Via ferrata (Klettersteig) adventures

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...

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

From Wallis (Leukerbad & 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 & Val d'Anniviers)

From Wallis (Leukerbad & Val d'Anniviers)

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

From Wallis (Leukerbad & 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 & 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 & 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

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

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

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

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

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

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  and decorations of our apartment, which we have celebrated with couple of house-warmings. This is a view of our "island" from the countryroad above:

From Hagendorn

... 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

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

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

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

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)