Deja vu

Hello again, it's another beautiful day here in Switzerland and what am I doing? Sitting inside the University Library burying my nose in my textbook. Yes, finals are fast approaching here in the land of the Alps and I could not be anymore afraid of what the next few weeks have in store. On the bright side, I can bring a translation dictionary to all of my finals! Woot!

Anyways, I am taking a momentary break from my studies now to tell you about my recent trips (yes plural) to Interlaken in the Junfrau region of Switzerland. The Jungfrau is a particular range of mountains in the Swiss Alps that is known for its height and grandeur and I had the privilege to visit this area not only once, but twice in the last month.

My first visit was with my mom and Jim when they visited in mid-April. We rode the panoramic train with picturesque views through the mountains for 3 hours before disembarking in Interlaken. Unfortunately, the weather that day was atrocious. It rained all day long and even snowed in the higher areas during our train ride. When we arrived at our destination, we wandered the city briefly, picked up some souvenirs and post cards, and quickly took refuge in a nearby restaurant where we indulged in some authentic Swiss cheese fondue. It was the perfect way to spend a cool and rainy day in the Alps, stuffing our faces with warm cheese! 

My more recent visit to interlaken occurred just a week ago. A group of exchange students and I too two large vans up to the Jungfrau region, where we made our first stop in Lauterbrunnen. In Lauterbrunnen, we visited the mountainside caverns that are filled with glacial waterfalls. It was particularly amazing to me because I had never seen waterfalls on such a large scale before. 

After wandering the caves, we got back in the vehicles and drove to Interlaken. In Interlaken, we took a vernacular to the top of a mountain with a restaurant perched at the top where we stopped for lunch. We were served a traditional meal of Alpine macaroni, which is noodles with melted cheese, potatoes and onions. The view from the restaurant was absolutely amazing. From our table, you could see the three larges mountain peeks in the region and outside, there was a large viewing platform that hung over the side of the mountain which offered beautiful panoramic views of the city of interlaken as well as the surrounding mountains. 

After our meal and photo session, we took a two hour hike down from the top. It was a beautiful and sunny afternoon for a hike (although and bit slippery from morning rains). When we finally reached the bottom, we explored the city for a little while before returning to the cars and heading back towards Lausanne. We left just in the nick of time because just as we departed, it began to pour, and as we drove further into the mountains, that rain turned to snow. So, naturally, we all climbed out of the cars to play in the fresh flakes. It was the first time I have seen snow fall since I left Minnesota, it really reminded me of home. Speaking of home, I only have 38 days of this amazing adventure left before I come back to the States. Although I am having fun here, I can't wait to come home and see my family and friends again. I miss you all!

With love, from Lausanne

Mindy

Better than Disney World

I can't believe it was nearly a month ago since I visited Germany with my mom and Jim! Time really does fly by!

Well, I am now picking up where I left off a couple a posts ago, in Germany. After spending a beautiful day in Munich, we took a little excursion to the border of Austria, where we visited some pretty spectacular castles. (I wanted to cross the border into Austria, just to say we did but, unfortunately, our rental car didn't have insurance outside of Germany. Oh well, next time.)

Hohenschwangau

First we took a guided tour of the Hohenschwangau Castle which was the childhood home of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and it is pretty magnificent both inside and out. it is perched atop a hill overlooking the valley, spacious court yards, fountains, the whole shebang! And inside there are nearly one hundred ornately decorated rooms to explore with fancy furniture, jeweled center pieces and winding staircases. It is really something!

Selfie with the castle

After that we rode a tram up the mountain to the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. After disembarking, we headed to a nearby bridge for an amazing view of the castle from across a small lake, and man was it high! Definitely not a place for those with qualms about heights... or claustrophobia for that matter. There had to be a hundred people crammed onto that bridge, trying to get their shot of the castle, and on a Wednesday, no less! So we got our picture, got the heck out of that mess and headed for the castle for our tour. 

