the bowl of cherries: stunning switzerland

it comes as no surprise that switzerland is beautiful - every town seems to be nestled at the bottom of impossibly high, picturesque mountains and/or on stunning rivers.

not only that, the streets themselves are gorgeous.

i took squillions of photos, each of a landscape more beautiful than the last. this was especially true of jungfraujoch, a mountain accessable by a slightly scary train ride 3.5kms up in the sky. nothing made me realise the altitude more than when i went to open the sandwich i'd brought up with me and the packaging exploded from pressure :-o

the japenese tourists visiting had organised a st.bernard at the bottom of the mountain for photo ops [awww... and also check out the skiier stacking it in the background]

and it seems that they thought that i was on the top of the mountain for photo ops too - SO many people came charging up to me, put their arms around me and apparently pledged peace for their holiday pics. they'll be showing them to their friends, "and here is me with a giant swiss girl". pah.

i then spent a sweet day with my lovely local tour guide at kleine scheidegg,

where they have an apres-ski teepee with ecclectic music taste: from christmas carols to top 40 girl bands to ac/dc in 10 mins.

most meals in switzerland seem to include cheese... none more so than raclette, which is pretty much melted cheese on a plate (note the difference to fondue). even rivella, maybe to the swiss what vegemite is to aussies, includes cheese whey. here's my swiss lunch, en guete! :-)

i then went to luzern for fasnacht, a crazy festival which seems to pretty much just entail everyone getting dressed up in elaborate costumes, playing music and partying for no good reason. from the outset i could tell it wasn't going to be a normal day

and it wasn't - it was amazing...!

the masks were works of art in themselves...

i hoped to visit the weeping lion memorial to fallen swiss guards, but when i eventually found it, it too had been taken over with revellers. although it seemed a little disrespectful, i guess it would cheer up the departed spirits a little...

these are some crazy guys who followed me for a couple of blocks after i said "excuse me" because they wanted to practice their english. once i got over my 'stranger danger' fears, they actually turned out to be quite charming!

i kept taking photos of kids, luckily i'm not a creepy guy or the parents wouldn't have been so happy. the kids did attack me back though, so it's fair.

luzern itself is gorgeous

and i wanted to have my pic taken there... but was again confettied by a random reveller a second before the pic was taken - ah well, how fasnacht :-)