Colmar, France - 3/30/08

These are pictures from our day trip to France. We went to this really cute little town close to the Rhine called Colmar. It is really picturesque. I wish we could have spent more time here and tasted some of the local cusine, but I am so horrible at French I probably would have been kicked to the curb for butchering the language! As always, these are in no particular order...

This was some cool painting on the outside of this building. It impressed me that they even painted the underside of the balcony. Love that attention to detail!

The cathedral - really big and really beautiful!

A very odd sundial on the side of the cathedral.

I have no idea what this little area was, but it is like someone stopped time, cordoned it off and left it as is for a few hundred years!

The French countryside - surprisingly flat! I guess I will have to go back and explore more!

Typical little square in the middle of twon - actually they are everywhere here, si I am not sure this qualifies as "the middle!"

Even the jail is fancy (actually this is the ministry of Justice - I assumed it was a jail)

Ok, the manequin piss has a pair of panties around his neck - must have been a rough night!

More cool paintings on that same building.

The catherdral in all its glory - notice the different colors of stone. You can tell it's been rebuilt a few times - probably post war repairs?

No, it isn't your eyes, the building really is cockeyed!

Our French Chateau - I wish!

Typical French street - so quaint and cute!

Yes, French graffiti.

Again a building that time forgot - too cool!

Another cute street.

SCHWEINHUND!!! (This one is for you Robert!)

Catherdral

More catherdral - ok, it was really fetching (in the words of Bill Bryson)

A cool fountain.

Another cool litle "square" in "the middle" of the city.

The canal that runs through it - too perfect!

The scenery is too good to be true!


The train station in Colmar.

Pretty flowers in the park.

General Rapp - Fancy!!

A French poodle in France - go figure!

Sweet architecture!

Grindelwald and Jungfrau - 3/28/08 to 3/29/08

You know, you hear about the Alps being really big and really impressive and form an idea in your heard aboiut what visiting them will be like. However, nothing prepares you for the awesomeness! If you want to go someplace and feel as small as a human can feel, go visit the Alps. It really puts your place in this world into perspective! This trip encompassed two days and the pictures ar our of order but here they are...

On day two we went up to Jungfrau, the highest of a set of three mountains, the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. This was the end of the second day. We are on the finicular on our way down from Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe.

This is a shot from inside the glacier on top of Jungfrau. The ice patterns were amazing!

This is a shot from on top of Jungfrau looking down into the valley from whence we came. Do you see the teeny tiny dots at the bottom right? Those are houses!

This was taken from the observatory on top of Jungfrau just after we arrived around midday. You can see the blue of the glacial ice sticking out of the side of the mountain.

Because no glacial cave can be without a family of glacial penguins, which John and I found really odd, since penguins are indiginous to the southern portion of the equator and not the north! Go figure!
A really sweet shot of the Swiss flag from the out cropping you could walk on when you leave the observatory and stand on the actual mnountain.

Here is another shot of the valley below. Again, note how timy the houses are!

Here isanother goregous sunset shot from on our way back down from Jungfraujoch.

This was taken on the second day as we were leaving the Berghaus Bort to go to Jungfrau. Note the depth of the snow and them remember this is March, early spring, as opposed to the dead of winter! I wonder how they find their houses in a blizzard?

This was the view looking out of our room at the Berghaus Bort. It is the Eiger! Can you ask for a more beautiful day to ascent into the heavens??

This is Kleine Scheidegg, the train station you use to get to Jungfraujoch. While we were there, they were having some kind of concert featuring Zucchero. It seemed like a really nice day and place for a concert.

This is shot of the glacier looking out from the observatory window on top of Jungfrau. Unfortunately, the glacier was covered in snow, so you really couldn't appreciate it as a glacier. But is is massive and vast, so you can really appreciate the scale.

This was a really weak Swiss snowman!

This is Grindelwald. We arrived here on the first day. Again, totally perfecvt weather. The big mountain to the right is the Eiger. This is a really cut and picturesque Alps village.

This is looking out of the gondola we had to take on the first day to get to the Berghaus Bort where we spent the night. The only way up and back was on the gondola, unless we wanted to make a grueling hike up the mountain - yea, maybe in a past life!

This is a shot out of the window of the gondola looking down. It was a serious drop, so I am really glad the only thing hanging out of the gondola was my hand and the camera as opposed to me!

This is a picture from on top of Jungfrau.

