Our life in Switzerland

S American Challenge

2011-12-16T21:52:00.000+01:00

Dear Readers!

Since our last challenges seemed too easy for some of you, we decided to make this one a little harder.

What you need to do this time is to find which is the ODD ONE OUT in each of the pictures (TALALD MEG A KAKUKK TOJAST):

1. Faces of Salvador:

2. Inhabitants of the S. American rainforest:

3. Samba Girls:

4. Tiles of Escaderia Selaron:

5: BONUS: Find the greeting we use here every day:

And just to give you some incentive to try hard, we have some nice souvenirs for you:

Looking forward to receiving your answers...and give away our gifts,

Good luck,

Krisztina, Zoli and Gulliver

Rio Top 10 - 1. Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar)

2011-11-06T09:52:00.010+01:00

Since Rio is a very special city - it must be true that the Creator did NOT rest on the 7th day, but he was working on the landscape of Rio - we decided to write our journal of Rio in a special format.

Important Note: the list is NOT ordered by importance but by the order we did these!

The Top 10 of Rio:

1. Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar)

We started our 9-day stay in Rio with one if not the most famous sights:

But before going up, we took a walk in the trendy neighborhood of Urca just below Urca and Sugarloaf mountains

where we took a snack at the Urca Bar - recommended to us by our carioca friends and frequented almost exclusively by cariocas. We did not manage to blend in, but we did manage to get some very delicious snacks and some caipirinhas the way the locals (cariocas) have it: with lots of cachaça and lime and not too much ice.

After handing around at a beach just below Sugarloaf mountain, we took the two-stage cable car up:

The first cable car takes you up Urca mountain from where you already have an incredible view on the city - unfortunately it was a little foggy :-(

and the city-beaches around: here Botafogo and Flamingo and the business district at a distance (left to right):

The second cable car zooms you up Sugarloaf mountain rising majestically behind

Unfortunately by the time we got up, the clouds started to close up the sky, but nonetheless, the view was still amazing, and we managed to get a few nice shots:

As the clouds completely gathered around Sugarloaf mountain, we went back to Urca mountain to enjoy the view after sunset, and take some night-time photos of Rio, where the fog and clouds that annoyed us so much before made these photos even more spectacular - and also Christ the Redeemer on top of Corcovado made his appearance from time to time:

All photos from Rio de Janeiro

Rio Top 10 - 2. Downtown Rio and Lapa

2011-11-05T10:59:00.026+01:00

2. Downtown Rio and Lapa - (must go also at night)

Since we went to the business district of Rio on a Sunday, it was completely deserted but otherwise very much reminded us to Manhattan NYC, with straight streets lined with skyscrapers (and just like in NYC, some mess down below on the streets):

But let's not forget that it only takes some speakers (well lots of them, and load ones - regardless whether in cars or stage) to transform the same place into a party scene:

Just by the business district, the Catedral Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro is situated. Its Conical form is fairly unusual for a church,

but nonetheless impressive and with its almost 100 metres internal diameter, overall height of 75 metres and about 65 meters high windows it is very spacious and inviting (it has a standing-room capacity of 20,000 people).

The cathedral is nicely lit at night, even though the pope might reconsider visiting for the 3rd time when seeing the pink-ish colour:

*sorry for pic quality, but we decided not to take our camera here at night, so pics made with a phone

Walking around the downtown area, the view of the public about police presence and public policy was expressed fairly clearly:

Avoiding to hang around too much in this very "inviting" area, we headed to Lapa, known for its lively cultural life, concentrating many restaurants and bars where Brazilian artists and intellectuals meet. It was, and still is, famous for its many restaurants, bars and clubs where the various forms of Brazilian music can be appreciated.

The icon of Lapa is Arcos da Lapa, an impressive aqueduct constructed in the mid-18th century by colonial authorities:

However, the best time to go to Lapa is at night, preferably with a local (carioca) - thanks Bruno.
Otherwise while being very careful which street you take, it is still "doable" as a Gringo (foreigner) as well (do not pay attention to wikitravel, they are greatly exaggerating - but still do take care).

*sorry for pic quality, but we decided not to take our camera here at night, so pics made with a phone

The neighbourhood of Lapa really comes alive at night - to an extent we just could not imagine when visiting during daytime - the streets being still full of people partying even at 3AM when we started to head back to Copacabana.

Bruno was kind enough to take us out on a night as the cariocas do to the very fancy and popular (the line at the entrance was a few hundred meters long) Scenarium

We had a great time, feeling welcome regardless of us being gringos (foreigners): my mistake of taking a shirt saying "Salvador" did not go unnoticed though... several people bringing to my attention that my skin colour just (even though I already had quite a tan at the time) did not match Bahia...

Side story: Bruno - a real Rio carioca - is Fabio's brother and Deborah's brother-in-law, whom we met here in Zug, through this blog actually, when they searched google for tips on their next travel to India, and learning we are also in Zug, we went out together. Then the coincidences continued when we said we are going to Brazil and learning that they are not only from Brazil but actually from Rio. So we got a lot of useful insider tips and met Bruno as well.)

All photos from Rio de Janeiro

Rio Top 10 - 3. Santa Teresa

2011-11-04T11:45:00.054+01:00

From Lapa (see previous post) just a staircase (Escaderia Selaron) away

lies the trendy neighborhood of Santa Teresa, famous for its winding, narrow streets

which are a favourite spot for artists, also street artists:

In contradiction to guidebooks, Santa Teresa felt perfectly safe even for gringos, even though it is situated between several favelas (see behind)

We found Santa Teresa to be a lovely neighbourhood with a lively artistic community and friendly people, nice houses on hillsides with lots of vegetation around

and also great views, especially from Parque das Ruinas, with great scenic spots overlooking:
- Downtown Rio with the Cathedral and Arcos da Lapa aqueduct

- Guanabara Bay with Sugarloaf mountain behind

- and surrounding favelas of course

Side Info: a historic tram used to ride through Santa Teresa, but due to an accident this summer, its operation was halted for investigation and (hopefully) full renovation.

In conclusion, we would recommend visiting this area for anyone who wants to see a little more of Rio than only its beaches and obvious landmarks (Sugarloaf and Corcovado).

All photos from Rio de Janeiro

Rio Top 10 - 4. Visit a Favela

2011-11-03T11:47:00.048+01:00

No visit to Rio is complete without visiting a favela. Favelas are shanty towns in Brazil, which appeared in Rio on hillsides threatened by landslides.

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro

Since rich people did not want to build here, land was cheap enough for migrants to settle. However, the landslides have since been brought down and thus in Rio - unlike anywhere on earth, the poorest have the best views:

Due to complete lack of any form of urban planning and also due to the difficult terrain, favelas are chaotic and almost completely lack streets or roads

...people getting home mostly on narrow gangways and lots of stairs

Just imagine that Rocinha, the favela we visited has between 80-100.000 residents

and it has only ONE SINGLE ROAD!

But one road going in and out of the favela is very practical for "some sort of business" practised to great extent over here, since it means it is very easy to control who goes in and out of the favela.

A look from above aids at better understanding of the scale of this favela

View Larger Map

However, contrary to what we expected, we did NOT find poverty in favelas, most people having electricity, running water and relatively decent living conditions with kids watching Tom and Jerry

All photos from Rio de Janeiro

Rio Top 10 - 5. Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and Rio Botanical Gardens

2011-11-02T11:48:00.056+01:00

When the Creator was working on the landscape of Rio (on the 7th day as I was saying earlier), he said to himself: "wait a minute, I created all the hills and mountains, gave like 50 of the 100 best beaches in the world to this city. But hey, just to be on the safe side: how about topping that with a huge lagoon. Bam! In the middle of the city - where the mountains that I just created could surround it.

So this is how I imagine Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas could have been born.

The Lagoon is a nice area for practicing all kinds of outdoor sports, attracting quite a number of visitors

and locals as well.

The lagoon will host several events for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Situated between the Lagoon and the Corcovado mountain lies the Rio Botanical Gardens,

...one of the most beautiful and best preserved green areas in the city, a nice example of the diversity of south american flora.

Due to its location, the Botanical Gardens offer nice view of Rio's most famous landmark

All photos from Rio de Janeiro

Rio Top 10 - 6. Vista chinesa

2011-11-01T11:51:00.015+01:00

Less known to tourist and therefore much less crowded than Corcovado or Sugarloaf mountain and frequented rather by Brazilians, the Vista Chinesa

offer marvelous views of the city and one of the very few spots where you can get Corcovado with the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf mountain and Pedra Bonita into one single (may I say amazing) shot:

And apparently we were not the only ones inspired by the view:

All photos from Rio de Janeiro

Rio Top 10 - 7. Hang-gliding / Paragliding above Rio

2011-10-31T11:53:00.188+01:00

Few experiences surpass that of a hang-gliding / paragliding flight from the top of the Pedra Bonita to the sands of the Praia do Pepino in the São Conrado neighbourhood.

Our first step towards the edge of the mountain opened up a breathtaking view of Rio de Janeiro. We couldn't believe, we were really just about to jump from the cliff. An incredible landscape was lying beneath us:

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro

“Now, run, run run, don't stop”, we got the instructions. It was a real adrenaline rush jumping off the runway and feeling how the ground left our feet and our gliders safely started to float in the wind.

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro

We had many cool experiences in our lives (like the white water rafting at Iguacu Falls we did few days earlier), but nothing compares to the incredible feeling you have while flying over Rio de Janeiro, and seeing the mountains of São Conrado and the beautiful coastline of Brazil at a bird's eye view.

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro

Some people say that Rio de Janeiro is a city where you can do just about everything without ever leaving the city. Whether it is on water, land or in the air, the possibilities are almost endless.
For adventurous travellers, hang-gliding in Rio is a great chance to explore the city from above. For "experienced" adventurous travellers, it is an ever greater adventure to actually control the flight, making slow turns all by herself. As "already" had experience with paragliding, I was offered a crash course to improve my skills :-))

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro

Our ride was unfortunately over way too fast, the 15 minutes felt as it had been compressed down to 30 seconds. Just like many other times when we did cool things in our lives, all we could think was “Let's do it again!”

All photos from Rio de Janeiro

Rio Top 10 - 8. Samba school

2011-10-30T11:55:00.077+01:00

As anyone knows, samba belongs to Brazil and especially Rio just like pizza and pasta to Italy. Unfortunately we could not schedule our travels to Rio during the carnival, but we decided visit a samba school during a rehearsal for the big event.

We went to visit the Salgueiro one of the most successful samba schools in Rio. Just like everything here, events started close to midnight when little children should long be in bed sleeping - but not in Rio, here the young generation is also getting fit and ready for the carnival:

The night began with separate "shows" by individual performers:
- some funny:

-others sexy:

but all very entertaining and spectacularly dancing:

In the break between rehearsals, I decided to get to "familiarize myself with the locals"...:

During the entire time the drums were reverberrating in our head from the band beating literally hundreds of drums from the balcony:

I am afraid that even though we got handouts with the lyrics of the carnival anthem of Salgueiro and even though we listened to it again and again during the practice, we still did not learn it...so we might have to go back...

After the break the scene changed a bit, as the practice for the actual carnival parade began, dancers wearing those amazingly beautiful

... and extremely revealing costumes:

At about 4am we were exhausted and ready to leave the favela and go back, even though the samba school was still "on fire", the cariocas showing no sign of getting tired or sleepy.

All in all, a visit to the samba school was definitely worth it and I finally found the hiding place of those sexy Brazilian girls that you see on TV...

Rio Top 10 - 9. Niteroi

2011-10-29T12:02:00.045+02:00

The city of Niteroi close to Rio is worth a visit if you got the time, if not for its beaches, than at least for the Museum of Modern Art, (the flying soucer to the right):

Laying just on the opposite side of the bay from Rio, Niteroi offers one of the most amazing views of Rio's landscape, here from the Museum of Modern Art:

Being a univercity city, Niteroi is full of young people and life, who regularly take a dip or go surfing between classes:

To avoid the crowds and the turists, we went to a far (actually further away than we thought) beach, called Itacoatiara, an off the beaten track beach between huge rocks and vegetation:

We spent a relaxed day on this beach:

feeling very welcome regardless of us being probably the only gringos around and regardless the fact that unlike my brother-in-law, I did not join the Brazilian football team for beating the Argentineans :-)

I decided to enjoy the view instead:

At the end of this day, upon returning by ferry to Rio, nature offerred us a great surpise: one of the most amazing sunsets we have ever seen, with Rio' magnificent landscape revealing itself in a new light...

