Switzerland I

Well as I alluded to getting to Switzerland was not an easy task. We missed a total of 3 trains and it went something like this:

We woke up fairly early in Nice ready to go and hop on a train. Thanks to a railway workers strike the day before the train station was an absolute mess. Our train was converted into a bus and since we couldn't find the bus we just waited for the later train to the Italian border town on Ventimiglia.

The 2:00 train worked out great but when we got to the final station we didn't have enough time to buy seats on the train to Milan that was sitting in the station so it left and that was train number 2 that we missed. By this point it was at least 4:30 so we had to wait an hour for the 5:45 train to Milan. That train went wonderfully other than it was about 3 and half hours and got us in Milan with 15 minutes to find our final train to Lugano.

In Milan we knew we only had 15 minutes to find the regional train but it simply was nowhere to be found. By this point it was after 9 and the station was beginning to shut down. We never found that train. Kevin called the hostel in Lugano and informed them that we would not be able to make it that night. Desperate, tired and hopeless we concluded we would have to stay in Milan for the evening. We were about to just walk out from the station and find a hotel, but Kevin thought it would be a good idea to at least get a map.

We found a customer service desk to find a map of Milan and the attendant informed us that there was a train heading to Lugano leaving from another station (the Garibaldi Station) in approximately 45 minutes. With renewed spirits we ran across the station and down to the metro line to the Regional Train Station. The train was right on time, and after a quick transfer in Chiasso we were in Lugano by 12:45 am.

Once in Lugano we wandered up the hill behind the station and found our accommodations for the evening. It was a long day of travel but a wonderful night’s sleep which lasted well into the next day.
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Wednesday
Lugano:

Lugano is Switzerland’s number 3 financial center hosting over a hundred different bank offices. The city is in the Italian speaking district of Ticino overlooking a magnificent lake. While we were there we explored the town and tried to take an inclined railway to the top of a nearby mountain. We made it up to the first transfer station and the attendant informed us that the last run was in 15 minutes and we could go to the top of the mountain but we wouldn't be able to come back down. So rather than risk a 3 hour hike down the mountain and into town we decided to explore where we presently were. After walking down a street through a neighborhood for a couple hundred meters we found a public park with a great bluff overlooking the city. The only problem was now we had an hour's walk back into town, no map, our bus tickets had just lost their validation and we had no cash to buy new ones... it was a long walk back into town. Once in town we thought it would be wise to save a few dollars and hit up McDonalds... 12 Swiss Francs (about 11 USD) and a Big Mac Meal later we left feeling half full and cheated. Kevin on the way out tried to get a refill on his drink... the attendant responded with "Como? (what)" and handed him a cup full of ice. It was at that moment that Kevin realized the world was NOT flat.
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Our train ride into Luzern from Lugano went very well and it was one of the most scenic train rides I've been on in my life... directly through the Alps and out the other side.

We are currently in Luzern and it is an absolutely wonderful city. It is situated on a lake with the Alps to the South and grassland to the north. Given its location it is a transportation hub for the entire region it is home to the Switzerland Transportation Museum. It is a working city centered around tourism with a great old city pedestrian district.

Yesterday we simply found our hostel and roamed around the city for a while. For our evening entertainment we found a bar with a blues band. The band was great and the bar was a great venue the only problem was that we were the youngest people there by about 20 years. Feeling out of place we tried to go to an English pub on the river but we ran into 2 problems there 1) a pint was 9 franc and it was last call at midnight. Without tails between our legs we made the trek across town and back to our hostel. Once back I looked at the events bulletin board and saw there was a disco tech nearby. We found the place without much trouble and it looked promising from the onset there were people our age and they seemed to be having a good time. We went into the bar area and we were immediately soaked in techno beats, smoke and lights. The establishment was divided in two different bars: The Bar and The Club. Seeing as the Bar wasn't quite my scene I thought I'd give The Club a shot. As we were scoping out the opportunity to get into the other part of the club Kevin found an "unguarded door" that led into the Club. We had a plan I would pay the cover and see if the venue was worth it and Kevin would sneak in through the back door. I went in and shortly thereafter so did Kevin. He walked through the unguarded door and down a short corridor, through some hanging beads and found himself behind the bar of the Club. Completely confused, Kevin ran back out the door and into the Bar area. I met up with him shortly thereafter and he explained that he had learned why the back door was unguarded... it was the service door to the bar. We stayed at the venue for a little while but again feeling out of place we soon headed out towards our hostel.

It's sad... I'm 20 but in Switzerland I'm more comfortable in the 40 and up bar than the 20 something disco-tech.

