Tim & Jo

After Jo had had no luck trying to talk to the French speaking girl at the pharmacy we decided to go to the information office and ask them if they could call for us, after finding someone that was fluent in French in the German speaking part of Switzerland we found out that in fact Jo had chosen the most expensive hair clip ever produced (well almost, apparently they had one twice the price) and that infact the price was right... but we could return the clip and they would refund the money.... but we were in Luzern with a train heading to Heidelberg... The lady in the office was extremely apologetic, repeating that 'this is not Switzerland'. We had about 5 minutes to get on the train to Offen (we had a 3 step train journey to Heidelberg) so jumped aboard with the Eurail timetable in our hands. After some quick calculations and a helpful conductor on the train we found that we could jump on a train from Olten heading to Bern and then change again for Geneva, yip we were going back!!!!!! half way across the country in the completely opposite direction to where we had a hostel booked, but we had a plan , well more of a work in progress... After several tight connections (1min and then 3 minutes to change platforms) we miraculously arrived in Geneva earlier than planned, 2:10pm. After running into the ticket office and confirming that we could get a 3:14pm train leaving us in Heidelberg at 8:45pm after 3 changes we ran down to the pharmacy, Jo plead her case and got her money back. Relieved and with Jo's pocket heavier we wandered back to the station, changed the newly aquired Francs to Euros and jumped aboard the ICE headed for Basel.

What a day.

But it wasn't to end there, our instruction for getting to the hostel in Heidelberg left a lot to be desired. We climbed aboard the bus that we were told to take and about 25minutes later found ourselves at the end of the line, in the middle of nowhere... After talking to the driver in School Cert German we found that we needed to get a tram that arrived in about 20 minutes, and that that would put us back in the general area that we needed... about 1/2 way between the train station and the hostel... so after walking that distance to the hostel we found that our 'room' was infact back down the way we had just walked, about 5 blocks... So wandering around Heidelberg around 11pm at night, with heavy packs we finally found our room and quickly showered and hopped into bed... as we had to get a train at 7:20am the next day and we didn't know which bus to catch we set the alarm for 5:45am... only 5 hours later.

So our day had consisted of:

Train, Luzern - Olten
Train, Olten - Bern
Train, Bern - Geneva

Train, Geneva - Basel
Train, Basel - Mannheim
Train, Mannheim - Heidelberg
Bus, Heidelberg HBF - Middle of nowhere
Tram, Middle of nowhere - Bismarkplatz (middle of Heidelberg)
Walk, Bismarkplatz - 'Hostel'
Walk, 'Hostel' - Room

What a day

Got the train down to Chur from St Moritz in the morning, this is the same line as the Glacier Express had come up, but this time in a regional train car. Was good 'cause we could put the windows down to take pictures and avoid the terrible reflections that we had on all pictures on the day earlier.

From Chur down to Luzern we headed down a big valley, was just like heading down the Eglington Valley toward Te Anau, except that there were villages everywhere and big industrial building every now and again. Went past a few large lakes that were absolutely covered in boats and had one more train change to make to get into Luzern.

Arrived Luzern and Jo went and bought a phone card to try and call the pharmacy in Geneva (Sunday though so no luck). After heading outside the weather had taken a turn for the worse and was about to rain (30minutes earlier was scorching sun). Putting the Eurail passes to good use, we climbed aboard a short return lake cruise on Lake Luzern. This was meant to stop us from being caught in the rain, however just as we were about to get off the heavens opened and was wetter than ever for our walk to the hostel. Deciding the discression was the better part of valour we caught the bus to the hostel. After going for a walk along the side of the Rotsee and into town we grabbed some dinner and found a much faster way back to the hostel than the way we'd come. We decided to walk back to the station the next morning and as it was Monday we wanted to call the pharmacy in Geneva.