All photos from Rio de Janeiro

Rio Top 10 - 10. Beaches in and around Rio

2011-10-28T12:00:00.068+02:00

Due to the nature of the coastline, Rio has an incredible number of urban beaches:

from the most popular but somehow touristy COPACABANA with great caipirinhas:

to the more fashionable and trendy IPANEMA suitable for surfers of all ages:

and our "landing strip" for paragliding and hand gliding: SAO CONRADO

as well as the green FLAMINGO with views of Sugar Loaf Mountain:

However, if you are looking for some more remote beaches with untouched nature around, there are also a lot of beaches around Rio, such as the the numerous beaches

on the island of Ilha Grande:

or on one of the many smaller islands in that area:

All photos from Rio de Janeiro

Rio Top 10 - 11. Statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Mountain

2011-10-27T21:03:00.126+02:00

No matter how hard we tried, we could not "fit" Rio into a top 10 without leaving out anything, so LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST:

Nr. 11 of Rio Top 10: the Statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Mountain.

Even though we have seen the statue of Christ the Redeemer every day for more than a week, standing at the feet of the statue was just one of those moments that you will never forget and which rewards you for such trips. We spent 10 days in Rio, but due to the constant weather changes and thin layer of fog covering the city almost all the time, it wasn't until our very last evening that we got to have a close look at the famous Christ the Redeemer statue.

As we were walking up the final steps the tension was building in us...

Nevertheless it was worth waiting for the best moment: from up the Corcovado Mountain, on a clear day, you can see almost the whole city, from the downtown business district to the famous beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana:

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro

It also has one of the best views of Sugar Loaf Mountain, one of the greatest landmarks of the city:

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro

Not that this would have ever been up to debate, we also took our little friend Gulliver with us, who enjoyed the view just as we did, posing with joy as we took pictures ("Beat THIS Ungaretti Bear!")

Since we had "all the time in the world" as we decided not to take the cogwheel train as most tourists do, but to take alternative means of transport, we could stay up long enough to see the statue
- in bright daylight (I mean backlight):

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro

- just before sunset:

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro

- at sunset:

- and during twilight being illuminated by spotlights:

Meanwhile it was getting dark and time to go (and let go) but not before a last glimpse at the magnificent view of Rio by night:

Visiting Corcovado mountain was a great highlight and proper ending to our extended stay in Rio. We can't recall spending 10 days in a row visiting one country, not to mention one city. But this city "deserved" special attention, being a truly Cidade Maravilhosa.

All pictures from Rio De Janeiro

Brazilian cuisine

2011-10-27T16:42:00.540+02:00

One of the reasons we love traveling so much is the opportunity to try the authentic food specialties with mysterious names, such as acarajé, pastel, moqueca, cocada, caipirinha – they all sound very exotic and delicious, no matter if they are main dishes, snacks or alcoholic drinks :-)

Just like the differences among the local cultures in the various parts of Brazil (from Salvador de Bahia in the north-east to Foz de Iguacu and Rio in the south) we found the Brazilian cuisine very diverse with plenty of delicious tastes to enjoy. Therefore we decided to dedicate an entire blog entry to the Flavors of Brazil and give some advice to our friends who might be traveling there in the near future.

Drinks & Snacks

Let’s start with the most popular (and important) one: Caipirinha, which is of course THE official drink! In Brazil they make it with various fruits; we tried several flavors such as kiwi, passion fruit or mixed fruit, but found the original one with lime the best. The main difference compared to the “light” version sold in Europe is, that Brazilians do not serve it as a glass of ice with a little cachaça, but as a glass of very strong cachaça with couple of cubes of ice... and the very best versions are the cheapest ones, sold to the locals on the streets!

As shown in the picture, it goes extremely well with pastel (sort of deep fried stuffed pastry), which is very popular in Rio.

Rio is a great place to explore various snack specialities, such as: Pao de queijo (cheese balls), aipim frito (fried manioc), bolinhos (stuffed with meat or prawns) - all very delicious and can be found practically at every corner. The good thing about the snacks in Brazil is, that you can not get it wrong:

no matter what you order, you will always end of with a delicious plate in front of you - even if you have no idea what's on it - like on the picture to the right.

For non alcoholic drinks, there are few really good local specialties, such as the national soft drink – Guaraná or our favorite, the coconut water - Coco, sold mainly at the beach.

Gulliver’s favorite was however the Acai, a famous amazonian fruit/drink (a little too sweet for our taste though).

Bahian Cuisine

Salvador has its own cuisine, dominated by lots of sea food. Within a few days, we have tried such a variety of shrimp specilities (grilled, fried, stewed,...) that we've never seen in our lives.

Another version of seafood is the local speciality called moqueca, a stew cooked and served in a large bowl, consisting of a combination of seafood (there are many different types of moquecas) stewed in coconut milk and palm oil.

One of our favorites however was the local snack speciality, sold everywhere on the streets: the acarajé.

It is basically a deep-fried "bread" (made of mashed

beans), deep fried in palm oil and served with vatapá (a paste made from shrimp, peanuts, cashews, coconut milk and pal oil), pimenta (hot pepper sauce), camarão (small shrimps) and mixed diced salad.

As the region of Salvador has a lot of cocos and sugar cane, no wonder that these became the basic ingredients of the cocada - sort of a coconut sweet, made in various colors and flavors, all very sweet (in the pictures below 1. served with coconut pudding, 2. the most popular, dried version):

And finally, a practical tip for those looking for an excellent place to try Bahian food in Salvador: we can highly recommend the Senac Restaurant at Largo de Pelourinho (even though located in the historical center, there were many locals and the prices were also not too touristic...)

Churrascaria (Brazilian Steakhouse)

Our favorite in Brazil: a Churrascaria is a restaurant serving authentic Brazilian barbecue in very special way. We tried it first in Foz de Iguacu (Churrascaria Branco, worth trying it!), later in Rio again (in the very famous chain of Porcao). The "serving" style is as follows: first, you start with filling up your plate with side dishes, vegetables, or exquisite salad varieties from a huge and extremely delicious-looking buffet.

Then, the servers move around the restaurant with skewers, slicing meat (mainly beefstake, pork, lamb and chicken, grilled on long skewers) onto your plate.

What makes it really special is, that the barbecue is always served fresh off the grill and you can choose which one would you like to try (you have to be careful though, as there are so many different kinds of meat served that you might only get a second chance for the same type of meat in couple of hours again)

Our favorite combination was the barbecue with grilled pineapple (also moved around by the servers on skewers) and fried banana.

... and imagine this going on and on and on ... until you’re completely saturated (not only your belly, but also your eyes). Then it's time for your piece of bite to complete your dinner: a slice of lime cake! Yammm!

Rodizio versus Porquilo

Both names stand for large buffer resturants, very popular in Brazil. The main difference between the two is, that "Rodizio" buffets are considered all you can eat, while "Porquilo" means that you pay by the weight of your plate.

The best thing about it is, that offers you the opportunity to try out all the local dishes at a very reasonable price. Like for example the Feijoada, a meat and bean based dish very popular in Rio de Janeiro, also considered as the main national dish (which, by the way, is very similar to the so called Hungarian "Csulkos bableves", in a thicker version).
We have also discovered another similarity to a food we always considered "typical Hungarian": the "vinettasalata" :-))

Another delicious dish we found was a combination of pumpkin and beef stew, in a spicy sauce (on the left). Unfortunately we do not know its name, but already tried at home and turned out very similar to what we had in Brazil (for a very good price, we may even sell the receipe)

All in all, we found the Brazilian food very vibrant and rich, just like the people themselves. And herewith we'd like to thank also to our friends Deborah and Fabio for the great tips, without their local advise we'd have probably missed many of these enjoyable culinary and cultural experiences.

Iguaçu Falls - Argentinian side...

2011-10-26T10:46:00.002+02:00

For visiting the Argentinian side of the falls (where most of the falls are located) we took the local bus to Puerto Iguazu (unlike most tourists) thereby getting a small glimpse into rural Argentina:

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

Once at the falls, one can choose between several trails to take. We started with the trail of Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo) which we've seen previous day from a different perspective from the Brazilian side. It was amazing to see that just a few meters from the falls the water is so calm

... that one would not imagine the hell getting loose at the Devil's Throat:

What makes the Iguacu Falls special is that besides the great and wide falls, there are hundreds of smaller (everything is relative) falls - 275 discrete falls in total - with lots of greenery inbetween:

A second trail lead us to a different parts of the falls, away from the Devil's Throat, on the upper edge of a series of falls

The lower circuit offered a different perspective of the Argentinian side, with palm trees making their contribution to a perfect picture:

A full panorama of the entire width of the Iguacu Falls makes you appreciate the magnitude of the falls (the Devil's throat can be seen far at the left side):

The lower trail also offers some close-up viewpoints of the falls, a great and very wet experience:

Once at the end of the lower trail, we took the "Nautical experience", a speedboat which took us literally below the falls:

Now some practical travel advice: Unlike a lot of tourist agents might try to convince you otherwise, both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides can be easily visited without taking any kind of organized tour. Most agents will try to convince you that crossing the border to Argentina is so complicated and you will loose so much time by taking public transport... However we learned that taking public transport from Foz do Iguacu is not only much cheaper than organized tours and gives you the opportunity to meet locals but is also very effective - though maybe not the most comfortable - as well.
All in all we were very pleasantly surprised at how well the visiting of the falls is made accessible without being over-organized and while keeping the nature as much as possible intact (Unlike the casinos built just besides the Niagara Falls, shame shame, shame).

All pictures from the Iguacu Falls (both sides)

Iguaçu Falls - Brazilian side...

2011-10-24T10:03:00.195+02:00

After visiting the Iguaçu Falls, we have no doubt why they are considered one of the greatest natural wonders in the world. In comparison with the Niagara, which we have visited few years ago while working in the US, Iguaçu Falls have an incredible magnitude. Both are great with valid reasons, but they are very different: Niagara Falls is commercialized and developed, while Iguaçu is in the middle of a jungle.

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

Many people say that the Iguaçu Falls is best to be seen from the Argentinian side. After spending one day both at the Brazilian and Argentian side, our opinion is: both sides MUST be visited to fully experience the magnitude of this natural wonder and see a million different views of the Iguaçu Falls.

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

But let's start with our first day, which we spent on the Brazilian side. In the morning we headed off from Foz de Iguaçu with the local bus, taking us directly to the entrance of the National Park. We first visited the Birds Park, walking down jungle trails full of exotic birds...

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

... when Gulliver suddenly decided, it was time to make some new friends, sticking his head out of our backpack. However, he was not prepared that South American ladies are quite impulsive. Thus it didn't take more than 2 seconds to being "attacked" by a colorful and very curious toucan lady.

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

After Gulliver has recovered from his encounter with the toucan, we headed towards the Iguaçu National Park, where we have been welcomed by the park’s most popular residents, the raccoon-like Coatis.

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

After a quick lunch stop with the Coatis (surrounding our table while eating and trying to steal the food from our plates - with more or less success :-), we set off to explore the Brazilian side of the Falls. It is not as big as the Argentinian side, but it has the better panoramic views:

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

We walked down the walkway for a closeup of the largest and most impressive waterfall, the thunderous Devil's Throat ("La Garganta del Diablo", a 82m height and 150m wide cataract).

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

We were amazed by the size of the falls and the power of the water, and then we realized that we were only looking at a small fraction of it - as we walked further, we noticed giant falls all over with tons and tons of water flying over them...

