Our last day in Amsterdam

By Amsterdam

We started our day with a visit to the Rijk Museum which we enjoyed.  Again  our early timeslot paid off. It was getting very busy when we left.

We saw Rembrandts “Night Watch”. My dear sister – I hope that you are proud of my art knowledge!

It was sunny in Amsterdam today, and a little warmer, so we walked through Vondelpark, which is a massive area with parks, little lakes and some coffee shops. It was lovely as long as we kept out of the wind! There were runners, walkers, children playing,  lots of dogs, and of course lots of bicycles!

We are still amazed at the number of bicycles you see! Apparently about 10,000 bicycles are dumped into the canals each year, whether deliberately or not, I am not sure!

A road in Amsterdam consists of 2 lanes for cars, 2 lanes for trams, 2 lanes for bicycles and a pavement for pedestrians. Crossing can be quite complicated!

We walked around buying some last bits and bobs, enjoying the streets, canals and houses and found a stroopwaffel shop. (We thought that we had eaten a stroopwaffel earlier but that was a normal waffle!

A stroopwaffel is a flat crisp waffle, with syrup in the middle and toppings of your choice on the top. Oh my word, it was my sugar intake for the week, but it was delicious!

We then headed back to collect our luggage and head for the airport, which is where we are now.

We have had the most awesome trip, we are blessed to have had the opportunity. We have made memories which we will have with us forever!

My highlight was definitely the tulips at Keukenhof. Williams was Chur with the snow and the magnificent views – and watching me land on my butt!

We are glad that we went everywhere we did, but probably won’t bother going back to Paris in a hurry!

We were warned about how rude the Parisians were, well we found the Italians to be way worse!

We have enjoyed hearing so many different languages, seeing so many different cultures.

We have been amazed at how well trains, busses, metros and trams work. If only SA had a safe public transport system that works, it would be so beneficial to all.  We have enjoyed walking around at night feeling safe.

It has been an experience we will always treasure!

Amsterdam Day 2 – Saturday 20th April 2024

By 1 commentAmsterdam

Today we took a coach tour to Edam, Volendam and Zaanse Schans.  Our tour guide had verbal diarrhoea!  We were sitting the front row of the bus and if he wasn’t talking through the microphone, he was talking to the driver, who judging by the look on the driver’s face (through the mirror) was saying PLEASE BELT UP!

Our first stop was Edam – the town that is known for Edam Cheese.  We walked around the town – a typical old style Dutch town.  We then went to a cheese making demonstration and tasting. There were cheeses of all kinds – from sheep’s milk to garlic cheese, from whiskey cheese to pesto cheese – you name it, it was there for tasting.  Some were delicious and some were not!  I think that the worst one was the whiskey cheese – which I would like to add William, the whiskey drinker, also thought was awful!

From there we travelled to Volendam – known for fish.  The town is about 30 m below sea level so a huge dyke surrounds the coastal side of the town.  Houses that were built before the dyke was built have now extended up so that they have a view over the dyke, and others have been built on the dyke.  It was freezing cold again, and there on the pier at Volendam were a bride and groom, having photos taken.  The bride must have been freezing in her strappy dress!  I had some local seafood for lunch – William had Dutch Pancakes – which are like our flapjacks.  The seafood was lovely – crab, fish, squid and shrimps.  SA calamari (squid) is much nicer, in my opinion!  We enjoyed walking along the dyke in our free time looking at the different house structures etc.

