Fri, 10 Oct 2003

author Tim	location Lyon, France
posted 21:57 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

Goodbye to Switzerland ( )
We showered then organised ourselves for check-out, then transported the getting-rather-heavy packs down the road to the train station.
After sitting for a while at a café typing up some emails, we tried to use up our Swiss phone card (most of them only work in one country here :( ) to phone people back in Oz, but it seems that there was something wrong with the international lines. We talked to a few people in the UK and checked in with the progress of the Rosie transportation to Netherlands, but could not get through to friends and family back home.
Next we went up to the helpful internet café while where there was one, where the guy wanted to see my "Laptop Virus-Free Pass". Tune out about now unless you think you will chuckle at something nerdy. It seems that they have had quite a bit of trouble with viruses there, which they have tracked back to people with laptops coming in. I replied to him that "It's a Mac". He said "Oh, OK - you can plug in over there then". And that was that!
Internet done, we set about finding a train to France. We had heard that reservations were needed, but this turned out not to be the case. There were actually special platforms for trains going to France, complete with their own customs and passport control. Since the reason for this is that Switzerland is not part of the EU or Shengen and France is, I was a little worried that I would have a repeat of the Estonia/Helsinki incident. I needn't have worried, as the guy there didn't even look at our passports. Nor did he give me a stamp when I asked for one.
Up on the platform, we had about twenty minutes to kill, but there was no phone around to use up the phonecard. So, we boarded the first train to Lyon in France. Immediately different sounds for announcements and door opening and closing could be heard - we were on our way to another new country!
About ten kilometres later, we crossed the border into France.

author Tim	location Lyon, France
posted 21:43 CEST 10/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

