Freiberg, Switzerland

Went to Freiberg today. Another one of the many cities in Switzerland that is split language wise. Half speaks German and half speaks French.  Its really weird when you can literally walk 2 blocks and the language completely changes on you.

Climbed another gothic church :)  368 steps up, and the the time I was at the top I was out of breath and ready for a nice slow elevator ride down. The only good things, is that I noticed that every other person who made the walk was just as out of breath. 

And I got a really good laugh on the way down...passed an Italian couple on their way up. The husband was dressed in t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers (the right way to attack a 70+ meter church). The wife/girlfriend...well that was a completely different story. High heals, spandexish pants and top. I don't understand a word of Italian but I could tell she was not having fun and she was barely 2 stories up :)

Until next post...

Falling behind...

Just wanted to say sorry for falling behind - even if it was only for one town on one day.  Before I forget, you won't be seeing many blog posts during the week. Between having to work (I am here for some reasons), dinner, relaxing, and the fact the Estavayer-le-Lac is a very sleepy town during the week, there's really not much to say.

So catching up....Sunday April 18th, went to Neuchatel, Switzerland.  Got some nice pictures, but unfortunately, it really isn't much of a tourst/picture taking city. Lots and lots and lots of stores, and I get the impression it is more of a shopping area than anything else. Kinda explains why most places were closed or under construction.

Today, was a busy day. Went to Lausanne, which is on Lake Geneva, and close to the area they refer to as the Swiss Riviera.  It was a nice day of walking (a lot of hours) with me and sock monkey. Glad I have him along for company ;)  I'm not going to guess how many miles I walked, it seems like they purposely made all the tourist places as far away as possible.  As you can see from the photos, it is extremely foggy/misty/ashy.  Not sure yet if it is the time of year or the volcano.  Not a lot of people seem concerned so I think it may just be the time of year where the morning mist doesn't get a chance to evaporate.

I didn't really the Olympic Committe was headquartered in Laussanne. Thus the Musée Olympique  (link on wikipedia).  The weather is starting to get really nice, so I'm expecting the photos to get more and more colorful.
 
For my dad, I will soon be creating a 'Cows of Switzerland' photo album on picasaweb.  He's been asking me where the cow pictures are, and I realize that I have been lax in my duties.  Since there are so many, and they are the key industry here (Cheese and Milk and Chocolate) and they are all over the place, I figure it doesn't make sense to mix their pictures in with other pictures.  There are many a cow right near the airforce base (Payerne AFB) that I'm working on, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get some really nice photos.

That's it for this blob post. I think it is officially my longest one :)

Before I forgot, the new albums (Neuchatel, Lausanne) are on my picasa web album.  Here's the link again:

http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.hecht

I'm going to try to get them sorted better.

Murten and Avenches pictures are posted...

Photos for Murten and Avenches have been uploaded:

http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.hecht

Murten and Avenches

Yesterday was a busy day. Went to Murten in the morming. Murten is an german speaking city that is on the lake and surrounded my a medieval wall.  Spent a couple of hours walking around, climbing up to the ramparts and getting some really nice pictures.  After spending a couple of hours there, I went to Avenches, which is a french speaking town (its hard to learn french when I keep on going to german speaking towns on the weekends).

Avanches, although smaller was really really cool.  It is built on the remants of Aventicum which is an old roman town.  They have a roman amphitheatre, theater and other really really really cool things. Spent  some time wandering around the area taking lots and lots of pictures.

The pictures, for both locations, won't be uploaded until monday night. i left my laptops power supply at work and I can't get in on weekend.  Currently it has about 5 minutes of change left, not enough time to finish commenting and uploading the pictures.  Once done though, I'll post another message.

Another day, another post...

Hey All,

Uploaded some new photos to the Estavayer photo album on picasweb. Just some pictures of the room and the view from the room (requested).  Tomorrow is my first day alone, the other guys from work are leaving :(

I'll be going to another city this weekend, so there will be bunches of new pictures. It also looks like there will be events almost every weekend starting in a couple.  Hopefully there will be some cool stuff going on around here.

Link to album: http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.hecht

My first weekend trip - to Bern.

Decided to go to Bern today. Bern is Switzerlands capital, but often gets overshadowed by Geneva and Switzerland because it's not as large - it's a beautiful city though. Got there about 9 am and walked for a good chunk of the day.  One thing I learned right away is that I'm not in good walking shape :)  Hopefully after a couple more weekends, I won't be as tired.

A lot of people think Europeans are thin because they walk so much. That may be also true for the Swiss, but the main reason I think that they are thin is that the food is so damn expensive. They can't afford to eat. At some point I'll try taking a picture of a menu and posting it. Suffice to say, a cheeseburger, medium fry, and medium soda at McDonalds if 12 Franks, or for us americans, 10 dollars! That gives an idea.

Got to see Albert Einsteins house today. He actually came up with the Theory of Relativity while in Bern. Also got to climb up the Berner Munster - no relation to Herman Munster :)  100 meter tall church, and I thought my legs were going to fall off when I got to the top.

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my sock monkey with me, so he missed out on my trip to Bern.  I'll be better in the future so he is included.

For those who are interested, the link to my Bern photos...

http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.hecht/BernSwitzerland#

I also renamed my Estavayer album, its new link is...

http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.hecht/EstavayerLeLacSwitzerland#

Until my next trip....

My first swiss posting...

I made it!  A couple of days in to my job assignment and its starting to dawn on me how long I'm going to be here.  Hopefully it won't be too long before I  can string 2 words together and not sound like a complete idiot trying to say something in french :)

I've put some pictures up on line on my picasa web album (http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.hecht/EstavayerLeLac#) so feel free to take a look at em. You can even comment!  Looking forward to traveling on the weekends, just gotta start putting together a list of places that I want to go to.

I think by the time my trip is over, I'm going to like traffic circles and will miss them back in the states. It's amazing how well they work and how easy they make driving around.  No waiting at traffic lights!

My next post will probably be early next week, hopefully with information about wherever I've been and lots of pictures. Until next time...