A closing comment on Switzerland

The land of chocolate, watches, army knives and Roger Federer’s backhand.

A random fact…

Chemist Albert Hofmann was using LSD to conduct migraine-cure tests in Basel in 1943 when he accidently absorbed the compound through his fingertips and became the first man to trip on acid

Moving on…

Switzerland is a stunning country. With 70% of it’s landmass made up of mountains, breathtaking views are never far away. Cows and sheep actually wear bells, and there actually are countless towns nestled in green valleys intersected with flowing mountain streams of almost unimaginable blue water. We were especially lucky being here now to enjoy a symphony of autumn colours thrown into the mix. Yes, it is an amazingly beautiful country.

It is also stunningly expensive. Just like Monique is always saying that Holland is flat, people always say that Switzerland is expensive. But it isn’t until you arrive that you fully appreciate it. One small example is the campsite that we stayed at in Engleberg that charged the equivalent of AUD$60 which excluded electricity, hot showers, use of the washing machine or dryers, or the camp swimming pool.

Bring on the Euro.

Next stop, Munich.

Last stop in Switzerland

We finished up our time in Switzerland by visiting Lucern – a lovely town set around a lake at the foot of the Alps. To quote…

Recipee for a gorgeous Swiss city: take a cobalt lake ringed by mountains of myth, add a medieval old town and sprinkle with covered bridges, sunny plazas, candy-coloured houses and waterfront promenades.

Yes, it really was that beautiful. 

It's snowing

We survived the coldest night of our lives and made our way to Engelberg, a town on the other side of the Alps.

Driving through the Alps was incredible. The narrow mountain passes were hair-raising, the views spectacular, and the ghost town villages that we drove through – closed for the winter – were eerie. We also got our first taste of snow which was most exciting. 

We arrived safely in Engelberg, but by this stage, the cloud had thoroughly come over and a heavy, steady rain had set in. Apparently it’s a beautiful little town surrounded by mountains, but we didn’t see too much of them.

We made the most of the rain by doing a massive load of washing, and then completely taking over their heated rec room for the rest of the afternoon which was warm and relaxing.

The evening came and it started snowing again…this time quite heavily. While we missed out on seeing the beautiful views, the snow was an exciting trade-off!

We then proceeded to actually have the coldest night of our lives. It turns out that the night before was a false dawn. Wearing thermals, track-suit pants, fleece and beenies in our sleeping bag offered little warmth. It was a long night…but again, we survived!

From mozzie bites to frost bite

Gee whiz the warm balmy nights of Paris seem like a long time ago.

After making our way back down from Zermatt we decided to soften the blow to the budget by camping for free at a campsite that had closed for the winter (above photo)

The thermometer in the van said that it was 3 degrees Celsius, but that was before the sun went down and we noticed the frozen puddles in the car park.

While we miss out on a power connection by staying at a free campsite, it wouldn’t have made much difference because the prohibitively expensive prices in Switzerland have meant that we haven’t yet bought a heater.

As we’re sitting here writing this blog post, Monique is in her sleeping bag with a thermal, a singlet, long sleeve t-shirt, polar fleece jacket, beanie, scarf and gloves – and is still freezing. We can see our breath in the van.

Also, while Daniel’s old sleeping bag has been doing a good job, it has thoroughly reached it’s limit in Switzerland. ‘Not to worry’, we thought, ‘the campervan hire company gave us a duvet in case we get cold. Let’s grab that for tonight’.

Oh dear.

It turns out they accidently gave us a bag filled with pillows instead of a warm, cozy duvet.

Gee whiz the warm balmy nights of Paris seem like a long time ago. 

On top of the world

Feeling well rested and much rejuvenated, we decided to catch Europe’s highest and longest cable car up to the Matterhorn Glacial Paradise.

It was an amazing experience…the view was truly breathtaking. It was one of those moments where the world suddenly feels very very big, and us very very small. 

Holiday within a holiday

One of the highlights of our trip so far was our trip to Zermatt. Nestled in a valley in the Swiss Alps, Zermatt is a skiing village at the foot of the Matterhorn – Switzerland’s highest peak. It is a totally car-free town, only accessible by catching a train or taxi from a village 15kms back down the mountain.