Genève ( )
No included breakfast at this place, so we got on the road fairly early, grabbing a croissant at the station where we had wandered to plug in the laptop. This proved to be easy, and we emailed and chatted for a while.
Just on the side of the station, a bike company called Genève Roule does a very strange thing - it lets you have bikes for free. They get kick-backs from the advertising on the bikes, which turned out to be less in-your-face than we had expected.
We left a deposit, and set out to explore a bit of the city on the rather impressive bikes. Heading firstly north, dodging traffic in the infernal mess that the city is due to roadworks, back past the non-existant hostel of the previous day, we made our first stop at the Musee International De La Croix-Rouge Et Du Croissant-Rouge. For you and me, that's the Red Cross Museum, right here in the city where it was founded and is based.
As part of a deal which we were only too happy to accept, we got half price by showing our room keys. The wander around the place for a couple of hours was quite enlightening - we didn't realise what a major part the organisation had played in getting prisoners of war repatriated and organised, for one. As a museum, it was quite old by modern standards, even using a bewildering array of twelve slide projectors for one show, the effect of which was admittedly very good.
We learnt all about the history of the organisation, and saw videos and the like on more modern work, such as training young people in developing countries to look after other young people, often on the streets.
After a quick morning tea in the canteen there, we headed just across the road to the second big thing we wanted to see - the Palais des Nations, which is the international headquarters of the United Nations. We had to show our passports and have our bags scanned to get in, then we found ourselves on an hour-long tour through the building's old and new wings.
The tour guide seemed a little in-experienced, but the subject matter was worth the effort - some amazing paintings around the place, and everywhere gifts from various countries adorning the walls, floors, and even used in the construction in the form of marble and the like. We went into three different conference rooms (the building is the world's busiest conference centre, with up to 4000 per year), ranging from horrible 1970s through to fantastic 1930s.
One interesting fact is that the land on which the complex is built was gifted from the city, which in turn was bequeathed from a private land owner. This land owner made only two stipulations on the city when he handed over the land - one was that there should always be peacocks roaming in the impressive parkland, and there is - about thirty we were told. The second was that the parkland should always remain open to the public. It is sad where we live in a world where the wishes of a dying man can no longer be obeyed, citing "security concerns" as the reason for the fact that the public can no longer wander around and enjoy the treasures the park has to offer. I guess incidents like the recent UN headquarters in Iraq bombing are not going to reverse this decision any time soon. My sincere sarcastic thanks to those involved.
Next we rode back through the train station, and out the other side towards the centre of town. We had to dodge trolley-buses and buses all through the area towards Pont du Mont-Blanc, one of the bridges over the Rhône river. Liz nearly got sandwiched, but they seemed rather accommodating really for such obvious tourists as us.
First stop was the famous Jet d'Eau, a 140m high water spout spraying out of the lake, Lake Burley-Griffin in Canberra-style. We elected not to walk out and get covered in water, although plenty of other tourists weren't quite a wise. Some dodgy-looking lads prompted us to move onwards a bit, happily cycling in the sunshine east along the south bank of the lake.
Once past the city limit signs, we decided it was time to turn back in search of the old town of the city. This involved doubling back, then a pleasant detour through the nice city park Parc La Grange. Liz had a habit of changing gears in the wrong direction when she started on a hill, resulting in a few get-off-and-push moments! Out the other side, we headed into town along Route de Frontenex.
We stopped at a tram stop to eat some newly purchased grapes and chips, watching the world and one stinky old man go by. Further into the old town, we picked some random streets and tackled the traffic. This was done with a mixture of riding on the road and riding on the footpath - the latter didn't go down too well with a kindly old police man just like the one in the old Yoplait ads. He gesticulated for a while, but it was quite clear what we had done wrong. A quick 'pardon' and we were on our way, on the roads.
Not really knowing our way around very well, we ended up in a bit of pickle - we had picked a street which ended in a rather steep set of stairs. We could back track for a few minutes or push on up the stairs, pushing the bikes. We chose the latter, but by the top it was apparent that we would not be making that choice again for a long time. These bikes were heavy, much more so than our mountain bikes back home (actually, they're called "city bikes" most places over here, and are indeed much more practical in cities such as this one. Except when you choose to lug them up stairs).
At the top, we rode along into Cour de Saint-Pierre, a bustle-free but gorgeous square right infront of Cathêdrale Saint-Pierre. Liz sat and rested from the exertion for a while, as I wandered down to check out Jazz House. A great little jazz-only record store run by an old guy who obviously was living out his hobby, I managed to keep my money in my pocket, looked lustfully at the baritone saxophone in the window and went back to see Liz.
We'd seen enough of the city for this trip, and as with so many others, we hadn't seen the half of it. It's a shame to be rushing through things now, but we can always come back next time!
We rode down the both-brakes-on very steep Rue de la Cité, scattering pedestrians and loving the wind in our hair! Then back north across the strange bridge-island-bridge combination of Ponts del L'île, through the traffic again back to the train station. Being peak hour, we had to walk the bikes a reasonable part of the way, not being 'local' enough to ride like manics through the traffic as the other bike-riders were doing. Perhaps we spent too much time in Italy to trust the drivers even a little bit.
No hassles getting our deposit back from the rather strange bike shop, I also handed over one part of the advertising that had fallen off and had to be carried in our pack. We walked up to the hostel, stopping to get some bits and pieces for a pasta and sauce dinner (what else?!!), which we ate conversing with an American father and son. Again we were suprised because the son had been away for such a long time (almost three months!) that the dad had come over to visit him! Weird Americans.
There was no strange sort-of-there-but-not people in our room that night, we had the place to ourselves for less than half the price of a double room.

author Tim	location Genève, Suisse
posted 09:12 CEST 10/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

