THIS IS IT! The Eiger.
Eiger-Switzerland
Grindelwald First
The views here are from our hotel/restaurant, Grindelwald First.
Cable Car to view Eiger
Grendelwald is the tourist town, access point to some Swiss alps, a famous one- Eiger, made famous in the Clint Eastwood movie “Eiger Sanction”, based on a book by Trevanian. Eiger is among mountain climbers’ top challenges. We stayed atop a 25 minute cable car ride at Grendelwald First, a place with spectacular views, something i recommend you experience. The hotel has a few private rooms but is mostly dormitory style with some inconvenient multi story facilities. Bring a big suitcase filled with cash ready to pay Swiss prices. But as a tick on the bucket list it is well worth it even if you just sit and enjoy the views for a few days. these 3 posts are from this area.
Small Town – St. Gallen, Switzerland
St. Gallen is a very beautiful and old town frequented by tourist. We stopped here to visit a friend who was born in this town and is now living here at least temporarily.
Konstanz (Germany) – Kreuzlingen (Switzerland)
Konstanz, Germany is on a beautiful touristy lake on the border with Switzerland. We found it cheaper to stay across the border 50 meters than to have a hotel near Konstanz station. The Swiss town is Kreuzlingen and as typical with Switzerland everything but the hotel was more expensive than in Germany, double in many instances. We found Konstanz to be a much more beautiful environment as well. A thing to remember is the currency difference. Euros are not used in Switzerland or Liechenstein. They use Swiss Francs. Now the US Dollar, Euro and Swiss Franc are about equal, give or take a few pennies so it’s pretty easy for merchants to accept the neighbor’s currency and make the calculations. Another thing to note is prepaid phone sim cards don’t cross this border without subscribing to some special, and expensive, roaming service. So I just bought a Swiss sim and switched back when back in an EU country. The signal disappears 5 meters from the border. Those phone companies surely are jealous about a few pennies.
Entering Italy, finally
Jumping ahead on the posts to where we are today. A great relaxed feeling stepping off the train from Switzerland, finally on Italy. I just feel so “at home” here; the people, the food, the noise, the excitement and the beauty.
Liechtenstein
I just had to visit Liechtenstein. So we took the bus from Feldkirch and after 45 minutes we arrived in a modern, semi industrial country. The old town was a few “oldish” buildings but obviously this was a Swiss Franc tourist haven for what I am not sure. This country is pretty much protected from it’s long forgotten foes by huge mountains and I am guessing the countryside and especially the mountain areas are the attraction, not forgetting some wannabe millionaires deciding to stash some gold away from their government’s prying tax offices. It seems one main attraction is the 3 Euro passport stamp you can get at some of the tourist shops. Newbie tourists to Europe seem to need that. As for me, my passport fills up soon enough with one page visas Lao, Vietnam and Cambodian governments want to burden you with.
Feldkirch-near Liechtenstein
Staying near Liechtenstein, in Austria, is much cheaper so we stayed in Feldkirch and took a 45 minute ride to Vaduz in Liechtenstein. Feldkirch is a cute city and the decision to stay here was a good one. I will explain more in the Liechtenstein post.
Innsbruck Alpine Zoo
These are all alpine animals
Stockholm part II
