Month: July 2012

Stories from the Alps: The Art of Milking Cows

Our hike continued today, and it continued with several encounters of the special kind: cows. Ever since our last trip to Switzerland, my friend and Canadian squirrel imitator had set his mind on wanting to milk a Swiss cow, of which you usually can find plenty in the Alps. (Prior to our tour he even researched on youtube how to do that!) And today, the opportunity finally presented itself. Twice, in fact. The first time, however, my friend got sidetracked and went down exploring a riverbed, leaving me to watch our backpacks. So I used the opportunity to take some pictures. But when I turned around to get a snack from my backpack, I suddenly found myself face to face with big ol’ Miss cow-face. ‘No big deal,’ I thought, ‘as long as she keeps her snotty nose out of my stuff …’ But that wasn’t the intention of Miss snotty cow-face, because as soon as I started chewing on my cracker, she set her mind on chewing just the same – leaving me to …

Stories from the Alps: Of Alpine Puddle Drinks and Other Adventures

Mürren – Gspaltenhornhütte; almost there We hiked today. High into the mountain world of the Swiss alps. A long hike, with lots to discover. Like alpine flowers, ibexes, little pools of icy water, and snow, of course. Lots of snow. Now, if you ask me what all of this has to do with alpine puddle drinks – I can tell you: Nothing, really! Just my dear hiking buddy, the oversized Canadian squirrel (see this post here), tried to convince me that tasting alpine puddle drinks would work miracles in quenching my thirst. Ya, right! Anyways, here’s a look at our tour: The Tour | Day 1: We start out in Interlaken and take the train to Lauterbrunnen. From Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp we take the cable car, and then another train up to Mürren. (By the way, trains and cable car are connected with each other, so that we don’t lose any time switching transportation or figuring out where to go.) Within a few minutes’ walk from the train station, we are surrounded by alpine pastures. …

Of Oversized Canadian Squirrels

I made a discovery today. A new species of some sort. A strange looking creature, reminding me an awful lot of an over-sized squirrel of the Canadian kind, which was trying to escape from our balcony this afternoon. I didn’t even know that oversized Canadian squirrels like to eat unripe German plums, but eh – you never stop learning, right?

Meeting Grace

Today was a somewhat special day for me. I got to make lots of new friends. And those new friends helped me make even more friends. What happened? First, there was Hardy and a couple of guys who are friends with my sister. And soon after we had been introduced to each other, and after Hardy realized that we were quite eloquent English speakers (well, for my Canadian friend who’s been traveling with me that shouldn’t surprise very much), he had an idea. A spontaneous, wonderful, brilliant idea: “Would you like to meet Grace?” Grace is from New Zealand, traveling the world, and after he met her last week, he had learned that while staying with friends in Germany, she had broken her arm the other day. Now Hardy wanted to visit her, to cheer her up a little, and since our English is quite proficient, he asked us if we would join. So, the five of us scrambled into a car to meet Grace, who didn’t really know anyone of us, but who in …

Moving On

School is over, and we have moved on. To Stuttgart, where we spent a fun day together with family and friends. First stop today was the TV Tower in Stuttgart – a very windy affair. Next, we visited the sepuchral chapel on Württemberg mountain. And finally, we ended our day in downtown Stuttgart.

Finish Strong

The last week of classes has begun. At least for this summer. Now, it may seem as if we’re not really studying all that much, with all the places we got to go each weekend. But I assure you, we’ve been working long and hard, and with the end in sight, it’s a rather happy day!