Day 11 - San Sebastian, Pension Alemana

Click on the 2 mosaics for a slightly larger picture...

From top, left to right...

1. Graffiti, Salamanca
2. Le Petit Hotel, Salamanca
3. Motorway Driving
4. Motorway Driving, Northern Spain
5. Motorway Snow
6. Motorway Snow
7. Pension Alemana, San Sebastian (very nice little hotel)
8. Pension Alemana, San Sebastian

flickr photo link: <Spain, Dec 08>

They say that San Sebastian has the best tapas in Spain, and tonight we tried quite a few of them! Various tapas with smoked salmon & cream cheese, mini croissants with jamón & fromage, tapas with roquefort cheese & quince paste (and a walnut on top), salt cod, mini tarts with olive oil & glass eels, and grilled prawns, to name a few. Plus a couple of the local beers and a Havana Club & Coke for Clare. They do NOT use nip pourers here, so spirits are high.
Today was spent mainly driving, from Salamanda to San Sebastian past Valladolid, Burgos & Vitoria. We left around 10am and it took about 6 hours, starting in Wild West or Wyoming like open country, then through loads of snow covered areas with mountains & tunnels. They're raving about the snow on the news. The Swiss just get on with things when it snows, but the Spanish get stuck in centimetres, like the British, so things get rather excited. There was one motorway pass that looked to be getting rather hairy, but we cleared it, and were soon descending through some very green but quite industrial valleys in the Basque Country, into San Sebastian. I should point out that the motorways here are pretty exceptional too.
The Garmin lady helped us find our hotel, Pension Alemana (recommended by the Lonely Planet), which is rather comfortable, right near the esplanade, and has internet access, thus the update tonight! Tomorrow, we'll explore San Sebastian further then mosey along the coast to Bilbao...

Day 6 - Parallel Worlds

Tonight we're staying at the Formule 1 Genève Aéroport Ferney Voltaire, which is actually in France, not Switzerland. Like most Formule 1's, this is 100% low rent - Clare says even on the scale of Formule 1's this is especially low rent, as she's never had to share the bathroom with prostitutes before. Yes, this is the sort of place where you just come to rest your head, and if you see crime scene tape outside a room, you just walk past quickly - you see nothing, hear nothing. More on that later. We'd started the day with breakfast at our lovely hotel in Zermatt, before checking out, taking the train back down the valley to Täsch with a load of noisy kids, then driving west along the Valais (the central Rhône Valley in Switzerland). The temperatures in the valley hit -7c along the way, so we didn't stop much except to take a few photos, then to pick up some snacks at the Migros "MMM" Supermarket at Aigle/Chablais Centre. Migros Supermarkets come in 3 sizes - M, MM & MMM, so this was one of the big ones! It had the most incredible setting on the valley floor between the Chablais & Bernese Alps. Then we drove along the attractive southern shore of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva), over the French border, via Évian-les-Bains, back over the Swiss Border, into Geneva past all the expensive design houses, shops & banks, past the United Nations and WTO, etc, etc. Finally past the airport and back over the French border again to this 'less than salubrious' location on the edge of respectability in Geneva!
Somewhere, deep below our location right here are the tunnels of the CERN Large Hadron Collider, where they hope to recreate the big bang. Along the street here, we went to the Buffalo Grill, first observed in Lausanne Crissier (on the first day of our trip), and something akin to the Lonestar Steakhouse in Australia. Not bad, but not brilliant either. We shouldn't have expected much from a cocktail that was only 2 Euros more than a Coke... And back here at the F1, this other business is being conducted... which brings us to the subject of parallel worlds, and how these worlds might intersect or even collide at some stage, when the scientists, far below ground, come up for a steak, or engage in some other business here at the F1. Yes, parallel worlds exist here...
In the early hours of Friday morning, we fly to Portugal...

Day 5 – Zermatt, Hotel Mirabeau, alpine residence, wellness & spa

Today was pretty slothful. Clare had a massage and read the Guardian. I took a train ride up to Gornergrat for even better views of the Matterhorn. Staff were buzzing around preparing the ski slopes for the season opening that coming weekend. We used the spa in the late afternoon, although I couldn’t stand the steam room for more than a couple of minutes, and you won’t get me in the sauna. Still, it was fun. We had a rum & coke at the bar before dinner. Colonel Mustard was there again, with his waxed moustache, and his well groomed wife dripping with jewellery. We guessed they were German. Sepp Julen was schmoozing with a French group before dinner and all was good with the world (well, in Zermatt anyway). Clare got 2 chocolates on her pillow. Zzz...

