Switzerland

NOTE: Please be advised that none of the following photos have been doctored.

Swiss Entourage: Belen and the Jetz
(Belen = Baz and Helen. Sorry guys we had to amalgamate your names so the blog could be set against the theme song of Bennie and the Jets...)














INTERLAKEN:
Out in the Swiss country-side, surrounded by the Swiss Alps, minutes away from a field of Swiss cows donning giant Swiss bells, our B&B in Interlaken was about as far away from our computers as we could get...but definitely not far enough!















Gazing up into the Alps, we knew there were places we could go that would take us even further away from our desks. So on our first day we woke up far too early for our liking and took a train, a bus, a short hike and several cable cars up to Shiltorn. Note: amazing Swiss efficiency ensured all these modes of transort were completely in sync.















When we got to the top of Shilthorn, the air was rather thin and looking back at our photos, it´s quite clear that this affected us in different ways. Baz started to hallucinate confusing a piece of ice for a shofar (ram´s horn) and not finding it at all strange that it didnt make a sound when he blew into it.
























I started to hallucinate too. It transpired that we were at the very location the James Bond movie: On Her Majesty´s Secret Service was filmed. Click on the picture above to see me auditioning for the part of Foxxy Cleopatra (except I used my own name...so I didnt get the part.) Listen carefully for Jez coming in with the James Bond theme song.


























Sadly, we have no hard evidence of Helen being affected by the thin air. Here she looks completely normal! But the only reason she´s in Baz´s arms is because she was no longer able to stand up straight.














Jez started having hot flushes and insisted on taking off his gloves...and then his scarf...and then his jacket...until there was nothing left to take off! We had no problem with this, it´s nothing we hadnt seen before. Jez parades around naked all the time! The other visitors were a little shocked but that didnt stop them from taking photos too...

That night, cold and hungry, we decided it was a good idea to indulge in a typical Swiss Fondue...of the cheese variety. Click here to watch a video of our first impression...Don´t forget to click back here for more!

Ten minutes into it...and we´re not so impressed. Click here to hear our second thoughts...

Jez has had it with the fondue! Click here to see his reaction...

Baz was quite the trooper he took a lot of fondue scoops for the team despite the protests from his gut. The next day, Helen advised us that she had been rudely awoken by the stench of one of Baz´s cheese fondue burps...

The following day we took a 2.5 hour train up into the Alps to Jungfraujoch- the highest train stop and incidentally the highest post office in all of Europe!















Before stepping outside to test the effectiveness of our thermal underware, we went to explore the Ice Palace. Completely made out of ice and sporting a variety of intricate ice sculputures, the Ice Palace was an ideal place to put our speed skating to the test...click on the photo above to see us in action.















Perhaps it was the thin air once again affecting our mental age but a little role playing in the ice palace seemed like a good idea at the time...click on the igloo to view the evidence.















In the same way elephants gain their salt intake by licking walls, I too found the same techinque invaluable for increasing my ice intake...















At a chilly -6ºC and kitted out with every item of warm clothing we had with us, we were still bloody freezing! No problem, I pulled out the second best thing I could think of to keep us warm....the skipping rope.















All in all, we really were on cloud 9!

For more photos of our trip to Switzerland, click here.