Being car free meant that we would need to find a B&B in Zermatt for the night. We debated long and hard about this…could we possibly stand being without the cold and cramped van for a night?

Our answer was an overwhelming ‘Yes we can!’

We found a lovely B&B, enjoyed a long shower in a real bathroom, went for a walk, and then went out for dinner.

Sensational! 

Lake Geneva region

We arrived in Geneva late in the afternoon and managed to score a free campsite with showers, toilettes and electricity thanks to there being nobody at reception for the whole time that we were there. Even if we wanted to pay, we weren’t able to, so we left with a clear conscience. Massive win!

We set off in the morning to see Geneva. We drove into the city to find the tourist information centre, but being a Sunday everything was closed, the weather was very drab and overcast, and the city was generally looking fairly uninspiring. Perhaps we’ve become city snobs after seeing so many beautiful ones already?!

Anyway, the wonderful luxury of having the van is that we decided to keep driving through Geneva and head straight to Montreaux which proved to be a good move.

The drive around the Lake was really pretty, and by the time we arrived the cloud had burnt off and we were enjoying a lovely sunset overlooking Lake Geneva.

Welcome to Switzerland

Our first stop in Switzerland was the capital Berne. We had a nice, quiet and relaxing day strolling through the beautiful UNESCO Heritage listed streets of the old town before heading for Geneva in the evening.

Some initial observations on Switzerland…

1. It is decidedly colder that anywhere we have been so far

2. It’s expensive

3. Picture perfect mountains, green valleys and streams are everywhere

We’re excited about exploring some more….

Breakfast in France, lunch in Germany, dinner in Switzerland

We finished up our time in France (for now) and headed to Switzerland. We were planning our route to Berne and realized that The Black Forest was essentially on our way, so we decided to take a slight detour through Germany.

It was a good decision. Aside from getting to drive through the gorgeous Black Forest and eat some fantastic Germany sausage and fried potatoes for lunch, we also bought a Cuckoo Clock! It was a very exciting purchase and we’re looking forward to finding a home for it among our increasingly eclectic collection of modern art, crocheted rugs and vintage furniture.

Pastries

One thing that we have thoroughly enjoyed while in France is the pastries. Like so much of France, they are exquisite works of art. They are also particularly cheap by Australian standards which has enabled us to do the responsible thing and try lots of them to make sure that they’re up to scratch. Yum yum. 

A slight change of direction

After some reflection on the hastening of the European winter we decided to tweak our route slightly to try and stay warmer for longer. Our new route will see us head east through Switzerland and Austria now, rather than the absolute middle of winter. 

With our new course set, our first stop was Strasbourg, and then a few days meandering through the very pretty Alcase region in eastern France. When we had dinner with Monique’s family in Holland, her Great Uncle Bernard suggested a driving route through the area. At the time we hadn’t planned on heading that way, but with our new plans, it lined up perfectly.

It turned out to be a fantastic tip. The area is particularly beautiful, drawing lots of architectural influence from Germany and Switzerland. 

Day of rest - Versailles

Got up at 10:30

Did two loads of washing

Made a baguette with prosciutto and goats cheese for lunch

Sat in the rec room in front of the fire

Walked to the shops to get dinner

Made magic rustic simmered chicken for dinner

Saw a Hedgehog

Versailles Part 3 – Caught in the rain

As we started making our way back to the car park (no quick task given the enormity of the property), some very dark and ominous clouds started building up in the east, while the sun was starting to set in the west. It had been a fairly cold, dreary and drab day, but some golden rays of sun managed to sneak out from behind the overcast sky.

We were half hurrying back to the car to avoid the oncoming rain, and half still trying to squeeze in as much of the palace gardens as possible.

Sure enough, we lingered in the gardens too long and it started to rain fairly steadily (with our brollie sitting warm and cozy in the van). We made our way out of the last hedge maze and as we turned to face the palace the sun had lit it up like gold against the dark backdrop of the storm clouds and there was a crystal clear rainbow arching perfectly over it. The golden light was shining through the rain and it was as if we were standing amongst falling glitter.

