September 19, 2010 - Sunday - Bern/Nice

We had an ample breakfast with our host in Biel. He had purchased yogurts and breads and cheeses and juice. We tasted a popular bread called butterzopf. Zopf is a big, braided loaf with a very soft and light, but dense interior. So good!

Our host showed us the Swiss capital of Bern. It is a city that has been built upon a peninsula that is formed in a bend of the river Aare. Originally, the river served as a natural moat, as it formed a gorge of defense for the city. As the city grew, the planners would build a new fortification wall further out. Today, those walls provide character and distinction to the city. Five tall bridges give access to the city from the elevated surrounding land. Bern’s mascot and namesake is the brown bear. On the far side of the cities eastern bridge, there is a bear pit, which has since been moved and renovated to be a bear zoo. Bears are free to climb up and down the banks and swim in the river.

The center of town has the Swiss National Bank in addition to other banking buildings, government buildings and the Munster church.

We stopped in one of the many cafes for a local treat called nidlachuecha. This pie slice-shaped treat has a pastry crust with thick, sweet cream inside. Great stuff.

With minutes to spare, our host delivered us to the Bern train station and we jumped aboard a train for Nice via Geneva.

We were stunned by the views of Lake Geneva and the many vineyards that covered its north shore.

The ride through France was pleasant and then striking as we made it to the coast. The train cut through the beach communities along the Mediterranean. We caught a quick glance of Cannes. Looking back, we would have preferred seeing that instead of Nice.

Nice was not as quite as great as we thought it would be. I feel like the people who love Nice would come from the same stalk who love Las Vegas. Perhaps Nice is for those people with enough money to stay in one of its thousand big hotels. Certainly not for the poor young backpacker. In hindsight, we would have preferred a better look at Cannes.

September 18, 2010 - Saturday - Lucerne

Heeding our Swiss host’s advice, we traveled to Lucerne for the day. Lucerne welcomed us with splendid weather, beautiful landscapes, and a cool cheese festival. We sampled lots of great cheeses including some fondue. Fun stuff.

We walked all over the city and sampled its meats and pastries. We were generally pleased with Lucerne.

We returned to the Biel for the evening where Adam and I watched another two-hour dual episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This time it was “Time’s Arrow” (Season 5 finale and Season 6 premier).

September 17, 2010 - Friday - Interlaken/Biel/Nidau

We ate a meager breakfast at the hostel and continued down to Interlaken. We were disappointed to have rain and clouds reduce our views and forced us to change the day’s plans. We wandered around through markets and neighborhoods until it was time for us to leave. We caught a train to Bern and then another on to Biel.

Most of our sleeping arrangements, along with our travel plans, were made one to three days in advance of our arrival to any given location. This allowed for some flexibility to change plans at last minute, and despite the how uncertain it sounds, we always found a place to stay and we always had a train going where we wanted to go.

This method was less functional when it came to seeking hospitality in the home of a real person. Uncle Jim connected us with a friend from his days in Switzerland and he graciously hosted us in his home in Nidau for two nights. His home was exceedingly comfortable and his hospitality was excelsior. He cooked delicious peach and curry chicken meal and we sat talking around the table late into the night. The discussion was provocative and entertaining.

I like to think that, as a young and relatively experienced traveler, I am immune to the comforts of this world and that I flourish when I am roughing it in trains, hostels, and camping grounds. This traveler’s rough exterior shell melted at the chance to sleep in a nice bed again and to eat at a true dinner table.

Descriptions of our host’s quality could fill up more pages than most people would want to read. So this report’s account of him will end here. Ask in person if you want to hear me use more superlatives.

September 16, 2010 - Thursday - Interlaken/Iseltwald

The train deposited us in Zurich, where we had an hour to walk not too far from the train station. I was happy to see an Apple store where we could connect to the wifi and check our morning email. (Adam put up with it. Apple. Not the wi-fi... He liked that.)

We caught the first available train from Zurich to Bern. From Bern we began our ascent. The views from the train were stunning as we climbed into the alps. Valleys with expansive green fields that reach up into forested mountains. The train wrapped around Thun Lake and dropped us off in Interlaken. Between Thun and Brienz lakes. We found prices in Switzerland to be generally prohibitive. We strolled along the Aare river that connects the two lakes looking for some sort of lunch. We found a hotdog stand that offered us an $8 hotdog with $4 french fries. We were relieved by such a comparatively good deal. We split the hotdog hamburger style.

From near the train station in Interlaken, our Eurail passes afforded us a ferry to a tiny lakefront village named Iseltwald on the south bank of Brienz. Our sordid hostel was less than the online advertising had promised, but it almost didn’t matter because we were sufficiently surrounded by some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world.

