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LÖTSCHENTAL, beautiful Swiss valley
LÖTSCHENTAL, a long (27 kilometers) and quiet valley in the Bernese Alps, offers about 200 kilometers of hiking trails in unspoiled nature with rivers, glaciers, lakes, forest, and view to lots of surrounding 3 – 4.000 meters high mountain peaks. At the end of the main road through the valley, the starting point for hiking is a huge parking place with a fantastic view of…
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STEIN am RHEIN, medieval village in Switzerland
STEIN am RHEIN, literally, Stone by the Rhine, and originally just a fishing village, is a small town with just about 3500 inhabitants. The more than 1000 years old historic medieval center, still with the old gate towers and walls, is full of the most beautiful old houses with fantastic frescoes painted on many of the facades. Most of them around the town hall square.…
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MOUNT PILATUS, Switzerland
MOUNT PILATUS, another very well-known mountain massif in Switzerland with lots of hiking opportunities, can be reached by foot, cable car, or by the steepest cogwheel railway in the world – opened way back in 1889, with a gradient of up to 48 %!!! So, guess which one we decided on! After parking on the huge parking lot (chargeable) by the foot of Pilatus, in…
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RIBE, oldest town in Denmark! City trip.
RIBE is the oldest town in Denmark, it was founded around the year 704. Yes, 704! The inhabitants are called ripensers 🙂 In 2014 Ribe was chosen to be Europe’s Best Big Time Small Destination. This time we visited Denmark/Ribe to celebrate our daughter-in-law’s bachelor and then took the opportunity to explore the very, very old and beautiful houses in the narrow alleys and streets of…
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Vertical cliff hike at Galerie Défago, Switzerland
After our first interesting short hike along the Vièze River, we had also planned another hike in the area, being of a completely different character. The first part of the Galerie was opened in 1864 by the local entrepreneur Emmanuel Défago, thus the name. The view over the valley, to the Vièze River and Champéry is fabulous. Most of the trip is secured by a…
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OESCHINENSEE, Lake Oeschinen, Switzerland
OESCHINEN LAKE in the summertime is a completely different experience as in the wintertime. The last time we visited was for the Ice Walk – fantastic! But this time it was without snow and together with good friends. Again, with the cable car from Kandersteg to the mountain station and then just 1,4 km almost flat hike to one of the restaurants, the Zur Sennhütte,…
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Christmas trip to COPENHAGEN, part 2
Getting up early is a good tip for city trips, even in Copenhagen, so off we went. Tivoli Gardens, the second-oldest amusement park in the World (the oldest is Dyrehavsbakken, also in Denmark), opened in 1843. Almost 5 million visitors come every year to admire the beautiful park with changing themes, this time of course Christmas. The natural highlight this year is the almost…
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The ÄSCHER mountain restaurant, Switzerland
The ÄSCHER guesthouse on Ebenalp in Alpstein has been among our favourite mountain restaurants ever since we moved to Switzerland. Located 1470 masl. on a plateau, built directly on the mountain – yes, the mountain is partly a wall of the building; the guesthouse has been here since 1884, making it one of the oldest of its kind in Switzerland. The easiest way to reach…
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THUN, lovely town be the lake, Switzerland
THUN also has an historic Altstadt, old town, with cobbled streets and beautiful old buildings. One of the old shopping streets have quirky shops and cafés in two storeys. From this street a covered stairway with many, many steps, leads the 30 meters up to the Castle of Thun with tremendous views over Thun, Lake Thun and the Swiss Alps. The castle is more than…
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ZERMATT, Switzerland – view to Matterhorn
ZERMATT is probably among the most known winter sports towns in Switzerland, maybe even in Europe. And if not for anything else, then of course because of the legendary mountain, Matterhorn and about 20 other 4000+ peaks. But, the town itself, with direct access to Gornergrat, Klein Matterhorn with the Glacier Paradise, Schwarzsee, endless hiking trails and a lot of history also makes it worth…