Lausanne, into Genève ( )
We got down to breakfast a bit later than initially planned, but so had Matt and Meisha, as we discussed plans for the day. Leaving our bags at the hostel, Matt came with Liz and I as we walked down towards massive Lake Geneva.
The town actually has a "Metro" (railway) system, although it's not much like those of other cities. There are only two or three cars, running up one track climbing the steep hills upon which the town is built. We elected to walk instead.
Once down to the waterfront, the impressive setting of the town became even clearer - across the lake were huge snow-capped peaks, all reflecting in the sunshine that was abound on this much better day.
Our destination for the morning was Musèe Olympique Lausanne, aka the Olympic Museum in the town which is the home of the modern Olympic movement.
When we got there, Matt rightly decided that he didn't have enough time to look through it properly before he had to catch his train to Paris, and as such we bed him farewell.
We hadn't been to keen to make the effort to go there - it was Matt's suggestion actually, but we were very glad it was one he made. First thing on the agenda was reliving the memories of the Sydney 2000 Opening Cemremony in the 3D theatre! Dispite the film being horribly produced and directed, it was quite entertaining to see Victa lawnmowers and the girl in the pink suit everyone said would have a huge career but now seems forgotten (?) coming right at you in 3D. We even wore the silly glasses. Liz reported being very home-sick after that, and I have to admit I probably felt a touch also.
A further couple of hours was spent wandering from exhibit to exhibit, taking in plenty of Olympic history, medals, equipment, and scandals, all presented wonderfully and easy to navigate. They seem genuinely wrapped in the Sydney 2000 Olympics - we feature highly, and even got chills up our spine as we read about Kathy Freeman in the 400m - Liz and I were both there and remember it well.
Only small criticisms can be made - the main one being that the museum is totally dominated by the Summer Olympics. Plenty is given over to the Winter Olympics, though you get the feeling the organising committee almost thinks it a token effort. Even worse is the coverage for the Special Olympics - only one tiny stand about it, compressed in the middle of the room where most people would have walked around the walls, missing it totally. The three should be on even footing, in my humble opinion.
That was enough museum-ing for a while, so we headed back up the steep streets, watching the Metro buzz back and forth under us, taunting us for not wanting to pay the fare. We stopped in the station to grab something to cook for lunch, and ended up cooking a pasta and sauce all-in-one thingy because it was going to be cheap and easy back at the hostel. Fed up for a while, we shouldered the pack and headed back to the station.
We had considered for a while heading up to a chalet hostel in the vaud Alps at Gryon, which there was a poster for in the hostel. The Swiss Alp Retreat boasted friendly Aussie hosts, lots of skiing and cheap prices. However, the train fare there and back was not quite so cheap. We'll put it on the 'next time' list.
Instead, we boarded the next train to Genève. This passed rather un-eventfully, as most transport in Europe seems to do. At least when we had Rosie every day was an adventure of things not working.
Genève (Geneva in English) turned out to be a lovely city. Situated, funnily enough, at the end of Lake Geneva, there are lots of alpine views all around. Plus, the city just has a 'nice' feel to it, something you can't explain, but doesn't exist in every city by a long shot.
We picked a hostel called Centre Masaryk, a little way north of town (and hence not central at all), but within walking distance (just). The building itself was not difficult to locate, but as we arrived half an hour's walk or so later we looked and looked but could not find evidence of a hostel there at all. Once past the denial stage, we looked up another hostel and headed back towards town.
A little lady could tell what were after, and pointed us the last distance towards City Hostel Geneva, an ugly but functional and well-located place. We checked in and dumped our stuff in the three-bed room, quite a let-down after the amazing place in Lausanne.
Totally exhausted after our long walk, we managed to summon the leg-power to walk down the road to an English Pub. These places are funny, because I walk in expecting someone to speak English quite well, but ordering a pint of Kilkenny (which I know is actually Irish) proved a little challenging. Besides, they don't serve pints, you get a half litre. Somehow, that 85mL missing makes a difference and it's just not quite right.
The drink didn't increase our enthusiasm for cooking, so instead we wandered in search of something cheap to eat - quite a challenge in what we worked out was a very expensive city. I've heard Genève described as more belonging to the world than to Switzerland, and this was certainly evident in the variety of food available. We settled for Lebanese kebab and felafel plates for a rather high price in Swiss Francs (which is a mental barrier, because they are worth quite a bit less than Euros, almost the same as the Aussie dollar, actually).
We were waiting until 9pm when we had read that one of the internet cafés near the station had cheap internet access, but by the time we got there, the signs on the wall told us that we could plug the laptop in, no hassles! This has become so rare, that we decided to come back the next day instead with the laptop and communicate with the world.
As such, it was back to the hostel for the evening, where we noted that a third person had joined our room, but she didn't actually sleep there at all. We saw her a couple of times and by the morning, there was no trace of her at all. Very strange.

