Photoblog

I've included a link to Wiesbaden Photo Blog on the right. She has much more timely and more interesting photos of this city.

Family Visit

My family (brother, sister, mother, father) visited for a week in August. We took the train to the Swiss Alps and spent two night in the small Swiss town of Wengen. From the city of Interlaken you board a privately-run railway for a 20 minute ride to Lauterbrunnen. There you change trains to board the Wengernalpbahn, the longest continuous cog railway in the world. Fifteen minutes later you are greeted by a train station and small car-free village in the shadow of the Jungfrau.



That is, if the weather is good. On the afternoon of our arrival it was completely clouded over and just to add to the experience, there was a constant drizzle.



We awoke the next morning with hopes of an amazing view, but only found more drizzle. Undeterred we boarded the train to Kleine Scheidegg, where could catch a train to Jungfraujoc, in the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau. As we would have viewed a big grey nothing. Instead, we set out across some fields and encountered some the famous Swiss cows with their famous cowbells. Alas, we were too early to read of the Swiss Hiking Federation's warning to avoid encounters with cows. Even so, we escaped with our lives.



The next day showed more promise. The entire mountain loomed above us surrounded by a deep blue sky (this is when the first photo was taken). We again found ourselved at Kleine Scheidegg but this time we boarded the Jungfraubahn for the 9km (5.6 mile) ride,over 7 km (4.3 miles) of which were inside the mountain.

At the top, the view was amazing. Note the four hikers in the valley in the second photo.



After the snow and sun (for which I was rewarded with a sunburn and cold sore) we travelled down to Interlaken and boarded a train to Lucerne. The next morning was spent walking through the town the next morning, seeing the requisite Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), Water Tower (Wasserturm), and Lion Monument (Löwendenkmal). The later is a dedicated to the Swiss Guards killed while guarding the Tuileries Palace in Paris during the French Revolution.




From Lucerne it was off to Munich, the Hofbräuhaus and other attractions. After that, back to Wiesbaden.

The next two days were spent driving along the Rhine, visiting Heidelberg, Burg Eltz and Kloster Eberbach.

My father and brother flew out on a Sunday morning as my mother and sister boarded a train for the next two weeks of their European adventure.

"Thanks" for the badgering

OK, so it's been over six months since my last post. For those that think I've been slacking off, let me recap.

I visited Belfast and the Northern coast of Ireland with K.


I traveled to Paris and enjoyed the multi-sensory experience that is "Musée des égouts de Paris" or "The Museum of Paris Sewers."


I spent a weekend in Berlin…





…and another in Heidelberg.




I watched Korea beat Togo in the first round of the World Cup (alas, they did not advance).






I sweated though three days in Rome and the Vatican. In a small bar a few blocks from the Coliseum I also watched the US-Italy World Cup match in which the US forced a tie. This is the only match the Italians did not win!



I thought it would be cooler to spend sometime "Up North" so I spent my long Independence Day weekend in Stockholm and the Stockholm Archipelago. It turned out to be in the mid 30's C (low 90's F).





I did get a laugh out of my hotel key card, though…



So that's the update for the last few months. My family visited in August. Some more on that soon.