Joe & Liz's 2009 European Adventure

^I'm psyched if the best has yet to come. I have never left North America but that might just be enough reason to get me out there, those pictures are stunning. Looks like a fun trip!

From Hallstatt, we took the Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB) train back west to Salzburg.

I failed to take any pictures of the Augustiner Bräu beer garden. So, I got this one from the Interweb.

This place is awesome. It seats like 1,500 outside under countless chestnut trees. You get your liter of beer, salted carved white radish, some pork, and you're ready to go.

Wrong! Here we are at the entrance to the Augustiner Bräu, an excellent brewery/beer hall/beer garden.

Walking along the Salzach river. My fellow travelers were yelling at me by this point, claiming that I didn't know where I was going.

From the fortress museum: dangerous stick men with pointed sticks.

Salzburg old town and Salzach river, as viewed from the fortress.

Yet another view from up on the fortress.

It was not open.

More fortress.

Up in the fortress.

To get to the funicular that takes you up to the fortress.

For the McDonald's fans here.

This is Stiftskeller St. Peter, a restaurant which claims to be the oldest in the world. Supposedly open since 803 AD.

Austrian graves are immaculate because they are rented. If none of your relatives care enough to pay the rent, you're gone. So, these rented graves are well-tended by the relatives.

An Austrian graveyard.

Nice.

Hohensalzburg Castle, a very intimidating-looking fortress.

Just one more shot of the cathedral. Mozart was the organist here for a few years, BTW.

Even though I'm a heathen, I really like this church. It was built in a short amount of time, which means everything coordinates well.

Entrance to Salzburg's cathedral.

Without this guy, nobody would visit Salzburg.

Salzburg is known for these wrought iron signs. Traditionally, they would have symbols, not writing on them because they advertised to a largely illiterate public.

We left Salzburg early in the morning to take a train to Zürich. From Zürich, we transferred to Lucerne, and then to Interlaken. From Interlaken, we took a private train to the town of Lauterbrunnen. Then we took a cable car followed by a cogwheel train to village called Mürren, which is about 5400 feet up in the alps.

Yes, it was a long, tiring day of traveling, but it was worth it. The Swiss Alps are my favorite place to visit in all of Europe.

In true Swiss alps form, we took the cable car back up to Mürren for the night.

The fanciest hotel in Gimmelwald.

After we checked into the chalet, we decided to do a quick hike down to a smaller village called Gimmelwald.

Along the way, we spotted this fondue factory.

Another cat shot for Guy.

Now that we're finally at the village, here is a picture of a kitty cat for Guy.

More rocks.

Is this why they call it a "scenic" train?

Still on the train.

Now we're on the scenic cogwheel train. I'll show you what the rolling stock looks like later.

Yep, it's a cable car.

True story: There were electricians working on the system while the car was operating. They had a mess of wires on the floor and were flipping through the manual. This was a bit scary.

On the cable car. Apparently, there used to be a funicular here, but it was replaced when rock slides became a problem.

Riding the train to Lauterbrunnen.

Here we are at Interlaken. The public rail network ends here, which means that rail passes only get you a 25% discount from here on.

Swiss scenery.

The water is a shade of blue that I had never seen before.

This is one of the lakes that surrounds Interlaken.

Still on the train.

I think this is Lake Lucerne.

Can you guess what country we're in now?

On the train from Lucerne to Interlaken.

Joe, these shots, and this whole report continues to be amazing. More, more, more, please!!

Joe, these shots, and this whole report continues to be amazing. More, more, more, please!!

QFT.

I'm not showing this to my wife for fear I'll have to take her in the very near future.

Thanks guys. More to come soon!

Because the alps are prone to getting fogged in later in the day, we got up early the next morning.

Be vewry, vewry quiet. I'm hunting wabbits.

Much less snow down here.

Interesting way to advertise.

Buzzing the other gondola.

The descent.

The Piz Gloria station, where we ate breakfast, as viewed from out on the summit.

Mas.

More of the view from the summit.

The drop.

Walking out onto the summit.

Anyone up for a hike?

Yes, you can hike up or down the Schilthorn. But I'm not that crazy. And besides, the magic of the Swiss Alps is that they bring you into nature without leaving any the comforts of home, like cable cars instead of climbing.

Still more view.

Still more from the top.

We got lucky with the weather, which is very temperamental here.

More from the top.

From the top.

Here I am having breakfast at 9,700 feet. The food was surprisingly excellent and the restaurant rotates to give you a continuously changing view of the scenery.

Note: The sparkling wine they give you is especially strong at 9,700 feet at 8 AM.

Here we are at the summit of the Schilthorn.

This station might look familiar because they blew it up in the Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Yes, this was the crappy Bond movie with George Lazenby.

Almost at the summit.

The view from the side.

The view from behind.

More of the view.

On the next cable car.

At the first station: Birg. Nothing to do here, but transfer to the next cable car.

Approaching the first station.

More of the view on the ascent.

Every time the car goes through one of these pylons, it shoots forward in an almost uncontrolled manner.

And up.

Going up.

And got on this cable car.

Wow! I'm sorry your trip was ruined by all those cats!

Guy "Yes I hate cats! Filthy f**king spawn of Satan that they are!" Koepp

^Don't worry, Guy. More cat photos for you soon.

This TR is dead to me!

This station might look familiar because they blew it up in the Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Yes, this was the crappy Bond movie with George Lazenby.

I take minor exception to this comment. Yes, Lazenby was a bit weak as Bond, and Telly Savalas was a bizarre choice for Blofeld, but the movie itself is actually pretty good and quite faithful to the novel it's based on (for a change).

If only Sean Connery had been in it.

Back on topic, I would love to eat breakfast here--what a great way to start the day.

^Yes, it needed Sean Connery. They should never make any Bond films without Sean Connery.

The Breakfast at 10,000 feet is totally worth the price. If I had to choose between it and the other major attraction in the area (to be featured shortly), I'd choose the breakfast at the Piz Gloria.

I've decided to try to finish this TR before the UK trip starts. Otherwise, it will remain incomplete.

After we came down from the Schilthorn back to Muerren, we decided to do some hiking.

We met this ambitious character.

Unfortunately, this funicular was not going to open for another few days. This meant we would have had to hike up to get to the trails up there. No thank you.

The panoramic train ran along a relatively flat surface. Lazy people like us could hike one way on the trail, and then take the train back. Now that's my idea of hiking in the alps.

More train action.

Scenery.

This is me failing at an extreme close up shot.

More scenery.

Another extreme close up.

We hiked to the cable car station, which took us down to the floor of Lauterbrunnen.

Where we found this giant ball of rocks. What the hell?

Lauterbrunnen Valley is very loud. Can you figure out why?

Noisy water.

This is where they shoot the famous alp porn.

Would you like to sleep in that hut?

Nerdtastic fact: J.R.R. Tolkien visited here and used Lauterbrunnen Valley as a model for his original drawings of Rivendell Valley.

In an impossibly beautiful land.

Lush.