Today we had extravagant plans to hike halfway up this mountain, ride a boat, a gondola and make a whole day out of it. Well seeing as neither of us wanted to get out of bed this morning at 8:30... It didn't happen. We woke up around 11 and went down to the kitchen to retrieve our groceries from the refrigerator only to find that the kitchen had closed at 10 and we wouldn't be able to get to our food until 4. So rather than try and argue with the stubborn attendant we decided it would be best to just hit up the grocery store for lunch on our way to Mount Pilatus. The grocery store was a complete logistical nightmare... for some reason they decided to stock their entire store during the lunch hour. I had to wrestle a pasta salad out of some Swiss lady's stocking cart rather than dance around her in attempt to get something off the shelf. Too much money later we finally had a lunch and we got on the train to the town of Alpnachstad.

In Alpnachstad we boarded a dual cogwheel inclined railway car for the steepest railcar journey in the world... a 48% incline at some points. The ride took about 20 minutes but we were soon 7000 feet over central Switzerland. At the top we explored the camp which included a visitor’s center and hotel... the whole set up reminded me of Ober Gatlinburg. Apparently James Bond has frequented this mountain top in the movie Her Majesty's Secret Service and I think I found his mountain top bunker. We climb over to the other side of the mountain top and we saw a small chapel on the side of a cliff about 2 kilometers away. It was surrounded by sheep and at that point I knew I wanted to check it out. Armed with tennis shoes and a camera we took the 20 some odd switchbacks down the side of the mountain and over to the chapel. There we realized we had 30 minutes to get back to the top of the mountain to catch the last cable car down the mountain. The sign said it would take 40 minutes to get to the top... we made it in 25. Exhausted we then boarded the cable car and made our descent down the other side of the mountain and into Luzern.

Tonight is a slow night... seeing as nothing caught our fancy last night we're just chilling on our porch, listening to music and catching up on life. Tomorrow we leave for a 3 day stay in Interlaken Yee Haw!

Nice and Monaco

Monday:

Nice was a wonderful experience. We arrived at our hostel early on Monday morning. Our place was in the old city and since we got there at 9:00 am it was pretty dead. Our first impression of Nice was not great to say the least... we found our hostel (marked by a small name placard on a apartment buzzboard) and made our way up. The owner wasn't there so we dropped off our bags and explored the town a bit. Exhausted from our night train ride...

[side story: so we hangout in Bordeaux all day and explore every last nook in the town. We went to the international fair (which had everything from livestock to cars to airplanes and furniture), climbed to the top of the cathedral bell tower and explored the commercial river front. We wait in the train station until we 12:45 am for it to leave, we get on the train and climb into our couchette bunks. The train master comes by to check our tickets and I can't find mine. So in broken French/English I plead to him not to kick me off the train. Completely furious with me, he decides that I can buy another reservation for 20 Euro. Afterwards I finally fell asleep and awoke in Nice.]

Kevin and I find a park to go sit down in and wait for the owner to come back we both look at each other and we can pretty much read eachothers mind... "I don't know about this man, what did we get ourselves into?"

After Helen (The Hostel Maiden) returned we quickly found ourselves at home in Nice. That afternoon we went down to the beach... swam a little and walked down the beach for a mile or so through the town.

That night we met up with one of the gals staying in the hostel and hiked up to an ancient castel just east of our hostel in the old city. From there we hiked down and explored the Nice port. After a long day of traveling and finally finding some comfort in our accomodations we called it a night.
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Tuesday:

Seeing as we had already discovered most of Nice the day before. Kevin and I decided to check out Monaco. It was a 1 Euro bus ride down the coast and into Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo is quite honestly one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the world. It is only 16 km long making it the second smallest country in the world behind Vatican City.

The big Monte Carlo Grand Prix was last weekend so we were able to see all of the bleachers and track side rails still in place. We took the bus to the Grand Casino where we saw some rediculous cars including a Mercedes McLaren. We then hiked down from the Casino bluff to the harbor where the main racing grandstands and pits were set up. From there we headed up the other side of the bay to the top of a bluff where the Palace is. The palace was interesting but not interesting enough for us to pay 7 Euro to go inside. The main government buildings are also on what is known as the "Rock" and a huge aquarium. After checking out all the tourist attractions there we hiked back down and hitched a bus home.

