Time flies when you're having fun ...

We have been pretty active since our last post. Tonight we arrived in Vienna. This is a quick recap of what we have been up to since Thursday ...

Friday: We spent the day on a driving tour through some of the Alps outside of Interlaken. Our objective was to travel through both the Grimsel and Susten Passes. Both, unfortunately, we're still closed (they are typically closed all winter). The day was beautiful - sunny and a cloudless blue sky, so we decide to head to Susten Pass and see how far we could get. It was spectacular - we got within a few kilometres from the top. While there was still a fair amount of snow at that elevation (~2,250 metres), we were stopped by debris remaining from winter avalanches. Crews were working to remove the debris, which included entire large trees (roots and all). It was amazing! We returned down the valley and had an excellent lunch on a beautiful Gasthaus terrace, with the green, peaceful valley laid out before us with snow-capped mountains as the backdrop. We continued exploring on our way back to Interlaken. It was an incredible day.

Saturday: It was overcast first thing, with clouds hugging the mountains in the valley. Our plan was to drive to Stechelberg (elevation 900 metres), which is the end of the road up a glacial valley from Interlaken. From there, take the tram to Grimmelwald, a pedestrian- only town @ 1,400 metres and then hike up to Murren (1,654 metres). We started the drive up in pouring rain, not knowing if we'd attempt our plan. The valley is beautiful - it is very narrow and winding, with very steep and high mountain walls on both sides. There are ~80+ waterfalls in the valley - some plunging more than 500 metres down the mountain. To use these words yet again, it was amazing and beautiful. We stopped and briefly wandered in Lauterbrunnen. The rain finally stopped, and we watched the clouds start to break and the sun begin to peak through the clouds. Our trek was going to happen after all. Again, few words can describe the trip. Everywhere we looked was beauty - every view was spectacular. Murren is a winter and summer resort town on the side of the mountain (again, pedestrian only), with many hotels and guesthouses. But May is the "off season", so most were closed and the town was virtually empty. So it was very peaceful. We enjoyed the peace and solitude. We picked up some bread, meat and cheese at a small grocers and enjoyed lunch on a bench along the mountain path overlooking the valley.

Sunday: Today we departed Interlaken. There is so much more in this area that we would like to see and do, so we will definitely return. We finished off our stay with a wonderful dinner at our hotel last night. The Royal St. George is definitely a hotel we would choose again. It was overcast again this morning, and the rain started shortly after leaving enroute to Salzburg. It poured virtually the entire trip, and the clouds were low and blanketed all the valleys we travelled, so there was no opportunity to view any scenery. But at least it was a driving day where we encountered rain. A very interesting thing - trucks are banned from driving on highways in Austria on Sundays from midnight until 10:00 pm - so driving in the rain was much easier (and likely safer). What a great concept - one we should adopt in Canada. But we all know when that will happen - and that will be a very, very, very cold day!

Pics to follow ... And will try to catch up with our visit in Salzburg tomorrow.

Prost!

Switzerland is amazing!!!!!

We left Amsterdam on Wednesday morning (far to early, frankly, seeing as we're on holiday, but the price was right). We left the hotel at 6:00 am and walked to Central Station for the train to Schipol Airport - we had an 8:45 am flight to Geneva on Easyjet. Easyjet is definitely a no-frills airline, but their deals are great, they pretty much fly on time, and both our bags arrived!

We picked up our car (a VW "Polo" diesel) - it drives great, but it is really quite tiny. This has it's advantages, however, given some of the very narrow roads we've ventured down so far. Wednesday was a miserable weather day - dull & gray in Amsterdam, and dull & gray & rainy in Geneva. From Geneva, we headed to Interlaken - we are here until May 6th. We have a very nice room at the Royal St. Georges hotel - right on the 'main drag'. This is a great old hotel with lots of great character. We lucked out with a corner room on the '2nd' floor (which is really the 3rd!) with two small balconies overlooking the main drag with a view towards the Jungfrau.

Thursday morning dawned bright and sunny. We headed out in the Jungfraubahn train system towards Jungfraujoch - the highest altitude rail station in Europe. We took three trains to reach the top. Two were narrow gauge cog railways - it is unbelievable the incline angles they take, and they were an amazing experience. The scenery was absolutely spectacular ( I'll continue trying to post some pictures, but have to say I'm having some issues uploading via my IPad - basically, I just can't do it yet!). The highest altitude we reached was just over 11,300 feet above sea-level. Thankfully, we didn't encounter any altitude sickness, though breathing could be a bit difficult with anything strenuous - guess it takes a few days to acclimatize. It was a spectacular and very full day - we returned to Interlaken around 7:00 pm - quite exhausted

Today's forecast was for mixed sun and cloud, with chance of thunderstorms. Again, it dawned bright and clear. We'll post more on today later, as our online time is almost up, but it was another great day. We travelled a funicular to a great viewing site above Interlaken ( which I should have explained above is a town between two lakes), and spent a good part of the day driving through mountain passes and valleys. Absolutely breath-taking.

Until tomorrow ...

Queen's Day ... has come, but not completely gone.

Wow.

Queen's Day was unbelievable. Impressions run the full length of the spectrum. It was a beautiful day weatherwise - sunny, the clearest blue sky and about 22 degrees. We started wandering the canals around 10:00 am.

They warn people not to drive in Amsterdam on Queen's Day, and that is for good reason. Streets become virtually impassable by noon unless you are walking - and at times that becomes impossible too. And most of the transit in the City Centre ceases as well - there are just too many people. It didn't matter where you looked - there was a sea of orange-clad people - down the smallest of alleys, and packed in boats along the canals. Every bridge was lined with people, and most of the Old City Squares had stages and live music. It is legal to drink in the streets on Queen's Day, and Heineken and Amstel were flowing freely.

