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Part 2 (flows on from Munich, Germany)
We got up in the morning and boarded the bus to austrian tyrol for white water rafting and paragliding - however as the weather was raining and windy today - paragliding was canceled :( very disappointing as after driving through these alps - I couldn't imagine anything more amazing than paragliding off the top of one of them. Oh well - something to come back for!! We arrived at the site for white water rafting - still bucketing with rain - we were provided with our gear which comprised of wetsuit, spray jacket, booties, life jacket and helmet. We carried the raft down to the river and headed off - had the safety chat and practiced a few commands - then we all jumped in - the water actually took your breath away - it was coming directly from the top of the swiss alps after all - approx 6degrees. The rapids were pretty tame - no one fell out and there weren't really any big ones but was still fun. We were absolutely freezing by the end having jumped in a few times. Hot shower and food then back on the bus to the hostel at hopgarden in the austrian Tyrol. The small town looks like it's just out of the movies - cute cottages with flower boxes along the windows, beautiful alps as the backdrop - so pretty.
The accom was quad share with our own shower and communal toilets - I have been made a dishy at this stop which means I have to collect all dishes after meals and deliver to the kitchen - pretty easy really - everyone is either a cookie or a dishy at some stage and I'm happy I'm a dishy here as we only have one night here :). Probably the peak of my flu here - had a bit of a fever so went to bed early ( after helping the rest of the group prepare for their theme party of American high school - which everyone decided they would rather cross dress - so they did that.
Up in the morning and boarded the bus to the Swiss alps. We stopped off at lictenstein (one of the 4 smallest countries in Europe) this country is quite rich in that the average salary in 80000euros/year - with a population of 35000 people, the country only has 120 police officers due to an incredibly low crime rate. We changed euros into Swiss franks here (exchange rate wasn't very good - I exchanged 170euros and received 178 chf) we had lunch here which was ridiculously expensive -after the conversion back to aus $ we ended up spending approx $30 each for a cheeseburger, side of fries and a coke.
Boarded the bus again - next stop was Lucern in Switzerland - what a beautiful place. So pretty-little cobblestone streets, cute old buildings, alfresco cafes, alps, river, bridges -perfect. We only had a couple of hours here and had a bit of a walk around.
Drove on to our accom contiki special stopover lauterbrunen. Couldn't take our eyes off the view the entire way from Lucern to our accom - the alps are unbelieveable - words can't describe how beautiful they are and photos just don't do them justice at all. Switzerland = Stunning. So green, mountainous with beautiful little houses randomly placed up the sides of the mountains and in the valleys - the lake was a gorgeous light green/blue colour - that just looked so inviting ( even though it would be freezing water). We could see snow on the top of some of the alps which just added to it.
We arrived at our accom - quadshare with communal bathrooms - perfect view of mt jungfrau (top of Europe) as well as a waterfall coming down from the alps. We had dinner and an early night as still not feeling very well (and we had a theme party planned for the following night - Swiss disco).
We got up and prepared for our train ride up mt jungfrau (4099m)- we bought lunch and snacks from the campsite shop as we were warned of how expensive it would be to buy food on the mountain. It was quite cool and a bit rainy and foggy this morning but we were hoping it would improve up the mountain. We walked to the train - and boarded - the views were really good - took at least 100 photos of pretty much the same thing - will go through them when i get home. We had to swap to a connecting train half way to get to the top - and as we were waiting for the connecting train ( in the freezing cold) the cloud of fog swallowed the mountain. Majority of the next train was on the inside of the mountain - it stopped a couple of times at different heights for views however you couldn't see a thing through the white cloud. The incline that the train was traveling at was so steep you could stand on about a 45degree angle quite comfortably without falling over. Sara warned that we may feel lightheaded, sick or tired due to the altitude change - and in a matter of about 5 mins our private train carriage for contiki only went from quite rowdy to pretty close to everyone asleep - strange effect. We got to the top and went outside to the plateau - so so so so so so so icy cold and slippery - definitely wasnt prepared for just how cold it ended up being. The fact that it was snowing and windy definitely didn't help. The cloud was still preventing us from seeing anything. A few of the crazy people on our trip stripped off and did a naked run in the snow - I have no idea how they did it. It was too cold to stay out there so we headed inside - I slipped and fell on the ice on my way in and of course rather than people helping me up, they just laughed and took photos. We moved on to the ice palace carved out of then glacier which had multiple ice sculptures within it. We went to another viewing platform still no view :( then inside to eat lunch and have hot chocolate. Glad i took lunch because it was sooo expensive - a cup of noodles (just like a Maggi cup of noodles) was 7euro (approx $11). after lunch we went for a look at the 'snow fun' - walking up was so difficult to breathe - combination of unfit, freezing cold and altitude. We still couldn't see very far in front of us - there was an option to go on the zip line, toboggan, ski etc but decided against it and headed back down on the train. The views weren't as good as this morning as once we got out of the cloud it was still pretty foggy and raining so glad i got the photos this morning. We walked through town from the train and grabbed a Swiss flag for the theme party tonight - stopped at a cafe for wifi then back to the accom for dinner and the Swiss disco theme party - so much red and white!!!
Traveling on the the Rhine valley today (stop over night on way to our final destination of Amsterdam). I can't believe the trip is almost over - it's gone so quickly for me- and I'm not even sick of the bus travel or living out of a bag or anything as yet. After amsterdamn we get the bus back to London where I have 3 full days before i fly out - so hopefully all the drama is cleared up there by the time i get there!!
Love Holly
Xoxo
- comments
Merro Your stories are inspiring. Love it!
carmen gaskin Gee Holly what a wonderful time you are having make the most of it I love your intense stories love Gran.xx
Kaz Wonderfully descriptive as usual Holly! xx
Joely K ah ur bringing back some good memories. good to see ur having a cracker time, and the flu has hit ya haha so the vitmains and cold an flu tablets talk obviously didnt work