A really special moment.  

Versailles Part 2 - The Hamlet

In order to get in touch with her rustic side, Marie Antoinette had a provincial French hamlet built near her chateau for her and her mates. As with the palace and the gardens, the hamlet’s beauty was overwhelming, but in a different way. Walking through the hamlet was like walking into a story book (think Belle’s village from Beauty and the Beast!). 

We were surrounded by autumn shades, flowers, streams, ponds, swans and a vineyard. Each house in the hamlet had a veggie garden growing pumpkins and leeks as well as balconies lined with blue ceramic pots overflowing with dainty red flowers. If Monique could transport it to Melbourne, she would!

Versailles Part 1 - The Palace

We arrived back in France and on Lucinda’s advise headed to The Palace of Versailles, famous for being Marie Antoinette former abode.

The Palace is truly spectacular. The French royalty certainly spared no expense in ensuring that they were comfortable. Every feature of the palace – from the grandest hallways through to the most seemingly insignificant door handles and everything in between – is handcrafted in the most meticulous detail. Every room left us standing with our mouths gaping, overwhelmed at the incredible beauty, creativity and thought that went into making such an incredibly opulent environment.  

As if the palace wasn’t enough, the gardens we equally beautiful. Again, no expense was spared in crafting detailed outdoor ‘drawing rooms’ featuring stone-carved water fountains and statues of philosophers and goddesses. Even standing there, it is hard to imagine that the human mind could create something so very beautiful.

Thought provoking Berlin

We’re confident that we won’t offend too many people by saying that Berlin isn’t the most aesthetically beautiful city in the world. But for what it lacks in beauty, however, it makes up for in incredible history.

Berlin is immediately thought provoking, and does an incredibly good job of recognizing it’s past through some brilliant museums and memorials.

Two memorials in particular stood out. Firstly The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which contained 2711 concrete stelae rising from the ground. As you walk through them, you are quickly engulfed as the ground slopes downwards beneath you. You begin to lose all sense of where you are in the concrete maze. While the architect never said what it is supposed to represent, for us it was incredibly stirring and interactive, and in some small symbolic way provided a sense of scale to the atrocities.

Secondly, Menashe Kadishman's Shalekhet (Fallen Leaves) installation at the Jewish Museum was incredibly chilling. Over 10,000 open-mouthed faces coarsely cut from heavy, circular iron plates cover the floor. The artist expects visitors to walk across the floor, which presents you with a range of emotions as you walk along the pain-stricken faces, with the haunting sound of the iron clinking under your feet. It was incredibly interactive and gave us a chilling sense of scale, anonymity, pain and suffering. 

Berlin with Tanya and Jennifer

We left than van in long term parking in Paris fly to Berlin for a few days to catch up with Tanya and Jennifer. We arrived in a bit of a quasi jet lagged haze after getting up at 4am to catch our 6:30am flight.

Again, it was fantastic to spend some quality time with Tanya and Jennifer. In our quest to do a load of washing, Monique and Tanya stumbled across a hostel that had 8 Euro all you can eat German buffet, plus one free beer per person between 7-9pm.

On discovering this, Daniel quickly put two and two together, realizing that Monique, Tanya and Jennifer don’t drink beer, thus equaling four free beers for him. Thankfully, the girls did their bit and the rest is history.

We (Daniel) had such a good time that we decided to go back do it all again the next night. 


On another note, we got to see a Bentley Continental, worth about AUD211,000 getting picked up and towed away because he parked in a taxi zone. Very entertaining sightseeing. 

The Parisian roads

If you recall, after arriving in Paris we resolutely planned on keeping the van tucked safely away in the campsite with no desire whatsoever to venture back onto the Parisian roads.

Well, unfortunately that plan didn’t come to fruition.

