Always sunny in Switzerland

October 9, 2011November 2, 2011 Tigerotor77WAlps, Bachalpsee, Bernese Oberland, Eiger, First, Grindelwald, Jungfrau, Mönch, Schilthorn, Schynige Platte, Switzerland, WengenLeave a comment

As was the case with Norway, the motivation to go to Switzerland again did not come strictly from my own head. The idea to flee Germany instead came first as a passing reflection on the weather forecast, but it wasn’t until I had seen and then reconsidered a few other NWHikers.net threads (and in particular this one) that I decided resolutely to go. It took me five days to make up my mind and reserve a room, but I largely used that time to figure out what I’d do. Considering the amount of time Brian and I had in the area at the beginning of September, I think what we did was perfect… we got to hike a bit and see some of the most majestic viewpoints without feeling “rushed” to only see the highlights with no real appreciation for the area. With two and a half days in the area this time, I could slow down a bit and look into venturing a bit further astray.

The first hike I did (Schynige Platte to First via Bachalpsee and Faulhorn) was one of the most memorable hikes I’ve done. There weren’t many people on the train from Lauterbrunnen to Wilderswil at 6:30 AM, but the cogwheel train from Wilderswil to Schynige Platte was packed — they had to get a second train to meet capacity. It was clear why so many people visited this area once I arrived at Schynige Platte: the views there are spectacular. Not to say that views from elsewhere aren’t impressive; the difference is that from most places, such as Kleine Scheidegg, it’s usually only possible to see Eiger, Mönch, or Jungfrau:

Germany -- week 14-10 — Not complaining, but where are the rest of the Alps?! This is only two Alps!

From Schynige Platte, the Alps as a chain of mountains are fully visible. The deep valleys leading up to the mountains were also breathtaking in person and a stark contrast to the rising rock beyond. Continue reading “Always sunny in Switzerland” →

When it doesn’t rain

October 3, 2011November 2, 2011 Tigerotor77WBachalpsee, Bernese Oberland, First, Hegau rest stop, Hotel Silberhorn, Kleine Scheidegg, Lauterbrunnen, rain, smog, Sunset, SwitzerlandLeave a comment

I was hoping to go to Oktoberfest in one of the previous two weekends, but timing proved difficult. Long story made short, I chose to go to Switzerland instead of drinking beer. The weather was right for hiking, and the long weekend was right for finally doing some more “extreme” photography.

First, I have to make a plug for the hotel I stayed at. As is usually the case, I started by looking at booking.com and saw that the Hotel Silberhorn was decently rated and priced. I called them to ask if they had availability — and they quoted me an even better price than what I had seen online. When I arrived, the owner (the hotel is family owned) asked if I would be able to attend breakfast, and I told him I’d probably be gone an hour before it started. He offered me a sandwich, but in packing it also packed me a lunch sandwich, bottle of water, and an apple. He did this the next day, too. Parking was free, breakfast was included, and the hotel was literally a three minute walk (across the street and up a small hill) from the Lauterbrunnen train station. I usually don’t writing glowing reviews about hotels, but this one was fantastic. The room even had a balcony. I could gush on about this forever, but…

As I wrote a long paragraph ago, the weather was right for hiking. In fact, it’s been nice for a few weeks now — maybe to make up for the dismal (i.e. cold and wet) July and August. While this seems perfect for picture-making, rain helps bring down dust in the air, which otherwise gets in between a camera sensor and the intended subject. This was especially evident in Hegau. 20 km before exiting the A81 autobahn for the Swiss border, there’s a rest stop with a decent dinner selection. A month ago, right before my second trip to Switzerland, this is what the sunset looked like.

Continue reading “When it doesn’t rain” →

Das Auto

September 19, 2011October 18, 2011 Tigerotor77WFrankfurt, Frankfurt Motor Show 2011, hear, IAA, Internationale Automobil Ausstellung, see, senses, smell, taste, touch2 Comments

This was the first weekend in several for which I did not have a trip planned. That’s not wholly true. Initially, this weekend was supposed to be Oktoberfest, but then the first iteration of those plans fell through. It wasn’t until the second iteration had also evaporated that I was sure I’d be going to Frankfurt instead of Munich; this past weekend was both the first public day of the Internationale Automobil Ausstellung as well as the tapping of the keg in München. I ended up choosing the latter, though I’ve been thinking about it today and am not fully sure how I arrived at that decision.

Regardless, I was told that it would be an extremely busy event. Planning “accordingly,” I decided to leave Stuttgart around 6 AM, arriving in Frankfurt around 8AM, leaving some time to park my car / get to the exhibition hall / wait in line before the doors opened at 9 AM. By the time I walked in the doors of the Frankfurt Messe at 8:32 AM, the people density was already higher than I had seen it at any point during the NAIAS (Detroit Auto Show)… I wasn’t shocked, but I was still taken aback by how many people there were.

I had also anticipated that the show would be in the same fashion as the NAIAS or the Chicago Auto Show or even ConExpo: displays, pretty models posing as car gurus, and lots of people in between said displays and me. Continue reading “Das Auto” →

Meat and tourists

September 18, 2011June 1, 2013 Tigerotor77WCzech Republic, Dancing House, Frank Gehry, Prague, Praha1 Comment

The third (and sadly last) city on the trip was Prague. It was suggested by various friends, and I thought it’d make a good final stop given its proximity to Salzburg and Germany, so we drove there on a Thursday night and spent the next three days in the Czech Republic.

