I am back in geneva after cavorting about the swiss countryside for a few weeks now. This country is wonderful when the sun is out but my oh my how it sucks when it rains and it never seems to rain for just one day either. Usually the clouds of gloom hover about the mountains for 3-5days as I have painfully learnt.

After I fled rainy Grindelwald on the11th August, I stayed at Riverlodge Hostel in Interlaken. It's a very nice hostel located by a wide rushing river, carrying bluish green glacier water. There are lots of trees and hiking paths in the mountains behind the lodge too. Some paths wind all the way along the 2 lakes -Brienzsee and Thundersee - that surround Interlaken. Along the shores of these lakes are little towns with pictureque little bell towers and gardens full of apple, plum and pear trees and various colourful flowers too. I really liked visiting these towns particularly Ringgenberg.

Interlaken was a relaxing place to stay in, so relaxing that we ended up staying there for 6 days. I stayed in the hostel for 2 nights-it was great besides the noise on saturday night that sounded like people brakedancing in metal clogs in a japanese gambling parlour. The ear plugs certainly helped!

Since the weather was immediately better in interlaken we went back to camping soon ...just in time for it to rain again, though it was no where near as bad as it was in grindelwald and the sun did come out on several days.

On a particularly clear morning we headed up to Jungfraujoch-an icy paradise located on the top of a mountain (3400m elevation). We got there by train and it was dreadfully expensive but the views were amazing. I could see far down the massive glacier which was surrounded by bluish mountain peaks.There was even a ski run up there. I really liked the ice cave and its ice sculptures at the Sphinx viewing station . It was funny watching people trying to move about the ice caves, slipping around like drunken penguins. It was a relief being in the darkened caves after seeing so much blinding white snow. Later me and shean had daggy looking sunburns with pale sunglasses marks.

One day in Interlaken me and Shean cycled around alot of Brienzsee and even went for a swim in it even though it is supposed to be one of the coldest lakes in switzerland. Its water does afterall come from melting glaciers! Swimming in switzeralnd twice now, thanks global warming!

After much indecision and days of hanging around we made the rest of our plans and booked flights and hostels. We went to Zermatt and had a spot of luck with the weather. We went up to Kleine matterhorn 3800m up via eye boggling cable cars that hovered over huge valleys and cascading glaciers. Up there you could see hundreds of people skiing on the glacier and some people were paragliding on the peaks of 4000+m mountains. It was so cold up there -3C actually and windy too. I visted the ice caves and tunnels there but they were melting a bit and that creeped me out!

The next day we got cable cars to Rothorn paradise and hiked along the sides of the mountains, catching fantastic sights along the way-we saw alpine tarns, glaciers, pine forests, a huge valley and many icy mountain peaks (though I am sure you are alreday sick of hearing about mountains by now). The next day, the weather changed and we heard stories from other hikers where they practically ran off the mountains to escape the snow storms that had generated up there...yes the weather got that bad. And more rain of course. And In the tent that wasnt so great.

Since then we have abandoned camping. We got a hostel in Sion that was kinda prison-like and I started to think that camping may have been a nicer option! The town of Sion is really lovely... there are two castles raised on large hills in the centre of a valley surrounded by mountains. It looks like something out of a fairy tale and all around there are hundreds of vineyards.I had a good time there for 2 days and now I am back in Geneva. Tomorrow I head off to Barcelona, which should be livelier and sunnier hopefully!

Well I have waffled on for long enough. Till next time.