We received an email from the campervan hire company telling us that they had booked the van in for it’s 60,000km service. We knew that this was coming up, but for a whole lot of logistical reasons, it had been booked in at a service centre for 9:30am right smack bang in the middle of Paris - just around the corner from the Eiffel Tower. The service ended up taking two days, so rather frustrated, we had to repeat the drill. Throw in our trip into the heart of Paris for the Grand Final and we actually ended doing quite a lot of driving.

Driving in Melbourne’s heaviest peak hour is but a Sunday drive compared with Paris. The sheer volume is traffic is disorientating. Paris is full of wide boulevards that have no lane markings. Cars just float along four abreast, drifting across lanes at their leisure with no thought of indicating. Motorbikes and motor scooters dart in and out at a frightful pace. The constant sound of horns is headache inducing. Smart Cars find gaps in traffic where most would fear to tread. It is genuinely stressful.

At face value, it is easy to look at the Parisian drivers and call them mad, crazy, erratic or rude. However, on reflection, we have come to the conclusion that they must be the most skillful drivers in the world.  Consider for a moment the absolute carnage and uncontrolled road rage that would surely flow if you magically transported Melbourne’s drivers into the heart of Paris?

If we can survive driving in Paris, we can survive anything. 

The French

Interacting with the French has been interesting. Typically our conversations go something along the lines of:
‘Bonjour. Parlez vous Anglais?’ with the typical response being a short, sharp, blunt and abrupt ‘Non.’

Typically though, after persisting for long enough, we have generally managed to get the information that we are looking for. It seems as though quite often the French speak more English than they give themselves credit for.

Now, we’re not wanting to paint all French people with the same brush here, and similarly, if a French person came to Australia and asked if we were able to speak French, our response would be exactly the same. It has just been an interesting contrast when compared with the Dutch and Belgians. When asking people in Holland and Belgium if they speak English, they typically look at you indignantly and say ‘of course’. The French, on the other hand, tend to look at you equally indignantly, but give a rather different response. Fun times. 

Australia vs. Collingwood

The AFL Grand Final was on in Paris while we there. For some silly reason we thought it was on at 10pm our time, but thankfully due to a chance checking of Facebook at 12am, we found out that it was on at 6:30am at a pub in the middle of Paris called Café Oz.

Daniel was being a sook, saying not to worry about it. Thankfully, Monique talked some sense into him.

So, at 5:30am the alarm went off and we drove into Paris. The biggest challenge was interpreting the parking signs. Having already got one parking fine, we were keen to avoid a second. We asked some random drunken French guys and eventually established that we were safe.

We made it to the café about half way through the first quarter. The atmosphere was incredible. The place was full of Aussies in full voice.

It was almost like we were watching Australia vs. Collingwood. Every time Geelong kicked a goal the place erupted, while there was but a mere smattering of support for Collingwood. The only thing more unanimous than the support for Geelong were the jeers and boos when Julia Gillard’s head momentarily popped up on the screen.

While it hurt getting up, is was a great experience and well worth the effort. And one thing is for certain - whether in Paris or Melbourne, there is nothing better than watching Collingwood lose a Grand Final.

Seeing Paris part 2

• The Catacombs - so creepy! 
• Getting up and seeing the sun rise over the Eiffel Tower
• Montmartre – we took a free (you tip at the end) walking tour through the old artists village, saw where Monet painted his famous Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (most exciting for Monique!) and finished up eating dinner at a classically French Brasserie. Daniel had the option of eating snails but passed it up for a hearty and less scary option of provincial roast chicken (soft).
• Getting into The Lourve for free as it was the first Sunday of the month. We thought we’d outsmart them and get there before opening to beat the crowds. Unfortunately every tourist in Paris had the same idea and when we arrived the queue was literally about a kilometer long! It was also quite funny watching literally hundreds of people clamoring to get a picture of the Mona Lisa.

Our week in Paris has definitely been a highlight so far. We crammed a huge amount in and were utterly exhausted by the end, but it was so worth it. It’s probably hard to say much about Paris that hasn’t already been said, but we loved it and thought it was beautiful. 