Neuschwanstein was build by King Ludwig II later in his life, but, unfortunately, the King died before he could see the final product. The castle was never completed because the King was bankrupt when he died and the castle was immediately opened as a museum after his death. The castle is known for it's Cinderella-esque exterior, but the interior boasts a measly 19 completed rooms, most of which were never really used. However, the rooms that we were able to see were really beautiful, too bad they don't allow pictures inside. 

Fussen

After leaving this surreal, fantastic little world, we drove to the nearby city of Fuusen for some schnitzel before heading back to our hotel in Munich for the night. Seeing the castles was probably the highlight of my trip to Germany, besides getting to see my mom and Jim of course. For a few hours I really felt like a princess, take that Disney!


With love, from Lausanne

Mindy

CERN

So I have been trying really hard to keep this blog well organized by writing my posts in chronological order, but I'm throwing that notion out the window today, and blogging about my day before it has a chance to fade from my memory.

Selfie with the ATLAS detector

The Big Bang

Today, thanks to my good friend, Sandra, I had the opportunity to tour the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN research facility just outside of Geneva, Switzerland. We woke up early to catch a train, followed by a tram to CERN where we explored the exhibits before beginning our group tour. The tour, given by a very knowledgeable American PhD student, included a really cool 3D video and a look at the control room for the ATLAS detector. ATLAS is one of 5 detectors where data is collected from the events produced by the LHC. Inside the LHC, groups of protons are accelerated inside a ring shaped, underground tube that is 27 kilometers in circumference and lies underneath the soil of both Switzerland and France! How cool is that! I finally understand why Leonard was so excited to visit ( TBBT season 3, episode 15 in case you were wondering.) Which reminds me its new Big Bang Theory night tonight! Too bad I will be asleep when it airs *sigh* I guess I will have to watch it tomorrow.

Jet d'Eau

After our tour of the LHC, we headed back to the city center to find food. Our hunger got the better of us, and we quickly resorted to chez Mcdo (french slang for McDonald's). Then we explored some sights of the city including St. Pierre's Cathedral and the famous Jet d'Eau, a 140 meter tall fountain of water that can be seen throughout most of Geneva. Honestly besides that there is not a lot more to see in the city. Unfortunately we could not get out to the United Nations because it was a bit out of the way, but I'm not terribly disappointed about that. McDonald's and giant water fountains are pretty cool in my book!



With love, from Lausanne

Mindy

What is München???

When arriving in Munich the first thing I thought was "what the heck is München?" little did I know, this is what the Germans call Munich. So really, us Americans are saying it all wrong. (Oh and yes, I had to google search and copy paste that u with the umlaut.)

Munich was amazing! The first morning we woke up in Munich, we caught the metro to the Merianplatz where the town hall and other monuments are located. We wondered the streets, following a Rick Steves route of course, and vistited several churches as well as the Munich history museum. We took a short break at the famous Hofbräuhaus beer garden for a refreshment before we were off again, this time to the Residenz which is the old palace where the Bavarian royalty once lived. But we didn't take a tour of the inside until a couple of day later when we returned to the city to cover the things we missed on the first day.

After working up an apatite exploring the city, we sat down for a traditional meal of beer and sausages at a local restaurant near the Frauenkirche. Their signature sausages were very delicious! I would definitely go there again.

Two day later, when we returned to Munich, we spent most of the day touring the city by bike. Actually we stuck mostly to the English Gardens because the city streets were a bit scary for inexperience bikers. The gardens were really more like a huge park with lakes, rivers, winding paths and even some surfers near the man made dams in the streams! We stopped along the way to check out the beer gardens along the way.

We returned to the city center later to see the Residenz which was extremely beautiful on the inside. There had to be over one hundred rooms to peruse. I think it would take several days to really pay attention to all of the small details. We, unfortunately, had to breeze through it in about an hour and a half because it was going to close.

