On the Röstigraben

Being soaked randomly after having a bucket of water thrown on you from a window above is perhaps not the best way to be welcomed into a town. Nevertheless, I was quite content in Fribourg – besides, the heat soon dried me. Fribourg is situated right on the Röstigraben – where French and German speaking Switzerland meet. The town is bilingual (predominantly French) and somehow seems to work just fine.

The view over Fribourg from the bar.

I went there with a flat mate in order to visit another friend and we had a tightly packed programme. This first involved getting up a 3.30am to witness the sunrise on a mountain summit. We enjoyed our well earned breakfast - continental buffet style – right on the summit, watching the sun rise, albeit behind clouds. Watching a sunrise can feel magical, but so can lying in on a morning!

The sunrise from the summit of Kaiseregg.

We also wanted to take out a boat and head from Thunersee to Bern, but the water was still pretty cold. We settled instead for having a chilled out barbeque. We did reach Bern in the end anyway, taking the lazier option of the train. It was nice to be back in Bern, but I still find it hard to believe that it's a capital city, or a city at all. Despite there being quite a big demonstration in front of the parliament building, the place still felt quiet and relaxed.

Hiking in Kandersteg

Yet again, I went into the mountains this weekend. It's simply not possible to be in the Alps too often, each visit is as enjoyable as the last. The Erasmus Student Network organised a hiking weekend in Kandersteg; a tiny, alpine village in Berner Oberland – close to the cantonal border with Valais. A beautiful mountainous region not a million miles away from the well-known areas of Interlaken or Jungfrau.

The valley seen from the west face of Bunderspitz.

We arrived in the village on the Friday evening, giving us the chance to fire up the Finnish sauna cabin that we had to ourselves. Definitely a good shout – and I could really enjoy the sauna, although had it been after the hike – my sunburn would've probably made me suffer. Sunburn, which I have to add, that only seems to have got to my nose and ears: not a great look!

Steinbock sighting.

The hike itself was pretty decent, good weather and conditions and the route was cool too. We headed up to the summit of Bunderspitz before traversing around the east face of the mountain and descending to the west via a pass – where we witnessed a spectacle. A lone steinbock (a rare alpine mountain goat), which strolled up to a cliff edge beside us and simply jumped down – running down a vertical crag – not only without dying, but with grace!

The scree slopes of the eastern face of Bunderspitz.

On the Sunday, before heading back to Zurich, a challenge awaited us: Jacob's Ladder. A simple task of climbing a set of wooden ladders, the catch being that the rungs began at one and a half metres apart and the gap increased incrementally. It certainly sounds easier than it was in practice. An uncomfortable challenge complete with many compromising positions – spectating was definitely more entertaining.

The Jacob's Ladder challenge: everyone in the group managed, some found it more trickier than others.

Again, another great time in the mountains. Now that the Summer is upon us, I'm sure I'll get some more hiking done too.

Innsbruck, Austria

A mate of mine who also studies German is currently on exchange in Innsbruck. I decided to head over there this weekend, to catch up over a few beverages and see the sights of the city. Innsbruck is quite a scenic place, it lies right in the heart of the Tirolean Alps and is surrounded by snow-capped peaks.

Innsbruck is ideally located for skiers and climbers.

After the obligatory – and very welcome – Wiener Schnitzel and 1l Mass beer (a novelty after being used to the expensive 0.33cl Swiss Stängli), we went out to sample the night life with some other students who study there. Innsbruck may be a small city, but it has quite a decent night life – owing to the number of students living there. Or at least that was my impression, of course the fact that it was St. Patrick's Day may have had some role to play there.

The centre of Innsbruck by day.

It was my first proper trip to Austria this year, that is if you exclude the dinner last semester in Feldkirch that I had after having seen everything that's to be seen in the country of Liechtenstein. I really like Austria, indeed it's the very place that sparked my enthusiasm to learn German, over seven years ago...

Perhaps yet another Austrian excursion is in order when I have the time. Now, I've heard a lot about Vienna...

Davos Klosters Ski Resort

Sundays can be quite difficult to deal with in continental Europe. Unlike back in the UK, almost all grocery shops and supermarkets are closed on Sundays (excluding those found in major train stations). This can make forgetting to go food shopping on the Saturday before a punishing mistake. Sundays are often very quiet, even the centre of Zurich seems to become a sleepy town. One often finds himself planning how best to spend such days. Many Swiss take this opportunity to head into the Alps to enjoy the mountains.

The alpine ski resort of Davos, Graubünden.

I did the same, this Sunday. A small group of us went skiing and snowboarding in Davos Klosters. Davos lies in the canton of Graubünden in South East Switzerland and is the venue of the World Economic Forum. The ski resort itself attracts a range of public figures, including members of the British royal family for example.

We did the ski trip in a day, it's do-able as the train ride takes less than 2 hours. I wouldn't however recommend it for a day's skiing. The Davos ski resort is quite big, having around 300 kilometres of pistes, but it's spread over a large area and a number of different peaks. This means that if you want to try and ski down most of the resort, you will spend a lot of time in shuttle buses between gondula stations in the valley. No, instead, the resort is best visited over a number of days so that you can concentrate on one mountain at a time and thus minimizing time spent in shuttle buses.

The ski resort is quite large, covering the valley from Klosters to Davos.

Unfortunately the visibility on the peaks was really poor due to fog, making identifying piste boundaries almost impossible in the white out; (we even ended up finding and guiding a lost Ukrainian woman, stuck in deep snow between two pistes, less than 20 metres away from the piste she was looking for!).

That being said, despite only spending one day in the area and the poor weather, the day was really enjoyable - the snow conditions were perfect. I just couldn't see the snow I was skiing on, that's all...

Alpine Hike

The beauty of living in Zurich is that I'm not too far away from escaping city life and making the most of the proximity of the Alps. On Sunday I went to Walenstadt – about an hour away by train – which is also one of the closest ski resorts to Zurich. As the skiing season hasn't really begun yet, I spent the day hiking.

Walenstadt is the name of the town closest to the ski resort.

Walenstadt itself is a small town situated on the border between Canton Sankt Gallen and Canton Glarus. It's a really picturesque area as the mountains look quite dramatic and there is also a lake in the valley, the Walensee. Once I arrived at Walenstadt train station I took a proper esoteric bus full of cheery locals up to Walenstadtberg, where I begun my hike.

Walenstadtberg is easy to get to from Zurich and it makes quite a pleasant day out.

Despite it being neither the hiking season nor the skiing season, the mountain seemed to attract quite a few people. I can understand why, it was nice to get on some high ground above the eternal fog which seems to have it's grip over much of lowland Switzerland.

Paragliders were also out in force.

Perhaps I will return here once the ski season gets under way, I've heard Flumserberg is particularly good and easy to get to too. From what I saw this side of the valley, it seems to have quite a varied range of pistes.