Our last stop of our tour was at Zaanse Schans – a windmill town which has been preserved to look like it apparently did 500 years ago.  When our bus parked there were 20 other busses there, and heaps of cars as well, so it was very crowded.  We went to a clog making demonstration which was very interesting.  The guy made a clog while we were watching with machinery which is similar to key cutting machinery – ie it copies the master piece.  Very interesting,  The guy then blew into the clog and water sprayed out – illustrating how much water there was in the wood.  The clog now has to dry before being finished.   Clogs are still worn when working on the land, as they are practical with the land being so wet.  Apparently they are comfortable.  The shop sold clogs of all sorts – very interesting.  William and I walked to the windmills – unfortunately there is only one that you can enter – at a price with a long queue – so seeing as we had been into a windmill yesterday at Keukenhof, we decided to give it a skip.  It was interesting to see this little village but would have been better with fewer people around.  Our coach, with our verbal diarrhoea guide, then brought us back to Amsterdam

I know that I can talk, but this guide exhausted even me!

We are both over this freezing weather – even the locals are complaining about it!

We had some supper and are climbing into bed.

Tomorrow is our last day here – we fly out at 21.30. 

We have had a wonderful trip in Europe – I will probably type the last blog tomorrow night at the airport.

Amsterdam Day 1 – Friday 19th April 2024

By 1 commentAmsterdam

Today we left put hotel very early to catch a bus to the airport to connect with our bus to Keukenhof – the world famous tulip gardens.

Since doing a project in about Std 3 about Holland, I always dreamt about seeing the tulips of Amsterdam.  Well, today my dream has come true.  

We arrived at Keukenhof at about 8am. It was bitterly cold, and off we went into the gardens.

7,000,000 bulbs are planted by hand every year.

The gardens are everything we had seen in pictures and more!

We walked and walked and walked. Around every corner there were more flowers, more colours and more varieties. The flowers are not all tulips – there are some daffodils, some hyacinths, and a few others, but mainly tulips.

In the early morning we walked for ages without seeing anyone. Absolute bliss!  As the day wore on, the crowds got more and more and more!

During the morning it poured so we put our plastic poncho jackets over us and continued walking.  Nothing was going to deter us!

We took a short boat ride, in the rain, through the canals to see the tulip fields which are nearing the end of the season due to the bad weather.

Our apologies for so many pictures,  but it was too beautiful not to share!

We caught our bus back to Amsterdam and then the trams back to the hotel, where we tried to thaw out a bit.

When we left again, we went armed with beanies and gloves. Our next visit was to the Heineken Brewery for a tour.  Clearly this was high up on William’s list, but it was very interesting.  We were given 4 tokens for beers after the tour, and we had tasters during the tour, which I tried!  So proud of myself as I am not a beer drinker!  I thought that if William drank all 4 beers he was going to spend the night going to the loo, but he decided after 1 beer to give the other 3 tokens to some youngsters, who were very grateful!

Did you know that a Heineken beer is 95% water, so I suppose it is very healthy!

We had some supper, and set off looking for the red light district. You cannot visit Amsterdam without going to the red light district! Well, it was everything we had heard and read about!

As with all things like this, it is very sad that this is what some people have had to/chosen to do.

The red light district and Old Amsterdam were buzzing tonight, even though it was raining and freezing! Very entertaining!

We then caught our trams (very, very full) and headed back. Tired and cold! The photo on the right is Amsterdam Central Station.

But what a wonderful day we had.

Often when you have wanted to do something for so long, when it actually happens it is a letdown. Well this, I can assure you was not!

Au revoir  Paris – Hallo Amsterdam  – Thursday 18th April 2024

By 1 commentAmsterdam

We left our apartment this morning literally sliding our cases down the wooden stairs.  We were pleased to see the end of that accommodation!

We boarded the Eurostar to Amsterdam. Our route took us via Brussels, Rotterdam and Antwerp.

We arrived at Schipol Airport at lunchtime.  After grabbing some lunch we found a bus to take us to our hotel.

What a stunning hotel we have – clean, spacious (in European terms) and quiet. We feel like we have hit the jackpot!

After settling in, we found our way into Amsterdam Central via 2 trams. Most commuting here appears to be on trams.

There are bicycles everywhere!  Most don’t stop for anything or anyone. There is bicycle parking everywhere.  There are bicycle parkades. They have recently opened a new underground one for 10,000 bicycles, and there were only about 3,500 open spaces, according to the notice.