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

For a personal and more adventurous experience with the Falls, we decided to do something special... and signed up for a thrilling white water rafting adventure below the Falls and down the Iguaçu river:

From S AMERICA - Foz do Iguaçu

It was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives...

The next day we continued to explore the Argentinian side of the Iguaçu Falls (but more about this in our next blog spot)

All pictures from the Iguacu Falls (both sides)

Beach Escapes from Salvador

2011-10-23T10:40:00.117+02:00

After all the excitement of our arrival to Brazil and first day in Salvador, we decided it was time to check out the Bahian beaches and relax for couple of days before heading further to the Iguacu Falls and Rio.

We planned our first day-trip to a little further up the coast from Salvador - to Praia do Forte, a very nice, pedestrian-only walkway with cute little shops, cozy restaurants, bars and boutiques.

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

Not too long ago, this place was a small fishermen´s village off the beaten track. Until the Tamar Turtle conservation project was started, an ecological initiative meant to protect the sea turtles which come ashore to lay their eggs. Unfortunately we were not lucky enough to see tiny turtles leaving their eggs, but have learned something about the various kinds of sea turtles swimming around in the pools.

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

As the weather became rainy in the afternoon, we had to wait with our first swim in the ocean until the following day... Nevertheless, we enjoyed our time at the beach-side by playing with falling coconuts...

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

... and exploring Bahian food specialities (sea food plate):

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

The next day we woke up on a nice sunny weather and immediately decided to take the ferry from Salvador to the beautiful Island of Itaparica.

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

White-sand beaches and warm water, we found the right place for perfect relaxation to spend a lazy day at, just enjoying the sunshine and swimming in the ocean... recharging ourselves with new energy for our next adventures - Iguacu Falls!

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

Our full photo album on Bahia (Salvador and Beach escapes)

Salvador de Bahia

2011-10-21T12:17:00.150+02:00

After a long flight we arrived a little bit tired, but full of excitement and expectations to Salvador de Bahia.

Following some rest in our hotel's pool...

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

... we headed off to explore the downtown and historic area of Salvador. Very specific to Salvador is that the downtown area is divided into:

a lower city

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

and an upper city

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

linked by the Lacerna elevator

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

We started our sightseeing in the lower city wondering between the stalls of the Mercado Modelo, something like a great bazar of Salvador, where we found a lot of very nice handicrafts and souvenirs:

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

As the weather started to clear, we took the elevator up to the historic centre called Pelourinho, a UNESCO site.

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

Pelourinho is extremely rich in historical monuments dating from the 17th through the 19th centuries, Salvador being the first colonial capital of Brazil and the city is one of the oldest in the "New World".

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

We found Pelourinho to be an area full of life and very colourful

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

with a very live musical culture which we exprerienced first hand when meeting the famous band OLODUM

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

...well known from their collaboration with Michael Jackson✝for the hit "They Don't Care About Us", filmed mostly here in Pelourinho:

In the meantime the younger generation was practicing with heart and soul on the streets:

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

Walking the streets of Salvador, everywhere we met friendly and smiling people making the colorful streets of Salvador even more colorful:

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

The heart of the historic center is Largo de Pelourinho echoing the sounds of the drums being played everywhere...

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

On this square we had an amazing lunch of Bahian cuisine in the Senac restaurant which we can highly recommend if you are around (But more about that in a future blog entry about Brazilian food).

Of course Salvador is more than just the historic center of Pelourinho, so we decided to extend our perimeter and visit less known parts of the city as well, getting a glimpse of a different aspect of Bahian life, the one lived in the Favelas of the city:

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

After some days on the beaches around Salvador (see next post) we returned to Pelourinho at night for a Bahian folk show:

From S AMERICA - BRAZIL - Salvador

The highlight of it being an amazing Capoeira show:

All pics and videos from Salvador

South America, a new continent on our travel map

2011-10-20T12:05:00.028+02:00

With our latest travel adventures in Brazil & Argentina (well, only a tiny, but beautiful "corner" of Argentina at the Iguacu Falls) we welcome a new continent on our Travel Map: South America! 39 countries so far (not counting mere layovers or drive-throughs) and we hope the list will continue to extend :D

Yes, we had another great adventure and of course we will have again new challenges and Brazilian prices to win for our blog readers within the next weeks! Blog entries and photos coming soon...

Via ferrata (Klettersteig) adventures

2011-10-02T18:18:00.001+02:00

During the summer we had a few weekends "empty" without anything planned.

Obviously we couldn't leave it that way, so we had two unforgettable last-minute-planned via ferratas (if you don't know what that is you haven't really paid attention to our blog...)

Since we were already confident in our skills after a few climbs, we decided to climb a K4 difficulty, 700m high wall, the amazing Fürenwand:

From Engelberg, the eldorado of via ferrata

As the photos taken show, it was quite a challenging climb, most of it being one vertical wall:

From Engelberg, the eldorado of via ferrata

while just so that we don't get bored during an easy climb, mother nature decided to treat us with some water effects:

as we climbed higher and higher the view down below got scarier and scarier

and just before reaching the top, the route had another great surprise, a pretty high and pretty swinging ladder

However, the joy of the last steps to the top:

and the view made up for our efforts:

And finally, as a surprise present, we were rewarded with an amazing lake or rather pond (unfortunately it was too cold to take a plunge):

which offered us one of the best photo spots ever:

The next of those blank calendar weekends, we went for a climb of only "K3 -K4" difficulty that was supposed to be "like a walk in the park" compared to the previous climb...well it wasn't a walk in the park (but more on that later).

So this climb was inbetween two "branches" of the Steingletscher (black rock in the middle):

From Steingletscher

The overall climb was again about 700m in altitude split into:

an "easy" K3 section:

with views on the western "branch" of the Steingletscher:

a middle section of a short walk towards the eastern branch of the Steingletscher,

where Krisztina decided to take matters -sorry mountains - into her own hands - sorry between her legs:

and a surprisingly technical K4 section:

But the big surprise awaited us on top of the climb: the Steingletscher in all its beauty:

Some lucky bastards were lucky enough to have a place to sleep overnight (on the left side of the photo):

but not us, we had a painful descent ahead of us...one of those spots down there being our car we had to get to:

and this was the part we underestimated a bit, as the descent was almost as difficult - at least for our knees - as the climb.
But overall it was just another wonderful day in the alps.... highly recommend to everyone.

The two albums:

Fürenwand:

Steingletscher:

Exploring the Alpine passes and Wallis...

2011-09-09T11:37:00.023+02:00

During my parents' visit in August, we set off on a Saturday morning for a weekend trip to Wallis.

From Wallis (Leukerbad &amp; Val d'Anniviers)

The drive itself - over the alpine passes - was quite an experience already, especially when realizing in the middle of the Grimsel pass, that we only had gas for 10 kms (while the GPS was showing the first gas station 16 kms away...) Well, the driver (Zoli) had to slow down (which was quite unusual :-), but at least helped us reach the first gas station...)

As we arrived to Leukerbad (one of the largest thermal spa and wellness resorts in the Alps) we took the cablecar up to the Gemmi pass for a panorama of the valley:

From Wallis (Leukerbad &amp; Val d'Anniviers)

... and to take a walk at 2300m around the mountain lake Daubensee:

From Wallis (Leukerbad &amp; Val d'Anniviers)

To get hungry enough for our Swiss Roesti dinner, we continued with another long walk along the thermal canyon walk path, leading to the Dala gorge of Leukerbad.

From Wallis (Leukerbad & Val d'Anniviers)

It's been a long day, so next morning was time for us to spend a few relaxing hours in the thermal bath before heading towards Val d'Anniviers, also known as the "hunnic Swiss valley", where some of the inhabitants are considered the descendants of the Hunnish tribes and had as their closest relatives the Hungarians.

From Wallis (Leukerbad &amp; Val d'Anniviers)

The valley, with a landscape of Alpine wilderness and sun-blackened houses with rich flower decoration is truly picturesque and definitely worth a visit.

From Wallis (Leukerbad &amp; Val d'Anniviers)

It seemed like a great area for hiking and climbing, panoramic mountain tours or skiing, so we will surely return once to explore the beauties of the valley. However, the time was too short this time and we had to return home. On the way back, we took another route - over the Furka pass, one of the most impressive alpine crossing in Switzerland - just to ensure Zoli doesn't get too bored while driving :-)).

From Alpine Passes

As we reached the Hotel Bélvèdere, our view opened up to the Rhone Glacier and we were soon standing in front of another natural beauty well worth seeing: the Ice Grotto, allowing visitors to take a look inside the glacier. An amazing experience, but also very sad: the ice grotto moves together with the glacier apx 10 cm per day downstream, due to which the cave needs to be cut back in the glacier every year.

From Alpine Passes

You can visit our full albums here:
Alpine Passes
Wallis

Long weekend in Italy - Part 2: Pompeii & Vesuvius

2011-09-08T21:21:00.213+02:00

On our third day in Napoli we took the Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii Scavi train station,

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

from where it was just a 5-minute walk to reach the ancient town of Pompeii, preserved beneath the volcanic ash and lava after the eruption of the Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The town was unexpectedly huge! As we walked ... and walked... and walked (btw, it was also a very hot day),

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

we saw block after block of ancient houses, shops, bars and bakeries, as well as public areas, like for example The Forum:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

or The Theatre (yes, Gulliver was walking with us, too!):

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

We also saw the plaster castings of people who were buried in positions of prayer or while trying to escape at the moment of the Vesuvius eruption:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

You can literally spend hours and hours walking around in Pompeii, looking into homes and staring at the mosaics and paintings well preserved for over 2000 years:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

As there were at least 30 degrees outside, it was time for us to take a rest before continuing our way to Ercolano and Mount Vesuvius... and we found just the perfect terrace for our lunch stop with excellent Italian specialities and freshly squeezed orange juice. Yaammeee!

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

After lunch we headed back to Ercolano (by train), where we took a bus to the Vesuvius. From the bus stop it was another 30-minute-hike to reach the summit and crater of Mount Vesuvius.

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

At the top of Mt. Vesuvius, a trail circles the crater wall, offering amazing views of the crater (on our side) and the Bay of Naples (on the other side):

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

It was sad to imagine how much destruction could be caused by the volcano, if one day the Vesuvius erupted again... Let's not miss to mention some facts: Mt. Vesuvius is the only active volcano in continental Europe. The most famous eruption of Vesuvius is of course the outbreak in 79 that covered Pompeii and Herculaneum. Since then there have been many smaller eruptions that were a lot less destructive (last one in 1944).

The 650 meter wide crater is difficult to fit into a picture, but here's a few pictures of the interior of the cone:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

At this time we were pretty exhausted, but arriving back to Ercolano we did not miss to climb another 15 min for a good photo spot and a final look at the Mt Vesuvius...

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

See all pictures from our trip to Napoli-Capri-Pompeii & Vesuvius here.

Long weekend in Italy - Part 1: Napoli & Capri

2011-09-08T11:38:00.265+02:00

End of July we spent a long weekend in south of Italy - Naples & area: Capri, Pompeii and the Vesuvius -, a place which fascinated us for a long time.

We were prepared to face "one of the most dangerous cities in Europe" with huge piles of trash everywhere. As we arrived, Naples presented itself as a very typical southern Italian city with run down buildings covered by clothes hanging in the windows, sidewalks full of street vendors, noisy motorcycles, and ... yes, trash was all over the streets. But overall, we did not have a bad impression or any sort of fear from walking down the streets in the evening. As we learned already while traveling around the world: getting prepared for the worst makes it easier to accept - and enjoy - the local flavor.

As soon as very arrived to our hotel, we dropped off our stuff and went out to explore the city. We headed off to the funiculare de Montesanto taking us to the Castel S. Elmo, from where we enjoyed the amazing views over the Bay of Naples with Mount Vesuvius in the background:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

Later, walking down the streets of Naples, we discovered the beauties of the city: galleries, churches, statues at every second street corner, castles and last but not least: Porto Santa Lucia, in the neighborhood of Castel dell'Ovo:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

one of the coziest areas with plenty of local restaurants inviting for a typical Italian dinner, like for example our "Aperitivo di Napoli":

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

Next day, we woke up very excited about our trip to Capri island. No wonder. If you were to ask us what was the favorite place we have been visited during our travels so far, Capri will surely rank among the top 5 for both of us... it's truly like a little piece of heaven. Most of the streets in Capri are only walking streets with cobblestone and both sides covered by beautiful gardens, trees and flowers everywhere - amazing and very different from what we are used to.

