Abenteuer Siebenundzwanzig: Meiringen

(If the following few blogs make now sense, it's because I'm writing them at 7:00 in the morning after an all-nighter in the library after a night of five hours of sleep after a weekend in Berlin.  I don't know what is going on right now).

My first weekend back, I visited Meiringen with a couple of friends. Meiringen is cool because it is
     A) the cite of the invention of meringue cookies and
     B) the cite of Reichenbach falls.

How could any self-respecting Sherlock Holmes fan resist? 

The first thing to greet visitors to Meiringen is a Sherlock Holmes statue in front of the train station. Supposedly, it has clues about Sherlock Holmes hidden all over it, although frankly, I couldn't find any.

The town of Meiringen also has a really neat old church which one can visit (should one choose to). This church is also the cite of literally the only cemetery I've seen this trip.

I liked the Saint Christopher mural--paintings like this on the sides of buildings are all over Switzerland

A beautiful little town

Our next stop: the bakery, to try some of the famous meringue cookies. They were super fluffy and almost too sweet to eat.

100% Gary approved.

After warming up in the Cafe, we set off hiking.

The majestically galloping Alpine Alpaca--why not?  

The Alpaca had a fantastic view

Gary has relatives all over Europe

Posing for the cameras

The further we hiked, the more and more beautiful it became.

It was the middle of snowmelt season and we'd just gotten a week of rain. There were a LOT of waterfalls.

 On our way up the hill we stumbled across a swing set that was set on a 60+ degree incline. It literally felt like you were about to swing off the side of the world.

We also found a splendid assortment of lawn gnomes:

After that, we came to the goal of our journey--Reichenbach falls.

It was truly stunning:

I can see why Watson thought Sherlock drowned--it was a looooooong way down

After enjoying the waterfall for a little while, my friends and I headed back down to the town. 

 On the way we met some lovely, very friendly sheep: 

This is what a typical Swiss farmhouse looks like, believe it or not.

Since we had a bit of time before our train, we decided to get some dinner. What did we have? Gemueseroestli, of course!

Roestli=Swiss hash browns, smothered in cheese. Gemuese means vegetables, sometimes also smothered in cheese.

And for dessert? Raspberry pannacotta!

Abenteuer Sechsundzwanzig: die Wochenende

My next few days were fairly uneventful. I had to run to catch my flight to Paris: however, I'm really glad I elected to fly. The trip over the Mediterranean and the Alps was really beautiful.

In Paris I had serious issues with train tickets and wound up not really seeing much (aside from a Turkish ghetto, a hipster farmer's market, a petting zoo, and a VERY cheap department store--because, of course, I had to buy a dress in Paris).

Fortunately, I had already been to Paris and done all the touristy things a few years ago, so I wasn't really disappointed. In a  way, it was nice to see that Paris is a real city with real people living it in--it's not just the Eiffel tower and the Louvre.

...art?

Mr. Sheepbutt was not feeling very photogenic

I think this guy was probably french

 Due to the problems I had with the trains, (and with calling a taxi cab but not speaking any French), I didn't arrive at my Great Aunt's house until late at night--I'm afraid she though someone had kidnapped me.

I was exhausted after the day of trying to deal with Parisian rail systems--fortunately, she had a glass of champagne waiting for me. And I must say, it was nice to get a looong night's sleep in a place that wasn't sketchy or full of complete strangers.

I spent the weekend relaxing at my aunt's house, eating all her food, and letting the blisters on my battered, tattered feet heal.

Sunday, I took the train to Saint Louis. No, I didn't see the arch.
From Saint Louis, I walked to Weils am Rhein in Germany (the shopping center place) and from Germany I walked back to Switzerland, making sure to jump in every fountain.

After all my travels,  it seemed weirdly fitting that I should walk back across the border. And no one bothered me--after all, the border patrol doesn't work on Sunday. They have a mailbox by the checkpoint where you can leave a note declaring anything you deem necessary.

Abenteuer Fünfundzwanzig: the Vatican and Rome (in a day)

My first stop in the morning (after the fabulous and ornate Italian breakfast provided generously by the hotel staff) was the Vatican.