author Tim	location Genève, Suisse
posted 09:41 CEST 09/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

Bern, Into Lausanne ( )
Another reasonable breakfast to start the day, and the weather also could be described as reasonable. Your standards get lower when you have horrible days - this day was just ok - no rain, but overcast and hopeless for spotting the mountains we had had such a great time at doing the day previously.
We saddled up and walked back into town, stopping for a few more small errands before finding ourselves a train towards Genève (Geneva in English, Graf in German). It's quite confusing, because Switzerland has three official languages - German on the east, French on the west and a little bit of Italian down south.
Pushing in to Bern (which is still, but just, in the German-speaking region) to change trains, we had a bit of a read about what attractions it had. To put it lightly, not really much. We decided that as we were going through there anyway, we would have a look around to say we had and get on a later connecting train south-west.
We locked our bags into the station lockers, helping some British people who were there also, but seemed completely incapable of reading the signs, even in English. Once outside, the weather was putting a dull note on what was already a dull city. It's the capital, but only the fourth-largest. Pushing on because we had come this far, we battled rain and wind to take in the place's most famous sights - a fountain of a giant eating small children and a large clock that dings and clangs like so many others.
Also we made a supermarket trip, but didn't have enough bag space so we were carrying a triple-pack of pasta all around the city with us! We went down into the bowels of a building chasing an internet café which would let us plug the laptop in. We had to push a huge red button to summon someone to help us in the silent basement, the style of button that they use in cartoons with a huge "do not press" sign next to it. She eventually came out and told us no show with the laptop.
Further on, we looked through a few markets before getting back to the station. Sure, we could have seen more, but the city is very low on Lonely Planet's recommended things to do when in Switzerland, and the only other thing at all we could find of interest is the city is where the official mascot comes from - the bear pits. Apparently there is a bear show where they perform tricks and the like in horrible concrete surroundings - hardly the sort of place we wanted to patronise with our limited tourist dollars.
So, we got back on a train and headed across the invisible border that marks the end of our travels speaking German. The effort we put in to pick a little of it up was worth it, but now we might as well be in China. We pulled out our European Phrase Book and started to learn a bit of basic French to get by. As always, the first thing we need is "I don't speak French", which we are both quite fluent at now!

As the train approached Lausanne, we decided to break the journey to Genève just a little more, and spend a night there. The train announcements by now had changed to be French first, then German, and also the conductor spoke with a heavy French accent. Amazing how quickly things change across this invisible border.
Lausanne is quite a small place, and has one backpacker's place only. As such, we headed there, quite close to the train station (lucky, as the rain was back). Lausanne GuestHouse & Backpacker turned out to be one of the best places we have yet stayed in. All newly renovated to the highest environmental standards, everything is non-allergenic and spotlessly clean.
Since we had gotten there before the reception was open due to the horrible weather, we sat and played as Swiss version of Memory (you know, lots of cards face down and you have to make a pair), which was interesting as the scenes were of some places we had seen, others not. Enough to remind us that we need to return someday.
The reception opened, and two of those amazing European girls who can speak about a thousand different languages checked us in, except now with a French accent. The room was gorgeous, all wooden beds and floors, with clean, fresh paint on the walls. Quite unlike most hostels around the place!
We sat down in the cosy living area to read, there being little point in being outside in the horrible weather. After a while, I heard a voice checking in at reception that sounded familiar - it turns out it was our Canadian lawyer friend Matt from the hostel in Interlaken. Bumping into people again is quite common - there a fewer around at this time of year, either going one way or the other.
We ended up spending the evening in with a few bottles of wine and some communal pasta, being joined by another Canadian Meisha staying there. She had spent some time working off a boat going around Africa helping out developing nations - there's so many great ways to travel these days.

