2) Vaduz and Bern

Friday (28.07.) we visited Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. We walked up to Vaduz castle and enjoyed the views over little Vaduz city. The city was quickly explored, we had some coffee and Emilia had fun on a playground where we had lunch together.

Vaduz castle

view over Vaduz from the castle

Emilia having fun at a playground with a good view of Vaduz castle

From Vaduz we continued to Bern to visit Franzi's friends Katharina and . Together we hiked to Oeschinensee from Kandersteg on Saturday (29.07.). The views during the hike and up at Oeschinensee were spectacular. The lake's water was cristal clear but 15°C cold. We still took a super refreshing swim there. Around Oeschinensee there were plenty cows on the alm and many Asian tourists were trying to get fancy selfies with these cows. After lunch at the Berghaus, we went back to Bern and enjoyed sunset from Rosengarten. Sunday morning (30.07.) Katharina gave us a nice sightseeing tour through Bern and in the afternoon we went swimming in the Aare river, which was a hell lot of fun!

view over Kandersteg from the hiking trail to Oeschinensee

Emilia, Franzi and I hiking to Oeschinensee

All of us in front of Oeschinensee

relaxed after a swim at Oeschinensee

Sunset over Bern

Bern from Nydeggbrücke

Taking a swim in Aare river :D

3) Geneve, Lausanne, Fribourg and Bern

The next morning (10.06.) we drove to Geneve center and parked our car near Parc de la Grange. Just like in Zürich, the water in Geneve was cristal clear. We walked past Pont du Mont Blanc and along the Rhone until we crossed another bridge back. Then we walked through Geneve's center and up Cathedral Saint-Pierre from where we had a great view. It is great to see the lake as well as mountains of th alps in the back. A charming city :)
We continued to drive through Switzerland and stopped in Lausanne next to the Cathedral. From there we also enjoyed a great view over the city before we walked up and down through the narrow alleys of Lausanne's center. Before we continued to Fribourg we also visited the Cathedral inside.
Fribourg is not a big city, still we had troubles to find the center^^ We parked our car near the central station, which is still a few hundred meters away from Fribourg's center. It's location atop a hill is great and provided us nice views again.
Our last place to visit was Bern this day. Unluckily some bad weather came up there. In Bern we parked right in the center beneath the main market. Bern was filled with flags and fountains. The latter Bern is very famous for. As well as for his old clock tower. We even spotted one of the two brown bears at Bärengraben. Then it started raining and after some light dinner at McDonalds again (everything else turned out to be whooping expensive), we decided to drive back to Danny's place that night. We visited the places we planned to visit and rather wanted to save the 100+€ on accomodation. 300km remaining after driving only 150km from Geneve to Bern^^ The rain became a true rainstorm and we had some troubles filling up gasoline in Bern... that unluckily burned some money. But after an hour and a half we were back in Germany, fully filled our tank and arrived at Danny's place at midnight.

cristal clear water in Geneve while crossing the Pont du Mont Blanc

View from Cathedral Saint-Pierre

Geneve's landmark - the huge water fountain in the lake

Lausanne's great Cathedral

up and down the narrow alleys of Lausanne :)

view of Fribourg's center (upper left) and its valley (right)

Bern's main street in the historic center colored by flags

Bern's famous clock tower

beutiful little Bern :)

1) Rhine Falls, Zürich and Astano

Friday (06.06.) afternoon I drove from Leipzig to Danny in Tübingen. After some dinner, several beers and good talks we went to sleep. The next morning (07.06.) we started early from Tübingen towards Switzerland. Our first stop was for the Rhine Falls near Schaffenhausen. A nice place to stop on your way... maybe not worth it to make a trip there only for these waterfalls which rather make a big cascade. We then continued to Zürich. We parked our car close to the central station. Danny was in Zürich before and so showed me the city. I was surprised by several things in the city... first of all the air felt very clear, almost like visiting a hill village instead of a town. Second, the city was more silent than many villages because of a lot of noise reducing mechanisms that are implemented in roads and tram system. Finally, the water quality in the harbour was astonishing... I could see the ground but not a single piece of waste in the water. This is incredible considering the city has over 400,000 citizens! Though, all this comes with very high prices. We bought some ice cream that cost us 3,50€ a scoop. After Zürich we drove to Lugano. The way offered amazing sceneries and we also drove through the famous Gotthardt Tunnel. In Lugano we ate pizza and pasta at some outside place during sundown. We were luckily to find a Couchsurfing host last minute - Nichola from Astona. Luckily the place was on our gps map. Still, the ride was quite an adventure as Nichola's place was close to tiny Astona but still an unpaved road downhill through a forest away. This was another of the very remarkable CS-experiences we had. Nichola lives in a small house built on old farm house ruins... the farmers left a century ago. The place is all forest on a steep hill with a few handmade terraces for farming. He grows not only his own vegetables but also makes his own lemonade and coffee. He also produces Shishas and has a selfmade server computer. The strangest ensemble of highest technology in purest nature I have ever seen. We played some table soccer and had many great talks. The coffee he offered us the next morning was incredible and just as good as the one I drank in Costa Rica. The only thing we could offer in return was bringing his rubbish with our car to Astano^^

I at the Rhine Falls

Clear air and water make the harbour views great!

Cristal clear water in Zürich

Amazing scenery on our way from Zürich to Lugano

View of Nichola's place in the forest from his window

Tiny but cute Astano