Europe Trip 2008

From 16 June to 13 July 2008, Rita and I travelled through Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Austria in a hire car. The trip was mostly work for me, as I used funds from an award I had won to visit universities in Holland and Switzerland, and attend a conference in Vienna.

However, while travelling 4,800km between the various countries, there were plenty of opportunities to take some nice photos. Here are the best of them.

We landed in Frankfurt, and spent a week in Holland before going to stay with friends in Basel, then visiting universities in the French part of Switzerland – first in Lausanne and then in Fribourg.

This photo was between Lausanne and Fribourg, along Lake Geneva.

One of the tourist ferries on Lake Geneva. Photo taken from the freeway which snakes up the steep hillside next to the lake.

Rob gave a presentation at the University of Fribourg, a medieval city at the border of the French and German areas of Switzerland.

Travelling across Switzerland towards Austria. Some nice views from the South side of Lake Luzern (Vierwaldstättersee), near Klewenalp.

Car ferry on Lake Luzern near Klewenalp.

Next stop Altdorf on the East side of Lake Luzern – home of William Tell.

Then over the Klausenpass between Altdorf and Glarus. Village of Unterschächen.

Some steep cliffs and cloudy weather in the Klausenpass.

Some of the high meadows in the Klausenpass. The cows were being brought up there the following week. The mountain pass road had only just been opened (early June).

A huge waterfall pouring down from a glacier in the Klausenpass.

A little chapel at the top of the Klausenpass.

Going down the other side of the Klausenpass. Hit an obstacle on the road!

Village or Tierfehd on the way to Glarus down the Klausenpass.

City of Glarus, Capital of the canton of Glarus, Surrounded on four sides by mountains which tower 2000m above the city.

Then along the freeway through Switzerland, Liechtenstein the Austria, through the Arlberg tunnel and down the Inn valley, then North towards Germany. Kufstein is right on the border. It is a medieval castle town.

This is the alley entrance into the old city. The Kufstein song was written in this alley (can’t remember which year)

Then we drove into Germany and then back across to Salzburg in Austria. From there we dove up towards the Salzkammergut area and stayed overnight at St Gilgen. The sunset over the lake was nice.

This was the view from our B&B next morning.

Then we drove on to Vienna, and Rob spent the week at the Ed-Media conference while Rita did the sightseeing thing. One thing unusual to Australians was the floating swimming pool.

But it wasn’t all work for Rob. One evening we enjoyed a small public ‘beer garden’ in a square near our hotel next to an impressive church.

Over the weekend, we drove back through Austria, and followed the Inn valley up from Landeck towards Switzerland. This took us into Unterengadine and we stayed overnight at Scuol, in the Romanche-speaking part of Switzerland.

The next day we drove through the Flüelapass to Davos and then through Graubunden.

How did people build bridges like this a hundred years ago?

We then travelled up the upper Rhine valley towards the Oberalppass and Andermatt. This is the view down towards Thusis.

That night (Sunday 6 July) we met up with Yvonne Blättler at her home in Meggen, near Luzern. As we sat on her balcony having dinner, a rainstorm passed over us. As it moved to the East, a fantastic rainbow appeared. This was a complete double rainbow, covering the entire sky.

Even better, the North end of the rainbow passed in front of the peak of the Rigi, and the South end passed in front of the peak of the Bürgenstock. Fantastic!

On Monday 7th, Rob had to visit universities in Zürich, but on Tuesday we could sleep in then explore Luzern. This photo of the old Miller’s bridge was taken from the old city walls. Amazingly, we met an Australian couple there wo knew us from the Wanneroo Folk Club!

On Wednesday we took a trip to the Pilatus (named after Pontius Pilate). This started with a ferry along the lake last Kehrsitten and Stanstad to Alpnachstad. We then took the steepest cogwheel railway in the world up to the top of the Pilatus.

At the top of Pilatus, it was a little cloudy, but we explored the three peaks of the Pilatus and got some nice photos between the clouds.

On the Thursday, the weather was fantastic, and we went up the Rigi, the mountain to the East of Luzern. This photo is from the Cable car which goes up from Weggis to where the cogwheel railway goes up to the peak of the Rigi.

Finally, on Saturday July 13, we drove out of Switzerland to Frankfurt, for the flight home. On the way, we stopped at the Rheinfall, the waterfall which mark the end of the navigable part of the Rhine. This photo shows why it isn’t navigable at this point! 600 cubic metres of water flows past here every second on average in summer!