in april, we visited the beatushöhlen near interlaken, a stalactite cave where you can walk through.

yesterday we visited the bernese oberland, to mürren. we first spontaneously took the cablecar up the schilthorn, known to many from the james bond movie on her majesty’s secret service. in fact, one terrace up there was built specifically for the film to allow a helicopter to land there. from the top of the schilthorn, one has a great view on the surrounding mountains, most prominently eiger, mönch and jungfrau. (a couple of years ago i was up there, visiting the jungfraujoch.)

afterwards, we took the cablecar back down to mürren, and took the funicular up to the allmendhubel. from there, we enjoyed the mountain view trail to the grütschalp train station. from the trail we had a great view on the big three mountains (eiger, mönch, jungfrau). it was a really nice hike with some diversion, from moorlands to ski slopes, forests to dry-stone walls and even some cows.

on saturday, we visited bern. we visited the sapperlot! exhibition on swiss dialects, walked around town, had icecream at the gelateria di berna, saw the bärengraben, walked along the aar. the weather was great, almost too hot. here are some impressions:

on december 8, 2008, i did another trip which i never wrote about so far. this time, i visited switzerland’s jungfraujoch, featuring europe’s highest train station at 3.454 meters above sea level. i did that trip on a monday to avoid the hordes of tourists wich invade the jungfraujoch in particular on weekends.

eigernordwand station.

the first stop of the train inside the mountain is the eigernordwand station.

eismeer station.

the second stop of the train inside the mountain is the eismeer station, giving a wonderful view on the lower grindelwald glacier.

note that the windows were steamy, which adds a neat glow to the scenery:

the top of europe.

at the final station, jungfraujoch station, one enters a huge station. here are some views from one outside part of the station:

two panoramas; the first gives another view from the station, similar to the one above, and the second one shows in detail a metal rope which survived an ice storm:

art & ice.

inside the station, one can find several pieces of art, including an ice palace consisting completely of ice:

outside, again.

this time, on the other side of the station, where one can walk on snow:

another panoramic view:

the way back.

finally, some views from the trip back to zürich:

on thursday, we made an excursion to the open air museum ballenberg, which shows old buildings from all over switzerland, from centuries ago, together with animals, lifestyle and lots of traditions, including making of cheese and chocolate. this resulted in a lot of pictures, some of which can be seen here.
anyway. it was a really great one-day vacation. thanks a lot!

today i visited the rock sound festival in huttwil, switzerland. just for one day though, with one specific aim: to see the second band, opeth. before opeth, black tide played, which was ok. after opeth, the headliner for this evening played, namely avantasia was playing, from which we basically just saw the beginning of the first song they played, when we decided to leave (so guess how much we liked it).
ok. having seen opeth just recently, i was in particular curious on what they would play this time. unfortunately, the set list was pretty similar to the last one: they started with demon of the fall, continued with master’s apprentice, then with baying of the hounds, then to rid the disease, wreath, heir apparent and the drappery falls. and again, the sound quality and in particular the mixing was pretty suboptimal. but, an important difference was the denseness of people. the hall in which the concerts took place was filled, but with enough gaps to be able to breathe without problems (and not even being touched most of the time). and, there was no mosh pit. so one could stand in peace, enjoy the music, and throw some hair around without having to fear to be stomped to death or getting injured otherwise.
though there was another bad thing. namely, the infantile behaviour of some people in the audience, most notably by whistling loudly (which is really nice if people do that next to your ear, big fuck you‘s to them) or start clapping rythmically to certain parts of the music (hey, is this musikantenstadl?!)… well, shame on you, guys.
anyway. this trip was definitely worth it. opeth rocked the house again, and even though i already heard that set list, i still enjoyed it a lot. probably in particular also because of the way nicer atmosphere. and, mikael promised that opeth will come back in the end of this year! :-) and, last not but least, i had really nice companions. not being alone at concerts rocks!