Cause I'm leavin on a jet plane

I am heading off in a short while. If I get the chance, I will send an update from Zambia.

and pictures

Cliche but hey . . .


Bern


Interlaken - Lake


Parasailing is popular in the area


House on a hill



Cow - Moooo


Best hostel so far . . .


Monte Carlo Parking Lot


First car I saw in Monaco


Nice is well you know


My little dingy


A sin . . .


Cannes by night


International Pyrotechniques Comp


Marseille


Bayeux

A word is a thousand pictures

Ok, so this is a much needed update.

Warning - there is no spell check available and the keyboard is a French keyboard that types as a North American one.

So, my travels since Venice have been Swiss and French:
I left Venice, took the train through Milan to Luzern, then up to Bern. The train trip was great - providing great views through the Alps. There is even one place where you circle a town and see it three times as you go through the mountain. It is a great. You get three different perspectives of a gorgeous little Swiss town. All from different heights and angles. The trip was quite long, but the scenery made it worthwhile.

Upone arrival in Bern I got my place to stay and began thinking about what I would do in Switzerland. Being notoriously expensive, I only planned to stay a day or two and then get out of there. While spending the night I talked to some people who recommended I visit Interlaken - a small town between two lakes and in the heart of the Alps. It sounded great to me.

So, I slept well, got up and explored Bern. It is a great capital and the town itself is a UNESCO heritage sight. It has a great glacial river flowing through town and everything is clean and fresh (although I understand this same river caused a lot of damage due to the horrible rains in the past few days). I took a tour of the Swiss parliament and learned a little about their system of governance. Very relaxed. Basically people with regular jobs who decided to govern a few select times a year.

The parliament building has a great statue of the three founding Cantons of Switzerland. They are putting their hands together and the inscription says "All for one and one for all". Seems a little familiar. I was the only one who seemed to find this funny though.

I also got a chance to take a look at the bear pits in Bern. Bears adorn many things because the city founder shot and killed a bear at the sight of the settlement. Nowadays three bears live in a concrete pit on the edge of the city. It is really sad to see such noble beasts in such a sterile and harsh confinement. It seems to contrast the rest of the city which is so warm and pleasant.

Later that afternoon I boarded the train and headed to Interlaken. Upon arrival I wandered around like a Zombie looking for accommodation. I found the best hostel I have stayed at so far. The backpacker's villa. It was wonderful. Upon check in they gave me sheets, a map, pen, great service, locker etc. Also, the villa itself is super clean and overlooks a beautiful view of the alps. I described it as a healthy hostel - which a lonely planet writer seemed to like and said she would suggest be used in their next edition - we'll see.

So, Interlaken is much like the Banff or Canmore of Switzerland. It has a lot of tourists (on the downside) but it has so much freshness and nature that you can easily escape them. While there, I took a 5 hour bike ride climbing 400M and then a cable car up to a remote farming community high in the alps. Then I did a long 5 hour hike around the side of the mountain and along the North face of the eiger pass. Both were great and wonderful to be out in the fresh air and doing something physical.

Also, while in Interlaken I tried a tandem hang-glide. It was great. I hopped on the back of a motorcycle, got a ride up to the top of mountian, strapped in, ran, and then all of a sudden realized that I just hooked myself into a kite and jumped off a mountain. I would love to do it again. The views were fantastic and when you dive you get a lot of speed and it is a great rush. Landing was the scariest part. It was like landing in a plane except you're only inches from the ground. That said, I was surpised how smooth it was - despite landing in a field.

Another interesting experience in Interlaken was the pool and spa that I got a free pass to with my hostel - it really was a great place. The pool was pretty standard with a diving board, lengths and kids area. Actually, I thought the kids pool was a supposed to be a hot tub - it seemed a little warm - so I sat in there for a while. So, post sitting in kids urine, I figured I would check out the wellness centre. I thought it would be just a work out area. HOwever, i discovered this whole spa area. It was fantastic. There was a hot tub with water fall that looked out at the alps, a foot bath area, and a number of different spa, steam, and shower rooms. I did a little exploring they were as follows:

1. Dry Suana - pretty standard
2. Wet Sauna - standard as well
3. Strange shower place - complete with buttons on the wall:
- message - a painful stream of water that felt more like a laser cutter
- Red button with German name - Light mist - very nice
- Blue button with German name - oscillating hot and cold water
- Green button with German name - cold water and lots of it
- my favorite - 1001 Nacht - I dont know what it did but it's name is so great I couldn't care less.
4. Shower with a giant steel bucket. You push a button and the bucket fills with water. You pull the handle and the bucket turns over and you discover that the water temperature is just above absolute zero. It hits you like a ton of bricks - surprisingly refreshing.
5. Bio Sauna.

Now, just before I went to explore the bio-suana, as I was sitting out of the way in the hot tub a couple of people enter the wellness centre. It was a couple in their mid 50s. They drop their robs and I am shocked to discover they had no other clothes. Nothing. I sat there extremely silently hoping they wouldn't look over. As soon as they went into one of the saunas I went looking for some kind of sign that I was lost in some nudest land. I found it. A small sign at the entrance indicating that the bio sauna and the wet sauna were to be used Naket (yes with a t).

As I hastened to make my exit, curiousity got the better of me. I had to see what was behind door number - bio sauna. So, I slowly snuck up and tried to peer in to see if I would disturb any naket people. I couldn't see anything. So, raping my towel around my waste, I opened the door and tried to look confident. Thankfully nobody was inside. However, I was glad I took a look. It was similar to the wet sauna, but dark. All along the ceiling were colored lights and one wall had a waterfall of green light that flowed down the wall. A barely audible babbling brook filled the air. Except the for naketness, and the risk that that 50 something couple would show up and take away my towel, I thought to myself - what a great idea!