We got tickets to go on a Canal Cruise, which was very interesting. The couple sitting in front of us were from Jo’burg – so we chatted to them.

Some houses are known as the dancing house, as they have moved so much over time that they are now skew.  In the 17th century, the maximum width you were allowed for your house was 6m – the house could be built up a number of stories and back as far as the land would allow.

One canal leads into 7 canals alone.

All houses are propped up by the next house, failing which they would all collapse. The wooden poles which support the foundations are fine, until the water level drops. The poles coming into contact with air starts the rotting process. As a result they now try and regulate the water levels in the canals.

After having a warm drink – it was freezing cold – we boarded a ferry to cross the canal.  Here these ferries are free for cyclists and bicycles, pedestrians and these dinky little cars that drive on. (When I say dinky, these cars would make Lucy (my Honda Brio) look like a double cab bakkie in relation to the size!)

We then went up to A’dam lookout – it was originally built by Shell, but when they pulled out of The Netherlands,  it was revamped and is now a hotel, offices, revolving restaurant and lookout point.  It was bitterly cold up there but the views were great!  It is 20 floors up and the lift takes 22 seconds to get there.

Back on ground level we walked around Old Amsterdam, before taking 2 trams back to our hotel.  William found the Liverpool match on tv – with Dutch commentary – and I did some work.

Tomorrow is tulip day!

Paris Day 3 – Wednesday 17th April 2024

By 1 commentParis

What a fantastic day we have had!  We are absolutely finished, but it was great!

We started off catching 2 metros to where we were having breakfast – Café Louise.  It was also part of our tourist pass – our breakfast was orange juice, fruit salad, croissant and a hot drink, sitting in a lovely old French restaurant.  And needless to say we did not have to pay!  Bonus!

After breakfast we walked to the Louvre – as we had a 10.30 timeslot booked.  We joined a long queue and our hearts sank – was this going to be a repeat of yesterday at the Palace of Versailles?  When the queue started moving, we were through security and inside very quickly, which was great as the wind was icy!  We made a bee-line for the wing where the Mona Lisa is, and although there were a lot of people in the Louvre, it was NOTHING like yesterday.

When we got to the Mona Lisa there were a lot of people, but there was no pushing and shoving.  Everyone had their turn and then moved on.  It probably took us about 10 – 15 minutes to get our moment at the front.  It was a wonderful feeling to be standing there just a few meters away from it.  And she looked at us!

From there we went around looking at the art and there are quite some artworks there, and so varied!  From paintings, big and small, to tapestries to sculptures, to woodcarvings to name just a few.  We were surprised at how much we enjoyed it.  The Louvre is huge, and if you want to see everything you would need to be there for the entire day.

We left the Louvre and took a walk along the Seine – I thought of Mamma Mia 😊- it was chilly and then started to rain, but it was lovely.  Sadly we weren’t able to find anything to eat as most places only open mid afternoon there.   So we left the river and headed towards our next visit which was a chocolate making exhibition.  We stopped at Starbucks for some lunch, and while we were eating and checking our afternoon itinerary William realised that we needed our Museum Passes for the Arc de Triomphe and they expired at 16.00.  (for some reason they were only valid for 48 hours), so we finished our lunch and walked in the rain to find a bus to take us there.  Well, we made it to the Arc De Triomphe in time and entered to see that we had to climb lots and lots of steps to get to the observation deck at the top.  My heart sank, but up we went until we reached the top, and boy was it worth it.  The rain had stopped and we walked around looking at Paris and the 12 roads that meet at the Arc.  So interesting to see the geography of it.  As we left the steps going down were much easier than those going up – I am not sure why!?

