Zurich and Feldschlösschen brewery-- class field trip

Hello Family and Friends,

On March 25, 2009

On this day we took a group field trip to a tour of the Marriot in Zurich. Then we went to the Beer brewery Feldschlösschen, in Switzerland. The hotel tour was really bad, because the tour was given by hotel interns that did not tell us any thing about the hotel. If we wanted any information about the hotel it was like bulling teeth. They also did not know how to speak loud enough for the group to hear any of them when they talked.


the hall way (looked like a dorm hall way)


The view form the hotel


Then we got on the train and went to the city of Rheinfelden where the Feldschlösschen brewery. This was a nice little or big depending if you have seen any other brewery that you may have see. We were feed lunch was some sort of potato salad and unknown mystery meat. Then we were given several different kinds of beer to taste. Since I am not a big beer drinker I only drank half the beer that they gave me. But they make this beer that does not taste like BEER (the taste that I don’t like) it tastes like fruit, there was a passion fruit one and a grapefruit one and one other one as well. Then name of this beer is called Eve. The Passion fruit one was my favorite.


me on tour


Then after out lunch and tasting we went on a tour of the land and the brewing plant. We saw their houses. Our tour guide was great.


where they brewing took place


the bottling plant



an old bottle label

Then we got back in time for dinner. We live to eat here or eat to live I’m not really sure, what it is. We eat lots of bread and very little fruit and veggies. But we walk it all off going up the 6 flights of steps to my bed room.

Till next time,
Travel54s

City of Lights

Bon Jour beloved friends and Family,

the City of Paris

19 March 2009 Thursday,

Today is the first day that I Leave the home base of Switzerland, and were do I head? But where else to start a European tour but Paris, France. Right after class at 12:56 we receive on the boat that leaves out of Vitznau and heads into Luzern to catch our train that heads to Basel. From there we change trains and we just bearly make, we are all running from one train down the plat form to make our next train. This is quite funny because we all have back packs, and none of us are in shape. The people I traveled with are Tom, Emily, Colleen, Jamie, Craig, and Janelle.

The train ride from Basel to Paris was about 3 and half hours. So what else do college kids do on a long train ride do. That is right have a picnic we all brought food and WINE (I brought ice tea). Then we all passed out and took naps and I took some photos of the little towns that we passed. Then we got into Paris around 18:30. We were all staying in different places, Hostels or with friends.






Craig Colleen and I all stayed in Hotel San Sebastian. We got on the metro and got off at the stop that the direction said to get off at. Then it said walk 50 meters and it will be there on your left. But we went out the wrong exit and walked like 100 meters in the wrong direction. Then we turned around and walked 150 meters in the right direction, and found it on the left. We checked in and found our room. It was the size of a size 10 sure box. My bed and Colleen’s bed were so close that is should have just been one bed. And if u sat on the foot of my bed you could kick Craig’s bed. The bathroom was even smaller, the shower once you got in that was it no turning around or even bending over that could not happen. If you dropped something oh well you could get when the shower was over.






Then we headed out on the metro again to meet up with Tom, Jaime and Janelle. We met up with them at 21:00 hours, at the steps at the bottom of Scare Coeur. This is a really nice church, that is at the highest spot in the city, we walked around there for about an hour. We also went in side the church, it was really BEAUTEFUL in there but we could not take photos.



A Great begging to the City of PARIS. We also say the Eiffel Tower from there too ALL lit up.


20 March 2009 Friday,

This was and early start to the day we were meeting up with everyone at 09:00 hour at the Eiffel Tower right under neath of it. Craig did a really good job of planning out what we should see the next day. We stared out at the Eiffel tower.






Then went to the Arc de Trifuth. I love walking up to it. Is amazing looking. Only 3 of us went up it, Jamie, Craig, and I. The only way to the top was to take the steps there were so many steps, we are all so out of shape that we had to take a break on the steps to let the other people pass us. I did really well I almost made it to the top with out stopping, but I had to stop like 4 feet from the top at the landing. Then when we got there was a little museum stop. Then we had even more steps to walk up to get to the top and out side. The view from the top was amazing. Now the steps down were just as hard because they were steep and very twisty.







There are many more photos like this but I'm only putting one Up.