author Tim	location Interlaken, Schweiz
posted 21:14 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

Around Interlaken Region ( )
After a night's sleep which was better than we had expected due to our colds, we were awoken to the sound of what sounded like an over-enthusiastic radio announcer. We knew there was piped music in the place, but this was something else. It turns out that the American voice was actually someone on a microphone, drumming people into enthusiasm for the day! Not quite what we expected from a hostel, but perhaps we should have guessed from the 'summer camp' billing this place gets.
We had our included breakfast, then got on the road suprisingly early, in through the middle of town to have a look around and get a few things organised. In common with weather-announcers world-wide, the Swiss ones got today very wrong - the prediction for horrible weather to continue was proved wrong as the blue skies let the sun shine through - we were in the real Interlaken at last.
The first and most important thing, now that it was a Monday, was to get some warmer clothes organised. The lady at the tourist office pointed us at a supermarket with a clothing section, but in the end we got a beanie each from there and gloves and a jacket for me from a sports store nearby. A marked improvement over what we have been wearing up until now.
Next, we needed to get some things organised for the tow of Rosie back to the Netherlands - notably payment and sending through the registration documents to the towing company. Both were handled quite well by the Post Office, and should be through to the recipients in a few days. From there, let the towing commence.
We had a stop in at Interlaken West Bahnhof to see if there was any news on my camera. They couldn't help much, and suggested that I call the report number again, which I did, but they couldn't help either. The general idea seems to be that they will get through to me if they find anything, which I guess is reasonable, but doesn't settle me down any.
So, warm clothes in hand, on head and around body, we set out to do some cheaper sight-seeing than we had really wanted to do (the hyper-expensive Junfraujoch railway that goes up 3500m, the highest in Europe), instead taking a bus up a windy road to a little village called Beatenburg. It was strangely nice to be on windy roads again, although weird to not be the ones doing the driving.
Nethertheless, we enjoyed the trip a great deal, soon passing up into where huge quantities of snow had fallen. Roofs, cars and pretty much everything were coated in snow, yet the place moved on, unlike what happens when the same thing occurs in London.
At the end of the windy mostly one-track road, we pulled in at the railway station. Only, not in the traditonal sense - you could either get the funicular railway back down the hill to another village, or a cable car another 1000m up. Figuring this was going to be our Swiss Alps experience for the time being, we forked over the money and jumped in the cable car.
We hadn't expected it to go for quite so long - it just kept climbing and climbing, up through the clouds and amazingly beautiful snow-covered trees, over mountain chalets, and past yet more people going about their business as if nothing strange had happened at all. Which I guess it hadn't.
The end of the ride was not terribly far from the peak of Niederhorn, 1950m high, which makes it about 1400m up from Interlaken, which looked amazingly small down below.
We set of trudging through the foot-deep snow, our sneakers being the one thing we haven't replaced, getting soaked almost instantly. Yet it was a huge deal of fun, each step an adventure of will we fall over, strike ice or just have our foot sink at times up to two feet straight down through the soft powdery snow? We completed all three with a great deal of style.
We threw plenty of snowballs before climbing right to the peak, not far but a long journey due to the incline and our lack of co-ordination and equipment. The views no matter where we turned were jaw-dropping. The weather was still fantastic, and we could see clearly for hundereds of kilometres in each direction, until our views were interrupted by the many snow covered peaks. From the top, we could see down into a valley on the other side, where a car driving along a road was like a tiny spec, and the houses even harder to spot due to the deluge of snow surrounding them.
It would be a truly amazing place to live, you wouldn't have to convince people particularly hard to stay here, although we just kept remembering the weather of the previous day. Given clear days, this is one of the most naturally beautiful places we have seen.
Eventually having our fill, we got back on the return cable-car for the trip down. We had considered walking part of it, but really that would only have been sensible with the right equipment and two replacement knees for me.
Back down at Beatenberg, we decided to walk for a while, winding our way back through the gorgeous chalets, all resplendent with flower boxes and animals nearby. The whole area seems to speak a strange mix of German and French almost interchangebly, with "Grüssie" for hello (presumably shortening of Grüss Gott, a German hello) and "Merci" for thanks/goodbye. After about an hour walking down the mountainside-road, we picked a bus stop to hitch a ride for the remaining trip down.
Once back in Interlaken, Liz went on a bit more clothes shopping to replace her jeans (which are about six months overdue in need of replacement, and now they are the only pants she has with us), while I stayed on the bus in the vain hope that Interlaken Ost train station had some news on my camera. No joy.
We met back in the centre of town (it's quite hard to get lost in), then returned to the hostel to cook some dinner, have a happy-hour beer, and catch up on some journal.