Seeing Paris Part 1

We approached seeing Paris with great enthusiasm – it would be hard not to. Paris is immediately and simultaneously breathtaking, exciting and captivating. Of all the places that we’ve been to so far, it’s the one where we have both said ‘Yep, we could live here’ (don’t worry Mum…not plans yet).

Our first stop was a café to sit down (with a terrible coffee) and plan out our five days. There is so much to do that it is overwhelming to narrow things down. Nevertheless, we did, and here are a few highlights:

• The weather - apparently there are no clouds in Paris. We got to bust out our summer clothes and enjoy five days of the most perfectly radiant sunshine imaginable.
• The Eiffel Tower. It’s hard not to be impressed.
• The architecture – everything is pretty, old, beautifully preserved, and detailed. It seems like the most seemingly insignificant features of buildings are still worthy of being made to look incredible. 
• The city planning. It is amazing to stand at every major intersection and see incredible landmarks and monuments in every direction
• Getting a hop-on hop-off boat ticket to go up and down the Seine. A relaxing and fun way to get around and see Paris.
• Catching up with Daniel’s friend Lucinda. It was great to be shown around Paris by a ‘local’.

To be continued...

Welcome to Paris

The drive to Paris from Luxembourg was long. We decided to be stingy and take the route that avoids the toll roads. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best move.

We knew that we were finally approaching the city as the traffic started to get heavier and heavier. We thought that we knew what heavy traffic was, but driving into Paris at 5:30pm brings whole new meaning to the concept. It took us about an hour to drive four kilometers. While we were very thankful for a few thousand kilometers of practice at driving on the right hand side, we were still very relieved to finally arrive a the campsite.

Exhausted, we sat down and resolved to leave the van parked in the campground for the next five days, and avoid driving into Paris at all costs. 

Luxembourg

The drive from Holland to Luxembourg was fascinating. Firstly, it was amazing to watch how quickly the landscape changed from being flat fields to hilly forests as we left Holland, drove through Belgium and into Luxembourg. Secondly, it was bizarre stopping for lunch and a 30 cent wee, genuinely not knowing if we were in Belgium, France or Luxembourg. The upside of travelling with a GPS is that you get where you want to go with no stress, but the downside is that you’ve got no idea how!

Our stay in Luxembourg, while brief, was fantastic. It was only by chance that we ended up there. When we were planning our trip (read ‘planning’ in a very general sense), we were looking at the map and working out how we would get from Holland back to France. Luxembourg was kinda along the way, so we thought we would stop. It was a good decision.

Luxembourg is a gorgeous city built on a cliff face that forms a natural fortification around the city. The valleys below are a mix of the beautiful old town on the one side, and rich forests on the other.

One of the highlights was touring through the Bock Casemates – a series of tunnels that have been dug into the cliff.

While we were beginning to pride ourselves on our newfound ‘walking fitness’, we were absolutely exhausted after strolling through the streets for about 6 hours.

We headed back to the campsite and got a good nights sleep, excited about driving to Paris!

Our New Home

We thought we would try a video for a change...hope you enjoy!

Amsterdam, a museum and Oma

Our last few days in Holland were spent…

• With a day trip to Amsterdam. It was an interesting place. While the canals and buildings were beautiful, we got an overwhelming sense that the vast majority of people were there solely for the sex and drug trade. It is a shame that this is all a lot of people will ever associate with Holland.
• A day trip to the Zuider Zee Museum – this is basically Holland’s equivalent of  Victoria's Sovereign Hill. The Museum was really well put together and offered a great insight into what life would have been like several hundred years ago. 
• Finally, we finished our stay in Holland with some quality time with Monique’s Oma. It was great to spent some one on one time with Oma, and of course eat lots (and lots) of her fantastic food!

Next stop, Luxembourg...

Memory Lane

After not having been to Holland for 14 years, Monique was very keen to revisit her old stomping ground. Tanya joined us as went to the towns, schools, bike paths, play grounds and shops that Monique left behind as a 12-year-old. It was a bizarre experience for Monique as random and forgotten memories of her childhood started flooding back. It was strange how some things like the local shops had barely changed at all, while others such as her school being knocked down were obviously completely different.