Onwards - to Nice via a great meal in Milan.

Nice is a city of money, scenery, and water. I was staying at a great hostel that was an old converted monestary and had a bar in the chapel.

Probably one of the greatest things about Nice is that Monaco is right next door. This allowed me, and a bunch of French language students who stay at the hostel, to go and visit Monte Carlo without selling our souls in order to stay there. Monte Carlo was a car lovers dream. It was great. The exotics became ordinary and I found myself taking pictures of regular cars, just because you never get to see them. Amazing the amount of money that is present in that city. There was even a yacht in the port with a helicopter on the back. Amazing.

SO, I am running out of time and you are running out of patience. I will begin to summarize. I pandered the time away on the French riviera for quite some time. I spent days exploring the old town of Nice, wandering Antibe looking for the place I booked to stay - it turns out is in Juan Le-Pin - because it was August 15th and there were no buses running (public holiday). Then I moved on to Marseille where I once again explored old city and enjoyed the sea and everything it brings.

Then, I headed up to Northern France and stayed a few days in a town called Bayeux. Bayeux itself is a beautiful town with many old buildings and is not ruined by the architectural atrocities of the 60s and 70s. The town in Normandy features a lot of apples and calvados - an apple brandy - is hard to keep out of any meal.

Bayeux is also the closest town to the D-day beaches. I spent a couple of days seeing some the sights and walkign along the cliffs that overlook the landing beaches. The most moving experience was seeing the commonwealth cemetary. It is filled primarily with Canadian soldiers but a few Australians, and even a couple of Germans, are also buried there. It was a beautiful and peaceful testament to a conflict of war and hatred. I was on a tour and traveled with a Canadian family who accompanied their father back to France. It was his first return trip since serving in the war. At the cemetary he found the grave of his classmate. I can't imagine how awful it must have been to be a part of the war. I hope the peace and tranquility that now infuses the area is what we will take into the future.

In France

More to come later.

Photos and Update

So, I am currently in Venice, Italy - after spending one night in Trieste.

It has been quite a while since my last update so I will try and brief you a little on my activities.

I have been very fortunate in my travels. Croatia was amazingly beautiful with perfect weather - if a little hot at times. The adriatic sea is a beautiful blue and it is lined with white rock cliffs. There is no sand, or very little, on the beaches, but the rocky shores mean the water is nice and clear.

The old town of Dubrovnik is amazingly beautiful. It is surrounded by high city walls that you can walk along. I did this between 5 and 7pm (it is a long walk) and it is uninterupted views of the old town on one side, and the adriatic beyond. Out in the bay there are many sailboats and yachts cruising around.

From Dubrovnik I took a 22 hour ferry ride up the coast to Rijeka. The ride itself was very nice with beatiful sea views and wonderful stops at little islands along the way. It was a great trip.

Rijeka itself is nothing super special. It is an industrial town, but sports a nice castle and has a nice central square. I passed the day touring around with an Australian girl I met on the Ferry.

Following Rijeka I took a train into Ljubljana, Slovenia. Here I prompltly got a cold and the weather turned to rain. It was rather unpleasant for 2 days, but I got a good feel for Ljubljana - a nice small town feel in a city of about 200,000. It has a much more simple European feal to it. I had an excellent meal at a cafe that involved goulash and potatoe - traditional mountain fair.

After 3 days in Ljubljana I signed up for an adventure tour. This took me though Lake Bled - a clear lake with a castle on a central island. Following that we went through the highest pass in Slovenia - 1600M above sea level. This lies in the Julian alps which are right on the border of Austria. The views coming into the valley were amazing.

Now comes the adventure part - canyoning. This is where you follow a stream basically from its source down a mountain. We started by putting on wet suits and helmets and climbing up the mountain for about 45 minutes. Then we got into the stream. We learned the basic techniques of descent - jumping and sliding. The stream forms a sort of natural waterslide that you can go down most of the way. At first, there were a few small slides and then they gradually got bigger. We got to a 4M jump and it took some courage. Next was a the deapest canyon pool and rocks on the side that you can jump off of. I started with a 9M jump, did that 2 more times, then tried the 12M jump. It was super scary because you had to jump out as far as you can in order to ensure you clear the rocks below. I was one of only 3 people (out of 12) who did it, but it was awesome.

Following that, a few more small jumps (7M seems easy after doing a 12M jump). Then the final part was a 15M waterfall. You basically get in the path of the water fall and launch off the edge. It was amazing. It was the only jump where the guide said that safety was not guarenteed - but he assured us that hundreds of people have done it. It was awesome. I went first and it was quite scary but an amazing rush at the end.

I am running out of internet time, so I will keep the rest of this short.

I then spent a day in the amazing caves in SouthWestern Slovenia then moved on to Trieste Italy - great pasta. I am now in Venice.

I had a good first day - up until somebody slipped some walnut into my pizza slice - who's ever heard of walnut in a pizza slice. I coudn't find my antihistamine and the pharmacys were closed so a made a treck to the hospital - fun stuff. Here I had an injection and saw a doctor, then a specialist - I think they were a little bored. The specialist decided to keep me for the night because I had had the peanut reaction in January. So, it was a not so fun night and the morning was filled with the beuarocracy of Italian paper work and the language barrier - not so much fun time, but hey it was a great cultural experience.

I just had excellent linguini with clam sauce and I am feeling much more human again.

Until later, (PS: there would have been more pics but time ran out)

Here are some photos of where I have been in the last little while.

Dubrovnik - Old Town





New Town


Internet in the park


22 Hour Ferry Ride up the Coast