October 26 - Zurich

It’s hard to believe but our trip is winding down.  Tomorrow we leave for Toronto.  Today we moved on to Zurich.  Zurich is the financial centre of Switzerland.  It is home to the famous Swiss banks, where the super rich hide their money because of the secrecy of around these banks. 

The Occupy Wall Street movement has a camp here in one the city’s public park. I guess that if the movement is going to have any impact on society, this would a good place to start.

On our way into the city we stopped at the Lindt candy factory.  The candy was delicious.

Zurich is one of the most expensive cities we have visited on this trip.  There doesn’t appear to be regular shops in the old city, but there are plenty Louis Vutton and Gucci shops.  Meals cost about double what they would back home.

We are staying at the Marriot Hotel.  This is like every other North American hotel.  It is nice but nothing special or unique.

I guess I’ve got old city burnout, as this city strikes me as being pretty much the same as many of the other places we’ve visited in the past three weeks.  There are lots of old churches and narrow streets with medieval architecture.   I’m sure I’m going to miss it in about 24 hours.

Pictures from Zurich

October 25 - Luzern

Today was a very ‘interesting’ day.  It started when we left Interlaken and travelled to Brienz.  Brienz is a woodworking centre in Switzerland.  As we got off the bus we were greeted by an army convoy going down the road and six fighter jets staging a dog fight over the lake.  This just two days after their general election.  It turned out that this is their annual militia training exercise.  The jets roared over the lake and through the mountain passes for about 30 minutes at sub-sonic speeds. 

A little while later we arrived at Luzern.  Luzern is famous for its two covered bridges with religious artwork imbedded in the ceiling of the bridge.  It is situated at the end of Lake Luzern, where the world rowing championships regularly take place.  The lake is so clear that you can see about 6 feet or more down into the water with no trouble.  It is surrounded on three sides by the Alps.  Shortly after we arrived the jet fighters did their exercise over Luzern.

The Jesuits have a magnificent white marble cathedral in Luzern.  As Rocky would say, it was truly spectacular.

We then went to our hotel, the Place Hotel.  What a magnificent place.  We’ve never stayed any place this opulent.  The room is more of a suite than a hotel room.  It has a large balcony overlooking the lake, a sitting room that could easily accommodate 6 people, a large bedroom, a bathroom with a large soaking tub and separate shower and another room for the toilet.  It has a list price of $860/night.

It then started getting weird.  We went to a dinner show of Swiss folk performances.  They couldn’t make this anymore terrible if they tried.  Try to imagine a female “Lawrence Welk”   as the host of such acts as a singing saw, musical bottles used as drums, ringing cow bells accompanied by a female singer barking like a dog, and the grand finale a dancing cow that went around licking the audience.  No I’m not on drugs.

Pictures from Luzern

October 24 - Magic In The Alps

Once every few vacations you have an experience or visit a site whose memory will last a life time.  Today was one of those magical days.  We visited Mount Schilthorn in the northern Alps.  The spectacular view of the green pastures in the Lauterbrunnen valley and the majestic snow capped peaks of mountains known collectively as the Three Sisters will be permanently etched into our minds.  Marg said it surpassed her wildest expectations.

To get there from our hotel we had to take a bus to Lauterbrunnen and then take a cable car and narrow gauge railway to Murren.  From there you had to take two more cable cars to reach the summit of Mount Schilthorn.  The rotating  restaurant at the summit is known as Piz Gloria.  The James Bond movie “Her Majesty’s Secret Service” was filmed on location here.

Pictures from the Alps

Movies from the top of Schilthorn (1)

Movies from the top of Schilthorn (2)

Movies from the top of Schilthorn (3)

October 23 - Bern & Interlaken

Today we started our tour of the Alps.  After a hectic breakfast we said our goodbyes to those people we’ve meet that are heading home today.

We then got on a bus and left Basel to go to Bern.  Bern is the capital of Switzerland where today it was cloudy and cold.  Bern is a very old city where most of the buildings in the old section of the town are made from sandstone because many centuries ago, the city was destroyed by a fire and timber structures fell out of favour.  Like Basel, the pedestrian walkways have large fountains that tell the story of the city.  An interesting feature of these streets is that sidewalks have been replaced with covered pedestrian arcades.

The Swiss parliament building is a large gold plated dome.  In front of the building is a large square with dancing water fountains.  Security appears to be nonexistent.  I guess when you’ve been neutral for many centuries you don’t have to worry about terrorist attacks.  The Swiss banks have very large palatial buildings surrounding the parliament building.

The history of Bern is based on a brown bear.  As you enter the old city of Bern you will pass the Bern Bear Pit.  This is a small park on the river where four very large brown bears are kept.

After lunch we continued to Interlaken.  Interlaken is a very beautiful town situated between two large lakes and surrounding by snow capped mountains.  Marg is reminded of Banff Alberta.  We are staying in the Grand Hotel Beau Rivage which is an elegant old five start hotel.   Our room has a wonderful view of the canal that runs through the city with the mountains in the background.  I took a picture of Marg in the window and it looks like she is standing in front of a beautiful painting.

Tonight we went to the casino, where I was able to play blackjack for an hour and only lost 20 Swiss francs, which is about $23.  Marg was at a point up about $100 but came out down about the same as me.

Pictures of Bern

Pictures of Interlaken

October 20 - Marg's Birthday

Today was Marg’s birthday.  It tells you lots about Marg, when 3 different times during the day, she was serenaded with “Happy Birthday “ from the other passengers.  I suspect that at least 33% of the passengers and crew are on a first name basis with her after the past two weeks.

The day started off for Marg with a leisurely breakfast in bed, served by her own personal butler, Kristopher. She even admits she is getting spoiled.

