Alps, Lakes, and Villages

Sean’s Travels 2011

Our first stop was Bacharach, Germany (Rhine River).

Vineyards (Riesling)

City wall

Our hotel

Our room had a nice view toward the vineyards

Hit this fence with car…oops

First thing’s first though. Introduction to travel buddies.

Nathan

Me

Jon

Kelli

The wine in the Rhine is very unique and tasty. We found a wine tasting bar immediately.

Oo! Castle!

Per usual, there is odd decoration in SE Germany.

As odd as Jon…

But they got the architecture right.

Oldest building in town. Built in late 1300’s!

The main attraction in the Rhine is ferrying the river.

Feudal lords were able to tax river transportation, so every village has a castle overlooking the river.

Nowadays, villages all make their own wines for income.

St. Goar, a picturesque village, was our ferry destination.

This is about all we saw…

We found ways to enjoy this village nonetheless.

Honest coincidence, the first place we ran for cover was a beer tent.

The second place we had to run for cover was a family-run brandy shop. Honest coincidence again.

The owner took pity on us and gave us a tour of his brandies. Very good stuff.

All-in-all, St. Goar was awesome.

Hit the road. Next stop: Luzern, Switzerland.

Confusing, but we mastered the German and Swiss roads.

Luzern was my first introduction to Switzerland. Let’s just say it was a good first impression.

People were really into this bridge. All wood, really old.

I personally enjoyed the building facades.

In Luzern, all buildings must have residential units so that it does not become overrun by commerce. This is likely a reason why buildings have unique and decorative fronts.

And the food.

I ate a lot.

Ferry time again.

Luzern is on a large crystal-clear lake in the Alps.

Traditional Swiss villages dot the shores.

And the occasional mansion.

We stopped in a village called Vitznau and had lunch.

There was more than beer, I just don’t have photographic evidence.

Naturally, we also went swimming.

We avoided areas with this sign. Terrifying…

Luzern is also the location of the lion stone carving, dedicated to the bravery and loyalty of the Swiss army.

Then we went here.

(This is my “‘nuff said” photo)

Lauterbrunnen is a farming village in a green canyon valley framed by waterfall covered cliffs.

Actually, it’s an extreme sports village. At any moment someone will be base-jumping off this cliff.

But we stayed up here.

We got there via gondola.

Yes, I intentionally chose the dark, ominous photo.

The cliff-side villages are very traditional, which made them very fun to stay in.

We stayed in a village called Gimmelwald.

Mostly they are farmers as well (livestock and hay).

Originally, people settled up here for the benefit of more sun than the valley.

Isolation seems to have had interesting affects on decoration taste.

I knew they existed…

Our room had an ok view from the balcony.

The Orion constellation was right above the mountain tops .

And of course, we had Swiss hot chocolate (this place put house-made brandy in it too ).

More scenery shots from Gimmelwald.

Cool shots around Gimmelwald.

One of our excursions was to Jungfrau Glacier. This was definitely the most incredible thing we saw on this trip.

It was basically like that.

We set out early, just as the sun was coming up over the mountains.

The glacier is far above the tree-line, over 11k feet in altitude.

In fact, it’s the highest point in Europe.

But the Swiss created a train system to get there almost 100 years ago.

Up the mountains (like a roller coaster)

And through the mountains.

Shortly after arriving, we set out on a glacial hike.

To a ski-lodge overlooking the glacier.

Where we had goulash and beer. Perfect.

A few more glacier shots.

Later that day, we saw some people doing this.

Monkey see, monkey do.

YouTube video of me flying soon to come.

Sweet.

Munich.

(actually, my camera was stolen)

Auf Wiedersehen!

Yes, it’s real.