Day 39 - Zurich (we got wet.... Again)

Ok began today at 6:30 and left at 8:00 for the 8:20 bus. My breakfast this morning included 3 bowls of cereal and 2 orange juices (don't judge me I was hungry). We got on the 8:20 bus and then when we arrived at the station mum was left with the bags and a boys only shopping trip happened!!! We bought all the CHOCOLATE!!!!! Ha joking I don't think we've finished our London chocolate yet. We actually bought lunch.... Have a guess what it was!!!!!! Ham rolls (ha tricked you... There wasn't any cheese today) 

Anyway caught train from Grindelwald to Zurich while wishing the Swiss alps goodbye. I'm not sure I'll be back for a while. We successfully got three connections and arrived in Zurich at one o'clock. We walked to the lake and bought a big bottle of lemon juice to drink along the way because it was very hot. 

At the lake we saw a big platform where people (youngish) were jumping into the lake, it was about 10m off the lake. Anyway next we walked through the old town back to the station where we caught another train out to tonight's youth hostel. 

We sat at the hostel for a while until we got our room and then immediately when for a swim in the nearby lake. The water was fantastic and we swam for about half an hour. Then we went home and lay down. A few hours later we went out to dinner and while we went off to get cash it poured down rain and we got sopping. Ha good fun!!! Dinner was kebabs which was ok. Flying again tomorrow! 

No free wifi in Singapore so I probably won't be uploading the last posts till I'm home. 

Tar tar 

Alastair 

Day 38 - Grindelwald (the last walk)

Ok today we went for a 6 hour walk across the north face of the Eiger. We woke up at 6:30 and left at 7:50 but didn't start the walk until 9:30 because we had to wait for the stick shop to open (walking sticks that we were hiring). Took cable car up to a high point. Section one of our walk was decently flat and we had a great view of the mountains as we walked towards them. Section two began after morning tea and we saw a memorial to all the dead climbers. also we saw some water foot massagey thingys. This part of the walk was very steep and finished when we had lunch. Section three was the actual walk across the bottom of the north face of the Eiger. It was very speccy and we saw many.... Wait for it..... Rocks!!!!!! Yay ha kidding! Also on this part we saw a base jumper glide out from the cliff and then activate his parachute. It was very cool! Section four of the walk started at afternoon tea and this part was downhill and some of the footing was rather precarious... Mummy injured her ankle and knees but of course she didn't say anything. We caught the train back down and then collapsed... Again. 

Goodnight 

Alastair 

Day 37 - Grindelwald (an adventure day)

Ok we left at about 9:45 because we had a very slow morning. Bought a "fun package" ticket and took a cable car up a mountain. At the top we did a zip line which was 800m long... Soooo much fun!!! Mum had a great time!!! Anyway next we got on some trottibikes which are like scooters with big wheels. We rode these back down to Grindelwald, this also was greatly enjoyed by all. Dad and I then went mini golfing while mum went shopping... Dad won by 5 (which is much better than the last time I played mini golf... Morgan may have beaten me by about 20) anyway mum had found a knife pouch for my Swiss Army knife and I liked it and bought it... Yay!!!! Anyway we got bus home and then collapsed....  

I'm still very tried from the skiing 

Sorry

Alastair 

Day 36 - Grindelwald (Noodles on speed)

Ok woke up at 6:30 and left by 7:50 in an attempt to catch the 8:09 train which ended up being the 8:17 train! We took the train up to the jungfraujoch also known as the top of Europe. It is an area that is 3454m above sea level and you can catch a train to it!!!! Ok so the train stopped twice before the top station and at these 2 little stations you could see views across a nearby glacier and views across a valley (not sure which one). The train goes through the Eiger (the big mountain around here) and pops out on the south side. When we got off we went to a cafe to get coffee, hot chocolate and something to eat so that we could recover from our altitude sickness. (Everyone got it.. Believe me it's not easy to breath up there). While we were drinking our coffee a group of Asian came and dumped some of there stuff on the other half of our table and then they began making noodles. You have no idea how funny it was. People were everywhere it was like being in a swarm of bees flavoring packets were being opened noodles spread out hot water poured and it all happened in minutes. If they'd moved any faster they would have been a blur. We decided they were on speed because it was so frenetic. (I must admit I've never seen anything like it) 

Anyway we did a short walk across a glacier to a hut where we had lunch (the walk wasn't very short it took us about 1 hour but because of the altitude we were huffing and puffing the whole way and very exhausted at the end. For lunch mum and dad had pea soup and I had sausage. It was very nice because we were so tired. We walked back and had a few snowball fights (good fun). 