When then took a trip into the Alsace region of France.  Our first stop was in Gertswiller to visit a gingerbread bakery.  I know it sounds hookey but the owner has set up a museum that shows traditions of the Alsace region.  Germany and France have fought many wars over this area.  It got so bad that during the Second World War, the Germans would send you to jail for speaking French and it was against the law to give you child a non-Germanic name.

After this we went to the town of Barr where we tasted the local wines.  The vineyard has been owned by the same family for over two hundred years and had 80 year old bottles of wine in their cellar. The speaker knew his wines and was very informative.

After this we spent the afternoon in Strassbourg. This is the home of the European parliament.  It also has one of the most important Roman Catholic cathedrals in all of Europe. We went into the cathedral, where we were treated to an organ recital. Up until the 20^th century this was the second tallest structure in the world.  The acoustics were as Rocky would say “spectacular”.  The whole church was awe inspiring.

For Marg’s birthday lunch we went to a special French restaurant, near the Cathedral.  We had Coco-Vin.  It was excellent but the only problem was we ordered Coquilles St. Jacques.  So much for my speaking French.   

For supper the boat provided Marg with a birthday cake.

Tonight was the crew’s amateur talent show.  It was hilarious.  They had several skits and I’m sure that it was funnier than a lot of TV shows.

The internet service on Scenic, which is an oxymoron if there ever was one, is still sporadic.  I’ve not been able to get to our email, local papers or any of usual sites going on 3 days now.  They still are giving us the same old BS about being on the French boarder.  It is getting very frustrating but I was able to negotiate a refund for the lost service.    It took over 90 minutes to post last night’s blog.  Although everything about Scenic has been first class, this is making me think about going to another company in the future.

Pictures of Alsace Region

Pictures of Strassbourg

Pictures of Kehl

Movie of Marg's birthday party

October 21 - Black Forest

We docked at Breisach Germany early this morning.  I was hopeful that being in a new location would have given us Internet access.  Unfortunately these clowns are hopeless and we are now into day 4 without service.  If you reading this, you’ll know that I got off the ship and was able to find an access point somewhere.  The belief that there are Internet cafes all over Europe is a myth as I’ve not been able to find one yet.

Rocky came down with a chest cold yesterday and he decided to spend the day onboard.  In respect to his condition, nothing spectacular happened today.

Today’s excursion took us to the Black Forest.  This is mountainous area that is heavily forested.  It got its name from the Romans, 2000 years ago, because they were afraid to go into the forests because of the wild animals and war like tribes that inhabited the area.

We started by going to Gutach, where they have the equivalent of Upper Canada Village.  What was interesting was the fact that the top story of the family’s house was usually the barn. I can only imagine that lead to some interesting aromas. While we were here we had a cooking demonstration where Black Forest Cake was prepared.  Later we had some Black Forest cake, but for my tastes it had too much cream.  

Next we went to a cuckoo clock factory.  There is a lot of expert woodworking that goes into these clocks.

We continued on to Triberg, were we had lunch in a 400 year old restaurant.  Lunch was included in our excursion and the guide told us that drinks were not included but that regular tap water would be available.  When people ordered water they got bottled water instead of tap water, which is the custom in Europe, and when the waiter came to collect all heck broke out. It was embarrassing to see these rich tourists, who probably would spend $50 in useless souvenirs, trying to stick the bill to the minimum wage waiter.  It probably would have only cost them about $2 / bottle.  Enough to make you want to vote NDP.

After lunch I climbed a hill to the top of the tallest water fall in Germany.  The water drops about 160m which is about 3 times the hill in Port Stanley.  A bit of a hike, but it was worth it.

Tonight we had the captain’s dinner.  The entire crew were introduced to the passengers to loud and enthusiastic cheers. The meal was special and it ended with a “Baked Alaska”.  The meal was extraordinary.  We spent the rest of the night dancing and talking to cruise director Rolf.  It is hard to believe that the cruise will end tomorrow night.

Pictures from the Black Forest

Movie from Black Forest

October 22 - Basel

It is hard to believe that our cruise portion of our trip is over.  Tonight we said our goodbyes to our new found best friends, especially Ellen and John from Australia and Dave and Susan from London Ontario. I know we’ll be able to keep in touch with Dave and Susan on a regular basis but to meet up with Ellen and John again will require a special effort on everyone’s part.  Tomorrow, we start our tour of the Alps.

The ship put on a special going away show for us after dinner.  A couple of Swiss folk entertainers played cow bells to a variety of musical styles.  I know it sounds like it should have been on the Ed Sullivan show during the 60s, but it was truly entertaining.  John ended up playing spoons with the combo and a good time was had by all.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V46xiz70sz0

Today we’ve been docked in Basel Switzerland.  It actually is situated in Switzerland, France and Germany.  Basel is an important sea port for Switzerland.  Ships can load up here, travel down the Rhine and reach the North Sea in a manner of days.  It is the headquarters for many major European chemical companies.  

Because Basel is on a series of hills most of the roads and pedestrian walkways in the city centre are on steep hills and difficult to negotiate.  It is also a very expensive city.  We had 2 hot chocolates and a plum pie and it cost about $20.

Basel has many water fountains.  The water from these fountains is clean enough to drink.  That is a claim not too many cities can make.

Outside of ship there has been a community of Gypsies having a BBQ pig.  It looked “spectacular” but we stayed on board and held our own private going away wine and cheese with Joan and Rocky and our other new best friends.  

We’ve also increased our Aussie vocabulary.

Budgie Smugglers - A man’s Speedo bathing suit

Maggot Bags – Small meat pies

Pictures of Basel