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

As we arrived, we were debating for a while about renting a scooter or using public transport (e.g. funiculars and local buses) to get around the island - in the end, we (Emese) decided on the latter... so we ventured off. Hop on, hop off the funicular and headed towards the ruins of the Tiberius' villa on top of the mountain... and we hiked through very narrow streets ... and hiked... Our first stop was at a breathtaking scenic lookout point, where we saw dramatic coast lines and fancy yachts lining in the bay.

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

Later we took a bus to Anacapri and a chair lift up to the top of the highest mountain on the island. No comment to the view, the pictures should speak for themselves:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

Pretty exhausted, it was time for all of us for a little rest...

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

... to get us prepared for the 800 Phoenician steps leading us from the Villa San Michel

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

back to the Marina Grande:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

It's been a very long and exhausting "walk", and we were ready for our well deserved Italian pizza, after which we took a boat ride around the island; unfortunately that day the water level was too high and tourists were not allowed to visit the famous Blue Grotto, so we opted for a boat tour instead (it proved to be a very good choice as we had the opportunity to see the dream island from a completely different angle)

From EUROPE - ITALY - Naples, Capri, Pompeii & Vesuvius

After the tour, it was time for us to take the ferry back to Napoli with another exciting day in Pompeii and Vesuvius waiting for us next (2nd part of the story coming soon...)

See all pictures from our trip to Napoli-Capri-Pompeii & Vesuvius here.

Summer 2011

2011-09-07T11:09:00.084+02:00

OK, so it's been a while since our last blog entry, so we have a lot to catch up on. In the meantime, summer is officially over, with plenty of achievements and fun, too.
First, we finished our moving to the Lorzeninsel in Hagendorn (Zug canton) and decorations of our appartment, which we have celebrated with couple of housewarmings. This is a vew of our "island" from the countryroad above:

From Hagendorn Home

... and we started to exlore the area around Zug
- by bike:

From Zug and area

- sailig (hmm, did we mention we started to take sailing courses ...?):

From Zug and area

- swimming in the lake (the very best way to relax during lunch breaks :-))

From Zug and area

- hiking at Mt Rigi:

From Mt Rigi

-or, taking the funciular up to the Zugerberg:

From Zug and area

It's been also a time full of family events and birthday celebrations, having barbecue with our parents at the balcony:

From 2011 - Csaladi Esemenyek

And last but not least, the two main reasons for celebrating in the summer of 2011: Zoli's successful EQE (resulting in officially becoming a European Patent Attorney) and our 5th wedding anniversary!!!

From 2011 - Csaladi Esemenyek

Updates

2011-03-10T20:01:00.000+01:00

Here we are again, time for a quick update for our friends. Surprisingly enough, we started to make such good progress with our plans for 2011 that if we keep up this way our task list will soon be empty (for some reason however I am not so afraid that we will get bored for the rest of the year :-))

We have some very busy, but 'productive' weeks behind, and we are happy with the results so far:
* German exam passed (just received our Goethe Zertificat C1 diplomas with pretty good grades), Zoli's EQE also taken (still a few months of waiting for the results, but at least no more studying)

* New appartment found in Zug canton, at just about 10-mins-drive from our work places (although the appartment building still under construction, it is expected to be ready by the end of the March, so moving is planned for the 30st...) We just wish we could leave the packing part out of it, but unfortunately that might be our weekend program for the remaining time... btw, if anyone feel like needing some practice with packing, you're welcome to help us out (in return, we offer the best B&B in Zurich)!

* I also had my very last business trip to Brussels to bid farewell to my former colleagues. I left UPS after 4.5 years with mixed feelings - happy about my new career opportunity, but sad to be leaving such great colleagues and friends. As a farewell present from my team I got Russ, the Big Brown bear, who is now very happy in his new home with his friend Gulliver (for those who might not know, he is our traveling bear) and will surely always remind me of the great time spent at UPS.

* Meantime I have started as well a new phase of my career at JnJ in Zug. First week was really nice, only positive surprizes so far :-) ... and I look forward now to getting to know my team better and start running some challenging projects. Even the weather has welcomed me in Zug with warrm sunshine these days so we could really appreciate taking nice lake-side strolls during lunch break.

So our life is pretty much on track, even if you won't hear from us for the next few weeks as we will probably be very busy with work, packing, moving and unpacking... on the positive side - there will be a new appartment to visit, so get prepared :-D

Reflections ... and plans for 2011

2011-01-25T11:34:00.002+01:00

Can't believe it's already one month since Christmas! After spending almost all of our vacation days on our Asia-trip last year, we did not plan anything special for the end of the year - we spent the Christmas, as usually, with our families in Romania,

2010 - Karacsony Szilveszter

followed by a short, 4-day-skiing break in Grindelwald, where we also spent the New Years's Eve, visited (twice) our favorite Mexican restaurant (*El Azteka, for those interested to try the best Mexican food in Europe, accompanied by live music) and had fun in the snow:

From Grindelwald

And here we are, back to business and normal life - not sure if it's entirely 'normal' though with all the challenges waiting for us this year:
* German exam, which we still owe to ourselves since our last year's new year resolution (no more excuses this time, we have finally signed up to take the Goethe ZMP next Saturday),
* European Qualifying Examination - second part (for Zoli, of course)
* Starting my job in Zug (more about this in a later post)
* Searching for apartments in Zug (by the way, this one can be ticked out from the list today :-))
* Moving home
... and of course our regular yearly plans and desires for enjoying life in Switzerland and traveling as much as we can (no exact plans for our next big holiday, but it seems that we have a lack of travel experience in the southern hemisphere :D)

Final challenge Far-East trip

2010-12-05T19:34:00.000+01:00

With all our photos finally arranged on Picasa and the complete travel journal posted, we are still owing our readers a final challenge (and final prize) from our Far East trip.

This time, a little more difficult one (although nothing seems to be difficult enough for Gergo :-), or he just has tooo much time in the office)

The first person to comment on this post with the complete list different means of transportation we took (and documented on photos) during our 3-week-backpacking tour in Far-East, wins the prize.

Here's a map of our complete tour to help you refresh your memories:

The Game is open now and we have a magnet with the snow-capped peak of the Mt Everest as a present!
(note: we ship the present WW to the lucky winner)

Incrediable India, overview

2010-10-11T14:56:00.051+02:00

If we had to describe India in one single word, we would probably say: Yes, this is really an "incredible" land. To sum up in a few words how you can fully enjoy India without losing your mind: "To fully enjoy it, you should not think". You can’t question things here and shouldn't let yourself get affected by the poverty or chaos all around ... you just have to accept that that’s the way it is, even if it makes no sense at all. You should see, take notice, but don't let it affect you to such a degree that you don't enjoy its beauty anymore. India is really like another world, and we are so glad that we had the chance to taste this amazingly intense, spiritual, contradictory and overwhelming country. India's people might be financially less wealthy than the "western world" but they are by no means poor, their culture and their religion is between the richest we've seen and India being the 35th country we visited, we have seen quite a few!

Click on the Image for the travel map of our journey in Northern India

Delhi

2010-10-10T20:44:00.009+02:00

After traveling around in Rajasthan, we flew to the last city of our far-east tour, the capital of India, Delhi. Even though Delhi (metro) has a population of about 20M, the traffic did not seem that bad and driving was probably more civilized than what we would expect.

At the time we were there, the city was in high alert due to the Commonwealth Games taking place. The results of the extensive beautification project could be well seen in the city center, the downtown being very organized, clean and green

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

We started the tour of Delhi around the India Gate and the governmental area

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

but the increased security measures we unfortunately could not enter any of these buildings.
However at the same time the Games gave the city a very pleasant atmosphere,with athletes everywhere

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

and the main venue of the games looked quite impressive as well

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

We then went to explore the many "classic" sites of Delhi, starting with the Humayun's Tomb, which served as a model for the Taj Mahal, the resemblance being quite apparent (except for the materials used which is red sandstone in this case and not white marble):

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

Our next stop was at the Jama Masjid mosque, the focal point for Delhi's muslims, its courteyard accommodating up to 20,000 people:

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

The climb up to one of the minarets rewarded us by magnificent views of the mosque and of Old-Delhi

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

For a change we decided for a different type of transportation

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

which allowed us to ride through "little Pakistan"

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

After this adventure it was time to return to our hotel for a rest but not before a delicious Indian dinner

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

We started the next day by visiting Qutb Minar, another UNESCO-Heritage site, the world's tallest brick minaret with a height of 72 meters.

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

The Qutb Minar is notable for being one of the earliest and most prominent examples of Indo-Islamic architecture. It is surrounded by several other ancient and medieval structures and ruins, collectively known as Qutb complex. And it is not only its size that impresses but the level of detail and beauty of the carvings found all over the complex:

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

BTW did we mention it was a little HOT in Delhi? So we decided for a relaxing hour in the shade of the trees in the "Garden of five senses", a garden designed to stimulate our five senses with its beauty and attractions and give us a chance to touch, smell, hear and see our natural surroundings

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

and to taste of course as we were getting hungry at this time of the day

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

Fully rehreshed and our hunger issues solved, we headed for the Lodi's Tomb in the Lodi Gardens:

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

And then with a little sad feeling in our heart we enjoyed the last sunset of this amazing journey at the Lotus temple of the Bahá'í faith:

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

saying goodbye to the friendly people of India:

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

and the beauties of this amazing country:

From ASIA - INDIA - Delhi

All our pictures from Delhi

Rajasthan - Udaipur, the city of lakes

2010-10-08T18:29:00.019+02:00

From Jaipur we took once more an Indian overnight train to Udaipur, the city of lakes.
Not that we expected otherwise, the trip was a little adventurous - starting with a little 4-5h delay...

However, we did arrive quite well rested to Udaipur, where we checked again into our lakeside Palace, a very nice hotel, with direct view (also from our room) on the Pichola Lake:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

After a short rest we headed to explore the city, starting with the Hindu Jagdish Temple,

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

a great example of Indo - Aryan architecture with its marvelous sculptures:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

We then visited the City Palace. Standing on the east bank of Lake Pichola, it is a massive series of palaces built at different times from the mid 16th century.

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

Inside the palace the way leads to a series of courtyards, overlapping parations, terraces, corridors and gardens:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

For some relaxation we headed to a nice park, where Gulliver could freshen up:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

Refreshed, we decided for a boat ride on Lake Pichola, with wonderful views of the city:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

-the white marble Lake Palace

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

- and Jag Mandir also called Lake Garden Palace,

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

known for its garden courtyard:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

and wonderful garden

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

where we enjoyed a nice and cold long coffee with marvelous views...

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

followed by one of those amazing sunsets one never forgets...

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

we then finished the day with ***** while enjoying the lake view from our room on Lake Pichola:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

All our pictures from Rajasthan

Rajasthan - "The Pink City" of Jaipur

2010-10-07T16:39:00.312+02:00

As we were approaching Rajasthan, camels and all sorts of animals and means of transportation were to be seen more often on the 'highway':

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

We arrived to Jaipur late afternoon and decided to start exploring 'the land of the Maharajas' at Choki Dhani, an ethnic village with typical Rajasthan-style setting and evening shows, offering also a uniqe experience of Rajasthani-style dining:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

We have no idea what was on the menu, but typically there was something (a weird combination of spicy and sweet dishes one after the other) served on our plates every 2-3 minutes... we could hardly keep up with eating it all! But had a great time and it was definately a unique experience.