We caught 2 Metros to get back to our chocolate place.  The history and exhibition (and chocolate tasting) was very interesting.  And when we had finished we could choose a hot chocolate drink.  I chose dark chocolate and William chose white chocolate.  Very nice and warmed us up a little.  We caught a bus back to our apartment to put our weary feet up before we headed off to see the Eiffel Tower by night.

And what a wonderful site the Eiffel Tower was by night, as was the Arc de Triomphe!  It was freezing standing at the tower, but there were hundreds of fools standing there with us!  We thought that we would be the only fools there, but every bus/taxi arrived there absolutely full.  Amazing!

Today we have walked 19.24 km and 51 floors.  No wonder we are shattered!

We leave Paris tomorrow morning for Amsterdam – our last stop – before heading home.

Paris Day 2 – Tuesday 16th April 2024

By 1 commentParis

Bonjour from another cold, wet day in Paris!

May I start off by apologising for the typos – I am typing these blogs either on my phone or on my laptop when I am tired, and often the lighting is not so good.

This morning we set off to have a free breakfast which was part of the Paris Tourist Pass which we bought.  Sadly the bus did not arrive, so we had to change plans.  We bought take aways croissants from a bakery/coffee shop.  French croissants are the best!

We had a booked timeslot for the Palace of Versailles, and so set off for there – we are quite a long way from there in Monte Matre.  We had to take 2 Metros and then an RER which is a “normal” train – not an underground.  The Metros were fine, but the RER was another story.  We ended up on the wrong train, and so had to back track and eventually catch the correct train.  When we got to the station we walked to the Palace of Versailles in the cold, icy wind.

Oh my shattered nerves, the place is huge and there were 1000’s of people!  We found our way to where we needed to be and were admitted quite quickly.  At least we were out of the cold!

Well, that is where it all began.  They admit so many people that you literally herded through like cattle.  If you stopped to look at something you were pushed.  They keep warning you about pick pocketing in the Palace – ie the pick pocketers buy tickets to come in and pick pocket!  There were people pushing folk in wheelchairs – for whom most of us made way, particularly at doorways, etc, except for one nation who were in tour groups.  They continued to push everyone, including the wheelchairs out of the way.  The saddest thing to us what it was the one nation that we thought had the utmost respect for others.  Sadly, this has been the pattern right throughout our trip.

The Palace was interesting, but we cannot understand the complete opulence.  We know that it from that era in history but to see the gold and paintings, let alone the size of the rooms, etc baffles us a tad.

We really wanted to walk around the gardens but William was notified by email yesterday that as there was to be some concert tonight, we would have to buy additional tickets to enter the gardens.  We decided that this was too much, and so decided to leave after the Palace, and head back for the train.

We hopped off the train Notre Dame and went to the site.  They are still busy with the re-building after the fire, and so it is still closed.  We trotted off to another place for a free meal from our pass, which was Champagne and a gourmet toasted ham and cheese and chips and salad.  What a delicious meal.  The Champagne was not nearly as bitter as I thought it may be.

We caught the bus back to Monte Matre, and boarded the Petit Train, which is a mini train that drives on the road – ie a small truck pulling coaches that you sit on.  The route it takes is from the Moulin Rouge all the way up the hill to Sacre Crous.  It was lovely with fantastic views.

After this, we returned to our apartment for some feet up time.

At about 20.30 we ventured out to go up to Sacre Couer to see the city after dark – it was only starting to get dark at this time.  We walked to the funicular and went up the hill in style!  The city looked lovely as it started getting dark.  The Eiffel Tower was lit up at 21.00 – and although it was not dark yet, it was spectacular to see.

We then walked around the shops at the top of the hill and bought crepes and hot chocolate for supper – we were both still full from our late lunch.  Before taking the funicular down, we had a last look at the city of Paris from the hill.

When we got back to normal level, I persuaded William to walk to Moulin Rouge as on Sunday it was not completely dark…. The man agreed so we walked 900m to see it.  It looked so bright.  Now we are back at our apartment and ready for bed.

Tomorrow we are off to the Louvre.

