Scandinavia and Switzerland ( August )

Saturday 2 August. Raining on rising today. Bergen is the rain capital of the world though. We went off on a sight seeing trip in the morning. We drove through the main area`s of the city, over Bryggen passing Haakon`s Hall and over to Sandviken - with its small wooden houses and narrow cobbled streets.

Next we went up to Eidsvagneset for a fabulous view over the fjord and city. We went back down again to Bergen, to the Funicular station to go up Mt Floyen by cable car for another view of Bergen and fjords again.
The afternoon was spend wandering round Bergen, the town, the fort, the handicraft shops and stalls and the fish market. It stopped raining by midday.We bought fresh strawberries, apples and breadrolls for tea.

Sunday 3 August. Up early and saw lots of spectacular scenery as we drove to the Sognefjord. We had a lovely 3hr cruise on one of Norways longest fjords. It was fabulous!
We saw waterfalls and Stave Churches along the way.
We arrived at Fagernes by 6.30pm. The buffet dinner was great-heaps of seafood. Kevin and I went for a walk round town and waterfront and then decided to have a sauna and swim. Very nice!

Monday 4 August. Kevin went off for a swim at 7.00 am and after brekky we left for Lillehammer of Olympic fame. Then we saw beautiful scenery, green valleys, shimmering lakes and towering mountains. Saw the ski jumps and saw some people practicing so that was good.
We drove along lake Mjosa and across the border into Sweden.

Passing through the Varmland of wilderness, forests and lakes to arrive in Karlstad at 6.30 pm. We went out to tea to a local chinese restaurant with Jane and Terry from the Goldcoast. It was Terry`s birthday, home by 10pm.

Tuesday 5 August. We left Karlstad and headed East towards Stockholm via Alfred Nobel`s country. ( he invented Dynomite and started the Nobel prizes.)
We passed through Orebro and Eskilstuna and Mariefred. We stopped to visit Gripsholm Castle which sits on the shores of lake Malaren just outside Mariefred. It was built in 1537 by a swedish king- Gustav Vasa.

We arrived in Stockholm about 3.30 pm.Its a unique city set on 14 islands between Lake Malaren and the Baltic Sea.

Wednesday 6 August. We were up and off on a city tour by 8.30 am. At 11.00am we went off on a guided tour of the Vasa Museum. It was excellent value. The Vasa ship sank in Stockholm harbour back in the 16th century and was raised up in 1961 in one piece.

From 1 pm -5 pm we were free to sight see as we wished. We visited Old Town ( Gamla Stan) and went for a boat cruise-Under the Bridges for 2 hrs. We even went through 2 locks between the Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren
Our last tea together and we ended up having a few beers with our fellow travellers, not getting to bed till 1.00am !

Thursday 7 August. Up and breakfasted and farewelling our travelling friends as they headed for home today. We spent the time chatting and emailing. We shared a taxi to the airport to catch our flight to Zurich at 4.15 pm. We arrived in Zurich at 7.30 pm as slightly delayed.

Friday 8 August. We were up and off to explore Zurich via a tram to the waterfront. We caught a waterferry for a river cruise of the Limmat river down to Lake Zurich for 1hr. We walked around the Old Town, the Fraumunster Church, the biggest church clock face on St Peters Tower and the world famous Bahnofstrasse.

We caught a city Tour of Zurich and Surroundings, which consisted of seeing the harbour, the lake, and surrounding hills. We saw the famous Chagall stained glass windows at the Fraumunster Church. We continued to Adliswil for a ride up a cable car to Felsenegg for a beautiful view over Zurich, the lake and peaks of the Alps.

We crossed the lake via ferryboat and drove back to Zurich along the "Golden Coast".
We got back to our Hotel in time for a meeting with our tour guide. We met up with Frank and Mitch( Aussies) from our last tour.

Saturday 9 August. We were up early to journey by train from Zurich to Lucerne. (1 hr).
Lucerne is just an idyllic place surrounded by a beautiful lake and nestled amidst the Alps.
Our day for us was free at leisure to explore Lucerne.

We saw Musegg Wall and its tower (heaps of steps) but with a view that was fabulous, the Lion Monument ( carved into the natural rock in memory of the Swiss Heroes killed in 1792), the Chapel Bridge ( built in 1333-a main landmark) and the 2 churches - the Hofkirche built in 1634 and the Jesuit Church built in 1677. We walked round Old Town and saw various town squares called Platz- Falken Platz, Sternen Platz, Kornmarkt Platz, Nrschen Platz and Muhlen Platz- all with beautiful architecture and statues and water fountains.

We had a great time wandering at our own pace. Home by 5 pm. Then out again at 7.15 pm with the whole group for a restaurant meal, typically Swiss with a folklore show. It was alot of fun!

Sunday 10 August. We left at 7.30 am on the Golden Pass Panoramic Train, heading to Meiringen. ( train 1) Its well known for the Reichenbach Falls, which we visited via flunnicular car.
We visited a square named after the Scottish novelist- Conan Doyle. The father of Sherlock Holmes - there is a bronze statue of the detective as Doyle loved Switzerland and Meiringen made him an Honorary citizen of their town. We caught the train ( train 2 ) to Interlaken Ost, arriving at midday.