We found Jaipur in general a dusty, crowded, but colorful Indian awesomeness. The roads were congested with bicycle, camel or human pulled carts, motorcycles, rickshaws,

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

a scattering of cows in the middle of roundabouts, elephants, pigs and camels, many market stalls, colorful spices and nice and friendly people:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

We were told by our guide that in 1853, when the Prince of Wales visited Jaipur, the whole city was painted pink to welcome him. Most of the downtown area is still pink and gives the impression of a 'planned' city, where the streets are are much wider and seem to be more organized – but only at first sight, since they are all extremely crowded with people and animals all around (perhaps this is due to more room equaling more congestion).

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

There are many forts and monuments in Jaipur that are worth seeing. First, we stopped in the Old Town at the "Palace of Winds", a beautiful building with its famous 953 small windows, which was built in such way to allow the the ladies of the palace to enjoy the festivals in the streets from the privacy of the palace, without being seen from outside.

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

Next, we traveled about 10 km outside the city to Amber Fort, made of white marble and red sandstone, which has a military look on the exterior,

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

trying to hide the beauty and impressive decoration inside. There are courts, pavilions and individual palaces that reflect the royal wealth and glory of the Moghul times, which undoubtedly captivates tourists with its minute mirror works, artistic quality and delicate design.

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

The best part of our visit to Amber Fort was of course approaching the front gate on elephant back, like the Maharajas of Rajasthan once did. Our "little Maharaja" in his red Swiss shirt enjoyed the ride so much that since then he only wants to travel on elephant back ;-)) (eh, difficult wish to fulfill, especially after returning to Switzerland!)

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

In the afternoon we visited the astronomical observatory Jantar Mantar (an expression of the astronomical skills of the court at the end of the Mughal period), with its huge instruments to measure time and space, which easily raise the interest of school children:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

Right next to the observatory we visited the City Palace, where one can get a glimpse of Rajput and Moghul style of architectures. The palace complex consists of a set of buildings, courtyards and museums, connected through beautifully decorated white marble archways.

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

Since Maharaji still live in the inner parts of the palace today, some areas of the palace complex are off limits to the public. The taller white colored building in the background is the current personal residence of the Maharaja royalty:

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

....
After a long, dusty and extremely hot day in Jaipur we took some time to relax in the pool of "our palace", followed by a dinner & evening show at the rooftop restaurant - to get us ready for the night train to Udaipur...

From ASIA - INDIA - Rajasthan

All our photos from Rajasthan

The Moghul city of Fatehpur Sikri

2010-10-06T08:56:00.231+02:00

After our early-moning visit to the Taj we set off to visit the deserted Moghul kingdom of Fatehpur Sikri. An interesting story stands behind the 'ghost' city: Fatehpur Sikri was the capital of Akbar, the third and greatest of the Moghul emperors in the 16th century. He was unhappy because he did not have an heir and visited many holy men to pray for a son. In the village of Sikri he was told by a sheikh that he would have three sons and when the prophecy was fulfilled, Akbar was so impressed that he raised an entire new capital on the hill where the sheikh lived. However, the palace complex was deserted after a short period of 10-12 years, probably due to the failure of water supply.
We approached Fatehpur Sikri from the Royal Palace complex...

From ASIA - INDIA - Uttar Pradesh

Inside the Palace complex, well preserved red sandstone buildings with fine decoration: Halls of Public and Private Audiance, Akbar's private chambers and of course houses of his several wives... one can tell from size of the palaces, which belonged to his 'favorite' wife. Akbar, though being Muslim, was open to Buddhism, Christianity and the Hindu faith and in Fatehpur Sikri it's visible the integration of different decorative elements from all religions.

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But not only favorite wives deserved to be rewarded with grandious structures.... Akbar has also built an unusual stone tower to commemorate his favorite elephant:

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Outside the Royal Palace complex, we visited the Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India. Already the gates and archways are impressive with their rich decoration in Persian and Hindu design:

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The interior of the Jama Masjid is home of the tomb of the sheikh, a masterpiece in brilliant white marble, looking unique in an otherwise completely red sandstone complex. The tomb is mainly visited by childless women who tie a red ribbon and pray at the saint's shrine hoping for the parenthood Akbar was blessed with.

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The Jama Masjid is also home of numerous local kids, begging for money, which is one of the saddest experiences in India... Since we knew that probably begging was carried out in 'organized' manner and most of the money would be taken from the kids anyway, we decided to encourage one of the small, 4-5-year-old boy to offer a 'service' in return to the money. We faced him with a challenge, promising to give him a few rupees if he would guess which country we were coming from... well, we were amazed to hear how many countries this small kid was able to list in just seconds!

--- Some Americans could definitely learn from these street kids in India... when making statements like "India is just like Egypt" (but that's another story) ---

Despite the numerous countries he knew, Hungary seemed to be a little too tough for the small boy. However, as we mentioned the name of the country, he was almost instantly shouting "BUDAPEST!" ... And we felt this was worth to be rewarded!

The sun started to be brutal at this time of the day and we went back to our car to continue our trip towards Rajasthan where our story continues...

All our photos from Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh - Agra

2010-10-05T18:24:00.221+02:00

The Taj Mahal

"Not architecture! As all others are

But the proud passion of an emperor's love

Wrought into living stone, which gleams and soars

With body of beauty, shining soul and thought as when some face

Divinely fair unveils before your eyes

Some women beautiful unspeakably

And the blood quickens and the spirit leaps

And the will to worship bends the half yielded knees

While breath forgets to breathe

So is the Taj"

Sir Edwin Arnold

There are few (if any) as magic and beautiful places on earth as the Taj Mahal. It is a place that no picture does just, its magnificence can not be captured by any video footage. It is not one of those places that you say "yeah it is just like on the pictures", being there is so much different that I can not emphasize enough.

The "entrance" itself might qualify alone as one of the most beautiful buildings we've seen

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but it is the moment of the Taj appearing as you cross the arch of its gate is that can not be described with words (clik here for a video of a humble attempt to capture this moment at sunrise).

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Still we will attempt to give back a little of the experience through our words and photos...

We visited the Taj for the first time in full daylight at about noon, when the sun came almost from above, the Taj appearing white at this time of the day:

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The elegance of the setting with the pool which reflects the Taj is just as staggering

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as the attention to detail. For example the 4 minarets tilt outwards (calculated and on purpose unlike some famous leaning...) so that in case of an earthquake they don't fall on the Taj or that size of the letters increases towards the top, so that they appear to be the same size for the reader below and lets not forget that all the inlays are precious stones (like onix for black and sapphire for red and green, etc) which sparkle in the sunlight:

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The atmosphere was something completely magical, no sign of loud crowds, just everybody admiring the unique beauty:

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or trying to pick up the Taj and taking it home...

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We loved the Taj so much that we decided to wake up very early the next morning and see it again during sunrise.

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What is probably the most fascinating about the Taj is that it is never the same, it changes its color with the sun. That is why sunrise was a particularly special moment:

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It feels like the Taj is alive:
- it sleeps at night to be awaken by the first ray of sunshine:

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- and quickly awake without any sign of being tired

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- so as to shine with its glory for just another day

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As difficult it was, at some point we had to say goodbye to the Taj with an attempt to take a piece of its magic with us in our heart...

Here is the quick history lesson for those interested in the story of the Taj:

Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor was in love with Mumtaz Mahal however his father did not approve the relationship as she was not of royal blood. Shah Jahan being a smart guy, married the woman his father chose, whereupon he soon took over as emperor. His wife died several years later (not clear on how but guides obviously say it was of natural circumstances) and he promptly married Mumtaz.

Fast forward a bit ... in child-birth for the fourteenth time Mumtaz dies and Shah Jahan, ignoring his political duties, decides to build the Taj Mahal as a memorial to his wife. It takes 20,000 Persian workman 22 years to complete the amazing building and rumors say, upon completion, he had the right hand of the master mason cut off so it could never be replicated.

Fast forward again ... Aurangzeb, third son of Shah Jahan, kills his brothers so that he can take the thrown. Meanwhile, having completed the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan plans to build himself his own Black Taj Mahal mausoleum across the river, which however was never completed since his own son imprisoned him at the Agra Red Fort. Nice kid!
Eventually, when Shah Jahan died, he was entombed at the Taj.

Speaking of Agra Fort, it's definitely also worth a visit...

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The "Red Fort" is actually a fortified castle, which was built by Akbar (Shah Jahan’s Grandfather) and then added to by both Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, his son. Akbar’s constructions were ususally made in red sandstone (see also our next blog entry on Fatehpur Sikri), while Shah Jahan was the first to bring in white marble in the Indian construction. The Agra Fort complex is a marvellous combination of both, with obvious attention to details.

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Supposedly, Akbar had three wives housed here, one Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian, as well as several hundered of concubines, all housed in the buildings here.

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Maharaja Shah Jahan was ultimately placed under house arrest in the fort by his son, Aurangzeb after he seized power and decided that all the spending on dad’s obsession with the Black Taj was enough. Shah Jahan spent the rest of his life in a white marble pavillion

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with a view of the Taj Mahal across the plains. Finally from here Gulliver could also get a picture with the Taj Mahal (as he was not allowed the Taj complex... after all, he does look like a terrorist with a bomb hidden in his belly, doesn't he?)

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All our photos from Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh - Varanasi, the holy river town

2010-10-04T17:06:00.422+02:00

Our journey in India started in Varanasi, the holiest city in Hindu religion and certainly one of the most intense, atmospheric places we have been to. After Nepal, we thought we were prepared for what was waiting for us... but we realized very soon, that it was impossible to stay unaffected by the extreme sights, smells and religious flavor of this place!

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What makes Varanasi so special?
First of all, it is the oldest continuously occupied city on Earth, and it shows... the streets conditions here are just as “3rd world” and chaotic as in Kathmandu...

From ASIA - INDIA - Varanasi

Then, being the most important holy city in the Hindu religion as well as the birthplace of Buddhism, Varanasi is full of spirituality and ritual. On our first evening, we watched the evening riverside Aarti ceremony at the ghats, a ritual on the bank of the Ganges, which is hard to imagine!

From ASIA - INDIA - Varanasi

An amazing combination of light and sound, while thousands of locals and pilgrims make their offerings to the river goddess Lady Ganga.

From ASIA - INDIA - Varanasi

It is said that the Ganges must be seen at two different times of the day. In the early morning fog, the Ganges appeared more spiritual and intimate. We watched the life along the ghats (large stone stairs leading into the water) from a boat the next morning ...

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The whole spectrum of Life (and Death) was played out before us: faithful Hindus bathing in the holy water of the Ganges (most Hindus come to dip in the Ganga at least once in their lives),

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... people swimming or doing their laundry in the river, people being cremented, or ... have their ashes brought here and immersed into the Ganga. All of this along the same river!

From ASIA - INDIA - Varanasi

After the boat ride, we walked through the impossibly narrow passageways of the the old city which were too narrow even for rickshaws to enter, only cows and dogs wandered around freely and dead bodies were carried down to the river. It was the time when we started to feel that we needed to get out of this place... thus we appraised our guide's idea to visit Sarnath, which is located about 13 kms of Varanasi ... an important place in Buddhism as it is the place where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon after he got enlighten. A huge Stupa marks the actual spot where the sermon was delivered:

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After a refreshing shower and some rest in the afternoon, we were ready for our first overnight train ride on Indian railways from Varanasi to Agra... our first impressions: an organized chaos! There were people everywhere in the train station and sleeping on the floor, but the train was already in the station 30 before departure time and we could even find our names listed on the carriage!

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We had tickets for a 2AC sleeper carriage, which is second of eight classes in India and pretty ok if you are tired enough to be able to ignore the train vendors passing by every 5 minutes trying to sell some tea, fruits, dinner and whoknowswhat ... but after all, we were travelling to India to experience India... and more importantly, we were on the way to Agra and could hardly wait to see the Taj Mahal!

All our photos from Uttar Pradesh

Nepal, overview

2010-10-02T21:25:00.006+02:00

To fully enjoy, view the full-screen map

** the journal of our travels in India will follow shortly...

Mountain flight over Kathmandu valley to Mt. Everest

2010-10-02T17:05:00.016+02:00

Before leaving Nepal, we did an early morning mountain flight to get "a closer look" at Mt. Everest from Nepal. We did have our doubts though, as the air seemed to be very misty at 5a.m. However, as the small turboprop rose above Kathmandu we suddenly got above the layer of smog into clear blue skies.

