7 AUGUST 2003
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Subject: Bears and Bovines. Date: 07 August 2003 From: James Clark
Greetings everyone, from this Oh So glorious Euro summer 03. Bears and BovinesBears are a prominent mascot around Switzerland. The nations capital Bern is named after a bear. Not content with having a bear on their cantonal flag, they also have live bears in a pit.If you are in Europe in July and you feel the need for some bovine action, and if getting your ass gored by a crazed bull in Pamplona isn't your thing, then perhaps the cow fights of Switzerland are what you are looking for. 
4 Countries, 4 Coffee's, 1 DayIf you are ever in this corner of the world then the Lake Constance day pass comes highly recommended. My Eurohobo friend found all the train and bus connections required to do the 4 countries around the lake region. In all, there were 13 different train connections, and 2 buses which got us at least one hour in a city in each country. Enough time to wander the streets, find a cafe, then catch the next train.For the record, the caffeinated countries: The Rhine falls (Largest waterfall in Europe) and Stein am Rhein (Switzerland) Lindau (Germany) Feldkirch (Austria) Vaduz (Liechtenstein)* Looking quickly at my world map I would say there are not too many places you could do this. While it may be geographically possible, jungles, deserts and despots would limit the physical possibility. *Factoid of the day - Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan are the only double landlocked countries in the world. That is, they are landlocked by landlocked countries. err...Greetings from London
Filthy Rons RetributionI was to travel from Zurich to London to meet my Dad. my flight was at 9.30pm and I was to meet him at 5.30am the next day at Heathrow. This meant I had a few hours reading time, and maybe some sleep time before he got there. I don't mind the occasional overnight airport campout, and Heathrow gets a pretty good rating on the Sleeping in Airports website.Dreams of future Z's caught were premature though. If ever there was a time I needed to get my flight, this was it. The flight was cancelled and there were no more available flights until the next day. I couldn't believe it. My dad was already on his way so I couldn't warn him that I wouldn't be there. All I could do was contact my people in Australia and Europe to try and contact him. To the airlines credit, they put us up in a hotel for the night, then bussed us to Geneva early the next morning to get the next available flight to London. To top it off, they refunded our flight as well. Now, as a man of leisure, this would usually be the ideal situation. Free hotel and free flight. Of course this was the only time I didn't want it. At the airport we were told that we were to be staying at the Golden Arch Hotel. I had not heard of it but it sounded impressive. I imagined that it must be on the shores of lake Zurich, and wealthy Arabs dripping in oil stay to deposit their gold bars in the bank vaults under the Paradeplatz in Zurich. No sooner had the bus left the airport, it pulled up on the other side of the airport at the Golden Arch Hotel... the worlds first McDonalds - of the hamburger emporium variety - hotel. Switzerland had the worlds first McDonalds on a train, now they have this. If any of you kiddies are old enough to remember the styrofoam containers, it was like sleeping in one of those. Lots of plastic everywhere. 
The last time I was in Switzerland I was ragging out maccas fairly heavily for their 6.90chf (7.70 AUD) Big Mac's. I refuse to eat McDonalds in Switzerland on principle. By the time I had booked into my McSingle room :( and made a bunch of phone calls to warn Dad that I won't be at the airport, I was quite ravenous. The room service menu was a McDonalds menu of course, and the "Restaurant" downstairs was, you guessed it, McDonalds.I went for a walk looking for a service station or something, but we were in the middle of a lifeless industrial estate. Filthy Ron - as he is known to some of my friends - had the last laugh. James. 
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I know a fellow Eurohobo in St. Gallen in the east of Switzerland. This continues the Irish theme from my last email.