Day 4 – Zermatt, Hotel Mirabeau, alpine residence, wellness & spa

The Swiss do amazing tunnels, and bridges, and trains, etc, etc. Some of the tunnels were being done around 1890, before WW1, in times of global mass migration. Yes, the Swiss were having a jolly good time opening up their health resorts, and making fondue, while many places on our planet were quite inhospitable. Today we took the Lötschbergtunnel from Kandersteg to Goppenstein (towards Zermatt). This was a drive-on, drive-off car tunnel that took about 20 minutes. You sit in your car, and plunge into darkness at high speed which is quite disconcerting at first, but moves you under the Alps with incredible efficiency. Of course now, they’ve recently completed another tunnel (the Lötschberg-Basistunnel), right under the Lötschbergtunnel, which is even longer and even more efficient. How very Swiss.
Zermatt is a car free town, so you park your car at Täsch, just down the valley, and take a shuttle train up. You can even park your trolley full of luggage on the train. Again, incredibly efficient. Something about all this efficiency reminded me of Disneyland – I get the feeling Walt modelled the whole thing on Switzerland!
Now, the "Hotel Mirabeau, alpine residence, wellness & spa". Quite a mouthful that. This was the biggest treat on this “End of Europe” fling. I’d booked a package with room, breakfast, dinner and spa treatments included. This was the sort of place where there were slippers & robes in the cupboard, lovely white doonahs, a well stocked mini-bar and a full view of the Matterhorn. Even candles in the bathroom. They call themselves 4 star, but I might even call it 5. Clare had a facial in the spa while I took some snaps of the Matterhorn. The dinner was 5 course – rather superb. The hotel owner, Sepp Julen came to our table to ask how things were, which was a nice touch. When we returned to our room our bed had been turned down with chocolates on the pillows. Zermatt twinkled like a fairy tale town under a blanket of thick snow. Nice...

Day 3 – Interlaken, Chalet Swiss Hotel

The snow was pretty thick and still falling in the morning as we made our way to the train station for our trip to the Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe). I’d done this journey twice before (in the late 80’s), so there was a sense of nostalgia I suppose. The front desk clerk at our hotel thought we were mad with the snowy conditions and tried to warn me off, but there was no use wasting the day. You take 3 trains to the top. The valleys were pure Ansell Adams pictures with cloud hanging over grey snow-laden trees and sheer rock walls. At the top, we ventured out into the snow. It was -17.5c. We felt like polar explorers. Then we went inside… quickly! We took a picnic lunch of bread, cheese & salami to save money. If we’d ever thought Ireland was expensive, it ain’t got nothin’ on Switzerland. We came back via Grindelwald where kids were people were snowblowing driveways and kids were playing with toboggans. Darkness was falling and the snow was turning slushy as our train pulled back into Interlaken...

Day 2 – Interlaken, Chalet Swiss Hotel

After Clare slept for 12 hours, we got back on the road. We stopped for some breakfast in Montreux, where I used my limited French skills to order some coffee and sandwiches, although pointing to the delicious cakes in the little patisserie was easier by far. Montreux has a faded charm that speaks of Arab money and bad 1970’s architecture mixed in with grand old palace hotels. Nothing special really. The snow was falling heavily as we headed out towards Interlaken. The mountain road via Les Mosses had been freshly ploughed, but the snow got thicker as we rose in altitude – lucky our car had snow tyres fitted. We stopped at a small village to buy some cheese and lunch stuff, while Clare spotted some huskies going back into their trailer after a morning of mushing.
The Chalet Swiss Hotel in Interlaken gave us our first taste of many hotels on this trip – almost completely empty at this time of year. Some might call us mad, but you get the pick of rooms! As per the weather forecast, the snow was falling very heavily (but silently) in the evening as we went for pizza and rosti at a strange little restaurant adorned in Marilyn Monroe paraphernalia. We had to tread really carefully, but it was quite magical. Won’t get many nights like this in Brisbane...

Day 1 - We've left the Green Isle!

We left Ireland today. At first light, this seemed unlikely considering the amount of luggage we still had in our possession (even after sending our cargo shipment). But Aer Lingus were considerate, and we made it through ok... We got the bond deposit back from our landlord in Annagassan - we'd cleaned it up pretty nicely and everything was perfect. We definitely had some mixed feelings as we drove out of Annagassan for the last time, but we knew this day would come. At some stage, we'll do a Top 10 (Good AND Bad!) of living in Ireland. We'd known all along that Annagassan was the best thing about Ireland. Well, for us anyway. So we were sad to leave.
There were some snowflakes as we landed in Geneva - quite exciting. Our rental car from Alamo/National was a great little Renault Clio hatchback/station wagon - really great for an "economy" car rental as we always do. Drove to Lausanne and stayed at the Ibis Crissier, located near motorways, but the Garmin lady guided us without too much fuss or driving into lakes, etc. You always know what you're gonna get with Ibis - not too nasty and not too posh either - something in-between, and this was no different. We took a walk around the old town and had an early dinner. The snow was coming down quite heavily as we drove back to the Ibis and zzz...