On our way home in the evening, we visited Kinderdijk – a town that boasts the largest concentration of windmills in Holland, dating back to around 1740. It was a beautiful place to see, and another classically Dutch experience,

Unbelievably flat

We stayed with Tanya and Jennifer at a hostel in Scheveningen (the word that Monique always makes you say to test out your guttural ‘G’). We decided to have a classically Dutch day and hire bikes.

Holland is undoubtedly the bike capital of the world. There are people on bikes like flies around a BBQ on a hot summers night.  The extent to which un-helmeted cyclists buzz around is dizzying (especially when driving). They are the undisputed kings of the road, always having right of way over pedestrians, and often having right of way over cars. Seeing the thousands upon thousands of bikes piled up at train stations and tied to every lamppost, fence, gate and wall in every city is almost beyond belief. The great irony is that despite the popularity of cycling, they all seem to ride around on gearless, dilapidated and barely road worthy bikes. Go figure.

With this knowledge, we hired our bikes with great excitement, and a little trepidation. While we started cautiously, we were soon rolling along enjoying the beautiful Dutch countryside throughout the region of Delft. It was classically Dutch – beautifully green pastoral fields, countless canals, windmills, old villages and flat. Unbelievably flat.

In the five or so hours that we were cycling, we didn’t face even so much as the slightest of gentle inclines. Cycling through Holland almost feels like perpetual motion. It feels like you can just roll on forever as if following the curvature of the earth.

It was a sensational day seeing the Dutch countryside.    

Our brush with royalty

After the parade we continued to stroll through the streets of The Hague, and came across the Palace gardens. We saw quite a crowd of people gathered at the gates behind the palace, staring at an empty car in an empty courtyard. Jennifer kindly asked a Dutchwoman ‘Who are we waiting for?’, to which the lady responded ‘The Queen!’.

Well, how exciting! We joined in the throng of middle-aged women and paparazzi (not even joking) and stood poised, camera at the ready, with bated breath, now also staring at an empty car in an empty courtyard.

We were in quite a flutter.

Sure enough, out she came. Offering a polite wave to her adoring fans, she hopped in the car and began to drive off.

At this point, the throng of middle-aged women and paparazzi, by now in a complete flap, began running towards the driveway outside the palace gates. Caught up in the excitement and confusion, we too found ourselves running towards the driveway. Monique, like a crazed royal-watcher sprinted through the crowd with elbows out, almost knocking over some equally crazed middle-aged women, clamoring to be in the presence of royalty*.

As the Queen drove past, Monique was so close that the car literally brushed past her, and she was able to get a close up photo that we will be able to keep for ever and ever and ever.

It all happened so quickly. She came, she waved, she went. We were left standing in the palace driveway with the rest of the middle-aged women, with flushed cheeks, each of us recounting our brush with royalty.

*Daniel has a tendency to exaggerate adjectives when writing about things I do. I was not crazed, I did not elbow anyone, and I did not sprint – I merely power walked. I just wanted to get a good shot. Who wouldn’t? Don’t believe everything Daniel says…he becoming more theatrical with every blog he writes ;)

After 14 years...

Monique returned to her fatherland. Her return to Holland was greeted with a lovely family dinner at her Oma’s, which included her Dutch great Aunt and Uncle and South African Aunt and her friend. With Bert visiting the week before, Oma affectionately described September as being a ‘family tsunami’ due to all of her international visitors. After an incredible meal, we waddled down to the van and slept in the car park.

The next day we headed to The Hague where we again met up with Tanya, this time also with her sister Jennifer. We spent the morning at Madurodam – a miniature village replicating significant places, buildings and sights of The Netherlands.

From there, we made our way into the centre of town where the Dutch Queen, having heard about Monique’s homecoming, kindly decided to put on a parade to celebrate the occasion. Unfortunately, our VIP tickets must have got lost in the mail, so we had to line up with all the other commoners as the marching bands, horses and military brigades marched through the streets. The Queen, clearly recognizing her error with our tickets, gave us a wave as she went past in her magnificent golden carriage as a way of saying sorry.