First impression of the city: holy cow is it touristy. Continue reading “Meat and tourists” →

Music and Salt

September 15, 2011December 27, 2011 Tigerotor77Wcastle, Gore-Tex, Gosau, Hallstat, Hohensalzburg, Mozart, salt mines, SalzburgLeave a comment

It was nice to be able to drive back from Zurich at a speed more appropriate for the German Autobahn… but I had many more kilometers to drive. The first stop of the remaining two cities is the birthplace of Mozart and culprit of excessive salt consumption: Salzburg, Austria. (I kid — I’m just sillyily and cornyily blaming “The Salt Castle” for Germany’s apparent salt craving. I don’t actually think Salzburg has anything to do with the amount of salt that the Bosch cafeteria insists on dumping into every meal.)

When I first mentioned Salzburg to Brian, I wasn’t really sure what exactly it would offer. It looked close on a map and also wasn’t too far from Prague, so I figured that breaking up Brian’s week in Europe into Switzerland, Salzburg, and Sprague (sorry. was trying out alliteration.) would be a nice round-trip. A friend of Brian’s suggested that we go to Hallstatt, so there we went on the first day in the area. It’s a cozy little town sitting on a lake; we hiked around the lake for a little bit and then had a lunch of fish. Whole fish, that is; bone and all. I had no idea western Europeans ate whole fish as a normal meal; Austria isn’t exactly a maritime economy. (I could be stereotyping here.) Continue reading “Music and Salt” →

Maelstrom

September 14, 2011October 18, 2011 Tigerotor77WBernese Oberland, Eiger, Festung Füringen, Furingen Fortress, Jungfrau, Jungfraujoch, Kapellbrücke, Lucerne, Mönch, Mönchjochhütte, SwitzerlandLeave a comment

When I first thought I’d be seeing one in Norway (I actually walked or drove by two during my time there), the image my extensive vocabulary conjured up was one like this. In person, and at the wrong time of day, it looks nothing like that — but my travel plan for the two months of August and September resembles the graphic (not sure what the lightning symbolizes, however). My itinerary has looked like this:

July 30-31: Italy

August 5-6: Strasbourg

August 12-13: Zermatt

August 19-20: Norway (Tromsø)

August 20-21: Norway (Stamsund / Lofoten)

August 27-28: Norway (Moskenesøy, traveling back to Stuttgart)

For the record, that’s travel on every weekend of August. A friend came last week to visit for ten days, and the itinerary now looks thus: Continue reading “Maelstrom” →

La Raison d’Être

August 31, 2011October 18, 2011 Tigerotor77WCPH, Lofoten, Norway, Reine, Reinebringen, Stamsund hostelLeave a comment

I have a confession: when I left the US for Europe, Norway and Sweden were lumped together and only given a cursory spot on my list of places to visit. There was a chance, my manager told me, that I could support testing, and Bosch has a thriving winter testing facility in Sweden. “Norway is like Sweden,” I thought, “so it doesn’t really matter if I don’t go to one or the other. Besides, there’s plenty to do on the mainland.”

This changed about two weeks after I arrived in Germany, and the reason was an until-then unknown mountain called “Reinebringen.” The hike, I was told, was very steep but doable, and I agreed with the consensus that the view at the top would make it entirely worth it. I set out the morning after my Aurora Fiasco in search of the trailhead. Cue my thanks for staying in a hostel — one Swiss woman who had recently hiked it drew out a map for me.

The hike really… wasn’t a “hike.” I was expecting steep and rugged walking, not rugged crawling. There were a few places that I had to scramble up, and in other places I was actually using bush roots to pull myself up steep sections. I even had to tramp through some blueberry bushes, though I admit this was because I had wandered off the trail. Even so, the trail wasn’t quite as I imagined: it wasn’t as strenuous as I though, but the dropoffs were far more exposed than I had made them out to be in my mind. (I later saw a description in another trail description that the hike was only for experienced mountaineers — a bit of an exaggeration, but it was the only warning of its kind I had seen.) Even so, as promised, the view at the top was quite astounding. The mountain looks down at the fishing village of Reine, roughly 400 m straight down. I grabbed a few shots with dirty hands, signed the trail register, and headed back down after about 20 minutes at the ridge at the top. The water, even from this high up, was startlingly clear. I can’t see that the blue waters of Lake Michigan are quite this calming.

Continue reading “La Raison d’Être” →

Hope and Expectation

August 30, 2011October 20, 2011 Tigerotor77WEggum, harbor, hiking, Norway, sheep, Stamsund, Sunset, Unstad1 Comment

Sleep had come naturally, though in fits, while I was aboard the M.S. Trollfjord. When I awoke, it was clear it had rained overnight.

Throughout my three days in Tromsø, it hadn’t rained while I was outside. It had sprinkled a little on my last day (the museum day), but not like this; most of the mountains on either side of the boat remained shrouded in fog and clouds during the rest of the trip.

Continue reading “Hope and Expectation” →