OK, OK, where to start?... our last day in venice!
we stored our things in the station and wandered around venice with the sole aim of eating all the yummy looking pastries we could find. this ended up only being 3 pastries, but THAT WAS ENOUGH! they were yum. we also went a-wandering, looking for a lonely planet reccomendation for dinner. (no, we hadn't learned our lesson). and we looked. and looked. and it REALLY WASN'T THERE. but THEN we wandered over a canal, and then a few blocks further, and then... THERE IT WAS!!! Ae Oche, where the pizzas are HUGE HUGE HUGE and it took us 45 minutes to eat them. the night train was fine - no gassings or muggings or snorers or stinkers, and only one person from our compartment got hauled off at the swiss border control! ate breakfast with the alps and lakes rolling past. bloody beautiful. amazing. GROUSE.
we arrived in zurich with no idea of what we were going to do. however, as our sole reason for coming was to see heidi's town, we jumped straight on a train to maienfeld... we didn't know if there were hotels or... anything, really. we just went. (not before we saw a vending machine with uno... AND DUEL MONSTERS!!!)... at the station, the info man put us on a shuttle bus, and that man took us to a place called Schlaf im Stroh. (remember, we understood very little of what was going on... crazy swiss german!)... it means, as we found out, SLEEP IN STRAW. and the beds were literally, STRAW. which the farmer, max (who wore a singlet and overalls), made for us. with a pitchfork. yep. HILARIOUS!
we headed off up the mountain to look for heidialp - the alm-uncle's house. it took us almost 2 hours of hiking to get there, and it was worth every last drop of sweat to drink the pure mountain spring water, and look out over the meadows full of wildflowers, and listen to the pines and cowbells, and gape at the snow capped mountains and drink the very large beer provided by one of the old geezers up there (not the very beardy man, though he WAS hilarious!)... wow! childhood dream fulfilled (not the beardy man part, the heidi's pasture part!)...
slept. in straw! had 2 others in room - one snorer who was instantly forgiven when they turned out to be japanese and like yugioh!!! YAY!
went to heidi museum today, then jumped on train... and another... and another... and eventually got back to zurich, where the really LOVELY customer service people reserved a room at the city backpacker hostel, which is where we are now... we have also seen millions of giant teddy bears (2005 is the year of the teddy or something), and people fishing bicycles out of the river. very very strange. we think zurich is the japan of europe. we are staying in the red light district, apparently, but all the nightclubs look very clean and rather like tanning salons. interesting.
tomorow we are going to catch another night train to vienna.
we just went for a walk and saw an outback pub. it has phrases on it like: extra grouse! and just beaut! ... and That's a Peg! ... what does it even mean???
we like zurich. we LOVE SWITZERLAND and if it wasn't so f'ing expensive, we'd live here for ever!!!... and of course we would miss you all, too!
Hello danracheltravel,
ReplyDeleteWell, doesn't it all sound fun...though expensive. Ah well, ce la vie! You only live once, they say ...and then you escape from the ninth gate, wade down the river of Death and emmerge back into the world, becoming a horrible undead thing wandering eternally in search of living essence to sup on (In which case, joyfully sauntering though Europe in the summertime with a loved one may be out of the question...) Yes indeed.
Your story about sleeping in straw was rather amusing...though it made me feel itchy and sneezy just thinking about it.
The real hand-biting-off-thingy is obviously much bigger than the faux one in Tiamo's (correct rsturant?), unless Europe is making you shrink, Rachel. What a cute picture though...You look very tanned and well. Where as I, alas, look like I've got tuberculosis (YAY!).
By the way, everything is going well with 'Hugo' and Rita. Thanks for the msg about that! Hopefully Film Vic will cough up and all our work will pay off.
Miss you guys!
Jonny S. (All the boys and girls want a sliver of Switchblade)
PS: One of my colleages, Gen, tells me she has met the entire LoTR cast! She went on a pilgramidge to New Zealand with one of her cousins. She met Andy Sirkis SEVERAL times and says he is lovely and much less golum-y in real life.
Hello!
ReplyDeleteoh wow, jonny, why do you tell THEM about andy serkis lovin' and not me! they don't even *care* about andy, what with heidi and straw and beer drinking, etc; whereas all i have to amuse me in my long interflora days is when the name andy turns up on a card msg and a little voice in my head goes "oop! that could be andy serkis!" and i smile. hee hee hee. yeah, anyway.
so, chaps, swizerland. do please try and spread some vicious gossip about my sister while you're there. like that she's a slytherin, a smelly fart, a mullet loving freak, etc etc. be inventive. try and include some bad english-swiss german translations in there. just for fun!
ok, i'm dead tired. half asleep. went to koko black tonight with paola - reminded me of one of your last days in the country. mmm, hot chocolate. is. yum.
ok... will be off now. see what young genna is up to downstairs.
love,
est von grr
xxx
ps. email me! call me! write me! postcards! wigs! letters! random foodstuffs in the mail!
'Sup guys. Got back from valencia and Spain. Kinda rocked. We even trecked up this mountain thing. That was cool. When you guys back? TTYL
ReplyDeleteJ