From there we walked down the Avenue Des Champs Elysees and saw everything that you can see on there. We saw: Obelisque, Louvre, Grand Palace the gardens and ended up at the Louvre Art museum. We did not go in any of the art museum, so I will have to go back and do that some day.


The Obelisque


The Louvre

After that we headed over to Norte Dame, is so pretty on the out side. The line was really long to go in so we did not.


Notre Dame


The Opera House


Then we went shopping at Gallery La Laffite, a really nice mall. After that we ended our day as a big group.




Gallery La Laffite


But we all deceased to meet back up for a late dinner by American standers at 20:00 hours and have a drink as well.



Our Metro stop


Saturday 21 March 2009,

Another early day in the city of Paris my group. Craig, Colleen and I were going to go to mass at Notre Dame but we were slow moving because of how much walking we did the day before. I must say that no one in our group is in shape good shape. So in staid of going to mass we just went and walked around Notre Dame. Gorgeous on the inside, the colors in the stain glass windows, was bright and photos could not capture the colors. The arcature of the building was amazing I could of taken a thousand photos of Norte Dame and even the City for that matter.





the South rose window




The West Rose Window


After that we all met up at Monamtra where Sacrea Coeur is located. We walked up the steps in front an amazing view from the top of the city.




Up there as well is an open air market were lots of arts paint and sell their paintings as well. Some would let you take photos of them working others would not, but was still very cool to watch them work. I did buy some art work up there but I can’t talk about it because it is for someone as a gift. But if they don’t like the art I picked for them I will be more then happy to keep it for me.







From there we decided to go down into the catacombs of France. This is really cool seeing all of the bones form the graves they dug up when expanding the city of Paris. The people that placed the bones down in the catacombs had some fun. They made hearts out of the skulls in all of the stacked bones. They made crosses and many other designs out of the skulls. I even touched a bone, never thought that would happen. This was about 45 min to an hour walking through to get to the other side.















Once done with that we all broke up and went back to our hostel to nap because we did no many steeps after two days.

Ps. If any one wants to mail the thing that counts how many steps I do that would be great to see if in one weekend of traveling I pass the 10,000 steps you need in a day.


After our 2 hour nap Craig, Colleen and I went and got dinner and then headed over to the Eiffel Tower, we got there a little after 19:30 and got in line to go up it. The Line moved very fast we were on the elevator around 20:30 or a little before. The Cool thing was we were in line at 20:00 hours when we saw it sparkle the first time.

20:00 hours sparkle


We were on the second level when we saw it sparkle the second time at 21:00 hours.









And then at 22:00 hours we were standing about half way back on the green lawn to see it sparkle a 3rd time. This was my favorite part of the whole Paris trip. This is what made me grin for ear to ear. This was the only thing I really wanted to see and I did.




I took photos and videos every time it started to sparkle. Now, it seems that I want a better camera that takes better night photos when just holding it and not on a tripod. Because I took about 10 photos of the tower from far away at night and I think only 1 turned out really nice to even maybe to print out and hang on my wall at art.

But this was the perfect ending to a whirlwind tour of Paris.

Next Trip will be in Vienna and Budapest.

Till Next Time,

Travel54s

Ps still working on the photos to put in there but here is the start of it

To travle or not To travel

Till next time,

Travel54s

To travel or not To travel
First travel Weekend 13-15

Gutten Morgen, for Switzerland

This is the first weekend we would be able to travel. The groups that have headed out this weekend have gone to Roma, and Dublin, and there is one group that is on the Glaser train in the South of Switzerland.

Friday 13 March 2009

However I chose to stay and not validate my Rail pass till next weekend when I head out to Paris for the weekend OMG I CAN’T wait.

So this weekend is all about being a townie. There was a group of us that went in and booked our Paris train in the city of Lucerne, and at the same time I booked my Easter trip to Germany. There I will be seeing my German Family. Now that I have those train tickets I am wicked excited to be going and can’t wait I just want them to really happen NOW.

Then we just went shopping in the city (Lucerne). We went shopping at H&M stores and I fell in love with 2 coats, although I did not get either one. Now I am wishing I had them so I am going to have to go back and get them.

