Over to Italy

After our short but sweet Switzerland trip, it was time to make our way to Italy to visit Rick and Mary Jo!  We took a couple of wrong turns (aka became confused by the GPS) and actually ended up missing a traffic jam where people were getting out of their cars to wait.  It stretched on for kilometres!  If we had been actually trying to avoid it, I'm sure we would have somehow ended up in it, but we were lucky and instead took a very scenic (and pretty harrowing) windy mountain route.  When you cross through the mountains from the German to the Italian part of Switzerland, the scenery and architecture changes dramatically.  The drivers also become noticeably crazier!  We took a slight detour to Locarno for a late lunch before crossing into Italy.  Within 5 minutes of crossing the Italian border, we witnessed our first vehicle accident - in one of the tunnels.  So much reckless driving, many many motorcyclists with death wishes!

Our sojourn into Locarno.  It was a brief stop off and we kind of just wanted to get to Rick and Mary Jo's but it was nice to see another city.

We made it!  Rick had e-mailed and said that we were welcome to call them when we got to Porlezza (a nearby town) and he would come meet us to guide us through the narrow roads (more like lanes!!!) up to their house.  We were planning to call him but then decided to try and brave it on our own.  J and I were both slightly stressed about the driving conditions and the teeny little streets with motorbikes flying out at you from every which way.  With a bit of persistence, we made it to a nearby-ish location and then found their house, which apparently was a pretty surprising feat!

Views of their neighbourhood.  Not too shabby having that mountain to look at right outside your window!  Italy was having an intense heatwave and Rick and Mary Jo said that they weren't able to buy a fan ANYWHERE - completely sold out.  It was the first time in the 7 years they had lived there that they considered buying a fan.  Luckily it seemed the heat was breaking a bit by the time we arrived. 

The next morning, they took us to a real Italian market.  Every day that we were with them was completely filled with exciting activities - they are definitely very good at showing their guests a fantastic time!

This may come as a shock, but Jeremy was immensely excited by the meat on display!  So much meat, so little time.  We loaded up with meat, cheese, bread and olives and headed up to the top of a mountain for a real Italian picnic.

Obligatory posing for pictures at the top of the mountain.  I had only met Rick and Mary Jo once before, at Hayley's wedding (almost 9 years previously I think?)  They were so welcoming and easy to talk to that I instantly felt comfortable and we chatted away like we had been meeting up like this for years!  Jeremy was really happy to have time to get to know his aunt and uncle a bit more as well.

There are endless pictures of just how beautiful everything was - the buildings, lakes, mountains, food!  Everything was novel and exciting.  Such an unforgettable experience.

Update on the lecture (which I promise to never talk about again!)  I did it, I made it through, was complimented by the main lecturer of the course and some of the students.  I was really happy to have already had a few tutorials with the students so they were somewhat familiar, which made it a little less daunting.  I'm not in a huge hurry to do another one any time soon - it took so much prep time and I really should be focusing on my research!

More hiking and Switzerland-ing

To continue where I left off from the last post, we had just made it up to the Faulhorn peak.  We had a brief rest at the little restaurant up at the top (there's accommodation up there as well!) before starting our trek down to Schynige Platte.

Obligatory shot with the Swiss flag at the top.

You can kind of see my orange backpack up there!

The beginning of a looooong walk from Faulhorn to Schynige Platte.

There were lots of these along the way.

Jeremy emerging out of the mist.  He's wearing a short that he was given when he worked at the Aboriginal Health Clinic in Port Lincoln.  On the back it says "QUIT SMOKING NOW". Very succinct.

In the last 6.5 years, I have touched snow twice - once at Milford Sound, NZ and once on this hike.

Sometimes the drop offs would go away and we would be walking through a lovely meadow.  Often we could hear cow bells in the distance from the cows grazing at various parts of the mountain. 

Yep, definitely a mountain!

Coming across a second restaurant/accommodation was a fun surprise.  I liked the pink tables.

Well, since we're here I suppose we could have another beer.  Just a small one though! (When we went to pay, the man didn't believe that Jeremy would have ordered the "small" size beer and was quite surprised when we showed him the small glasses...hahaha)

At this point, it kind of felt like we would never ever ever stop walking.

We made it to the train station with 15 minutes to spare! My hiking boots were amazing and I didn't have any blisters or falling off toenails, but we definitely both had sore feet!

Ah, the train to take us back to civilization :)

Mid-August?!?