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We got the most fantastic views of a load of snow-capped mountains as we flew east towards the Everest.

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One at a time, we were allowed to go into the cockpit to see the panorama from the front as we were approaching Mt. Everest. We could clearly see it's very distinctive triangular shape as we got nearer to it, though we weren't close enough to spot anyone waving from the top :D

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The plane then flew back past everything again, but a lot nearer this time, with spectacular views of the Himalayan mountain range underneath us. These mountains were truly majestic, and not only the Mt Everest which happens to be the tallest amongst other, 7-8,000m summits.

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All our photos from Nepal

Kathmandu

2010-10-01T22:51:00.037+02:00

Namaste! (Hello in Nepalese)
We finally arrived to Kathmandu smelly, tired and covered in dirt after the 5-hour-drive from the Tibetan border. Traffic here seemed insane (even crazier than in mainland China) - with a flow of cars, bikes, motorcycles, buses, tuk-tuk's, rickshaws, animals and beggars all around.

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Lying in a valley, a thick layer of smog and dust covers the entire town. It took us some time to get used to the smog after the clean air and clear views of Tibet, but it was a good prep for us before going to India...

However, after refreshing ourselves in the pool of our hotel, which interestingly was in a small area of the city completely closed off with guards and security checkpoints offering a safe oasis to relax...

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...we headed to explore the old city.

Despite being a dirty, loud and chaotic place, Kathmandu still has its charms! The Durbar square area is really impressive, no wonder it's a Unesco World Heritage site.

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One of the most impressive squares we have seen in the world, a cluster of ancient temples, courtyards, palaces and streets dating back to the 12th and 18th centuries. Its apparently the social and religious center of the city.

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There are lots of temples scattered all over the place dedicated to the various Hindi gods; and apparently there are temples where both Hindis and Buddhists worship their gods/buddhas and both religions can fit together in one place without tension.

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Inside the complex we visited the Palace which used to be the royal Nepalese residence until the 19th century and is still the site of important ceremonies. It is decorated with impressive wood carvings, extremely elaborate and fine work:

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Surprisingly, in all the dirt and chaos around, the ladies were very nicely dressed in traditional clothing even when washing clothes on the side of the road or walking in the city center.

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In the evening we had dinner at one of the many rooftop restaurants overlooking the square. It was nice to have a moment of relaxation and watch the crowd and chaos of the bazaar from a distance:

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All our photos from Nepal

Nepal: on the way to Kathmandu...

2010-10-01T15:23:00.104+02:00

We must say that already our first impressions on Nepal made China look very organized... we almost walked past immigration on the Nepal side, and wouldn't have seen it if our local guide didn't direct us in. Continuing our way along the Friendship "Highway", the 110-km-distance to Kathmandu took us 5 hours, but it felt like a very very long trip!
Even though it was difficult so say bye bye to Tibet, the descent to Nepal was welcomed by our lungs, exhausted from the struggle with the thin air.

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The "road" led through the same deep valley we descended from Tibet, but the view in Nepal was completely different to Tibet. Still huge mountains but due to the lower elevation (around 2000 meters) lots of green, rivers, waterfalls all along the way. The change of scenery was simply stunning:

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Lots of Hindi people sitting on the streets, ladies washing clothes in the streams or just chatting in groups.

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On the way we passed by the world's third tallest Bungee Jumping site on a hanging bridge, however I (Zoli) passed on the chance this time. Might be difficult to believe, but it seems like with each jump, the next one gets scarier (or is it just the age?).

However, this didn't stop us from admiring the views from the hanging bridge:

From ASIA - NEPAL

In a few hours we started to see again some sign of human life when approaching Barabise:

From ASIA - NEPAL

Our travel journal continues with our arrival to Kathmandu...

All our photos from Nepal

Tibet, overview

2010-09-30T23:56:00.001+02:00

** the journal of our travels in Nepal - India will follow shortly.

Friendship Highway: Tingri to the Nepalese border

2010-09-30T08:43:00.115+02:00

Our last day in Tibet...

We started the day by going to another vista point to have the Mount Everest "at our fingertips"

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

The trip was through a more desolate, desert plateau scenery...

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

On the way to Nyalam we drove through our final pass – the Lalung-La- at above 5000 meters. It was the highest elevation of the day and we could see the Himalayan mountain range with snow covered peaks. This seemed really like being on the "Roof of the Earth".

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Then, the landscape went though a shocking transformation as we were descending to Zhangmu at 2.300m.

We’ve gone from dry, sunny with brownish vegetation...

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to wet...

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then misty and lush green scenery

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through winding roads...

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all within couple of hours and amazingly all this in one single very deep valley.

We stopped in Zhangmu (the border town to Nepal) to wait for the opening of the border next morning; it's a one-street town jammed with cars, trucks, animals and who knows what else queuing to cross into Nepal. Once the border opens, hundreds of vehicles start to descend from the Tibetan plateau into the gorge filled with endless waterfalls...

All our photos on Tibet Overland Tour

Friendship Highway: Shigatse To Tingri

2010-09-29T16:06:00.150+02:00

This was the day of extremes:

On the third day of our overland tour along the friendship highway, we got as far as 5000km (along the shortest route - but we made an aprox. 1000km detour to Beijing) from Shanghai:

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

Then, we reached the highest point of our journey and also the highest elevation we have ever been (and might ever be):

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

As we were slowly descending towards Tingri, in the middle of nowhere we have met a friendly Tibetan family who was just "passing nearby". We still wonder where did they appear from so sudden and where they were headed to on foot... (at least one of the kids seemed to be coming from...)

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Later on we had for the first time a direct and unobstructed view of the Mount Everest rising magnificently 4000m above:

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Our end destination for the day was the most primitive, yet authentic Tibetan village we had seen; a few mud houses and a couple of guesthouses on one side of the river and some tents on the opposite side: it was the village of Tingri at an altitude of mere 4200m

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where the two basic items being offered (besides the usual yak joghurt and hot momo for our hungry bellies) were "internet and oxygen":

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We decided to buy some of both.

Unfortunately we don't have pictures, but we have to mention that we have seen here the most amazing night sky we have ever seen. Due to the lack of light sources in the area and the thin air, one could really see the milky way with as a cloud of stars...a truly amazing experience - something similar to the upper picture on this comparison (just imagine it without any light source) ... which is made impossible in our modern world by light pollution. This satellite picture from Wikipedia illustrates well how little light is scattered in Tibet in comparison with other parts of the world.

All our photos on Tibet Overland Tour

The journey of our travel along the Friendship Highway continues with the next blog entry....

Friendship Highway: Gyantse to Shigatse

2010-09-28T07:42:00.353+02:00

Day 2 of our Tibet overland tour was dedicated to visit the Monasteries of Gyantse and Shigatse.
As we were walking towards the Pelcho Monastery in Gyantse, we decided to take a backstreet instead of the main tourist route, the later being a wider street with green trees planted aside (probably another example of the recent beautification projects in China); thus we had a glimpse into the everyday life of local Tibetans: babies crying and cows lying around at every second doorstep, kids going to school and tiny shops opening up along the road...

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As we walked into the Monastery, the main Assembly Hall was straight ahead and we began the explorations from here. The entrance is decorated with statues of the Four Guardian Kings; just by the entrance on the left is a protector chapel, with murals depicting sky burial. The Assembly hall was fairly empty, no monks chanting, no pilgrims making butter yak offerings... but then it turned out that all pilgrims were 'busy' with walking around in the endless series of tiny chapels at the Kumbun, chanting prayers and slipping in their donation to the Buddha statues.

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The Gyantse Kumbun in fact is the Monastery's most famous attraction: a monumental, 8-story-chörten with white layers trimmed with decorative stripes and a golden dome... the inside is no less impressive, 108 chapels filled with Buddha statues and painting after exquisite painting (kumbum means '100,000 images').

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Next, we were heading to Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet and home to the Tashilhunpo Monastery, which is the traditionally the seat of the Panchen Lama who would rule over the western part of Tibet. The full name in Tibetan of the monastery means: "all fortune and happiness gathered here".

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The monastery itself is like a small city, with a labyrinth of walls, cobblestone paths, stupas and prayer wheels and several assembly halls (one of which we even thought to have recognized in the "7 Years of Tibet" movie), its main 'attraction' being a gigantic, 26-meter-high Buddha statue (the largest gold-copper Buddha statue in the world).

But one of the highlights of visiting the monastery for us was that it gave us room to socialize with the locals, all very friendly people, smiling and looking at us with probably just as curious eyes as we looked at them.

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

The old city was also worth a visit... something like walking into a different time: kids greeting us with a loud "Hellooo" (it seemed to be the only world they knew in Engligh though), while their dads playing chess or billiard on the street corner... (provided their billiard-board was not taken already :D).

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

In the evening our guide decided it was time to have some fun and surprise us with something authentic but at the same time contemporary ... we soon found ourselves in a Chinese-Tibetan disco (at 3,900m !), full of flashing lights and a weird combination of Chino-Tibeto-European melodies sung in Tibetan language... Hmm, what did we earlier say about stepping into a different world?

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

All our photos on Tibet Overland Tour

The journey of our travel along the Friendship Highway continues with the next blog entry....

Friendship Highway: Lhasa to Gyantse

2010-09-27T23:13:00.033+02:00

It was a "very blue sky" kind of day as we left from Lhasa early morning, starting our journey along the Friendship Highway (one of the most scenic routes on the Tibetan Plateau) towards Nepal... we thought a bumpy, occasionally unpaved road was ahead of us and were happy to have a good 4x4 car for the 4-day-drive (apx 800 kms) to the Nepalese border. But it turned out pretty quickly that the road was much much better than we expected...

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

The road led up to Khamba-La pass at over 4,700m where we had stunning views of the deep turquise Yamdrok-tso, one of the four holy lakes in Tibet, while the snow-capped Himalayas pierced the clouds in the distance...

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

After a lunch stop at one of the en-route Yak resturants we continued our way to Gyantse, passing again through very dramatic landscapes: wide open, green countryside

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... suddenly turning into the land of eternal snow as we passed by the Kharola Glacier

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... just to get us back to the dazzling "deep-turquoise lake-view" type of scenery:

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

Arriving to Gyantse, we set off to visit the Gyantse Fort. The stiff 30-minute climb to the top of the Fort was well worth the effort for the great lookouts of the surrounding Nyang-chu valley, the town itself and the compound of the Pelkor Chode Monastery.

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

There, on top of the Fort, we found a mysterious message we did not obbey:

From ASIA - TIBET - Friendship highway

And now THE CHALLENGE from Tibet: What does this sign really stand for?
Play to win a Ganesha statuette to bring you good luck.

All our photos on Tibet Overland Tour

The journey of our travel along the Friendship Highway continues with the next blog entry....

Chinese in Tibet

2010-09-27T20:29:00.028+02:00

Without getting into political discussions, we thought the occupation of Tibet must be mentioned in a blog entry.

Already on our journey to Tibet, we we were presented a less pleasing sight: an array of Chinese army trucks (long as far as the eye could see) headed for Tibet:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

Then once in Lhasa it is impossible to miss the soldiers which are everywhere, fully armed with machine guns.
On the streets:

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or on rooftops:

watching for any sign of disturbance... (BTW: Chinese soldiers don't like to be photographed so excuse the quality of these pics taken in quite a hurry)

What is maybe less apparent without knowing how the system works (and unfortunately it works, "been there seen that" in our home town): huge industrial zones are being built, and guess who gets works. We know that unfortunately it only takes a generation's time and demographics get changed irreversibly.

Also, due to the strict regulations, Tibet remains closed to independent travelers and the only way around this is to book a tour with a travel agency. In addition to the Chinese visa, special Tibet travel permit is required, which is frequently checked (already on the train to Tibet and at many 'pitstops' along the way to Nepal...)

A further typical communistic method of "tender care" of traditions of a culture, that we were also very familiar with, is to build communistic monuments everywhere. Sorry Mr. Mao, we do not intend to give you the satisfaction by taking or posting pictures of it.