When we got back dad spotted a place where there were skis to hire. We went skiing... Well dad went skiing I may as well have gone sliding on my butt down hill for the amount of times I fell over, did you know... Skiing is not easy. Well yeah I'm really sore and tried after that. We took the train home and had a nice talk to a couple from Melbourne. Oh and it rained really heavily but ahh well I was already wet. Got home and collapsed (again) 

Goodnight

Alastair 

 

Day 35 - Grindelwald (Oh what a night)

Ok well I'm going to start by talking about how I spent yesterday night. 

So.... As I mentioned, yesterday it was Swiss national day. But anyway I met a lot of new people last night (tehehehehehe great fun). Mum and dad, went for a walk.....  (Ha that's sounds like the kids book.. Rosie the hen went for a etc) so yeah they left me in the lounge using the wifi on my iPod. First some American scout supervisors came in and I talked for them for about half an hour, then they left and a group of kids around my age (16) came in. They were from a really good ski school and they were pretty much professional skiers... Ha I can't ski... Anyway I talked to them for about an hour and a half which was, to the say the least was very loud spastic and quite hilarious... So I learnt the names of 5 out of the 9 which I'm pretty proud about, I met Charlotte, Pingu (just a nick name), Izzy, Haggy and Oliver. The other I remember as, girl with broken ankle, boy who was the only normal one, girl who wasn't Charlotte (I kept calling her Charlotte) and girl who left her phone behind (when she came back she had 642 photos taken on her phone in half an hour). Anyway enough about my new spastic friends (who I'll probably never see again). Last night people were setting fireworks off everywhere. There was someone at our youth hostel setting them off in the courtyard, but the highlight was the main fireworks that started at 10 o'clock. They were the most spectacular fireworks I've ever seen. They were all colours and some of them exploded twice and then sparkled to the ground so they made a kind of dome shape :D awesome. Dad and I went outside and mum watched them out the window. Anyway we really didn't get much sleep last night, but meh. 

Ok so on to today!

We woke up at 6:30 and left at 8:45. We then took 4 trains and one bus to Grindelwald. We arrived at 12:40 and proceeded to dump out big packs at a luggage drop and then took a bus to a glacier gorge which was about 100m deep and 10m across in places. We walked up and down it and it took us about an hour. There were lots of interesting rocks and some pretty scary tunnels along the side. Anyway we went back to the station picked up our bags and then took another bus to the youth hostel we are staying at tonight. When we arrived, we collapsed on our beds and I got really bored (yeah that's why this blogs so long)

Sorry about the calibre of the last couple of blogs I've been a bit tired. 

So yeah 

Au revoir 

Alastair 

Day 34 - Zermatt (5 lakes in 4 hours)

Ok began our day very late today and left the hostel at about 9:00. Bought the "traditional" holiday lunch on the way to a funicular and then cable car which would lead us to the beginning of today's "loosen muscles walk". (All I wanted to do today was sleep). Today's walk took us past 5 alpine lakes and took us around 4 hours to complete. We saw heaps of flowers, 5 lakes (no der), some tadpoles, lots of other walkers and some spectacular reflections of the Matterhorn. 

Thats the best one i took :D. When got back to Zermatt we ate ice cream and discovered it is the Swiss national day. They were selling actual fire works outside the supermarket and I am listening to them go off as I write this blog. Tonight at ten o'clock there will be a big firework display and we are planning to watch it from our window. Yay!!!!! 

So yeah that was today 

Alastair 

Day 33 - Zermatt (there and back again a hobbits tale)

Three intrepid explorers set out one morning on a mission to walk up to the base of the Matterhorn and then back down a near by valley to their temporary home. They struggled through many problems and hardships but they eventually made it to the top of their climb puffing and exhausted. They drank a hot chocolate and then climbed down a knee breaking scree slope walked along a never ending valley and finally made it to their afternoon tea. They rested their very tried legs and then plodded down back home. They left their house at 8:10am and got back at 5:30pm

Total elevation 3260 reached. 

Total ascent 700m 

Total descent 1600m 

Goodnight 

Alastair