Euro Trip :: Sat 4/16

Bus to Interlaken west - 1 hour wait
Walk through Interlaken to Ost (East) station, we could have staid on the bus.
Took the train to Grindelwald beautiful winding alond the Schwarze Lutschine stream, and locked into the rack/cog assistance on steep slopes in to Grindlewald.
Lunch at restaurant I G
Town was almost empty due to Easter Holiday, most of the shops were either closed or opened late, around mid-day
Saw some skiers on the way to the snow at higher elevations, up near Jungfrau Joch.
We got a map from tourist office, and decided to hike on the small mountain named Auf der Allefluh north of town. to restaurant near the top of Auf der Allefluh
View from pasture, steep trails, graded roads
Southfacing with views of the Eiger and the ------horn
Walked the shops
Train back to interlaken
Bus to Thun
Ate at pizza rest along the Aare
Bus to honeybees

Euro-Trip :: Fri 4/15

Leave from gare du l est complete with pigeons in the restaurant. We had tangle withthe station lockers when we tried to stash our luggage for another quick side trip to the sacre Couer. Foiled by g putting the credit card in the ticket slot 15 min later the the remaining time was too short for the 9.50 euro fee. Ate at the restaurant in the station, baguette sandwiches again. When you're In france, eat like the french.

Tgv train less smoothe and quiet but still very comfortable. Rolling hills with lots of crop farming transitions to flat plains with even more ag. Villages have different arcitecture more swiss german. Cathedrals also look more swisscattle white charlais(?) Short spires and red tile roofs. wind farms
Switzerland has lots of tunnels on the train line

Traveled along the operating Canal de la Marne au Rhin which connects the Marne river with the Rhine in Strasbourg...with locks and boats cued for the draw bridge

Vosges Mountains to the west, Rhine to the east.

Kids speed skating in a pack on the school playground

Changed trains at Basel lots of bikes parked at the station, racks filled with bikes.

Quest to find food on the swiss passenger car

Euro-Trip :: Thurs 4/14

Brekke At mdonalds and a futile attempt to connect the blackberry to the wifi

Green Bus tour to the larc de tiuimphread CDG's explanation of the french position the nazi occupation in french. Not sure I got all the nuances but it seemed pretty apologetic

Lunch from the patisserie baguette sandwhiches ate lunch by the les echols militaire in the champ du mars

Climbed the eiffel tour to the second deck 669 steps.

End of the bus tour

930 River tour on the seine

Euro-Trip :: Weds 4/13

We had our first English Breakfast at the hotel. Hmm, baked beans on a plate with eggs and sausage, tomato and toast.

English phrases
Way-out - Exit
Circus - Traffic Circle
The Eurostar train arrives at the Gare du Nord train station, flat
The train is so smooth and quiet, there is no feel of
Pressure difference at tunnel ends caused our ears pop whenever we entered or exited a tunnel.
There was a lot of farmland in northern France,the soil looked sandy, and the plains were flat.

We found the Metro and took it to the Odean station in the Latin Quarter. After taking our bags to the hotel we hopped on the Metro and found our way to the Eiffel tower, got there just before dark.
Dinner at the crepery sat beside a family from Grand Junction CO daughter had just run(3:40) in the Paris marathon and were staying to tour the city
Potatoes cheese and gallette

Euro-Trip :: Tues 4/12

The overnight flight went well, and the movies entertained us. The British Airways food was pretty good for plane food, much better than the pretzels and soda you get on most budget flights these days.

Not much quality sleep was had on the flight, so we arrived in Heathrow feeling a bit sleep deprived. Somehow we figured out the airport maze and found the Tube to London, and made all the proper transfers during Tues AM rush to get to our Hotel near the Marble Arch station. We arrived a few hours before check-in and stashed our luggage in the lobby/living room area. We wandered around in a tired stupor till we could get our room key. Once we did, we took a nap straight away, so we would have the energy to start our adventure.

Horse guards, bus trip, dinner at Pub, boat trip on the Thames.

Euro-Trip :: Mon 4/11

Since we had an evening flight from JFK, we had plenty of time to complete the packing and prep for travel, but there was still the last minute scramble to tie up things at home and at work. The trip to the airport went as well as can be expected, but find the parking lot was another story.

Anne had found a special deal through one of the travel sights for long term parking with convenient shuttle service to the airport. However, we only had an address, no reliable directions. So while I tried my typical male "drive around till you find it" thing, Anne called for directions. From the phone call, it sounded like we were trying to find "Allen" Avenue, but we actually looking for "Island" Ave. We did a couple laps around the airport parking loops, and surrounding streets along with a couple calls for direction. Meanwhile all the extra time padding we had started with was disappearing. With a lot of effort we did find it in an out-of-the-way location, caught the shuttle and made our plane with time to spare. It turns out that this was probably the hardest part of the trip, and ironically one of the few language barrier moments...in south Philly no less.

Our first tourist photo was a Leggo Liberty Bell creation near our boarding gate.

Plane Movies Glenn watched a Peter Wier film titled "The Way Back" about prisoners escaping a Siberian concentration camp and making an improbable 4,000 mile walk to freedom by heading south. We hoped for a less adventurous flight and trip.