After our royal tour, we returned to the same little square near the Frauenkirche for dinner again, this time at a different restaurant were we had another traditional German meal and shared a table with a group of very nice Germans and two American girls who were also traveling for their Easter holiday. I had duck for the first time, and it was absolutely delicious! I think one of my favorite parts about visiting Germany was the food!


With love, from Lausanne

Mindy

Rothenburg : My first taste of Germany

Wiener Schitzel

On the Saturday before Easter, Mom, Jim and I boarded a flight to Frankfurt, Germany. After dodging some small snags in our itinerary, losing my phone yet again, and not to mention navigating the autobahn, we arrived in Rothenburg where we immediately crashed for the rest of the night.

The Night Watchman

In the morning we enjoyed a very pleasant Easter brunch at our bed and breakfast and hiked up towards the city, where we arrived just in time to see the good Christians departing from the morning service. Well at least we tried... sort of. We spent the rest of the day exploring the quaint city. We ate snowballs, a local pastry and I tried wiener schnitzel for the first time. It was delicious! The afternoon was spent walking the perimeter of the town on the large stone wall that once fortified the city. Before returning to our room, we went on the night watchman tour of the city. The night watchman was very comical and probably the highlight of my day in Rothenburg for me. 

Nordlingen

The next day we departed towards Munich, but made a couple of stops along the way. It is the romantic road after all. First on the list was Dinkelsbuhl which I often referred to as "Dinkeldorf" because it just rolls off the tongue better, don't you think? Anyways, it was a very cute little town, but much smaller than Rothenburg and less touristy. We were able to see the entire city within two or three hours and then we were off to the next town : Nordlingen.

In Nordlingen, we were met with a bit of a downpour from which we took shelter in an ice cream parlor. After finishing our treat, we dodged from eve to eve until we got to a near by church and finally the city wall which had a convenient covered view of the city. We walked along the wall until the rain stopped and we were able to once again emerge onto the streets. We finally arrived in Munich just in time for dinner at the hotel restaurant. 


With love, from Lausanne

Mindy

Chateau de Chillon avec ma famille

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing my mom and Jim for the first time in three whole months! I was so excited to see family again (and let's be honest it was nice to eat on someone else's dime too.) Before heading to Germany for our Easter vacation, we spent two days exploring the Lac Leman region.

On day one we spent a low key day perusing the Lausanne Lake front and the local Olympic Museum. The views were abosultely beautiful, as always, and the Olympic exhibit was surprisingly fun and interactive for a museum. It was recently remodeled and opened again to the public in January 2014. The museum features real Olympic torches, medals, clothing and even some games to test your reflexes. We ended the night with dinner at Cafe de Grancy in town with the very gracious couple who allowed me to stay with them for several weeks in January.

Day two involved a boat excursion to the near by Chateau de Chillon. The boat ride along the lake was absolutely breathtaking. Sitting by the window and watching the cities do by with a cup of hot chocolate in hand was quite relaxing. After arriving at the castle, we spent a couple of hours exploring its many towers and dungeons before catching a train back to Lausanne where we prepared a delicious dinner at my apartment which was accompanied by a bottle of wine created specially at Chateau de Chillon.



With love, from Lausanne

Mindy

Chocolate, Beer and Waffles

The title of this post says it all! A country that specializes in beer and sweet treats. What's not to love?

Manneken Pis

So upon arriving in Brussels, Belgium, we had a slight problem to face. We had nowhere to stay, for the first time in Europe, I had come to a city without a reservation for a warm and cozy bed. I had trusted some other members of our group, who were more experienced couchsurfers to find us a place to stay... only they hadn't. So we scrambled around town all afternoon searching for free wifi and hostels with available space but to no avail. Finally we got a hit from the SOS couchsurfing page which is reserved for those who find themselves stranded in a strange city with no place to go. A very nice and slightly eccentric man took us in. That evening, he brought us to an old carousel house that had been converted into a venue for music and dancing. He even arranged to get us into the Latin concert that was taking place there for free. After attempting to dance a little bit and finding we were to only ones in the room with two left feet, we parted ways with our host in search of some late night waffles (which were absolutely delicious!) and returned to our host's apartment utterly drained. But going to sleep wasn't the first thing on our host's mind. He is a film director and fancies himself a musician, specializing in percussion. So, we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning learning how to play several types of drums and tambourines despite our drooping eyelids. This man was probably one of the most interesting people I've met since arriving in Europe.