One is short and black with lots of pockets and looks very European and I look very European in it. With that I will look less American, at least until I start to talk and I don’t speak the language. The other one is tan and is a dress coat and would be perfect to wear on Easter weekend with my BELOVED GERMAN FAMILY (I still can’t believe that I am going to be going there).


Later that night when we came back to our little town, some of the students from the DCT School invited us to a bon fire on the beach. We had the hardest time getting the fire stared because we did not have dry wood. We just had newspaper and twigs.

Saturday 14 March 2009,

This day was a slow day on getting started. My friends Colleen, Craig and I went to the little town that is where the train takes us in to "the City" (aka Lucerne). We did some shopping for clothing and food. There was a park and again there are the mountains and the lake and ducks. It was pretty.

But I can only look at the same mountains every day and say that is pretty. Now I am like ok that is the mountain ok next please (bitter in German). This is a really nice town but every thing closes at 4pm or 16:00 hour and we got there at like 15:30 so we really just walked around for like an hour then we took the bus back to Vitznau. This was a very nice day, the evening was quiet. I stayed in and watched my movie "Ever After" (which is filmed at the castle that I will be seeing later on in this tri).

Sunday 15 March 2009,

So today I was very quiet, lazy, and very antisocial. I did home work and was in my PJ's all day no need to get dressed. This was the perfect Sunday. What more can I say on that?


Till next time,

Travel54s

Football

Hello Family and Friends,

So on March 8, a whole group of us here went out and played Football Swiss style.
So yes, the Americans were really BAD, but that is ok it was lots of fun.

I did not play; I took the photos, so that there would documentation of this really big happening. The field that we played on was really muddy so everyone really dirty.







This is what the Americans did during the game so no wonder we lost! LOL

After playing football and just spending the whole day out side being active (which the Americans rarely do). we were worn out.

After that my roommate and I learned how to do Swiss laundry. That was scary, we but the clothing in and even before we had put the money and the soap in the water started RUSHING in and attracting the soap dispenser and the clothing.

Then when we moved our clothing to the dryer, we put the clothing and the money in this time before we closed the door. Then we closed the door, and we could not get it closed without SLAMMING it shut. Then we started hitting all of the buttons but it would not turn on. So we opened the door and SLAMMED it shut again several times, but nothing. The last time was the charm we SLAMMED the door hit a button and it turned on.


So every time post I have my Itunes playing and I really wish I was able to post music to each of my little stories I tell.

Till next time,

Travel54s

Vitznau

Hello Family and Friends,

So I just realized how scatter-brained I have been, and have not shown you the town that I'm living in, here in Switzerland, VItznau.

Vitznau is a very small town and I feel at home because of how much i love small towns. I also feel like it is right out of a German fairy tale, but not (because it is in Switzerland!)




The mountain that we are on to is called Rigi, but every one calls it the "The Rigi." We are also on Lake Lucerne.






You can walk from one end of the town to the other in about 10 minutes. I have done it. That is such a cool thing. People really fly down the roads when driving, but they have great side walks that go along their main roads. I went on a walk from one side of town to the other, then continued onto the next town; I was on side walks the whole time.




This is the school that I'm at right now.



This is one of the desserts that I like from the bakery that is in town. It was so good that we are there at least once every day.

The weather here changes every 5 minutes. In one day we can have high winds, rain, snow, sunshine, and overcast skies.


Till next time,

Travel54s

Lucerne

Hello Family and Friends,

On March 7, 2009 the whole group of 34 JWU students when to the city of Lucerne. This is a really cool city. The City has lots of things to see. To get there we can the bus to Wiggis and the train in to the city or we can walk out side of the school and get on the boat.



Two student form the school took us on a tour but they did not know that much about the city. On the trip there is a student that use to live here in Lucerne, and he new more and he tried to tell the information. But the two students keep cutting him off.










Then when we got back and after dinner there was a small group of us that went to the local bar. That was really fun, and I'm not a big beer drinker but the local beer is really good here. It is light and tast really good. We were getting to know each other.

At the bar there was a table of old men and they Yodeled for us, and I for got my camera back at my room so I did not get that on film and so wish I had.

That was a great end of a day.

Till next time,
Travel54s