Paris Day 1 – Monday 15th April 2024

By Paris

This morning we hopped on a bus – and travelled through Paris to get to the Eiffel Tower.  The bus ride took about 30 min.  Getting out of the bus close to the Eiffel Tower was a wow moment – seeing the size of it was wow!

We had a booked time slot, and were a little early, and that is when we realised how cold it was.  William was dressed in shorts, and he was freezing.  Now as most of you know that William doesn’t feel the cold, so for him to be looking for a patch of sun to stand in while we waited tells you how cold it was.  I did not have my puffer jacket either, but I did have a thick sweater.  By the time our guide arrived we were freezing!

We got in quite quickly – through 2 lots of security and queued to get to the elevators – we were not going to walk it!  Our guide gave us the history while waiting.  It was built in 1889 and is 300m tall.

We first went to the second floor which is the viewing deck.  It was even more cold there than on the ground.  Unfortunately our guide went on and on and on with stories etc, until we (like many in the group before us) excused ourselves to go to the toilet and never returned.  We had purchased tickets to go to the top, so we got in the queue for this and went up the 200m odd to the top in an elevator.  Guess what, it was even more cold up there!  The views were great, but we did not feel that they were that much more spectacular that the second floor viewing deck, but nevertheless we were glad that we had gone to the top.  We then descended to the bottom, which was chilly, but not as bad as the top.  We bought some hot chocolate to warm up and caught a bus back for William to put on warmer clothes and for me to get my jacket.  And back on the bus we hopped – going back to the same place for us to have a cruise along the Seine River.  (We have purchased unlimited public transport tickets, you will be pleased to hear!)

The cruise along the Seine was not so great – firstly it was raining and secondly the commentary was not great, but it was interesting to put a bit of the geography together.  We were shown the Statue of Liberty – no you are reading correctly!  The Statue of Liberty was designed by Eiffel (I think) and so the US gave Paris a small Statue of Liberty.

After the cruise we hopped on another bus and after grabbing some lunch, we went to The Pantheon, which was interesting, and quite different to the Pantheon in Rome.  We came out of the Pantheon and it was raining hard, so we walked in the rain to find our Metro trains back to Monte Matre.  By the time we got back, the rain had stopped and we climbed to steps to Sacre Couer.  What a beautiful church.  We waited for a Mass to start so that we could hear the acoustics – lovely!  The church is on the top of the hill and so the views over Paris were magnificent!  We then realised that our transport tickets included the Funicular so we came down in style!  (And in future we will be going up in style too!)

We are both really tired, particularly of steps!

Tomorrow is Palace of Versailles…..

Chur – Zurich – Paris – Sunday 14th April 2024

By 1 commentChur

We left a chilly Chur and caught a train to Zurich – what a scenic trip it was.  We passed some huge lakes and then came in past the Zurich Lake – beautiful!  Finding the place to leave our luggage in Zurich Station which is apparently the biggest and busiest station in Europe proved to be a little more challenging than we thought, but after asking for assistance twice, we found it, and hired a locker for each of our cases.

Off we went on our short walking tour of Zurich.  A few interesting facts that we found in Zurich:

  • All men go to church in a black suit with a dark tie and white shirt
  • We did not see a single lady heading for church
  • Most shops in Zurich do not open on a Sunday

The parts we saw of Zurich were very Swiss – lots of Swiss flags everywhere, typical Swiss architecture – very interesting.  Walking along the river, looking at all the old buildings was great, and when the church bells started ringing from all the surrounding churches, it was a cacophony of sound! We finished our walking tours, and still had some time, so found the Lindt shop – sadly the Lindt Factory was too far for a visit.  However the Lindt shop was a real treat – all sorts of Lindt choccies that we don’t get in SA.  We only bought a choccie to share and a BIG bag to little Lindt chocs.  Very disciplined we were!

