo good. You can also buy cheese samples, so our diet while in Switzerland has been made up of chocolate and cheese!
Day 1
Last year we started a hike and had to quit midway because of bad weather and we would not make it to the end in time to catch the train down. That was a miserable hike downhill. This year we were determined to finish it and we did! We woke up at 5am, caught all the trains and lifts to the hike and started around 9. Last year the trail was packed with snow and it took us forever. This year the weather was perfect and we finished in about 7 hours. It was a pretty hike along the ridge of the lakes and fairly level. The only thing that slowed us down was Will got a really bad "charlie horse" in his calf muscle that never worked it's way out, so he was in pain the last 2 hrs of our hike. At least we were towards the end if the hike.
Day 2
We relaxed most of the day while waiting for Will's leg to feel better. We slept in and hiked up to Murren which is an easy hr hike away. In Murren, we had our favorite Swiss meal, Rosti. Rosti is made of hash browns, ham, and you guessed it....Swiss cheese! (not the Swiss cheese with holes in it...cheese from Switzerland)
Day 3
Will's leg was feeling better, so we hiked up to Wengen. (about 1.5 hours) and then he hiked up to the Mannlichen while I rode the cable car. Those are my kind of hikes. I officially don't like my new hiking boots because they give me blisters, so I wore my tennis shoes most of the time. The top of the Mannlichen has amazing views and you can see both sides of the valley, the 3 huge mountains (Jungfrau, Monch, and Eiger) and all the little towns in the region. It is an incredible view! The pictures really don't do it justice. We also switched hotels and went to our favorite in Lauterbrunnen. One of the advantages of traveling to Switzerland is that you know where everything is! You don't miss trains, you know where the stations are and what to expect. We feel like the experts and often helped other tourists figure out what hikes to take or food to try or where to stay. It was fun visiting with the hotel staff in Gimmelwald and Lauterbrunnen again and learning new things about the town and how Switzerland works...example, you cannot burn any wood you want. If it is designated to be building wood, you must use it to build...even if it is old and would make better firewood. Anything with a nail it it you can't burn. It is little stuff like that that makes learning the culture so fascinating. We also realized that we did a ton of stuff last year while in Switzerland. The weather this year was perfect too! We couldn't have asked for nicer days.
It is really hard to described how beautiful Switzerland really is....like the color of the lake water. It is a sky/aqua/green color. I have never seen anything like it and it changes when the sun shines on it. Right now we are passes fields and fields of sunflowers...how cool is that!
And let me tell you about the chocolate! We bought 40 Swiss francs worth of chocolate....tirimisu, cafe, mocha, caramel Macchiato, hazelnut, chili pepper, orange....so good!
And...are getting faster at counting money! It is pretty bad when you are at the cashier and you are flipping coins trying to figure out the denomination of each. I was finally getting use to using pounds in Scotland and then we switched to franks, at one point I told Will I had 5 Swiss Pounds on me and he just laughed. Your weight is not calculated in pounds in Scotland either...you weigh yourself in "stones."
We are on the train headed to Zurich, take a plane to Berlin, 5th layover, and then on to Dubai. We arrive at 5:30 am. Should be fun!!! We can't wait to see our friends the Furman's.
See you in Dubai!
Tami and Will
FYI...I didn't blow any fuses this time either!
Friday, July 1, 2011
Great Britain to Switzerland!
 |
| Will couldn't believe I would take a picture of us grocery shopping-notice the luggage in the cart, we went straight to the store |
 |
| 40 SF worth of chocolate folks! We got lots of strange looks in the store. |
 |
| In Scotland at the top of Arthur's Seat. |
Travel is going really well so far....praise the Lord! Our biggest problem is not waking up early enough to see all the sights. But hey, we are on vacation right?
We definitely loved Scotland and wish we had more time to see the Highlands but that will have to wait. We left Edinburgh early thursday morning with the intention of catching a London city bus tour. We arrived in London at 1 and our flight took off at 8. We finally found the Big Bus City Tour outside our train station....it would have been perfect because we had a long time before our flight and the city tour took 3 hours! Well, the bus took over an hour to come to that particular stop. We got to visit with the salesman for awhile, but our time was dwindling so we scraped that plan and went to the British library across the street. The library museum had the Gutengurg Bible, Magna Carter, scroll fragments from John, they had original copies of the music Balero, Midsummer's Night Dream, The Wedding March, and original books like Alice in Wonderland, Beowolf, and stuff my Shakespeare. It was a pretty impressive collection and that was the one museum I didn't see when I went to London with my grandfather....so I was glad we were able to so something. We had time to sit in the cafe afterwards and plan our trip to Geneva too.
We made it to Heathrow with no problems, but I was worried because there are strikes going on in the passport area. Those only affected arriving flights and not departing, so we were fine!
Finding our hotel in Geneva was a little tricky, but we had some really nice French guys help us figure out that our hotel was within walking distance and taking the bus would be too much trouble. The receptionist left our key taped to the front door and we were good to go! It was close to midnight before we had dinner, so our choices were few...but Will found some middle east food and had that. All of our grand plans to see Geneva went out the window when we woke up at 11! I think our jet lag finally caught up with us....fortunately, the big attractions in Geneva are seeing a clock made of flowers, the lake, a park, and the old town. Yes, we could have toured the United Nations building, but we just didn't have time. This was also our first Rick Steves-less town to tour. I was a little scared, but we managed. Rick leaves out Geneva from his guide book because he doesn't recommend going there....now we know why! Geneva is very industrial, lots of shopping and I think they make all the watches here....or at least sell them all here!
5 hrs later...
Ok...more on that later, but we made it to Gimmelwald! We have stayed in the same place for the last three years so we know the owners...well, they at least recognize us. Before arriving, we stopped by the grocery store and bought 40 franks worth of chocolate!!!!!!! We had trouble bringing it home last year, so not this time. The question....will it survive Dubai?
Time to plan so hikes! Pray my new hiking boots work well....I didn't get a chance to break them in yet. I wore my other ones out!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)