Day 10 Itinerary

Interlarken (7:29 AM) -> Spiez (7:50) -> Milano Italy (10:35) -> Firenze Italy (1:00 PM)

Train schedule in Europe is very precise. My train to Milano from Spiez was scheduled to leave at 8:05 AM (and yes it did leave right on time)

this was my breakfast – corn salad from last night’s shopping (I was using a real folk instead of plastic lol)

At 1:00 PM I arrived at Florence – where the Renaissance was born … Home of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

I wanted to see the grand view of the town, so I walked about 30 minutes to the top of the hill

click on the photo to see the enlarged version : )

view of the Florence Cathedral (The fourth largest church in Europe, its length being 502 ft and its height (381 ft)

Closer view of the Duomo (Cathedral church)

Duomo’s construction began in 1296 and was finished by 1436

I was impressed by Duomo’s masculinity and its’ sophisticated details

view of the local resident buildings

side view of the famous bridge – Ponte vecchio (during the WW II – Hitler ordered his troops not to destroy this bridge because even himself thought it was too beautiful)

Walking around this town was unreal … thinking about Da Vinci walking this street 500 years ago blew my mind away

For dinner I tried the real Aglio Olio pasta. The pasta was moist and soft, the scent of garlic was present but not overly done. It was pretty dang good.

I also ordered a mushroom & ham pizza, this pizza was so-so … nothing special. I should’ve just went to the local restaurant. I learned that if you want the real taste of the town. Don’t go to a fancy tourist attracted restaurants- go to a small places in the back alley where you find no tourists… those small places make the real thing.

I have couple of Free & Easy magazines back at home. The reason that I love this magazine is because it carries all the favorite things in the world that I admire … styles and even retrievers !!

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.

Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow.

Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

- Laozi

1964 Aston Martin DB5 : This is on my “wish wish list” haha

I will definitely be collecting Filson bags, as they proved how awesome they are from my journey.

Day 9 started around 10 AM. I was very tired after 9 days of traveling and needed some extra sleeping. I went down to the lobby and had a breakfast consisting of warm bread and ham & cheese.

I wanted to play Chess but just settled by taking this photo.

Since the weather was not so great (it was mostly cloudy and raining) I gave up going up to Jungfrau (The top of Europe’s peak) because I would not see anything further than 20 ft. So I decided to go up to a little town “Wengen” and explore. This photo was taken while walking to the Lauterbrunnen train station. Im telling you… I loved this town so much that I didn’t want to leave.

View of train station

I wanted to take off those flags and put it in my bag  : )

train started climbing up to the mountain slowly

pretty view

I wonder how much it costs to buy those little houses on the hill …

After 15 minutes of joy ride, I arrived in town Wengen.

This was my lunch … due to the off-season, every restaurants were closed except a local supermarket.

Asking (more like using a body-language) supermarket lady directions, I started walking.

This town was so dead silent … gave me goosebumps

This house may look pretty but also haunting … haha :p

Some down hill action ! (They allow bicycle rentals during the summer seasons … it should be a blast to ride this road)

I looked back once again and said goodbye to town Wengen

Trail road showed up right after a corner

Let’s hike another 2.5 miles down to my home base – town Lauterbrunnen

Mist ….

deep into the woods …

beautiful trees … the air was so fresh !

I truly love hiking in the woods … anybody willing to join me after I go back to California ?

colors were just jaw dropping gorgeous

marvelous view of town Lauterbrunnen

After 40-50 minutes I was approaching my base

I wanted to check out town Interlaken. So when I reached Lauterbrunnen from Wengen – I took a train to the “big town”

Interlaken was boring … nothing special to see, just a little city … too many noisy tourists bothered me away

I tried to save some money on this particular day so I shopped at a big supermarket and bought myself a dinner and next day breakfast/snack/lunch instead of going to a restaurant …

this is a short on board train video from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen.

People often ask me what makes a good picture.  What makes the good picture stand out from the average?

Here is one answer:

If we look at the photographers whose work we admire,  we see that they’ve found a particular place, theme, or subject, dug deep into it, and carved out something that’s become special.  That takes a lot of time and a lot of work; it’s not for everyone.  A great photograph really needs to say something about a person or give some insight into their life or how their life is different than yours and mine.  A good picture makes us curious and makes us want to know more.

http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/

This round trip gondola ticket was about 120 Euros. Anyways – after a glory view from Schilthorn, I took a gondola back to Murren and started walking to Lauterbrunnen.

Total distance from Murren -> Gimmelwald -> Stechelberg ->Lauterbrunnen was 5.6 miles. It took about 3 hours (I was walking rather slowly because I took more than 100 photographs…)

View of town Mürren

Murren to Gimmelwald was about 2.6 km (1.6 miles) This little pathway was filled with fog and silence.

I realized that I was not alone here :p

I was very satisfied with my little camera and its functions

I found this beautiful mountain stream. I took out the tripod and added ND filter and shot this photo at 15 seconds/f 8.0

I arrived at Gimmelwald after 30 minutes. I was initially planning to stay here but since it was off season, most of the places were empty and closed. Next time … I will stay here

How cool is this? Old 60′s Mercedes truck tucked away in a beautiful old wooden house.

The owner of that Mercedes truck had a little horse stable (I guess this is a horse? Perhaps a tiny horse? haha)

I took gondola from Gimmelwald to Stechelberg

At this moment, I realized that I love this view more than any other city views…

Long exposure photography is my favorite

I started walking on this trail and thought about many different things… One of the advantages of traveling alone is that you have plenty of time to think about various things that don’t usually pop up in your daily lives.

Ah … I loved it so much

This water stream had an astonishing vivid colors that I wasn’t able to capture with my lens …

walk ... walk ... walk away

sometimes you have to look back where you are coming from … because it gives you a new view that you never knew about it

typical rural Swiss household

hello cows

After about 45 minutes, I reached halfway point to Lauterbrunnen

When I get older, I think I want to live here …

So peaceful

little yellow flower by the window

I finished the long day with this hamburger … yummy

to remember

to let go

and move on …

I added a new series onto my collection – this set is called the “Trace”. While traveling in Europe I photographed various scenes that have experienced time and human touch. I emphasized changes that have happened to object’s primordial state. I tried to capture contrasting vivid colors and lively textures. I believe nothing in the world lasts forever. The beauty is not the initial impression or the end result but rather the traces and stories that are created while going through its time and life …..