Europe pictures uploaded

So back in Berkeley, I'm working on finding a job and finishing up some papers.

In the meantime, I have posted pictures from my Europe trip (with some contributions from Audrey). I've backposted them to the appropriate dates, so check the January 2007 and December 2006 archives on the right-hand side bar.

Switzerland to Home

Going home...

I am back in Berkeley now, after a magnificent 10-day tour through Europe.

After Italy, we spent the night in a very clean and typically German YHA hostel. The next morning, we hopped on the ferry back to Romanshorn, Switzerland, and then took the train to Lucerne, a stunning city on a lake bordered by scenic mountains. During this brief stop in Lucerne, the girls took advantage of the great scenery by shopping indoors at american stores.

After lucerne, we took a scenic train ride through the mountains to Interlaken, where we bedded down at the Backpackers Villa hostel and a pair of smelly (but friendly) roommates. On 1/4, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snowboard in the Swiss mountains. The snow actually wasn't all that great, due to Europe's record high temperatures this winter. In some cases, some of the snow had just covered the ground a week ago, most of the snow was icy, and rocks and grass were still visible in parts. Nonetheless, the scenery was amazing, with Mt. Eiger and the Jungfraujoch (German for "really big mountain with really expensive train ride") and their numerous glaciers overlooking the ski resort in Grindelwald.

Audrey and P, not avid skiiers, took the train to Montreaux to check out the castle and Swiss Riviera. We reunited that night and shared our pictures on the train ride back to Zurich. The next day (1/5) we hopped on our flight back to JFK, where Audrey and I continued back to California on our marathon 24-hour travel days. I got back to SFO at around midnight on 1/5, sans luggage, but happy to be home nonetheless.

Interlaken

Snowboarding near Interlaken

On our last full day in Switzerland, I went snowboarding in Grindelwald while the girls took off in search of a castle in Montreaux. The snow in the mountains wasn't great, due to the record high temperatures in Europe this winter, but there was snow, which wasn't the case a week before. It was pretty icy and patchy, and it started snowing and gusting into near-white-out conditions at the top of the mountain. The ski resort did offer great views of Mt. Eiger and its glaciers.

White out at the top of the mountain

The view of the glacier on Mt. Eiger

Me and my glacier

On the ski lift

P in the castle dungeon at Montreaux

P working her makeovermagic on Emory in the hostel

Emory's new 'do

Lucerne and beyond

Lucerne, Switzerland

After getting back from Italy and spending the night in Friedrichshafen, we took the train to Interlaken, stopping off in Lucerne for a couple hours. Lucerne is a gorgeous city on a lake surrounded by views of some of the most famous mountains in Switzerland. Audrey and Patricia, of course, took advantage of this scenery to shop indoors at American stores. I should note, though, that some of the pictures here and in other posts are from Audrey, since the laptop that I uploaded my pictures onto got fried.

One of Lucerne's famous covered wooden bridges

From Lucerne, we took a scenic train ride through the mountains to Interlaken.

Patricia's missing out on all the scenery!

Sunset through the clouds near Interlaken

She's awake!

Florence, Italy

Hello from Florence, Italy! After hiking in the hills around Zurich on 12/29, we took a train up to St. Gallen, Switzerland on 12/30 to check out the cathedral and abbey library, which has books dating back to 800 A.D. We then took a ferry across foggy Lake Constanz to Friedrichschafen, Germany, where we caught a dirt cheap flight to Pisa, Italy. The RyanAir flight was every bit as low budget as you would expect for a $80 round trip ticket, but Italy proved to be well worth the hassle. We took an hour-long train ride to Florence, where we are staying for 3 nights.

On New Years Eve, we saw a bazillion majestic cathedrals and hit the Uffizi to see its famed Renaissance art collection, with a special exhibit on Leonardo di Caprio, er, da Vinci.

At night, the streets were packed with New Years revelers and people setting off random fireworks. We watched the fireworks from a bridge on the river Arno.

On New Years Day, we took a train ride to beautiful Siena and enjoyed the view of medieval architechture and wine country... and more cathedrals and museums.

Today (1/2) is our last day in Italy. We head back to Friedrichshafen, GER and bed down for the night. Tomorrow, we wil take the ferry and a train to central Switzerland (Interlaken) via Lucerne.

Siena

From the Campo in Siena, Italy

On New Year's Day, we took the train through the beautiful Tuscan countryside to Siena. At first, the streets were abandoned, as would be expected on New Year's Day, but it was still kind of creepy to have just the tourists scouring around in a post-apocalyptic way. Eventually, we found the bustling city center and all was right in the world.

P and a lonely Christmas tree

In Siena, kids and pigeons are mortal enemies

Another Duomo

Audrey sittin' tall

Wow, what a great photo op!