A ridiculous amount of stuff has gone on since I last posted. My friends Maria and Shane (who I was staying with in Glenelg) moved to Melbourne. I'm now staying with Jen, Chris and their cat Sagan. Yay, it's nice to have cats at the Clare and Adelaide places :) Jeremy and I had a (too short but amazing) whirlwind trip to three countries in Europe. I started my tutorial support role at Flinders University and I'm really enjoying it! I never wanted to be a teacher, but when you're working with adults in a university setting it's pretty cool! I returned from our trip with two weeks to write my first ever lecture (for a three hour time slot). Jen listened to multiple moaning groaning complaints and didn't sock me in the face, so that's a great accomplishment. Today I sent the completed lecture to the main lecturer for the subject. She just e-mailed me back and said "I think that lecture is brilliant as is, well done. Includes all I would want it to include and more!" I am so happy - I never realized how much time and effort goes into ONE lecture. I have so much more appreciation for the whole process now! I actually give the lecture on Friday, so the next part is to get through that without fainting, vomiting, or forgetting how to speak. Back to our trip...it was so wonderful.

The main street of Grindelwald

Oh, just an amazing mountain view every way you turn

Jeremy not so happy riding up to First in the gondola

Heights don't tend to bother me, so I'm pretty cool with things in the gondola.

The beginning of our hike

Jeremy took this picture because he thought my outfit was funny.  I bought these hiking boots from (the store) Kathmandu a couple of days before we left.  My left big toenail was (and is) still dark purple from our Flinders hike a couple of months ago which I wore running shoes for.  I am SO converted to hiking boots after this!  Turns out there's a reason for this whole specialized footwear for different activities...

Looking back and down from the gondola

It made us want to re-read "Heidi"

Most people stopped at this part of the hike (only a few kms in).  Great spot for a picnic!

It was all up up up at this point so I used any opportunity to stop and take a picture.  Jeremy has much better endurance than I do!

I am actually quite unhappy here - there is still a lot more UP to go!

But....the views are just gorgeous.

We made it up to Faulhorn!  Beer is deserved.

The mountain ranges

Okay, so these pictures are all from Switzerland. We stayed in a place called Grindelwald, which would clearly be an insane place to go in the winter for skiing. It's also worthwhile to go at other times of the year, as we discovered. The first two pictures show a street festival in Grindelwald the evening we arrived (a couple of hours behind schedule due to a slight error/inconvenience with our rental car. Note: don't put regular fuel in a car that takes diesel. Further note: when you rent cars in France, they may not find it important to inform you that the car is diesel). ANYHOW, the point is we did arrive and the car survived after a little trip to the Renault mechanic. We were just in constant awe driving and walking around Switzerland. Everything is beautiful, everywhere you look.We wandered the street enjoying the scenery.  Restaurants had food booths set up, there was live music, and just a great atmosphere.  We stopped for a drink and were very lucky to be treated to some spur of the moment Swiss singing (and yodelling!) I have a video but sadly it is not posting.

We did a couple of laps of the street festival but had an early night as we were taking on the First - Schynige Platte hike the next day. 

Here is a summary of the hike, written by someone other than me:
This must rank as one of the most spectacular and scenic hikes in the Jungfrau area, and offers jaw-dropping views in all directions. It's simply stunning - look down on the turquoise Brienzersee, look far along the Thunersee with the Niesen and the Niederhorn, admire the Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen valleys, the impossibly majestic towering range of the Wetterhorn, Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, beautiful small lakes, wild scree-covered slopes, it has it all.
But all this doesn't come without a price, however - this hike is tough. It's high, it's exposed, and it's long, with not many opportunities for shortening it. And there's a sizeable climb involved in reaching the peak of the Faulhorn, which adds up to a requirement for a certain amount of fitness. It's a tiring day, which may benefit from being split into two, but all the effort will, of course, be amply rewarded by the incomparable views.

And here's my take: It was definitely spectacular and scenic.  I said to Jeremy as we were hiking that it was one of the best days of my life (clearly not during an uphill portion!)  It was also LONG.  Jeremy agreed that when estimates in Australia say 6-8 hours, we can usually do it in 4-5.  But the Swiss don't mess around - if they say 6-8 hours, don't plan on finishing early, and if you plan to take the mountain train back from Schynige Platte to Grindelwald...make sure you make note of what time the train stops running for the evening (we made the last one by 15 minutes).  Unfortunately (for me) it was pretty foggy and overcast that day, so although we were given plenty of gorgeous viewing opportunities the views weren't as far as a clear day.  Jeremy appreciated this fact as we hiked through a few areas with steep drop offs and the fog/clouds made it much less terrifying, apparently!

I've only posted pics up to the "Faulhorn" peak, otherwise this post would be ridiculously long.  Also, this is out of order since before Switzerland we had a weekend in Paris with Alastair and Hannah, and then a couple of days in Epernay (Champagne central!).  For some reason we weren't using our camera until Switzerland - before then, we were taking pics with our phones and right now I'm too lazy to transfer those pictures over.

It's nice to be back in Adelaide, but the weather is terrible at the moment and I would have loved another week or two in Europe.