Let us end this post by expressing our hopes that the Tibetan culture is strong enough so that in some form or another it will survive - the world would be poorer without this amazing culture...

Lhasa

2010-09-26T16:21:00.473+02:00

“Go to Tibet and see many places, as much as you can; then tell the world”

~His Holiness the Dalai Lama
... and this is what we are trying to do. With our travel. Our photos. And our blog entries.

We found Lhasa a fascinating place from the moment we arrived. The city sits on the highest plateau in the world with even higher peaks surrounding it and the majestic view of the Potala Palace dominating the landscape.

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

(Speaking of arrival, it turned out pretty quickly, we weren't exactly designed for life above 3500m. Even though we didn't find ourselves incapacitated by altitude sickness, we certainly had to slow down and take every step very easy. The altitude in Tibet is a force to be reckoned with and we have now a whole new respect for those who do crazy things like climbing the Everest, hiking in the Himalayas or cycling from Lhasa to Nepal...)

On our first day, we visited Norbulingka, the Summer Residence of the Dalai Lamas up until the 14th Dalai Lama's exile to India in 1959. It's a pleasant park - with small palaces and man-made lakes - and a perfect starting point for our sightseeing in Lhasa.

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

Across the road from Norbulingka - the Tibet Museum, 'advertising' the "peaceful liberation of Tibet" by the Chinese and "the tender care" shown to the Tibetan culture. Chinese military in general have a shockingly strong presence everywhere in Tibet. The Chinese flag is around all major sites and the Chinese soldiers patrol Lhasa in numbers we haven't seen anywhere else in China.

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

The reality is that there are two Lhasas. One has all the marking of a modern Chinese city: wide, clean streets, large public squares dominated by massive TV screens, Adidas and Playboy stores and most importantly, Communist monuments. The other, the traditional Tibetan quarter, with its narrow streets, temples, prayer wheels and tiny shops.
One of the most visible borders between the Tibetan and Chinese Lhasa is the Barkhor square:

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

On its western side - a huge square, chaotic traffic and a large shopping street leading almost up to the Potala Palace; to the East - one of the most captivating sites in Lhasa: the old Barkhor with the Jokhang Temple in the center,

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

one of the holiest sites in Tibetan Buddhism, where from sunrise to sunset Tibetan pilgrims in traditional dress coming from as far as the Eastern Tibet (many of them prostrating themselves all the way to Lhasa!) make the clockwise circuit, while spinning prayer wheels, burbling mantras and making yak butter offerings.

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

A visit to the Sera Monastery gave us some insight into the everyday life of about 600 monks still living here (before the Chinese invasion, it used to be the second largest Monastery in Tibet, housing over five thousand monks). The place was really like a campus with many buildings and dormitories for the monks, and a few larger Assembly Halls, where we had the chance to watch and listen to the monks chanting their prayers.

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

The next day we visited the breathtaking landmark of Lhasa and one of the great architectural wonders of the world. The years and the conflicts have fortunately managed to elude the Potala Palace, which still imposingly dominates the skyline and the first views of the century’s old palace are unforgettable.

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

We were only allowed to enter the Palace in given time slot and had exactly one hour to explore the circuit they allow tourists to see. Once through security, we walked up hundreds of stairs leading up to the entrance which was also quite challenging given the altitude as you can easily get tired after 20-30 steps already.
The white and red outside is as beautiful from close as it is from afar and the inside does not disappoint either. It is as if you stepped into another world... small, dark rooms with typical Buddhist decoration, with an unmistakable smell of yak butter lights filling the air. The rooms of the Potala include bedrooms, assembly halls and tombs of former Dalai Lamas, of course with the exception of the current Dalai Lama living in exile in India. As we stepped out the Palace and slowly walked down amongst the pilgrims,

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

we had a strange feeling of connection with the Potala and the Tibetan people and their heritage even in such a short time. It is a very strong and impressive feeling to be in the presence of the Dalai Lamas, which is hard to explain... and which accompanied us throughout our amazing journey from Lhasa to Kathmandu... (see our next blog entries).

All our pictures on Lhasa.

The journey to Tibet - our memorable 48 hours train ride from Beijing to Lhasa

2010-09-25T16:20:00.114+02:00

Tibet! The land full of mystery, far remote from the world, high up on the Tibetan plateau in the Himalayas...

As a lot of people, we were dreaming for long of traveling to Tibet, the land of the Dalai Lamas...

We can not sufficiently emphasize that the journey TO Tibet is as magnificent as Tibet itself and that one should not, we repeat should NOT fly to Lhasa! So much that it should be forbidden.

The incredible journey that we tried to capture on photos is required for one to be able to truly appreciate just how remote, how high and how much "off the beaten track" this Land is. 48h from Beijing might seem a long journey, we were expecting to see the same scenery for hours and get bored at seeing nothing but deserted areas.

However, the journey was one of the most incredible experiences we ever had. The change of scenery is just stunning and the journey feels like a journey in time...

- The journey started from Beijing West Railway station:

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

- While still in mainland China, the route passes through multiple provinces dominated by hills all worked by hand to try to feed the 1 1/2 billion people:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- In-between we spent our time by "socializing" with Tibetan locals:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- Then, as the train started climbing, we had our first glance on the snow-topped mountains in the far horizon of the plateau:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- Then we reached an area of land shaped by the waters from melted snow from the Himalayas and crossed by the only single road leading to Tibet from mainland China:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- As we reached an altitude and area covered by eternal snow, we were presented a less pleasing sight: an array of Chinese army trucks (long as far as the eye could see) headed for Tibet:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- Once we had the snowy areas behind us, we arrived on what was the begining of the Tibetan plateau, with its endless nuances of brown, yellow and deep blue skies:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- After a long time of deserted landscape we were happy to see some form of life, even if just some Yaks eating...eating we have no idea what...:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- Climbing above 5000m and passing the world's highest railway station a the Tanggula pass, we were surprised not to have snow at the altitude:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- As we got closer to the Himalayas (actually as the air got thinner), the sky got bluer and bluer...

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- for a change of scenery, a 4000m+ high laying lake offered some more spectacular views:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- Seeing the tracks ahead of us, we are repeatedly reminded of what an extraordinary feat of engineering it was to build this railway, most of its section starting from Golmud being laid on permafrost:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- After a very long time we glanced the first sign of human life in Tibet, a small town nearby:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- Just to get a feel of the thin air outside (oxygen is being pumped into the compartments of the train), we had a short "pit stop" at 4500m, were Krisztina decided to give signals to the train driver (or to aliens? I still don't know)

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

- The sun then set before arriving to Lhasa (where our story continues...):

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

All our pictures on The Train Journey.

China, overview

2010-09-24T11:14:00.005+02:00

Here is a map of our travels in China (Mainland):

* the blog entries from Tibet are not included here as we consider Tibet NOT to be really part of China.
** the journal of our travels in Nepal - India will follow shortly.

The historical city of Xi An

2010-09-23T21:00:00.001+02:00

Our overnight train from Beijing arrived with Swiss punctuality to Xi An, one of China's most busiest railway stations. There were millions and millions of people all around. After we managed to get rid of the crowd, taxi drivers, vendors and our big backpacks (no no no, they weren't stolen, only placed safely? in the luggage room), we were finally on our way to explore the Terracotta Army and the city afterward.

Xi An has a lot to offer besides its main attraction, the awesome Army of Terracotta Warriors... for example, the Ancient Wall which, at 13km length, it is the longest surviving city wall:

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

Outside the walls - where most of Xi An's 8 million inhabitants live - poverty and dirt, inside - traditional towers & pagodas mixed with ultramodern shopping malls and remains of very poor neighborhoods of the ancient city hidden behind luxory hotels. Traffic was just as chaotic as everywhere in China, but suddenly the people seemed to be calmer and friendlier (some of them were even giving us directions in English!)

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

Hungry enough after a long day, we wandered around the Muslim quarter (in fact, pushed ourselves through the masses of people, trying in the meantime to avoid being hit by motorcycles, bikes, rickshaws and animals), looking for Xi An's famous noodles.

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

There was plenty of street food, we have to admit though, that it was quite an adventure dining here. You can never know WHAT is inside the pot, HOW it's been prepared and HOW you are supposed to eat it. The positive thing is, that food is extremely cheap, so you can try out everything and eat what you like... (we still returned hungry to the hotel and waited for our next day's breakfast).

All our pictures on Xi'An

The Terracotta Army of the 1st Emperor of China

2010-09-22T15:54:00.001+02:00

In 1974, peasants digging a well uncovered perhaps the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century - thousands of life-sized terracotta soldiers and their horses in battle formation of Qin Shi Huang, the 1st Emperor of China (dating from 210 BC!!!).

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

The first vault houses about 2000 soldiers, with approximately 6000 more soldiers yet to be uncovered.

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

Apparently we are awaiting technology to improve enough where the colors painted on the warriors can be preserved. Once exposed to air the colors fade over time:

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

It's a breathtaking view! Different body types, different faces, different military ranks.

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

Unfortunately hundreds of soldiers had been smashed by previous dynasties, so it is no small task putting them all together, especially considering that each soldier is unique. It is like you would take hundreds of jigsaw puzzle boxes, mix all the pieces and then put all them together without having pictures of what the result should be: good luck. (oh, did I forgot to mention we are talking about 3d puzzles of course)

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

However, not only soldiers were built, but also armor and for example a four horse war chariot with mounts of the Emperor:

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

All our pictures of the Terracotta Army

The Ming tombs

2010-09-21T20:15:00.000+02:00

After the hike on the Great Wall, we visited the Ming tombs, a complex of burial sites of the Ming dynasty with the largest tomb for emperor Yongle (the 3rd emperor who lived in the 15th century):

From ASIA - CHINA - The Great Wall & Ming Tombs

The so called Spirit Way lined with a series of statues of guardian animals and officials leading to the burial complex is an attraction by itself:

From ASIA - CHINA - The Great Wall & Ming Tombs

All our photos of the Ming tombs

The Great Wall

2010-09-21T18:21:00.000+02:00

We know it sounds like a Cliché, but we must say that the great wall is really great.

As we climbed the thousands and thousands of steps, it became clear we are not able to reach its end very soon :-))

From ASIA - CHINA - The Great Wall & Ming Tombs

Gulliver enjoyed the hike as well, especially after we managed to loose the crowds (the less fit of it) behind:

From ASIA - CHINA - The Great Wall & Ming Tombs

Looking back the way we came...

From ASIA - CHINA - The Great Wall & Ming Tombs

However, we could not figure out why the wall was built in such a zigzag? I mean if its built like this all the way, of course it had to be 4000kms long:

From ASIA - CHINA - The Great Wall & Ming Tombs

Jokes aside, it is an incredible feat of ancient engineering and logistics to build the wall on this harsh terrain:

From ASIA - CHINA - The Great Wall & Ming Tombs

All our pictures from The Great Wall

Beijing

2010-09-20T17:46:00.001+02:00

After landing in Beijing we got to see a completely different China than Shanghai, the roads were not so smooth, the streets less clean, the crowds even bigger and the Communist Party even more present.... and unfortunately the people less friendly (and no English).

Of course this does not change the fact that the sites are amazing, just don't fantasize on strolling the streets of Beijing in peace and quiet and have a romantic dinner on a street terrace like you would in Europe.

One of the most iconic site of Beijing is the Temple of Heaven. The complex situated in a huge park offers a nice refuge from the noise of the streets and an appropriate setting for this marvelous temple:

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

while at the same time offering ample space for people to do their daily exercise:

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

The visit of the Olympic park was a great contrast to the "old Beijing", where two of the most amazing sport venues of the 2008 Olympics are not to be missed:
- the "swiss designed" Bird's Nest:

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

- and the Watercube

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

Also part of the modern Beijing is the new National Grand Theater near Tienanmen Square:

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

The next day, after a quick "snack" on the way...