We spent 1hr here and wandered down to the beautiful river and park and had our lunch with Frank and Mitch. Then ( train 3) to Zweisimmen, another beautiful spot. We changed trains ( train 4) to Gstaad.

An important spot for international celebrities. We had 2 hrs to spend here and had a little bite to eat then on to our next train ( train 5) to Montreux. It stretches along the shores of Lake Geneva. It is also an important cultural city. After 45 mins we caught our final train (train 6) to get to Lausanne.

We arrived at 7 pm and walked a short distance up hill to our hotel. Lausanne is a cosmopolitan city with lovely views of Lake Geneva and the surrounding Alps. We got a bite to eat in town and had a walk around the Rue Saint Francois Square. We got back at 10 pm very tired out.

Monday 11 August. We put our luggage out at 7.15 am for an early start for Montreux today. Montreux is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva and is known as the "Swiss Riviera". We had time for 2 hrs lunch and leisure. It is a nice place and we enjoyed walking around here.

Next we went off on an excursion to Chillon Castle built on a rocky islet, with its towers reflecting in Lake Geneva. It was first built in the 9th century to guard the road from Avenches to Italy.
We returned via ferry boat to Montreux, to depart at 3.30 pm to Visp on the train naturally!

Then on to Zermatt by 6.30 pm and a 300 metre walk to our hotel.
After a little freshen up we went down to dinner with the rest of our travellers.
Finished off the day with a soak in the bath -wonderful. Zermatt is a lovely tourist resort in all seasons and there are no cars allowed in the area. Hotels have electric baggage cars for delivery of baggage to hotels which you see all over the sreeets.

Tuesday 12 August. Up at 7.00 am ready for the excursion to the famous "Gornergrat", travelling on board Europe's highest rack railway. The views from it's summit were lovely despite cloudy and spitting rain weather. We had a cup of tea in the hotel atop the mountain.
We had our photo taken with St Bernard dogs as well.

We headed back down again and walked through the town to catch the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise Cable Car. But due to high winds it only went up 2 stops to the Trockener Steg. ( 2939m) The view was amazing and worth the trip up. We did not see the Matterhorn because of the clouds but it was close by.

We got down and wandered through Zermatt absorbing all the variety of shops, cafes, bars and narrow streets. We returned to our hotel for a relax and some internet use and a look at the Olympic Games of course. Also interesting Zermatt is Traffic free! It's a beautiful ski resort- boy I wish I could ski well, I'd come back for sure!

Wednesday 13 August. Another early start today as we boarded the Glacier Express for our journey to St Moritz. A famous Swiss Mountain Railway taking 7 and a half hours- across 291 bridges, through 91 tunnels and across the Oberalp Pass at 2,033m Altitude.

A very panoramic trip through the Alps in the heart of Switzerland. It was a real high light of our tour. The landscape was filled with mountain forests, alpine meadows, rushing mountain streams and mountain valleys. All unspoiled natural beauty! We arrived at 5.45 pm. St Moritz is the most famous Swiss Skiing resort and has Sankt Moritz-Dorf- the oldest ski school. (1927) We had a rest before dinner at 7.30 pm.

Thursday 14 August. Kevin went off for a swim in the hotel pool at 7.00 am. The pool is about 15 metres long so he cranked out 80 odd lengths. After brekky we went off on the Bernina Express to Tirano - for one of Europe's most spectacular train rides ! Just magical, fairytale like and majestic are some descriptive words to describe this journey. We crossed the Bernina Pass via the Swiss Poschiavo area to Tirano in Italy.

We had 2hrs in Tirano and visited the Santuario Madonna de Tirano at the Piazza Basilica. (built in 1505). A beautiful cathedral. We had our lunch there with Midge, Frank, Doreen, Steve and David. We also sampled an Italian ice cream.We caught the train back to Pontresina and then got a tour supplied taxi to our hotel.

We decided a dip in the pool was called for and ended up doing several lengths ! Kevin cranked out another 80 or so lengths before heading off for a special Cosmos travellers dinner. We had a great day and really enjoyed experiencing nature via a railway!


Friday 15 August. We left St Moritz this morning for the journey back to Zurich.

On the way we stopped at Klosters ( situated 1,200m above sea level) for a 2 hour stop over. Its famous as Prince Charles visits often to ski here and no I didn't bump into him ! We wandered about and had our lunch with some of the travellers sitting in a childs playground area by the river. We ended up chatting to an American who has now made Klosters his home - very interesting.

We arrived in Zurich to pouring rain. We bought our train ticket required for tomorrows travel.
Everyone met up at 7.30 pm in the bar for drinks and to thank our tour director Judit, for an excellent job she'd done. Then we all had a Cosmos menu dinner together with lots of farewells and goodbyes thrown in. We have had a wonderful trip through Switzerland and made lots of firm friends.

Our next adventure will begin tommorow as we head by train to Frankfurt, Germany. I will try and keep you posted.