Why Should You go to Switzerland?

   Switzerland is a wonderfully unique country filled with different sites and landmarks for everyone. Whether you want to see the historical aspect of so of the castles and old towns, or you want to emerge you senses in the culture that can be found through out. The landscapes and environment of Switzerland are exceptional; snow-covered mountains, crystal lakes and tree filled forests as well as grassy plains. In short, Switzerland is not lacking when it comes to natural features of its lands. 

   The culture you will find in Switzerland is amazing; their history is rich and the people speak multiple languages. If you decide to go to Basel during the Fasnacht carnival, prepare to be amazed. It is called by locals to be the "most wonderful 3 days," and is world famous for the participant's festive costumes and masks, and the musicians who play and parade through the streets. But, while it's an amazing aspect to Switzerland, it's only a tip of the iceberg in terms of what the country has to offer. 

   If you are more of a sporty person, no need to worry, there are many things that you could find your self doing. For one, you could take to the slopes, perhaps sledding, skiing or snowboarding; or you could go and watch a hockey game. Hockey is extremely popular there, the stadiums always fill up with the crowds that come to see the games. 

  When looking it over and weighing your options, the real question would have to be "why not got to Switzerland?" Switzerland is like a eat it all buffet; you can go along and pick and choose what you want, and pile your plate high with everything good in the process. So, is there any reason to why you wouldn't want to pack your bags and leave now?

Day 12 - 3 March 2015

   We woke up from our sleep around 8 am in order to start packing and getting ready for our long plane trip ahead. We would be in the plane for a total of 12 hours, not including layovers, so we could use that time to get any extra sleep we aren't getting in the mornings. We checked out of the Geneva Hostel and headed over to the Airport at 10:30 which gave us 2 and a half hours to get ready. We got to the airport at 11 am and sat down and waited for the plane to start boarding. 
   
   At 11:40 the plane was boarding and finally left 30 minutes later. We got to Montreal Airport at 2:30 PM, which might not seem that long of a ride, but due to time changes, the plane ride was 8 and a half hours. We had a little over an hour to get some Airport food and walk around, because we were tired of being in a plane for 8 hours. At 3:30 PM our plane started boarding and we got ready and boarded. The plane departed at 4 and lasted an hour and a half until we got off at the next stop. 

    We landed in Toronto at 5:45 and had 4 hours to wait around before hitting our next plane at 9:30 PM, so we grabbed some food and hung out at the airport lobby, because we had all of our stuff with us. At 9 our next flight began boarding and we got on and settled before the plane departed at 9:30. Our last plane lasted a little over 2 hours and we got to Raleigh at 11:15, and it took us about 30 minutes to get out of the plane and get our stuff. We were finally able to get a taxi to our houses and we all got home around 12 AM.

Day 11- 2 March 2015

   We woke up at 8 am to a light drizzle outside our room this morning. After grabbing a quick meal around 8:30 at the hostel breakfast bar, we made our way over to the train station, where we would catch a train back to Geneva at 10 am. We said goodbye to the city and boarded the train. The entire ride was three hours, and the views outside the windows were beautiful, most things were still covered by at least a light dusting of snow. The whole experience was pretty relaxing. When we arrived in Geneva at 1 PM, we exited the train and station before catching a bus to the Novotel Geneve Aeroport, which is a hotel attached to the airport, to make it easier the next morning when we would catch our flights home home. 

                 History

  At 2 PM at a small lunch in a nearby deli, we made our way to the city center and walked around, taking in the sights that Geneva had to offer. We then made our way into the old town of Geneva. We walked around for a bit enjoying the architecture and character in the buildings around us. We then made our way up to St. Peter's Cathedral, which overlooks the whole of the city. There were a total of 157 steps to the top of the tower, and the view of the city was definitely worth it. The architecture and detail within the church its self was amazing as well. 

  After spending about 4 hours looking around at the buildings and cathedrals, we headed back to the hostel on a bus. We looked around and found a place to eat at around the area at 6:30 pm. We headed back to the hostel at around 8:30 PM and started packing and getting ready for the day ahead. 

