Adventures of Gamblegirl: Switzerland The Swiss Alps. They are something that I saw on the telly, on one of those travel shows or a documentary. But like with the Eiffel Tower, The Colossuem and The Parthenon, one of those impossibles, has become a reality. I mean, you'd have thought, a girl from the Melbourne suburbs, standing at the foot of the Swiss Alps - nahhh!!! If you said this to me last year, I would have said "bulls***" and hit you. Now I'm still saying "bulls***" but am hitting myself to see if I am not locked in some virtual reality trick. Nope it's real. I think what I've fallen in love with the colder countries is that they are so clean. The air is fresh, so pure that it's almost sweet, there's no litter and the water is pure and cold. The towns are something out of a fairy tale. In Lucern I expected Cinderalla to appear, the town magical in itself. I'm not bothered by the cold, if anything I love it. It means cool coats and jackets, funky boots, my beloved beanie and scarf wrapped around me. I loved Italy, France was nice but I think that it's Germany, Austria and Switzerland that I'd easily and happily return to. An option of my tour was to take a train ride up to Jungfrou mountain. Jungfrou is 4158m's high which is 13642 foot (or bloody high! for a simple translation). It's the highest peak in the Jungfrou region and is known as "Top of Europe" and it's ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! With everything I have seen it has been man made, man influenced, the Swiss Alps is Mother Nature at her best. The mountains are so impossing, so there. You look down and you are above the clouds. I am higher then the clouds (literally!). Apart from being in a plane, where else can I say that? No where. Unfortunately due to icy weather (yeah go figure that!), we were pretty much limited about the activities which was a bummer because I wanted to do Husky dog racing. Oh well, Canada, here I come for that. Naturally when in the Swiss Alps - or in my case on top of them! - I had to have a hot chocolate and it ws just sooooo yummy, a perfect treat for freezing my arse off outside in the snow. A perfect treat for a brilliant spot. Unfortunately, it's the Swiss Alps that we lost out driver as well (b*****, b*****, b*****). We've been having a few bus problems. As in we've had to jump start it a couple of times. On the day we were to leave for Switzerland, our bus needed jump starting and then it all happened. I didn't see it (I was too busy smacking some chick in the mouth by accident - whoops!) but the word is that our bus started to roll... into another contiki bus! The damage - a broken side mirror and a shattered window. In the meantime our bus driver took off and tried to throw himself into the bus and pull the handbrake. Except he slipped. He got up and managed to do so but the end result is that has cuts (nice, will go with the bung hammy that he did in Corfu) and a fractured elbow. He'd been driving our bus all day with a fractured elbow. Oooowww!!! Sigh - why do all good things come to an abrupt end for me... Nearly on the home front - next stop ... Amsterdam Love and kisses from your neighbourhood freak!!!!