In addition, Amsterdam turns into a massive city-wide flea market / garage sale on Queen's Day. It is a chance for everyone to sell anything and everything. Some youngsters got quite enterprising, selling baked goods, lemonade, fresh fruit and some even with coolers of water and Heineken on ice. The beer from these young entrepreneurs was much more affordable than from the bars (that charged everybody a 1 euro "refundable deposit" on disposable plastic cups - nice scam!). Some people loaded up on cases of Prosecco (sp?) and were selling this with fresh strawberries and orange juice. Quite refined!

So the day was amazing - we walked miles and miles and had a great time. Finally, around 6:00 pm, the streets started to clear a bit. We stopped at a tapas restaurant (Tapas L'Amour) and had probably the worst meal we've ever had - it was so bad, that we posted a review on Trip Advisor last night. From there, we headed back to a Belgian Beer pub we had noticed on Saturday. We finished off the day there with a couple wonderful Belgian ales. After such a wild day, the city was shutting down by 10:00. On our walk back to the hotel, we travelled streets that were crammed with people only a few hours earlier, but all that was visible now was garbage. In the course of 12 hours, Amsterdam had become, by far, the most filthy city we have ever walked through. Overnight, some streets did get cleaned up, but tonight, there are still heaps of garbage in many areas of the city. A large part of the reason for this is the almost total lack of trash receptacles throughout the city - pretty poor planning, given they have done this before and know that millions (literally!) of people descend on the city.

But it was, all in all, an incredible day - a completely unique experience. Pics to follow soon.

There's nothing more Dutch than tulips ...

Just a short update tonight - it has been a long and eventful day.

Today we spent most of the day at Keukenhof, a park outside of Lissebroek. Keukenhof is a 38 hectare park full of tulip gardens. We have had mostly grey, overcast weather since arriving, but were lucky today to get some beautiful sunny breaks while at the park. Keukenhof is spectacular - they say there are over 4.5 million bulbs planted. It seems like there must be more. No description we could provide here would do it justice, so we will add some pictures to this post when we are able. And do we have pictures.




Tonight, we spent some time after dinner wandering a few different neighborhoods in the Old City. The street parties have begun. There are masses of people all over the city. There are bands in city squares and in front of bars - it is really something to experience. There are narrow city streets that are jammed with people and virtually impossible to navigate. Don't really know what else to say about it tonight - it is actually quite overwhelming. But people are great - friendly and welcoming ... more on all of this later. Good night.

Arrived Safely in Amsterdam

We arrived safely in Amsterdam today. It was an uneventful journey, which is always a good thing. We flew over on a Boeing 777-300 with KLM. What a huge plane. It boggles the mind that something that big and that heavy, with that may people on board can actually lift off the ground. The plane has 63 rows, and apart from Business Class and a few rows at the back of the plane, there are 10 seats across. That's a lot of people.

We landed in Amsterdam almost a half hour early - at 6:30 am. The sun was just coming up and we flew over some amazing tulip fields on our descent into Amsterdam ... beautiful. We had a fabulous dinner tonight at a small little restaurant called "Humphrey's" ... it was very good. We then walked a few miles after dinner, and are now settled back at the hotel. It will be an early evening to catch up on some rest before the rest of the weekend. You can already feel the party-vibe on the streets with all the extra 'imports' into the city for Queen's Day on Monday.

We're off across 'The Pond'

Well, it is here ... Tonight we head out. It has been a busy week getting things ready and wrapped up, but I think we are set. We are, at the very least, more than ready for a holiday, so it will be a good break.

We'll post an update when we arrive in Amsterdam on Friday!

Proost!

7 more sleeps ...

This time next week, we will be in Toronto preparing to head to the airport.   On Thursday night, we leave for Amsterdam.  We are spending several days in Amsterdam, and then we are moving on to a driving holiday in Switzerland and Austria.  From Geneva, we are heading to Interlaken for a few days.  From there, we will head to Salzburg and then Vienna, which will be our furthest point east.  After Vienna, we start our journey back west, stopping in Innsbruck and then finally to Montreux on Lake Geneva.  We have several days in each location, so we will have time to explore.

In Amsterdam, we are staying at Hotel Estherea (http://www.estherea.nl/).  We stayed here a few years ago when we were in Amsterdam, and really enjoyed the hotel.  It is a small-ish family-run hotel in the old city centre.  It is a collection of five 17th century canal row houses that have been "merged" into the hotel.   The staff was great, and made us feel very welcome.  It is a good spot to spend a few days to settle in after our trans-Atlantic flight.

Hotel Estherea at night

Hotel Estherea at dusk

Our 'room with a view' (last visit)

We are in Amsterdam for "Queen's Day", or “Koninginnedag”  - a National holiday that celebrates the Dutch Monarch.   Queen's Day was first celebrated in 1885 on August 31st after the birth of Queen Wilhelmina in 1880.  Beginning in 1948, after Queen Juliana's ascension to the throne, Queen's Day has been officially celebrated on her birthday - April 30th.   Queen Beatrix, after succeeding her mother in 1980, continues to call April 30th Queen's Day in commemoration of her mother.

Queen's Day has been called one of the world's largest street parties, and it is said that festivities in Amsterdam rival those of Mardi Gras in New Orleans and New Year's in in Time Square.  The city is bathed in orange as people hit the streets and canals dressed in the National colour.

Queen's Days Past ...

This is going to be fun !!!