Germany & Switzerland

My boyfriend, Jonny, is studying abroad in Mannheim, Germany for the semester. I was very excited to visit him after being apart for a month. Our goal is to make the most out of our time together on the other side of the world, so we're traveling to as many places as we can! I arrived in Mannheim during the evening, and we had a great dinner at a Greek restaurant. The next day, we were off to Switzerland!

The University of Mannheim - where Jonny is studying for the semester

Berne

Jonny with his cappuccino by the river :)

Neither of us had ever been to Switzerland, and we knew very little about it - except that it was supposed to be really pretty - and it certainly exceeded my expectations.

We got a very early start taking a 6:30 am train from Mannheim to Switzerland. First we went to Berne, Switzerland, the capital. We checked into our hotel and then went off to explore for the day. Switzerland is an awesome place. It's beautiful, and it has a sense of peace and tranquility.

Berne from the Rose Garden

In our one day in Berne, we visited the house of Albert Einstein, wandered the streets, watched huge brown bears eat watermelon for lunch, and had a cappuccino by the river. The rivers in Switzerland were breathtaking - I have never seen water so calm and so clear as it was in the river. It all looked like glass - it's hard to believe that the water was moving.

The streets of Berne were very quaint and just about every single window had a flower box filled with gorgeous flowers (mostly red or pink). And buildings were color-coordinated with their flowers! In the evening, we went to the Rose Garden up on a hill that overlooks the entire city of Bern. Besides it being a wonderful view, the roses were very nice themselves. It was quite a magical experience.

River through Berne, standing down on the riverbank

At the restaurant we went to for dinner, our server asked us where we were from. When we told her Seattle, she gave us a half-frightened-half-shocked look and said, "I hate that city." We were a bit taken aback by this and asked her why, not at all anticipating her answer. She's from Poland and tried to go visit her friend in Los Angeles, with a layover in Seattle. When she arrived in Seattle, passport control put her in prison for three days until she could be deported, all because she didn't have her return ticket booked yet.

It was really interesting to see the other side of the high security that we know so well in the U.S. In biostatistics I learned about the statistics behind cutoff points for biological markers. For biological measures like blood pressure, blood sugar levels, etc. there are individuals on the low and high extremes, and most people fall into the middle. For measures such as these, there has to be some cutoff point where you determine who is "diseased/needs further testing/at risk" and who is "healthy." But the caveat is that those cutoffs will never be perfect, because some people who are healthy may be on the "diseased" side of the cutoff and vice versa. You can use statistics to minimize the number of people falsely diagnosed, but there will almost always be false diagnoses. This woman from Poland was one of those false diagnoses - she was not at all a threat to the United States, but because the information used to make diagnostic decisions (not having a return ticket to her home country) never perfectly predicts "threat" / "not a threat," she was sent home and banned from returning to the U.S. for ten years. Just interesting to think about, because those stories are rarely heard.

Interlaken

For our second day in Switzerland, we traveled to Interlaken (town between two lakes). I'm not sure which was prettier - Bern or Interlaken. Bern had that old city feel, but Interlaken had glass-like lakes (just like the river) and the Alps in the background.

River running through Interlaken. A good example of the
beautiful Switzerland water!

Originally we were going to take a two-hour train to Jungfrau, a mountain peak in the Alps called the "top of Europe" because it actually is one of the tallest peaks in all of Europe. It's covered in snow and is supposed to be absolutely magnificent. But after finding out it was about $200 per person, we decided to stick with one of the shorter mountains and save Jungfrau for another time...hopefully with more money...

The peak that we did go to was called Harder Kulm. It was not covered in snow, but we had a spectacular view. It looked over both lakes of Interlaken and onto the Alps in the distance. As we were standing out on the ledge that jetted out from the mountainside, we decided that no picture would do the view justice, but we tried anyways.

From the top of Harder Kulm

In both Bern and Interlaken, the air was noticeably thinner than in other parts of Europe. I've never been to Colorado, but I imagine that's what it feels like there as well. The air was even thinner at Harder Kulm (I can't imagine what it would be like at Jungfrau...). We spent a couple hours at Harder Klum and towards the end we hiked a bit, during which we moved very slowly because we became winded so easily.

Switzerland is an incredible country. It has amazing scenery and there is definitely a feeling of serenity. However, it is ridiculously expensive... the Swiss franc is approximately equivalent to the U.S. dollar, but everything in Switzerland is about twice as expensive. It was almost impossible to find a meal for two (no drinks) under $45.00. The food was quite good... For our last meal, I had the best salmon I have ever eaten in my entire life. Oh, and the Swiss chocolate is unbelievable. I would definitely go back to Switzerland :)

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View over Heidelberg - castle on the left

The day after we returned from Switzerland, we took a day trip to Heidelberg, Germany. Heidelberg is pretty awesome - and it has a cool castle on the top of a hill, overlooking the city. We spent the day wandering around, eating, and enjoying our time together. The next day, I explored the University of Mannheim while Jonny attended his classes.

I left Germany in the evening, bound for London to begin the next phase of my adventure! I am very fortunate that my cousin, Kelsey, lives in London. She had a bed, food, and a warm flat waiting for me when I arrived, because I couldn't move into my student housing until the following day.

Next up, London for real this time - moving in, navigating the city, and beginning my studies as an official student at University College London!