This is the little outcrop of mountain at the top of Jungfrau you could walk out onto. I have to admit I chickened out when I saw the spaghetti strings they were using as a barricade. I envisioned myself falling and sliding over nad off the side of the mountain into the glacial abyss. Anyone who knows me knows this is a serious possibility too!

This was take the first day dfrom the train on the way to Interlaken where we would take the first of several modes of transportation over the ensuing two days.

This is a real castle in the middle of this more modern city. It was like something out of a fairy tale!

This is the lake at Interlaken.

This is a scenic shot of the countryside as you take the train from Interlaken to Grindelwald.

These were two really cute little boys that were throwing snowballs at the finicular on the way up to Jungfraujoch. They were adorable and totally hamming it up for the passengers.

This is on top of Jungfrau taken from the observatory looking down into the valley from which we came. Note we are above the clouds!

This is a closeup of that glacier I mentioned earlier that was sticking out of the side ofthe mountain. There were pockets like this all over the place up there.

More cool ice patterns inside the glacier - excuse the pun.

Another shot of the glacial field from on top of Jungfrau.

Lucerne - 3/27/08

Oh My God!! I have never seen a more beautifu city in all my life. Luzerne is breathtaking! If you have only one city to visit in Europe, I highly recommend you go to Lucerne. It is the poerfect mixture of old an new. It doesn't get more perfect than this! Have a look (they are in no particular order)...

This is the Bahnhofplatz - the train station and plaza as you leave the train station at Lucerne. Directly behind me taking this picture is the lake and inlet.

This was a really cool building we came upon while walking around town. A lot of the older buildings have murals or decorative scrollwork painted on them. It really was impressive!

This was part of the old city wall. It is across the inlet of the lake from the Bahnhofplatz.

This is a view of the city on the south side of the inlet of the lake. You can see the old (as in 16th Century) bridge that crosses the inlet of the lake to the north and the old part of the city. The old wall tower is in the center and the twin spires to the right are from the Catherdral.

This is looking up a side street towards a hill where in the side of the hill is a statue of a lion. There is a lot of shopping her and no less than a billion watch stores - ok, I might be exaggerating, but you can't swing a dead (insert animal) without hitting a watch shop!

This is the Hof Church, the city's Cathedral and where a Benadictine Monstary were founded. It was destroyed by a fire in 1633 but was rebuilt in 1645 and is the most important Renaissance church in Switzerland. There is a relief panel in Mary's altar that dates from the 1500s.

This is a view from the north side of the lake inlet looking towards the mountains which backdrop the city.

This is Chapel Bridge which was constructed in the first half of the 14th century as part of the city's fortifications and was names after nearby St. peter's chapel. Inside the bridge near the roof were a series of trinagle shaped pictures added in the 17th century of Swiss scenes, local history including the biographies of the city's patron saints, Leodegar and Mauritius. Sadly, many were destroyed in a fire in 1993(?), however, the ones which remain are still located under the roof on the bridge.

This was taken from the steps of Hof Church. It is the beghinning of several sections in which grave markers are located. Some of the grave markers are the most beatiful and ornate I have ever seen. Even the flowers laid on the ground near some of the newer markers were breath taking.

This is the statue of "The Dying Lion of Lucern." It is a monument hewn out of natural rock in memory of the heroic death of the Swiss mercenaries at the Tuileries in 1792. It is quite sad and beautful. There is a pond at the base of this with what appears to be glacial water because it has that blue, somewhat milky tome to it.

This is another view from the north side of the inlet, just after you cross the Chapel Bridge. It is looking at the bridge tot he south and to the right you can see the Jesuit Church.

This is a closer view of the Jesuit Church. It is the first large sacral Baroque building in Switzerland. It was constructed in 1666 by Father Christoph Vogler for the Jesuits. The vault was redecorated in the 18th century. The original vetments of Brother Klaus, a famos Swiss patron, are stored in the inner chapel. When we went to visit, it was the middle of a mass so we weren't able to get any pictures, which is very unfortunate, because the inside was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

This is one of the many wacky fountains that are peppered all over the city. In fact the entire country is riddled with them. The water is clean enough to drink and that is exactly what people do. On some fountains, they even have a lower section for dogs to drink from.

This is another really intense mural painted on the side of another restaurant (I think).

This is a shot from on the Chapel Bridge looking towards the west. At the top of the hill is a hotel which has been there a really long time. In fact, so long that Queen Victoria once stayed there for at least a month.

Here is an example of one of the paintings that is under the roof rafters on the Chapel Bridge. They are a lot bigger than this pictures implies and there were nearly 100 if I am not mistaking, but again only a few survived the fire.