At lunchtime we caught our double decker high speed train to Paris.  My word, but these trains moved – they tell you your speed and the fastest we saw was 312km per hour, but it can go as high as 360 km per hour.  It was a pretty route via Basel.

On arrival in Paris we needed to find the Metro and head for Monte Matre where we are staying.  There were stairs everywhere and very few escalators, so we carried our cases uphill and down dale.  We were pooped!  Anyhow, we got to our apartment and followed the instructions we had been sent to get the key out of the key safe.  Only problem was that the key safe is in the back of a postbox so is very dark!  We tried and tried, but could not get this safe to open.  William tried to whats app the owner, but she did not respond.  Eventually we realised that she had given us 1 digit wrong in the code and we got it open.  We followed the rest of the instructions, which ended with “you need to climb the steps to the apartment on the top floor”.  Well, there are 129 worn, narrow, spiral wooden steps to our apartment.  Nowhere was this declared.  We battled to get our suitcase up the stairs, let alone 129 of them.  William carried both part of the way, as I was battling with the weight and being a little height challenged, my huge suitcase was a little too much.  After much heaving and huffing and puffing, we got to our tiny apartment, and both collapsed on our bed to catch our breath.  (We have subsequently checked our booking papers and nowhere was this disclosed!)  The apartment does have a beautiful view of Sacre Coeur – a beautiful church.

Once we had settled in and revived a little we climbed all the way down the steps and walked around Monte Matre.  We did not have the energy to head up the steps to Sacre Couer, as there were many steps, so we walked on the flat, and found the Moulin Rouge, and bought supper just across the road while we waited for it to get a little darker, to see Moulin Rouge by night.

We then wandered home – and climbed our steps and fell into bed.

Chur – Saturday 13th April 2024

By 1 commentChur

When we checked in last night we were given a Chur Guest card – for free!  You don’t get much here for free!

This morning we caught the bus (Public transport is free with our Chur Guest Card) to the Altstadt (Old Town).  We found a coffee shop and we each chose a pastry for breakfast. They looked delicious!  We sat down and I took a lovely bite of my pastry – which turned out to be a roll. It looked far fancier, but it was just a roll!  Oh well, as most of you probably know I enjoy eating dry bread and rolls, so my breakfast was a dry roll!  William’s pastry was very tasty.

We walked around the old town looking at all the buildings – so beautiful.  The oldest church and cathedral weren’t open so we could not go in.  The whole town is pristinely clean – there are flowers on the verges and everything is well kept – very different to Italy.

We walked across from the old town to where the cable car takes you to the top of one of the surrounding mountains.  With our Chur Guest Pass we could get 50% off so we decided to go up.  The ride is in 2 different cables cars.  The first one is a big car that takes you to the first station, where all the mountain bikers start their trails, so we had 15 of us and 12 bicycles in our cable car.  From this station we went up the rest of the mountain in a little cable car – and we climbed and climbed and climbed – for about 20 minutes.  It was a beautiful, clear morning, so visibility was great.  The views were incredible, and the little car didn’t wobble too much!

When we walked outside the cable car station at the top there were patches of snow.  I was in my element!  We carried on walking and then we could some snowy slopes, so I (with William following me like a good husband) was off.  What I didn’t take into account was that the snow is melting so everything was muddy, but we got to the bottom of the slope and stood in the snow.  Then we started walking back to the road and William said “be careful, it is slippery” and boof down I went into the slushy squidgy mud on my bum!  I need not tell you that I was wearing very light coloured pants, so you can guess what I looked like!  Oh well!

What amazed us was how hot it was up there -William was in shorts – yes in the snow – and we were in short sleeves and cooking!  It was about 26 degrees.  It was rather strange.  We had a light lunch at the restaurant at the top of the mountain and then headed down again.  We are so glad that we went up.

We then walked back to our hotel and went to a supermarket – I would say that food there was about 20% more than we pay at home, but I know that converting is not always accurate as you need to take salaries etc into account.  We bought some Swiss Chocolate – we had to as we are in Switzerland after all!