In Bruge

The next day, we set out for Bruge which is a small city an hours train ride from Brussels that looks like it was taken straight out of a story book. We wandered the city, explored the churches and admired the quaint town square with its massive bell tower before catch a train to Gent, another nearby town with beautiful churches, and it's very own castle! After wandering this city until dinner time, we set out back to Brussels and finished the night with more waffles, of course!

Town Hall at Night

The Arch

On our last day before returning to good 'ol Switzerland, we ran all over Brussels to see anything and everything we had missed two days before, when we were busy finding a place to sleep for the night. We saw the famous fountain with a sculpture of a baby peeing the "Manneken Pis" and the Park of Brussels, the arch of Half Centenary, the Federal Parliament, the Royal Palace, the Palace of Justice as well as some churches and museums along the way. We finished of the evening with a view of the Town Hall by night, which was absolutely beautiful in the way that is was lit against the night sky. My only regret about Belgium : not eating enough chocolate!



With love, from Lausanne

Mindy

I amsterdam

Dutch Pancakes

Yet again, I am trying to make up for lost time. This post and the following one are both much belated, so much so that I am struggling to remember all of the wonderful details of these particular adventures. So bear with me!

So, what is the first thing you do when it's early in the morning and you've just arrived in Amsterdam? You get Dutch pancakes, of course! And that is exactly what we did. We wandered the canals of the city until we happened upon a cute little pancake shop and ordered the local specialty : apple bacon pancakes. Boy, was it delicious. It had a wonderful sweet and salty quality, not unlike eating m&m's with popcorn at the movies, only of course we were in Amsterdam, and the sights were a lot more interesting than the latest blockbuster film to say the least.

I amsterdam

For the rest of the day, we explored the city by foot following along a particularly wide canal that seemed like a promising path. Along the way we stopped at the Rijks Museum, a church or two and some beautiful parks. At the end of our jaunt, we rested and ate at the Windmill de Gooyer. By the time we finished walking this path we were exhausted and struggling under the weight of our backpacks so we headed back to the center of the city for some refreshments. When it began to get dark we wandered over to the Red Light District. An oh was I surprised! Let's just say the ladies definitely aren't shy in that part of town...

Red Light District

Something that was a new and exciting adventure for me on this trip was couch surfing. For those of you who don't know, couch surfing is a website where people with extra beds and couches to lend network with travelers looking for a free place to stay. At first it sounds a but sketchy, at least it did to me. But I found that the people we stayed with on this trip were generous people who are interested in meeting new people and learning about different cultures, and the hosts themselves seemed to lead pretty interesting lives of their own. For example, we stayed with a very nice Dutch couple in Amsterdam, Henry and Mary who told us amazing stories about their motorcycle journeys through India, Eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East. On our first night in Amsterdam, we even attended a Blues concert at a bar where Henry played the base with his band.

Anne Frank House and Museum

On the second and last day of our visit to Amsterdam, we took a guided tour of the city where we learned some very interesting history about its politics and architecture. Our guide showed us the narrowest house in Amsterdam, as well as the Anne Frank house and museum, the Red Light district and taught us a very important lesson about being a pedestrian in Amsterdam : "If you here a bell, run like hell!" And let me tell you, that was some good advice! Afterwards, we strolled through some beautiful parks and payed a visit to the local flower market before heading back to our couches to pack for the bus ride to Brussels in the morning.


With love, from Lausanne

Mindy