Brienz is full of glacial runoff water that picks up minerals on the way down. The minerals turn the water a crisp glaucous color. Wikipedia considers the color to be depressing, but Adam and I were refreshed just looking at it. The surrounding mountains are loaded with dark green forests from top to bottom whose density is only interrupted green grass fields or stylish Swiss chalets.

The Lake Lodge Hostel housed us for the night on the south bank of the Brienz. We shared the seven-bed room with an engaging, London-based, Australian girl. She makes regular trips to the continent. We recruited her to accompany us to the city for some food and sightseeing. She was fun to have around and we enjoyed exchanging traveling experiences with her. We found a delicious döner kebap establishment for dinner.

September 15, 2010 - Wednesday - Vienna

We spent this day walking around the area that surrounded our hostel. We enjoyed the quiet shade of the woods and the beautiful views that it offered of the city. We were able to finish a load of laundry at the hostel which was a major relief. We spent time napping on the lawn near the vineyards and later we patronized a restaurant a ten-minute walk from there. We each enjoyed a large platter of wiener schnitzel accompanied by cranberry sauce, lemon wedges, potato salad, and green salad. A magnificent meal.

I was sad to leave this comfortable place that evening to board another night train. This time, the night train left at 10:30pm. We shared the cabin with three Swiss math nerds who were on their way back from a week-long math nerd competition in Slovakia. We had a good time talking to them for a bit before we went to sleep.

September 14, 2010 - Tuesday - Vienna

So far during our trip, the hostels have been relatively close the train stations, and we have had little trouble walking to and from. This time, in Vienna, we were initially startled to find that we had booked a hostel so far away from the train station. It required a twenty-minute metro ride to the outskirts of town, where we caught a bus that took us up into the bucolic northern hills of Vienna. Upon alighting the bus, we saw a building that was surrounded by vineyards at its front and woods at its back. We were pleased by the accommodations and the unobstructed view of the whole city.

So much so that when we went down into the city to see the buildings and try the food and enjoy the culture, we found ourselves disappointed with what it offered and we wanted to go back to our lodging.

We enjoyed a strong internet connection from my room which meant that I could catch up on Mad Men, True Blood, Entourage, and Hung along with the many podcasts I consume.

Adam and I ended the day with a relaxing evening of watching the two-hour dual episode “Redemption” (Season 4 finale and Season 5 premier) of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Great times.

September 13, 2010 - Monday - Prague

We filled ourselves with the complimentary breakfast at our hostel before we checked out and stowed our luggage in their locker.

We spent the morning investigating the city some more. On our way to Charles Bridge, we ate a small and expensive pastry which was made by wrapping dough around a wide dowel and then sprinkling it with sugar and cinnamon and rotating it over a fire until it cooks.

At Charles Bridge, I became eager to identify the locations that were used in critical scenes from Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible. The bridge along with the Lichtenstein Building were some memorable areas in which we reveled.

Once we crossed to the west side of Charles Bridge, we started hiking up the hill toward the castle. That path was dotted on either side with embassies from all around the world. We were less inclined to have our cameras out this time around. The American embassy distinguished itself by having much more security than other embassies in the area - more to the point, the other embassies didn’t appear to have any visible security. We remarked on the shame of belonging to a country whose provocations in the world have demanded such heightened security and paranoia.

Resting above embassy row was a large park that extended 200 meters up the hill to a monastery up top. We walked northwest from the monastery to the castle, and further on to a series of vineyards that carpet the hill. From there we crossed the Manesuv Bridge back into the city for a delicious meal at a Czech restaurant called Lokal. We had minced meat, potatoes, and a yummy apple-bread pudding. Later we returned to the hostel to regroup with our Canadian friends.

The four of us went returned to Old Town Square to meet the guide of a free tour. The group was small, including our guide (a delightful Czech young lady named Klara) the two Canadians, and a friendly couple from New Zealand. We thoroughly enjoyed the company of this small group and we stayed with them for the remainder of our stay in Prague. The free tour took us from the Old Town Square, the Astronomical Clocktower, the Tyn Church, the Old-New Synagogue, the Old Jewish Cemetery, the Charles Bridge, Little Vienna, Prague Castle, Matthias Gate, and St Vitus Cathedral.

Klara left us at the castle, and the six of us found a nearby medieval-themed restaurant where we ate delicious pork medallions in cranberry sauce along with some refreshing beverages. The Canadians peeled off from the group early to participate in a pub-crawl, but we stayed and talked into the night with the Kiwis. Outstanding people. (As London residents, they very well may host me as a guest in November when I pass through the city.)

We returned to Lokal restaurant to watch the first set of the Nadal vs. Djokovic US Open final. Nadal was exhibiting some outstanding athleticism.

Our night train to Vienna left at 12:30 AM that night, so we could not finish the tennis match. We gathered our things from the hostel’s locker and made our way to the train station.

We boarded the train for our first experience with a night train. Our quarters had six couchettes (sleeping berths) in each compartment. We shared that small room with three Austrians.