We spent the afternoon putting our feet up and recharging our batteries.

Tonight we had the most expensive KFC we have ever eaten!  Takeaways are very pricey here!

We leave for Zurich and then Paris tomorrow morning.

Good-bye Italy – Hello Switzerland – Friday 12th April 2024

By 1 commentChur

We left Venice by train at 7.18 this morning heading to Milan.  I worked on the train and then finished typing the last blog.  The wi-fi is fantastic on the inter city trains.

We got to Milan and had about 35 minutes before departing for Tirano.  We were not able to reserve seats on the Milan – Tirano trip, so assumed that this was because the train would not be too busy.  How wrong we were!  We were lucky enough to get seats, but there were people standing everywhere! Overloading is not a thing here!

The trip was very scenic with lakes and snow on high peaks.  Although it was still Italy, it looked very Swiss.  We arrived in Tirano at about 13.00 and then had a wait to board the scenic train – the Bernina Express – to Chur.  We found the Bernina Express Office, and I went to information to ask where we would be boarding, and the lady politely told me that due to landslides the train had been cancelled and that we should have been notified by email.  Well, we had received nothing and it would appear that none of the other passengers had either.  Apparently we will be refunded, but let’s wait and see….. She said that we could catch a bus to a certain place, and then catch a train (which turned out to be 2 trains) to Chur, and that our Bernina Express tickets were valid for these trips.  We thanked her and headed off looking for the bus.  Well, what she didn’t mention was that we would be in a normal commuter bus – along with all the other passengers commuting to wherever.  The bus arrived and everyone who should have been on the scenic train, together with all our luggage, got on the bus.  As if this was not bad enough people put their suitcases on their wheels in the middle of the bus, where there is an open space.  We put our suitcases flat.  Well, I need not tell you what happened when we went around the first sharp bend – there were suitcase flying everywhere!  So the men in the bus had to grab suitcases and put them all flat.  As we stopped at various stops, the bus got fuller and fuller and fuller.  At one stop a rather large man got on, and seeing that there were no seats available he sat on the suitcases.  Now, in my suitcase which was near the bottom of the pile were 2 bottles of red wines which we bought for the boys in Italy.  They were well packed, but…..I began to wonder what my clothes would be like soaked in red wine.  I am pleased to report that the wine was still intact when we got to Chur!  And my clothes had not had a soak in red wine!

The bus route was up a very windy, beautiful pass through snow like we have never seen before.  It was exactly like you see Switzerland depicted in books and in movies.  (The pictures were taken in a moving bus through a window, so apologies if they are not too clear.)  We have no idea what we would have seen on the scenic train, and will probably never know, but the views we had were spectacular.  Sadly we did not stop for us to touch it, but so be it.

When we got to Pontresina, we had to get off the bus and wait for a train, which was delayed, but eventually got there.  We all got on, with our luggage, and had to get off 2 stations later, and wait for another train with a 45 minute wait.  The last train bought us to Chur.  Again, the views from the train were breathtaking.  There is no snow on the ground here in Chur, but we can see snow on the mountains.  Some look like the Icing Sugar boxes, and some have a lot more!  By this stage, we were dead dog tired and now needed to find a bus to our hotel, but all information was in German.  Well we managed to get here – my knowledge of German from 2 years in High School and working in Namibia for a short while came in handy.  The hotel is lovely, and we have been given a Chur Guest Card which entitles us to free bus travel and free entry into various places tomorrow, including a cable car ride.

There is a McDonalds next to the hotel, a KFC across the street and a Burger King down the road.  I asked William which he would prefer for supper, and he said “definitely McDonalds – the other 2 are too far!”  So we had McD’s for supper – very expensive McD’s I might add.

It certainly is a day we won’t forget – for 2 reasons – the disappointment of not going on the scenic train and the unforgettable views!