I think travelling fatigue is finally catching up with us, although the colds aren't helping much either. We are looking forward to pushing through back to London and then on our way home again, although we still have such a great time each day. I think we have just had too many stresses to deal with recently, so we both crave normality for a while.
Soon we will have plenty, and I'm sure we will be itching to travel again.

author Tim	location Interlaken, Schweiz
posted 20:41 CEST 06/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

Luzern, Into Interlaken ( )
After another stuffy night with colds, we awoke to throw together ourselves a nice cheap breakfast. We organised our packs and left them at the hostel for a final look around Luzern.
Walking back into town, we again detoured into the fairground for a bit of a look, although we managed to hold onto our purse-strings well. We had no particular place to wander, other than generally get the feel of the town on what was infact a very quiet Sunday morning.
Not long after this, we noticed that there was quite a bit of snow on the peaks that we were sure wasn't there the day before. The weather was once again very cold, although the sun was trying to break through here and there. We were missing our warm clothes back in Rosie, and thinking that perhaps we had to spend yet more money on getting some more.
That being the case, we turned down the expensive yet recommended cruises on the lake, which would have been rather nice, but frightfully cold. Instead, we settled for a walk around the far side for a while, until we turned inland in search of warmth.
After Liz called to have a chat to her Dad, we went into a Starbucks and hence had a nice warming American coffee in Switzerland. Well, the place was convenient and we just wanted to rest. Not quite as bad as McDonalds, which we have stayed away from for quite a while now.
From there, it was time to get back to the hostel to get our bags, and head onwards to a new place of interest. There were a few sights we would have liked to have seen in Luzern, but perhaps next time, when the weather is better and we are better prepared.

Packs shouldered, we walked to the train station and grabbed a few snacks for the journey on the train westwards to Interlaken. As we are travelling on big complicated tickets, we just hopped on the first train we found, which the conductor failed to appreciate as our tickets went a different way. No matter, he gave us alteration tickets (in German and French, neither of which we understood), and smiled once again.
The train travelled an extremely scenic route over the Brünig pass, along mountain valleys, past inland seas and other places of huge attraction. We had a great look, swapping seats as the most scenic places popped into view to get the best look at it all.
To get over the pass, the train had to do something neither of us had ever seen before - it actually went on a rack. Trains typically have a problem with going up hills (must be something to do with metal on metal not gripping too well), so what they did here was have a little ratchet wheel actually climbing up a ladder of sorts in between the tracks. In this fashion, we climbed up slopes that would have had most cars back in first or second gear, all in a 'normal' passenger train!
We passed through tiny mountain villages where people got on and off, and plenty where nobody did - perhaps nobody lived there anymore and noone had told the railway company. Why they would have left would have been a mystery however, as the huts tucked away in mountain passes, with no roads in were a sight to behold. Add plenty of cows with loud bells (they're everywhere here), and the snowline which even now was only about another 100m higher, and you have a very beautiful place to live indeed.
Back down the other wide, we followed the beautiful lake Brienzersee into the city of Interlaken. The setting is really something else. Described as 'the real Switzerland' by plenty of different places, the city has it all - huge green fields with tinlking cows in the middle, towering mountains all around (the largest is Jungfrau, at 4100m or so), and the two blue-green lakes on either side. However, this day it was not at its best. The weather was absolutely appalling, rain being thrown down hard.
It was in this horrible weather that we made the fifteen minute treck or so from Interlaken Ost (there is also a West) station to our hostel Balmers. By the time we got there we would have accepted any room at any price, but there were enough cheap ones left in mixed dorms, so we were happy. It is a highly American place that has been running since 1945 and is more like a summer camp than a hostel. They cook plenty of meals, there are two bars, and of course so many Americans here. No major problem, us Aussies are putting in a good show also.
The place is two big old houses with massive jumbles of rooms throughout, making it quite difficult to navigate. Luckily, we had prepared for it being a Sunday with all the shops closed, plus there was not much chance of us going out in the terrible weather anyway, so we stayed in and got chatting to some interesting people.
It is very strange by this time of our trip when we ask people "Have you been travelling long?", and they reply "Yes, about five weeks". We let them rattle along for a while about what they have seen, and when the return question comes to us, they are absolutely floored when we say that our travels are approaching fifteen months. Americans especially do their travel in one or two month blocks, then go home again. This means they have more money for each thing they want to do (they bought dinners while we cooked pasta), but we get it all over and done with. Well, for a while anyway.

