Switzerland

Well actually its not a job (just in case anyone from customs and immigration is reading this). Neal is just helping out around the hostel we are staying at in Switzerland for a few days. He cleans the kitchen, does some sweeping, and helps to put stuff away. In return he gets free a bed and half priced beer. Not a bad deal at all. He is calling it his vacation from vacation. It is easy to stay too. Gimmelwald is one of the pretties places on earth. I know I raved about it in the last post but I can't emphasize enough how great it is. I can't wait to go back. In fact, I won't have to wait to long as I am returning from there from Florence on the 12th. Even though I was having a great time there and met probably the most interesting people of the trip so far, the idea of watching Neal clean and get cheap beer was that appealing. I instead took the opportunity to come back to Florence and see somethings I missed the first time, namely the David and the Uffizi. It was also raining in Gimmelwald so that kinda put a damper on the hiking.

The hiking is great, when it is not raining. In fact, it has rained so much that the cable car flooded and part of the road washed out, stranding some people on Wednesday night. Before it started raining though, Neal and I climbed up to the top of the Schilthorn with Andrew and Dylan. They were staying at the hostel for about two weeks. Andrew who is a math teacher in Ireland had been to Gimmelwald six times before and this was Dylan's (Andrew's son) second time. It was great hiking with them. Andrew knew the path and quite a bit of other information on the region. The Lauterbrunnen valley was Tolkien's inspiration for Rivendell and the Schilthorn served as the filming location for the James Bond movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. All in all it is a pretty sweet place you might say. I am sure that I will be going back some day and I know that Neal will be. If there is one place you can't miss while travelling in Europe it would be Gimmelwald. You might even run into Rick Steves. He was staying at the Mountain Hostel about a week before we got there.

München turned out to be one of the best places we have visited so far. There is tons to see and do. The Dutches Museum is the best science museum I have been to outside of the Smithsonian, the English Garden is not to be missed, and the beer comes in liters and is extremely tasty. It is also within an easy day's train ride of places such as Dachau (the concentration camp) and Schloss Neuschwanstein (the fairy tale castle). We ended up staying a whole week because there were more and more things we wanted to do and see. Munich also has the best public transportation system of any city we have been to. Combine that with a cheap place to stay and a well equipped kitchen why would we ever want to leave?
That being said there is plenty more of Europe to do and see and its easy to get bogged down in a place and get lazy. That can be just as dangerous in travelling as trying to do to much. There is a delicate balance to strike of staying in a place and seeing all it has to offer while not forgetting about the other places yet to be discovered. With that thinking in mind we decided to head off to Switzerland. Neal wanted to do some hiking and get out of the city for a while and after seeing the pictures of Gimmelwald, I couldn't agree with him more. Gimmelwald is a tiny little town up in the Swiss Alps, in the Jungfrau region. Even though hordes of backpackers come here, in part thanks to Rick Steves telling people that it was one of Europe's best kept secrets, nothing can diminish its charm or beauty. It also has one of the best hostels we have been to. The kitchen is outstanding. There is a stove and a fridge, which is not something you always find, the price is good, and when you wake up in the morning you can look our across the valley to the glacier capped peaks of the alps. The hiking is breathtaking and mesmerizing, and very challenging. It is all up and down and very steep. We hiked about 8 hours yesterday and were so sore this morning that we decided to just enjoy the sun and air and do some reading. Tomorrow I am sure we will be back out the trails. It is easy to see why people come here planning to stay for a few day and end up staying for weeks or months instead. As tempting and delicious as that sounds--- not only is the view amazing but the food is outstanding, I had a piece of pear pie that was probably the best thing I have had to eat in all of Europe--- we will be heading to Hungary and the Czech after this for a whole new perspective on Europe.I hope everyone enjoys the pictures because they capture the beauty much better than I can.