We did a road trip to Switzerland!!!

After catching a train from Nuremburg to Heidelberg, I met Loris, a cool guy from Venice, Italy. He has worked with Renee and had been given the task of getting me to her apartment and showing me around town. For those not in the “Inner Circle”, Renee is a good friend of mine from uni daze, who has been working in Germany for a year or so. I was on a mission to visit her before she leaves for the Middle East in two weeks and returns home to Oz soon after.

Anyway.. the plan was a road trip to Switzerland, via the impressive “Disney” castle a.k.a Schloss Neuschwanstein. We also happened to go through Austria and Lichtenstein, all in the one day!

I got to drive at 200kph on the autobahns, legally!

The castles were very impressive. The mountains were “rather large” and for me, mind-blowing! The scenery in this part of the world is stunning! We saw more wonderful mountains and fabulous blue-water lakes in Switzerland (our b&b was on a lake edge, surrounded by mountains!).

We also saw massive amounts of flood damage – sections of mountain side missing due to mudslides, huge boulders just rolled down from above now lying in drains and canals or next to houses and roads. Previously grassy fields were now covered with mud. Shops were filled with dirt and water and sandbags lined the streets. Pumps were operating to remove excess water. Army personal were blocking roads and directing traffic. Helicopters were continually flying people and food around. Train lines were torn apart and service crews worked hard to repair them. Entire bridges had been swept away and roads torn apart. This flood had some power! The water levels were still high and the rivers were flowing very rapidly.

I’ve never been so close to a natural disaster – it was crazy!

We still did the tourist thing and checked out the awesome Trummelbache Falls in Lauterbrunnen Valley, ate Rosti and ice-cream outside a cafe, looking up at snow-capped Jungfrau (the highest mountain in Europe, I think). It’s a great place to visit, flood damage or not, so I reckon anyone thinking about it should inject some cash into the restaurants and tourist ventures here. I loved it and I’m coming back to Switzerland for sure!

I might get some pics up soon. Then again, I might not 😛

Oh, thanks to Vodaphone Germany, my phone was out of action for a while but it works again now (and I didn’t even need to “get medieval” on their asses!).