Ok, this time I am going to finish this off I promise.

Right then, so after the big department store we decided to go and have a look at the Louvre. We only had a day so we didn't venture inside, it took us long enough to walk through the courtyard. To give you an idea, the actual building is about 700m long by 500m wide, and then the the 'front yard' is another 1000m. The place is absolutely massive. There is some 9 km of walkways in there. It used to be Louis XIV's house before he decided it wasn' t quite big enough and moved to a bigger place in Marseilles. Any wonder the starving peasants cut his head off.

When we were sick of Louis' extravagance, we wandered off to another art gallery, the Rodin gallery. Karen is a bit of a fan of his work, we have some copies of his sculptures in the Adelaide Art Gallery. Most of the sculptures are in a garden and it was a pretty pleasant way to spend an afternoon, munching on a baghette and looking at bronze statues.

We rounded off the days sightseeing by going back to the eiffel tower and having a crepe. With warm nutella, banana and whipped cream no less. A very delicious French experience.

That night we headed out with some people from the tour to the Moulin Rouge. We took a photo of it and then ducked in to see a can can show at the cheaper place next door (only €50 each instead of €90!!). It was a bit amateurish but a good nights entertainment, I liked it because neither of us really realised that you actually get to see boobies. The needle marks in the legs of one of the skankier girls was a the only way to tell we weren't in the actual Moulin Rouge.

One thing that I forgot to mention about the night was that we had a kebab before the show, and the picture in the shop showed a kebab and chips. Well the French, being the masters of fine cuisine that they are, put the chips actually on the kebab. Bizarre. We also visited an Australian theme bar across the road while we were waiting for the show to start, and I paid $10A for a Coopers Sparkling. A ridiculous price I know, but you get a little desperate after a few weeks of cold turkey.

So that was Paris. The next day we were on the bus to a little town in Switzerland called Interlaken, which roughly translates to between lakes. No prizes for guessing that the town is between two lakes, but not just your ordinary lakes, massive, beautiful blue glacial lakes. Interlaken is without doubt the prettiest place I have ever been, the gorgeous lakes, breathtaking Swiss alps and all of the lovely chalet style buildings - I hope I can get some photos up soon.

The air is just amazing to breath, especially after being in Paris. And the water..... Seriously the stuff that comes out of their taps is better than the stuff we buy in bottles.

For dinner on our first night in Switzerland we went to a joint called Bebe's for Rosti and Fondue. The night was absolutely hilarious, the proprietor, Bebe was a muscle bound, all singing, all dancing, all yodelling Swiss crowd pleaser in fluffy cow pants. (They're big on cows in Switzerland, you know like the Milka ad). We had cheese fondue for mains and chocolate for desert, and I am happy to say that I gorged myself, at least when we weren't singing or sculling or forming congo lines behind Bebe.

The Swiss are an amazingly civilized race of people, so much so that they have a train that you can catch up to the top of the largest glacier in the area, Jungfraujoch, coming in at a dizzying 3900m. So we took the two hour train trip to the top, and while doing so saw the most mind blowing scenery, mountains have always fascinated me, but these ones took the cake. Again, I'll try to get some photos up soon, but just understand that these babies are BIG.

At the top, we had our first experience with altitude sickness. It is strangely like being hung over - and having been up there it amazes me that people have been to the top of Everest, which is almost twice as high, and walked up there. Wow.

The big bonus was though, that on a glacier, there is snow, and we played in it. It was wild, and Karen got to tick snow off of her list because she hadn't seen close up before. So we did the cliche thing and threw some snowballs around, and then got some sleds and had a few runs down one of the smaller slopes. You sure realise what sort of altitude you are at when you try to run back up.

That afternoon, back down at a mere 700m, we spent the afternoon walking around and looking at watches and Swiss army knives. I bought a cool Swiss army knife with mountain bike tools on it, and they even put my name on it. For dinner that night we had another traditional Swiss meal, Karen had a wienerschnitzel and I had a 380 gram schweinwurst and more rosti.

And that brings us to the chocolate. Oh my god, Swiss chocolate is the best. Cadbury doesn't even come close, I wish there was some way to get some home. We ate a fair bit while we were there to make up for it though. Also, sorry Adelaide, but Farmers Union is not the best iced coffee in the world. Swiss Caffee Latte is heaven in a milk carton.

We also visited Geneva on the way back into France. Had lunch and a quick look at the UN and left. However, Geneva is apparently one of the most advanced, civilized and efficient cities in the world. If I said to you name a dodgy place, you sure wouldn't think of Geneva. Nor should you, except if you are using the quality of public toilets as a judge. Geneva has the worst public loos I have seen to date, Thailand included.

One last thing about the Switzerland before I wind up, I was looking forward to trying out a bit of my high school German. However since the Swiss are all so well educated and well traveled, I hardly got a chance because the locals all recognize you as a tourist and address you in very eloquent english.

Oh, and the German word for jewelry is Schmuck.