Swiss Tourist 2: Schaffhausen, Zurich, Luzern

Hi :)

It's Thursday suddenly, and I realized I had not yet updated you about my trip last weekend. I'm slowly getting pre-exam jitters, and I spent 8 hours in the library yesterday studying the physiology of the kidney. Having spent my afternoon today learning about cervical cancer, I figured I could allow myself a half hour and post some pictures to take my mind off things! :)

We left Lausanne early last Thursday, and spent about 3 hours on a train, changing in Zurich, to make it to Schaffhausen. This small city is right on the border to Germany, and lies right along the Rhine river. Typical Swiss houses and cosy streets made it a very pleasant visit as we walked around thursday morning. It was quiet as it was a day off, and the weather was actually decent. In the afternoon, we walked along the river about 3 km to the Rheinfall. This is the main attraction of the area- a massive waterfall where the Rhine river falls 23 m at a width of 125m. The sun peeked out as we were having lunch along the river, and increasing amounts of people were out.

The area around the falls had been nicely built out to accomodate the tourists, small walking paths and steps letting you get really close.  Boats were also available in the pool below the falls, but we figured these were a little overpriced, and the view was already great from the banks of the river.

Our plan for the afternoon was to go to the "Adventure Park", a playground in the trees if you will, fun for just about anyone- with ziplines and challenging "bridges" to cross, high up in the canopies. We spent a good 3 hours, therefore, at the park, climbing around, all along with a great view of the waterfall. Fun for two tourists who were a little sick of cathedrals ;)



View Schaffhausen trip in a larger map

When the climbing was done we were decently exhausted, and walked back toward town to find our hotel- the "Gasthaus Frohsinn" (http://www.gasthof-frohsinn.ch/index.php?home-deutsch), which was really pleasant with great rooms and an amazing restaurant. Being tired we gratefully accepted the proposal of a table in their restaurant for dinner, and definitely no regrets on that decision, the food was amazing.

In the morning it was pouring down, and we got a train back toward Zurich. I wanted to do some shopping and the weather was pretty bad so who could blame me for wanting to be inside? I got to frequent most of my favorite stores in Zurich, we had some lunch, and then took the train, continuing on to Luzern at around 5. I'd been advised to go and spend time in Lucern instead of in Zurich, as Zurich is what you would expect of most industrialized big cities, while Luzern has some real charm. 

It was still pouring when we got to Luzern, so we quickly went to find our hotel, which proved nice as well (so we got lucky with hotels this time :) ). Luzern lies at the end of the "Vierwaldstettersee", and the beginning of the river Reuss. The town is famous for its jesuitt church, its city wall, as well as the water-regulating system that has been used for centuries to regulate the lake water level. Most of our sightseeing took place in the morning however, after a night of wandering round searching for thai food that we both had cravings for. 

The morning on Saturday was nice, lightly cloudy, and lots of people were out at the markets that were all along the river. After a muffin and a cup of coffee we were fit for fight and went on a walk around town to see the sights...

So there you go- we left Luzern at around 2 pm, so we were back in Lausanne around 5 (it's quite far!) It was such a nice trip, and I think out of the three cities Luzern was my favorite. 

My week has been busy, and the last adventure is coming up this weekend when we are going to the mountains to horsebackride with my flatmate and her boyfriend. Can't wait! 

xxTherese

Swiss tourist 1: Fribourg and Bern

Hi everyone!
My first weekend trip of Swiss travelling is officially done, and I can add two beautiful cities to my "been there" checklist.
First up was Fribourg on Saturday. Being only 45 minutes by train from Lausanne, we got there around 9:30 in the morning. It was, unfortunately, raining. BUT, what does one do when it's raining and there is a massive shopping mall right across from the station? One goes shopping of course!! :D Not too much was bought in our approximate hour inside, but the weather did lighten marginally when we went back outside. We wandered a little aimlessly around to get our bearings a little, and then decided to have an early lunch since the weather was not ideal.

We ended up at a very nice Italian gelateria and restaurant in the walking street running through the town centre. Food was great and ice cream better so we were pretty pleased at the end of it.

Our main plan for Fribourg, however, was to play the infamous "CITY GOLF". My boyfriend is very big on golf, and when I found this I thought we might have a bit of a laugh while seeing the city. It turned out to be a lot of fun, starting off with a map, two balls, and a club to share and going "hole-hunting" through the city. 18 in total, the holes were placed all around, some in small secluded parks hidden in the steep ridges below the city, some on playgrounds that lay along the river in the valley. The weather got progressively better, and ended up as sunshine towards the evening. The whole round took about 4 hours, and we got to see the city from all sides, including bridges, the cathedral, the convent (we were apparently walking the same route as a large group of nuns-on-tour, they looked at us a little suspiciously when we played our hole diligently right outside a smaller church where there also happened to be a wedding going on), the river, sheep... It really turned out to be a great day, and we really got a feel of the city although it was quiet.

 

 

So that was Fribourg, we left at about 17:30 and headed north to Bern.
It was actually only 15 minutes on the train to Bern, so our first excursion didn't take us that far from Lausanne. Bern was quite busy on the Saturday evening, and there was a nice buzz to the city when we arrived. Our hotel was really only a couple of hundred meters from the train station, and it was easy to find. We checked in an relaxed for a half hour (we had played an 18-hole golf course... sort of...). We went out pretty fast though, as we were getting hungry. We were really in the old-town part of the city, and the streets were small with lowrise buildings. I was surprised to find the city so "old-fashioned"-- I had expected the capital of Switzerland to be bigger and more busy??

We strolled around for a bit looking for places to eat,  and as we had differing food-wishes this took a while. We finally settled on what you could call a Swiss "pub"-- we ate schnitzel and spoke German to the Swiss-German speaking waitress, were largely confused at what she was saying, and generally enjoyed our meal. We were done with dinner quite late, and after a long day it was nice to go straight to sleep.

In the morning we had breakfast (included in our hotel deal), and headed out to the national history museum. We had booked tickets to see the exhibition "Qin"-- with a group of real teracotta warriors from China that is touring and is in Bern this summer. The exhibition was actually really interesting, even for me who really has no concept of the ancient Chinese emperors. Coming out I felt like I had really learnt something at least about the life of the "first emperor", but I guess I'm still in doubt as to how 8000 stone warriors buried in the ground would help him in the afterlife... but what do I know? It really made me want to go see the site of the excavation in China in real life!

The rest of the day we spent exploring the old town- it's on a sort of peninsula defined by the river that runs past the city. Bern has a brown-BEAR park... as in real BEARS :D They were really cute, and their green area by the river was really nice so I wasn't too angry they were there. I was told I could not take one home, and that I really only wanted to hug it because it looked small from where we were standing. I chose to ignore this reasoning and still want a bear. It wasn't just in the park there were bears though, they are the symbol of the city, and various statues all around the city portray them. We saw the house where Einstein lived for two years, we saw the old clock-tower, we saw the cathedral. We had lunch outside (it was really nice weather!) at another Italian restaurant (one can't deny the influence of the Italian cuisine in Swiss food culture... it's everywhere!). We saw the rose garden (not really blooming but nice anyway). We left around 17 after feeling like we had seen the sights (at least the ones recommended to us via the iphone app for tourism in Bern...). I really loved Bern-- it was a cosy town and really quiet, and beautifully perched above the river. The only thing not to like is that this is where my june exams will be sent to be marked.

 

 

 

So that's Bern for you :) It's really worth a visit I think.
Next up is Schaffhausen, Zurich, and Lucerne! Enjoying my Swiss experience while I can!
xx Therese