Once back in Nice we grabed a happy hour pint and meal at an english speaking bar called Waynes. We discovered there was to be live music that evening so we made plans to head back. We went back to the hostel cleaned up and chatted with our room mates for a while. By the time we got back down to Wyanes at about 10:00 pm the place was packed. There were students from all across the US, Austrailia, The UK and locals as well. The band came on around 10:45 and by 11:00 everyone was dancing on the tables. (I was too tall to dance on tables). At about 12:00 a gal in our group motioned that she wanted to leave. So we headed down the the beach. At that point Kevin and our hostel friend Alyshia decided it would be a great idea to go swimming. Seeing as there was already a rowdy crew of Australians having a ball they were in plenty of company. Afterwards we headed up to the hostel and called it a night.
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Wednesday:

Was a mess... missed 3 trains, there was a train strike the day before and we got to Lugano at 1:00 am. More details to come later.

- Ryan

Tennessee Farwell

Friday we had our last day of class in Bordeaux. Which consisted of everyone giving a personal reflection on their experiences in France and a debriefing on the aerospace industry. Afterward we were given the afternoon off to shop and explore the city one last time. In the evening we all got together for a group dinner and thanked Mathais (our BEM host) and his family.

Today Kevin and I wandered around Bordeaux a while after lunch. We ran into live acoustic music, public improv threatre in one of the squares and break-dancing by the Cathedral. Tonight is our farewell dinner and at midnight tomorrow we leave for Nice.

Dunes and Dungeons

Yesterday on our trek back from Toulouse back to Bordeaux was punctuated by a stop to Carcassonne, which is a fully intact medieval village surrounding a castle. There we took a tour of the castle and explored the town. After lunch we boarded the bus for a miserable 4 hour ride back to Bordeaux. Once we returned, Kevin and I found a laundromat and did some much needed laundry. It was quite an eventful evening though. One of our classmates had not been feeling well for the past couple days. Upon calling a local doctor and describing his "flu-like" symptoms the doctor quickly issued a medical quarantine in fear of the swine flu. Seeing as the hotel was getting ready to be swarmed by the French CDC, most of the guys took it upon themselves to go out on the town a little early and avoid the mass confusion.

Today was a fairly slow day. We hopped on a train to the seaside town of Arcachon, home to Europe's largest sand dune... The Great Dune or Plya. Sam had the genius idea of bringing cardboard pieces to sled down the side. Unfortunately the plan didn't work quite as planned and he ended up blazing along at a snails pace down the hill. I then immediately took on of the remaining carboard pieces and slept all day in the side of the dune. We got back on the train and our last day of class is tomorrow.

Stay tuned for the second leg of my trip... The Long Way Home.

- Ryan

Industry

Well on Monday the class visited the Smuffit-Kappa Paper Mill outside of Bordeaux. The operation was absolutely huge. Wood chips everywhere and paper wizzing by at about 40 miles an hour it was quite sight. Then we went to a caviar farm in the afternoon and I tried caviar for the first time. It wasn't bad but certainly not worth 50 dollars a tin.

Today Kevin and I nearly missed the bus to go to Toulouse. We packed up in a 15 min fury and made it after holding everyone up for about 20 min In Toulouse we visited the Airbus facility where they assemble the A380 Jumbo Jet. Afterward we visited Rockwell Collins who makes aeronautical data systems and digital control component. Finally we then found our hotel and grabbed a kebab for dinner. A long yet hectic day. I was fun but certainly glad it's over.

- Ryan

Castles and Markets

Saturday:
In the morning we took a bus for about an hour to Sarlat for an open air market. We explored the medieval town, found some lunch from a street vendor and took in the smells and excitement of the market. We then visited Benyac Castle. Benyac is the filming sight of many movies including Joan of Arc and Ever After. The Castle was perched atop a ridge and was a key fortification for the French during the Hundred Years War. In the evening I went to a Bordeaux Soccer Game, we arrived late and since we had block seating there were not any seats to be had. We hung around for a little while and then headed out for the evening.

Sunday:
I woke up bright and early to board a train to Cognac. There we explored the city and toured the Hennessy facilities. It was an interesting town, but since it was Sunday most everything was closed.

Bordeaux Part Deux

Thursday:

We had class at the BEM and we had some interaction with the local students. We then had a walking tour or Bordeaux through it's pedestrian district. In the evening we all had dinner together at a wonderful brasserie where we were treated to a delightful four course meal. There were plenty of laughs and wine to be had.

Friday:

We visited Chateau Haut-Brion, one of the first growth wines in the Bordeaux region (really good and really expensive... Thomas Jefferson drank this stuff). This afternoon we are going to BEM for more class and I'm not too sure what it is on. I believe we are transitioning into the aerospace segment of our trip and I am assuming we will be briefed on the European Aircraft Industry.

Bordeaux Part I

Well we made it into Bordeaux safe and sound Monday evening.

Yesterday we made it out to the Bordeaux Ecole d' Management (Business College) for a class discussion of our assigned reading on the California and French Wine industries. After class we went to the Bordeaux Wine School. There we had a beginners session on wine tasting and French wine in general. The rest of the evening we had off.