Day 10- 1 March 2015

         Culture

   Waking up today and then leaving to go to Lucerne at about 10:30 am and eat some breakfast. We arrived at 11 am. We were all really excited about doing the Foxtrail today. A Foxtrail is like a scavenger hunt, you try to follow the 'fox's' trail throughout the city. We took the Luno Maxi trail which was difficult, we started at 12:45 pm. We traveled around the city in search of the boxes. The trail was really long and complicated, we had to go to places along the lake and on the outside of the city too. 
   I thought that it wasn't going to take all that long but I was wrong. Apparently we are terrible at riddles and activates, it was supposed to only take about 4 hours but instead to took about 6 hours. Anyways we finally caught the fox at about 6:45 pm, it may have taken us forever but we still had a lot of fun. I think it was harder for us because we don't know the area as well. What was really cool about it was that we got to see the city, and it was beautiful. The building there many have maybe a little old but that made it cool. Since there is a lake there, there was a lot of birds, on the roofs of buildings in the water and on the bridge. Since we got done so late we just got dinner at one of the local restaurants at about 7:00 pm then we finished and left at 8:30 pm. We got back to the hotel in Zurich by about 9:00 pm and went to bed.

Day 9 - 28 Febuary 2015

      Environmental

   Today we woke up at about 9:30 am then ate breakfast. We started to go to Aletsch at 10:30 pm. Today it was in the 40s but we still bundled up because we know that since today we are going to be in the mountains then it will probably get colder when we get there. We arrive at 12:30 pm, it is here in this area that the Aletsch Glacier is found. Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps. Also in this area there is a lot of skiing and tobogganing. 
   Around the area there is a reserve, the Aletsch Forest. There is many different kinds of animals and plants in the reserve. We took a hike in the Aletsch Arena, specifically the Nostalgic Snowshoe Tour. Before that we looked around at the nature there because ti  was so beautiful. The tour was about 3 hours long, we took the 3- 6 o'clock tour. The views were beautiful, we started off the tour by taking gondola ride to Moosfluh. So we then hiked around on Moosfluh and then went to Riederfurka. By the time that we started heading back, night had started to fall and we could see the sunset. It was beautiful, and the mountain range made it even more amazing. We arrived at 8 pm and had some dinner. The tour was fun and tiring so we were happy to go back to the hotel in Zurich and get some rest at about 9:30 pm.

Day 8- 27 February 2015

ZC Bern

   We woke up to a gray overcast in Zurich at the Hotel at around 6:30 am. We spent around an hour eating our breakfast at the hotel. It consisted of yummy eggs and toast with some orange juice. We packed our bags in the hotel to travel to another one hotel, just in a different city; Bern.

   We were very excited as we bought tickets to a hockey game to watch ZC Bern play the EHC Biel. We were looking forward to the match up and couldn't wait for it to be 7 pm (game start time) any faster.

   We caught a cab to take us to the train station and we took a train to Bern. It was a long train ride, so we checked into our hotel and took a nap for around 2 hours to catch up on sleep since we woke up very early this morning. It was around 2 pm when we woke up and we headed off to get some lunch that consisted of slices of meat on a sandwich with a little sauce they had at the counter. 

Culture

   We then explored Bern finding interesting things on the way like another child eating monument- the child eating fountain. It brought amusement to us as we didn't know there was another child eating monument in Switzerland. It was time to head to the hockey game we'd been waiting for all day. 

Sports

   The puck dropped and we were ready for 60 minutes of non-stop action and physical play throughout. The ZC Bern won as we were hoping for, 3-1! We ate at the concessions at the stadium because the game didn't end till 9:30 pm. 

   We then got back to our hotel at around 10:30 pm from the game and fell asleep quickly as we were extremely tired from the days adventures! 

Day 7- 26 February 2015

Mala Gorge

   We decided to wake up at 8:30 PM and go to to "Mala Gorge", which is a very important landmark to Zurich.  We headed to a local cafe for breakfast and ate till 10 am. At 10, we caught a cab to the Mala Gorge, which took us about an hour to get to.
We arrived at the Mala Gorge a little bit after 11.

Nature

   The Mala Gorge was very deep and slippery. Our guide told us to not move too close to it or else we might slip and fall into it. After that, we went back into the city via our cab at 1 PM and visited the child eating ogre.

Culture

   The ogre was tall and intimidating. I bet it scares many children each day they walk by it. We then headed off for lunch and we had a light meal consisting of buttered bread and cheese along with a little wine to top it off. Our group then hopped back into a cab at 3PM and it brought us to the train station as we used our passes to travel to Bern where the famous Zytglogge clock tower is located.We ended up finishing with the Clock Tower around 7PM.

History

   We had a grand tour of the landmarks around it and inside the tower. There was much more to see than a clock! After, we traveled back into the city of Zurich to see our final destination in the city, Rhine Falls at 7 PM. The mist of the falls fell onto our cheeks and we saw a rainbow under the waterfall, glimmering off the water. We ended up finishing with Rhine Falls at 8:30 PM.

   We got back at 10 PM and after our tired day we had snacks in the hotel because we had such a late lunch. We went to bed around 10 pm ready to hop back up the next day to visit Bern and watch a hockey game!