all things cbl

Day 4 was spent entirely in Germany. We slept in (in Frankfurt) and took a train to Rüdesheim. A few stops before Rüdesheim there were a bunch of people that got off. I figured it was for a futbol match since a lot of them were singing and wearing their fancy team colors. Seemed like fun for those that were drinking and able to sing out-of-tune. Finally we made it to Rüdesheim and started walking around the shops near the dock. What a touristy place. There were tons of people doing exactly what we were doing. We eventually stumbled upon this little shop where the shop-owner spoke “little english”. They had some nice hand crafted things. I ended up buying some things to ship back to America. Got a good deal too, I think. I can’t really explain what it is here for fear of ruining Christmas.

We eventually found our way onto the KD boat. It only cost us 3 Euros (for tax) for the whole ride because we had our Eurail passes. Not a bad deal. So we took the Rhine river tour. We sailed downstream until Koblenz, passing a number of quaint villages and towns on either side. The boat made stops all along picking up people and dropping people off. We stayed on the boat until Koblenz, where the ride came to a stop. We had the video camera out and my camera, of course, taking pictures of the beautiful and majestic castles as they adorned the slopes of the Rhine valleys. Lots of Japanese tourists were on our boat ride. Most of them piled up on top in the rear with us.. until the wind started blowing then most went down below deck. We stuck it out for about 3/4 of the way, until the sun was going down, and finally went down into the cabin. The tour on the Rhine was about 4 hours long or so. Eventually in Koblenz we caught the bus to the train station and finally a train back to Frankfurt.

Day 5 was mostly a travel day and exploring Interlaken. We woke up and left our hotel in Frankfurt and caught the 10am ICE train to Basel SBB. That’s the swiss side of Basel for the trains. We caught the connecting train off to Interlaken. Total travel time was about 5 hours in train. Arrived in Interlaken and found our Hotel rather close to Interlaken West train station. Fairly nice room, but no free wireless internet in the rooms, I had to go down and pay 5 swiss francs to use wireless for 24 hours. I think that you can use it longer since they just give you the WPA password. I doubt they change it everyday. Plus, how do they know when my 24 hours are up?

So anyway, we walked around Interlaken this afternoon and checked out the shops. Things here sure are expensive. It’s a tourist trap, that’s for sure. 1 USD = 1.12 Swiss Franc. We found some sweet marble sets made out of wood. They’re about $125 USD here, I sent a message to Leslie and she checked online and in the states they’re about $199. Sheesh. Not sure if I’d like them that much, but they sure are fun.
Check them out here. There are a bunch of sets you can add on to the original. Awesome, I know.

It was a bit cloudy this afternoon so there isnt much we can see of the mountains behind us. Hopefully, tomorrow the sun will drive the clouds away and we’ll take the train up to the top of Jungfraujoch and if not we’ll go hit up Mt. Pilatus at Lucerne (Luzern). I want to hit Jungrfraujoch one day and Pilatus the other day. We’ll probably spend Wednesday evening in Bern waiting for our midnight train to Rome. We have a night train so we can (hopefully) sleep and not waste a day traveling by train. I plan on stocking up on Swiss Chocolate and other things in Bern since things are soo expensive here in Interlaken.

More later..