author Liz	location Lyon, France
posted 19:46 CEST 10/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

DISASTER! And Luzern ( )
(Continued from Liechtenstein)
Unfortunately, crossing the border didn't mean that the weather got better, so we continued onwards in the rain until we came to Buchs central train station.
At the train station, Tim went and got us some train tickets, while I sat and waited with our bags. When he came back, he had tickets that would take us all the way to Port-Bou, a stop on the France/Spain border. I wasn't expecting to get tickets for so far already, but it actually will work out a lot cheaper in the long run. And we can still get on and off the train as much as we want. The ticket expires long after we will be home in Sydney.
At Buchs, our train was delayed, but we got one about twenty minutes later. We then changed trains twice at Sargens first, and then at Thalwil. Our destination was Luzern (Lucerne in English).
But, along the way we had a disaster - poor Tim left his camera on one of the trains. We realised too late when we were on another train arriving in Luzern. We repored it immediately to the Swiss train system's lost and found, but we have heard nothing yet, which probably means noone has handed the camera in. We are both really dissapointed, Tim much more so, although I really admire how well he is dealing with the fact that he probably won't get his camera back. It is good that we have my camera to make sure we still get lots of photos, but loosing the expensive digital camera is a huge loss.
So that all kind of left us feeling quite flat and down in the dumps. We walked from the station to our hostel Backpackers Lucerne, hoping that someone would be honest and hand our camera in.
At the hostel, we waited a while for reception to open, and then were put in a four-bed dorm with another couple. The great thing about this hostel was that it had a kitchen we could. So many hostels before then had had no cooking facilities, which meant we were having to go out and buy lots of meals from restaurants and fast food places. And on a tight budget, that takes up a lot of money. So being able to cook was great, and we made heaps of pasta and sauce which was delicious.
After dinner we went for a walk through the town. Luzern is set at the end of a huge lake, the Nierwaldstättersee, which has huge mountains all around it, and the whole place is really beautiful. From our hostel, we walked along the lake's edge through the town fair, having a look at a few of the stalls and up to Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge). This was really beautiful with the bridge, nearby tower and buildings all being reflected in the water. The bridge is old, first build in 1333, but in 1993, a lot of it burnt down, destroying many of the old and fascinating painted panels on the bridge. Even though much of it has had to be re-built, it still seems very old and you can also still see much of the fire damage.
We walked around many of the backstreets, peeking in closed shop windows and enjoyed wandering around. Eventually we slowly made our way back to the hostel, stopping at the train station along the way to get some food supplies.
We both have annoying colds at the moment, and because of this we did not sleep too well.

(customised)