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

...we visited the now not so forbidden, but quite a city. After walking under Mao’s watchful gaze we found ourselves in a court yard, which looked more like a vast square surrounded by red walls and crowded with people. We stepped in to the Forbidden City…

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

The spacious Outer Court is filled with gigantic open squares, massive yet ornamented buildings that once housed the palace and official buildings. Behind the walls, the Inner Court, a vast labyrinth of inter-connected courtyards and buildings, which once served as the living quarter for the Imperial family.

Leaving the Forbidden City behind, a stroll through one of Beijing's many Hutongs allowed us an insight into the everyday life of millions of Chinese:

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

The contrast of "old vs. new" was again clearly visible from the Beihai-park, with Beijing's highest skyscraper and the Coal Hill Pagoda side by side (at least they look like standing side by side):

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

A visit to the Summer Palace brought us back to the past splendor of the Chinese Empire, offering probably the most authentic experience in Beijing:

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

After a very tiring day (from visiting a lot of sites, finding our way on the chaotic streets of Beijing and trying to make ourselves understandable to Chinese taxi drivers speaking no English at all), we had our well deserved dinner, the Beijing Duck (pekingi kacsa):

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

It was time then to say goodbye to Beijing and board our train to Xi-An from probably the biggest railway station we have ever seen:

From ASIA - CHINA - Beijing

All our pictures from Beijing

A day in the watertown Suzhou

2010-09-19T17:28:00.001+02:00

After we flew like a bullet with 350kmh in the bullet train (while watching the results of the beautification project with newly-planted trees all the way along the train tracks which were attempting to hide the dirt, smog and poverty behind)

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

we arrived in the beautiful watertown of Suzhou.
We started off by visiting the most famous site, the North Hill Pagoda, where we climbed hundreds of stairs to the 8th floor of the pagoda to catch a bird's eye view of the surrounding parks and canals. Meantime, Gulliver had a "belly contest" with the biggest Happy Buddha:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

- we let our readers decide who the winner was...

After a stroll on the streets of Suzhou

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

...we changed means of transport and cruised on the picturesque canals:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

Suzhou has a large network of canals running through the city; along the canal, some luxorious homes and typical third-world neighbourhoods standing side by side, with some pagodas and skyscrapers in the background - a remarkable contrast between modern and very old, clean and very dirty, traditional and transitional. We had lunch in the market-area of town that housed a countless stalls, carts, and little stores selling fruit, meat, shoes, household goods... everything.
There, at the crappiest-looking and probably the cheapest restaurant we have been to, we had the best Chinese lunch during our entire trip in China. It was part of our adventure that the restaurant only had Chinese menu, so we made our choice just by pointing on two of the dishes...
Krisztina took care of our dessert afterward:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

... and with stuffed bellies (we could have entered now the belly contest with Gulliver and the Happy Buddha) we headed for the Tiger Hill Pagoda, our last destination in Suzhou:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

All our pcitures from Suzhou.

Shanghai - "Chinese capitalism"

2010-09-18T17:27:00.002+02:00

We started our great Far East journey in Shanghai, with the thought that it would be an approachable start to what was ahead of us... and it turned out to be just that: a sort of capitalism with apparent wealthiness, if you don't look behind the curtains...

First of all Shanghai impresses, Big Time! Already when getting from the airport to the city:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

Flashy, Western-style advertising everywhere—billboards, benches, TVs and posters. Except for the Chinese characters on signs and the inevitable observation that everyone is Chinese, what you see in Shangahi could be anywhere in the West. Street vendors sell lots of low-quality goods really cheap, including very real-looking copies of iPhones. New wealth is seem to be shown with driving around in brand new Audi's or Mercedes, but having little or no care for pedestrians attempting to cross the street at green light.

The financial district felt a little like Singapore, with skyscrapers competing with each other, relative clean streets and organized traffic:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

At night we decided to look DOWN on the Pudong for a change (instead of having a sore neck from looking up to the skyscrapers) and went for some drinks to the 93rd floor of the highest building in China:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

Side Note: BTW that little colorful tower DOWN there is 468.0 m high :-)

The Bund on the other hand is the reminiscent of the British, with European style buildings on the banks of the river - mixed with just a few modern but stylish skyscrapers, which however tend to blend in just as if they were always there:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

As we made our way more into the heart of the city away from the financial center, we faced masses of people when the light at a pedestrian crossing on Nanjing road turned green (which by the way we though we were ready for, but this felt more like as if they were coming from a Lady Gaga concert or such):

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

With a brave attempt to buy a pair of sandals for Zoli we entered some of the shopping malls on the Nanjing road... although Shaghai's probably most popular shopping street, we had a real hard time finding what we were looking for, even though we decided to compromise on quality. Guess what, the main issue was the size. 45? No, noooo! No. It seemed to be a giant's foot size in China.

Heading to the Nanshi district, we were presented a blend of the picture-book traditional China and American fast-food culture,

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

but of course it takes only a little effort to find the "real" China we were looking for:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

Blending with the locals, we had one of the best meals in China (after figuring out their system and learning how to use chopsticks):

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

With full stomach we headed for even more "real China" and visited a traditional Chinese Garden, an oasis in the middle of this modern metropolis:

From ASIA - CHINA - Shanghai

All our pictures from Shanghai.

Over 8000 kms from Shanghai to Delhi...

2010-09-15T11:01:00.000+02:00

With our backpacks packed and all flights, overnight trains, 4x4s and elephants booked, we are now almost ready to leave on our three-week-adventure tour in Asia.

We're flying out of Zurich tomorrow evening and probably have our first Peking duck for dinner this weekend :D. Travel stories and photos will follow after our return...

Hiking on Mt Rigi: Urmiberg to Rigi-Kaltbad

2010-09-14T08:48:00.004+02:00

In preparation for our Tibet-Nepal overland tour in less than two weeks we decided to work on our physical condition last weekend and went hiking with our friend M. Zoli. Our choice was one of the classic alpine routes in Mt Rigi, a 5-hour-hiking tour with splendid alpine panorama: 4 lakes seen almost simultaneously deep below surrounded by the Swiss Alps and lots of Milka-cows all around.

From Hiking_Cycling_Fun

We started our tour in Brunnen on the shore of Lake Luzern by taking a small cable-car up to Urmiberg, then continued our way along the Gätterlipass to Rigi-Scheidegg (1.545m). High above lake Luzern we had a wonderful panorama all-around:

From Hiking_Cycling_Fun

After a short lunch break at Rigi-Scheidegg we continued our trail to Rigi-Kaltbad, where we took the Rigi-Bahn down to Vitznau. It was time for a well-deserved, real Swiss dinner... too bad our favorite "Roestli- restaurant" at the Tellskapelle changed their business direction and 'Swiss roestli' was not on the menu any more (so we choose to go rather for a Mexican dish next door).

See more photos of this tour here.

Gorges of Switzerland: Taminaschlucht

2010-09-14T08:34:00.000+02:00

Taminaschlucht is the gorge of the Tamina river, which we visited with my parents a few weeks ago. From Bad Ragaz, it was a nice 4-km-walk along the river until we reached the most narrow part of the valley, where two, almost parallel walls of rock faced each other less than 10 m apart. There is a path constructed along the gorge leading to the grotto of a small thermal spring (as we learned here, this healing spring known as Bad Pfäfers was already used for medical purposes in the Middle Ages).

More photos on Taminaschlucht you may see here.

Camping in Arosa with the Family and Goofy

2010-09-07T20:20:00.000+02:00

Arosa is one of the greatest Alpine all-rounders in Switzerland: perfect for skiers in the winter, hikers and mountain bikers in the summer, with great camping and barbecue places, two lakes for water biking and swimming and the greatest views you can imagine. We have only been here for one day couple of years ago and decided it was a great time to return for a weekend camping with my family who have been visiting us in August. Especially because we had to take Goofy, our new A3 for a trial run on the Swiss Alpine roads... and this was just the perfect road with its 365 hairpin bends on the 30-km-ride from Chur to Arosa.

From Arosa

Well, Goofy loved the zigzagging way and did not disappoint us. The 250 thoroughbred galloped out of corners as if ridden by a jockey (me?) and ran up to 2000m altitude in no time. And surprisingly the passengers did not complain at all, even though I was afraid they would, as a review I read described the S-line suspension "its like it would think you're blind and the road is Braille".

Arriving to Arosa, we first raised our tents at the camping site and were pleasantly surprised by the free all-inclusive cards (offered to all visitors of the resort in summer) giving unlimited access to the cable cars and lifts, pedal- and rowing boats on the lake.
We took the cable car up to LAW-Mittelstation at above 2000 meters and headed off for a short(er) descent back to Arosa with really spectacular views all around:

From Arosa

The afternoon we spent with a barbecue at the lake-side, after which we enjoyed Arosa's summer attraction, the water- and light show on the Obersee.

For Sunday we planned a little more challenge for my parents, starting our tour from the top of the cable car at Weisshorn at 2650 m.

From Arosa

Tired enough after a few hours hiking, we were looking forward to a refreshing swim in the lake, but we lost our enthusiasm pretty quickly when dipping our toes into the cool, 17-degree- Alpine lake. It was certainly refreshing, but a little too cold for us...

You may check out some more photos of Arosa in our Album (it's another place well worthwhile visiting in Switzerland, but make sure you have a good car and an excellent driver (thanks Krisztina) for the last portion of the road)

Having double Birthdays ...

2010-08-17T15:48:00.003+02:00

... is something I was used to since my childhood. No, it was not because my parents wanted to buy me so many toys! ... but simply because The Big Day fell always in the middle of the summer holidays, so I had to organize my party with the other kids, schoolmates & friends while Everyone was still around. Then, of course, when the real one came, we celebrated it again with my family. As a child, I always hated this double Happy Birthdays and wanted to have a 'normal' one like everyone else, on the REAL day.

But as I get older, things change... no more two-months-summer holidays, but living away from our families, which now not only doubles, but more like triples the number of celebrations. And guess what, I don't mind having two or three B-Days any more - probably a sign of getting older every year... (hopefully not three times faster though)

This year, we started with my first birthday cake back in June at my Mom's place with my family,

and continued drinking & eating when our parents came to Zurich...

In the end, on my real B-day after our full-day-hiking to Trift, both of us (pardon, all three of us including Gulliver) were too tired for my present & drinking, so we postponed the celabration for the coming day.

From Csaladi Esemenyek- Szuletesnapok

... and still, I don't feel like being older ;-))

Hiking to Trift glacier & suspension bridge

2010-08-03T21:40:00.001+02:00

On Saturday we woke up on a sunny morning and headed off for the hiking tour to Trift glacier and suspension bridge in the middle of the Bernese Oberland, which we have been planning for a long time. When we arrived at the station of the little cable car to take us part way up the mountain, we found out that there was a waiting time of 2 hours for the cable car; thus we decided to take the hard way with an extra 4-hour-hiking. It was a slight reward for our efforts that along the trail there were plenty of blueberry bushes, which we of course left 'less blue' behind...

On the occasion of his Big Hiking adventure, Gulliver took his brand new Shirt to celebrate the Swiss National day with (too bad he miscalculated by 1 day):

From Trift

The alpine hike from the top of the cable car up to the bridge took about an hour and half with some stops to admire the gorgeous view of the mountains of the Grimselwelt around. Finally, we arrived at the recently constructed bridge (in 2009) and its spectacular views. The bridge is 170 meters in length and is suspended over a 100 meter deep canyon, the longest of its type in Europe.

From Trift

The view of the Trift glacier & lake from the bridge appeared calm and wonderful, it was one of the most scenic views we have ever seen in Switzerland.

From Trift

After a short lunch break we headed back, choosing an alternative way, which was indicated as being a 20-minute-'family trail' ... well, it must have been measured with very fit kids, as it took us about double the time and quite an exhausting hike & rock climbing until we reached the Windegg Hut at 1887m. Having some rest here, we continued our way downhill... several 'blueberry stops' along the way, then we finally arrived back to our car at 9:30pm.

It was definitely an amazing, but very exhausting day for all of us. The most tiring Birthday I can remember having :-)) I was even too tired to open my present, so we left the celebration for the following day (blog entry will be posted soon)

Our entire album on this trip may be visited here:

Trift