Today we got up bright and early and took a bus out to the St. Emillion region to a small family winery, Chateau Cassagne Haut-Canon. There we toured their facilities and fields and tasted their 2000 through 2004 vintages. we were treated to a wonderful lunch consisting of duck, greenbeans, scallaped potatoes, 3 different cheeses, and a pear poached in a sweet wine sauce. The two hour affair was one of the best meals of my life. Afterward we went into St. Emillion and explored the ancient town, there we had a sparkling wine tasting in an 18th century courtyard.

Tomorrow we have class at the BEM and we get to meet some of the Bordeaux students for lunch.

Paris

Well I finally figured out how to get on the internet again by buying an online pass only to find out that I could have gotten one from the front desk for free.

Anyways...

Saturday was probably the longest day of my life. As a class we visited The Notre Dame Cathedral at about noon. Then we were given the afternoon off to explore Paris or go to the hotel and get our lives in order. Madison, Sam and I wandered around the Latin Quarter for a while and found a nice little place to have a late lunch. It was the first time I had had rabbit before. Then we literally walked in the direction opposite from the cathedral and turned on which ever street looked interesting. We stumbled upon the Pantheon, the University of Paris and countless little squares and fountains. As we were planning our trek back we were looking at a posted map, a man came up and offered us some directions (turns out we were looking at it upside down) he pointed us toward an ancient roman arena and some botanical gardens. We made our way through the arena and then to the gardens. In the garden we found a Zoo, they had some pretty interesting exhibits (My favorite was the North American Raccoon). After the Zoo we made our way back to Notre Dame, took a boat cruise on the Seine, and I promptly went to bed.

Sunday was another exciting and interesting day in Paris. Our first stop was The Arc De Triumph. We made our way to the top for a great view of Paris. After a few presentations we made our way down the Champs Elysees all the way to the Louvre. The trek went through the prestigous shopping district, by the presidential palace and eventually to the Palais des Tuileries (home to magnificent parks and the Louvre). We then went into the Louvre and explored one of the wings. We saw a number of famous pieces including the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory Statue. We were then let go for the afternoon. Kevin and I took the Metro back down the Champs Elysees, grabbed lunch at a sandwich shop and found a touring Andy Warhol exhibit. We then took the Metro to the end of the line to the Business District "La Defense." It was Sunday so it was pretty dead, but the modern architecture was interesting the say the least. We then made our way to the groups evening rendezvous point, the Eiffel Tower, and grabbed a pint at an Irish Pub on the way. Once we met up with the rest of the group we made our way to the top of the tower and fought off the young africans trying to sell us trinkets. After the Eiffel Tower a small goup of us went to the Latin quarter for dinner.

Today is pretty much open but around 2:00 pm we will board the TGV High speed Train and take it to Bordeaux. We will be in Bordeaux for the next two weeks.

In Paris

Well... I officially made it into Paris this "morning" (about 1:30 Eastern) with my bags and all. We found a nice cafe close to our hotel and I have one of the longest days of my life ahead of me. Two hours of sleep on the plane will make today interesting to say the least. Well I've got to start on a presentation I have to give on something.

Hope all is well.

- Ryan

Leaving

So I leave for Paris at 2:20 pm today out of Knoxville. All I have to do now is finish packing and put together two presentations.

My Intinerary

May 24: Train to Nice

May 25-26: Nice

May 27: Train to Lugano Switzerland

May 28: Lugano

May 29: Train/Boat to Lucern Switzerland

May 30: Lucern

May 3: Train to Interlaken

June 1-2: Interlaken

June 3: Train to Geneva

June 3: Geneva

Evening: Train to Brussels

June 4-5: Brussells

June 7: Train to Den Haag

June 8: Den Haag

Evening: Train to Amsterdam

June 9-10: Amsterdam

June 11: Flight to Knoxville, Tennessee

Intinerary with University of Tennessee Program

DATE	LOCATION
5.8	Transit
5.9	Paris
5.10	Paris
5.11	Paris to Bordeaux
5.12	Bordeaux
5.13	St. Emilion
5.14	Bordeaux
5.15	Bordeaux
5.16	Dordogne
5.17	Bordeaux
5.18	Les Landes
5.19	Toulouse
5.20	Carcassonne, Bordeaux
5.21	Pyla, Arcachon
5.22	Bordeaux
5.23	Bordeaux
5.24	Transit

Blog Kick Off

This will be my main form of communication home given the time difference and the ridiculous phone rates. I will try to post pictures and journal entries daily. Still figuring out how to work all of this but yeah. Hope you enjoy!

- Ryan