Left Lausanne early (7am) Saturday morning on the local train to Brig. Brig is down in the valley which the Glacier Express drops down to after leaving Zermatt about 8 in the morning. We arrived in Brig and went to the supermarket to get a picnic lunch for the train, got aboard the Glacier Express at 10:20 and started on the way toward St Moritz. The Scenery all throughout Switzerland is amazing, it is so much like the area around Queenstown/Fiordland feels like being at home. Also after being in Italy and France the number of people that could talk to us in English was awesome. The train rumbles past heaps of tiny villages etc, heads into these tiny twisty tunnels and climbs some serious inclines (In Brig they hook up a traction unit with a cog drive) After climbing over the high point of 2000 or so meters the steep descent begins, this is the headwaters of the Rhine river, after the main descent the train heads into the Rhine Gorge, which is apparently known as the Swiss Grand Canyon... actually it looks like that big sandy cliff at Tuckers Beach on the Shotover River (you know the one that you see from the old landfill). Its the same even down to the pine trees all over the slopes

Arrived at Chur and the engine was changed back to a normal 'adhesion' one for the trip on to St Moritz, this is probably when the scenery is at its best, its the typical picture postcard Swiss scenes. Arrived into St Moritz into heavy rain showers and caught the bus around to the hostel. The Hostel in St Moritz was awesome, we had dinner included in the price for the night and so had a huge feed of salad and beans etc. There was pork stew and mashed potato as well, and soup and custard and fruit for desert. Pretty good deal for only 2 more euros than what we have been paying at all the other hostels...

Had an early night in St Mortiz and got everything sorted for the next days early start to get the train to Luzern. Had a battle with understanding instructions for the washing machine (they were in a dialect of German/Romanche that was far removed from School C German) but finally got some water noises being made and swishing happening. After going back about 40 minutes later to put it in the dryer we found that the washing machine was red hot and was still at the start of the 100 minute cycle... in what seemed to be boiling water... oh well at least the clothes would be germ free... after even more of a battle we got the clothes rinsed in cold water and spun and into the dryer to get in the morning. Morning comes and we go to grab the clothes, find that Jo's Icebreaker is a new, slimmer fit. Her week old singlet is a nice new shade of misty grey and Tim's T Shirt print has mysteriously disappeared... gone, completely gone Oh well not much we can do, off to catch the train.

Left Lyon quite early in the morning, caught the metro across to the main station and hopped aboard for the ride to Geneva. Pretty uneventful ride up, woke up not too long before Geneva and watched as we slowly saw mountains appearing on the horizons.

Was a beautiful day when we got of the train around lunch time in Geneva, we didn't have any Swiss Franc's so we couldn't put our luggage into a locker. On the train up from Lyon we'd read that our Eurail pass gave us free reign on the regular boat services on all of Switzerlands lakes, so we decided to investigate getting a boat up to Lausanne. (There were at least 2 trains per hour heading to Lausanne from Geneva anyway). There was a boat leaving at 3pm that we decided to sit around and wait for, so after sitting on the lakefront and eating some lunch we'd bought the night before we decided to go grab some drinks and more food from a supermarket. On the way back we dropped into a pharmacy and Jo got a hair clip 'cause it was really hot. (The significance of this will become apparent later...)

Got on the boat for 3 O'clock and grabbed a seat out in the sun for the cruise up to Lausanne. On the waterfront in Geneva there is this massive waterspout that they have set up, it's absolutely massive and only later did we realise just how big, we could see it all the way until about 20 minutes from Lausanne (3.5 hours later). Geneva was a beautiful city and we decided that we'd be keen to go back...

Arrived Lausanne around half past six, on the waterfront after we hopped of the boat there were a couple of guys who apparently still think that roller skating is cool... This guy was doing spins and all sorts thinking he was the MAN strutting his stuff as we videoed him, having trouble holding the camera still from our laughing Putting the camera back into Jo's 'Prada' handbag the receipt from the pharmacy in Geneva fell out, we were in the process of checking it to see if the full credit card number was on it (over here they print the whole number, plus your expiry date, so if anybody finds it they can use your details on the internet etc) when we spotted the amount that Jo had been charged.... 214 Swiss Francs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for a hair clip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ps. thats about $250NZD). Alright, so we needed to get this overcharging sorted, but we were in Lausanne, leaving in the morning to go to St Moritz on the Glacier Express. We Headed for the hostel and checked in and showed the girl the receipt, she tried calling the pharmacy to get them to refund the difference but they were closed, and it was Friday....