Unfortunately, the ticket I'd been sold at the train station didn't let me into Saint Peter's Basilica (this I found out after over an hour of a nice tour guide from New York trying to "help" me). The line stretched all around the (considerable) square and spiraled in towards the obelisk, so I figured that, if I wanted to wait in line, I would waste my entire day in Rome. I decided to skip the Saint Peter's basilica that day--guess I'll just have to see it next time :)

I did get into the Vatican museum with my skip the line pass (which generously permitted me to stand in the "skip the line" line for over an hour). Once inside, I had a great time exploring.

Here is a random photo compilation of  things I  got to see:

Last supper tapestry

the courtyard

The famous giant golden globe thing

The famous pinecone statue

Art from the palace of Ashurbanipal

Ancient zills--the finger cymbals used in belly dance!

One of the Egyptian rooms

A death portrait of an Egyptian nobleman. This is cool because, as I walked up to this picture, I saw a guy who looked EXACTLY like this walking away. Vampires are real, and they occupy the Vatican. I now know the truth.

As you can imagine, the Vatican museum was pretty ornately decorated...It looked like this everywhere.

After a while, I found my way to the Sistine chapel

 Gary was excited to be back in the Vatican

Inside of the Sistine chapel, there were guards repeatedly yelling at people to be quiet and stop taking pictures. But they didn't decrease my awe of the place. I mean, the Sistine chapel. It's something I've read about in a thousand textbooks and art classes.

It's something that I've never in my life thought I would see.

The more places I visit here, the more things I see--the harder it becomes to actually believe that this is my life. This time last year, I was stuffing my face with trail mix, studying for a Chaucer final in my dorm room in Kirksville Missouri.

Now I'm here.It's unreal.

Anyway, I saw a few more cool things.

Ornate, see?

The hall of busts creeped me out. They were too realistic. Also, they would have fueled a Dr. Who fan's nightmares.

Theater masks

A nice view of this part of Rome

Another pretty courtyard

Nero's bathtub. 25 feet in diameter, weight of thousands of pounds, made out of an extinct kind of marble which is so rare that one cubic inch of it is valued at 20,000 euro. Total estimated value--over 2 billion Euro. Wow.

At around noon, I decided that I should go out and see some of the rest of Rome (after all, I didn't really have much time). So I said goodbye to the Vatican and headed back out into the world.

On the way, I stopped for what I had been assured was the best gelato in Rome. I got moca and pistachio. Not a bad combination.

Then I was on my way to the next adventure.

I got off the bus at the center of touristy sights (was it the city center? I have no idea) and headed down towards the forum. I found some cool stuff on the way.

No idea--but pretty

Possibly the Markus Aurelius column?

Napoleon's mom lived here

I made my way towards the forum. I have about a million pictures of the forum. The fact that it was a beautiful sunny spring day and all the flowers were blooming didn't help.

Check out the super authentic-looking gladiator

My Austrian friend wasn't sure why I was so excited when I told her I was visiting the forum. "After all, they're just a bunch of rocks..."

These were blooming everywhere

Lemon  tree

From the forum, I headed towards the Colosseum.

Seeing the Colluseum took my breath away. That really is something I never thought I would ever do.

You don't really realize how big the Colosseum is when you see pictures of it

Gary was happy to be back in Rome

The view was pretty good, too

 

After the Colosseum I  wound up inadvertently going to dinner (I was walking past. The restaurant owner saw me look at the menu and hustled me in to a table before I could protest). 

It ended up being a fabulous decision--good food, fantastic service, good people-watching, and GREAT prices (I got an apertif, an appetizer, a ricotta cannoli, GOOD wine, cake, a coffee, and a water for the price of one Swiss pizza).

Because I was sitting in front of the restaurant, and because I had nothing better to do, I started to help the waiter with recruiting people into the restaurant. By the end of the meal, they were threatening to hire me. 

After dinner I walked back to my hostel. Rome at night is really something to see. 

All in all, I really loved Rome. I can understand why it's been occupied for thousand of years.