This is my first blog entry, so I would like to introduce myself. First things first: I love to travel. I like to go to new places, but I also like to go back to places especially if I had no time to explore everything.

I also love to take photos. In 2013 I got my first DSLR camera and I started to enjoy travelling even more. So don't be surprised to see a lot of pictures in my entries. On the other hand, feel free to browse my photos.

My first blog entry is about my first trip with my new camera in August 2013. The trip took me to Switzerland and there mainly to Geneva, Ascona, and Basel. So I visited the French speaking, Italian speaking, and German speaking regions in one trip.

At that time, I lived in Antibes at the Cote d'Azur, and I took a flight from Nice to Geneva. It was not expensive, and this was the main reason why I decided to visit Switzerland, which is somewhat funny as Switzerland itself is pretty expensive.

I was lucky to find a fairly cheap hotel close to the train station in Geneva. This area is really well located as it is walking distance to the main sights: the Jet d'Eau, the UN Headquarter, the Cathedral, and the promenade around the lake.

I walked around Geneva a lot and I really enjoyed it. When I walked up to St. Pierre Cathedral I passed Rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville and was surprised by all the flags that were there. I was really impressed by the scenery and of course I took some photos as you can see below. The cathedral is up on a hill and you have a beautiful view over the city and the lake.

As I said before the prices in Switzerland are fairly high, but I was lucky enough to find some restaurants that didn't explode my budget. Funny enough they were mainly Thai restaurants ... and I love Thai food. I can really recommend Thai Express.

After two days in Geneva, I left for Ascona. I decided to travel by train, mainly due to the good reputation of the Swiss Railways. Unfortunately, I underestimated how difficult it is to book tickets online with SBB. After trying for two hours, I decided to go to the station and buy the tickets there. The good thing is that SBB is working on improving their website and it´s far easier to book tickets now ... and soon even for international connections.

To get to Ascona I first had to go to Lucerne and change there to a train to Locarno. From Locarno, I had to take a bus that took me to Ascona. As expected, the trip was smooth and there was no rushing due to a late train like in many other countries.

As I visited a friend in Ascona I was glad to have a guide. He is from my hometown Dresden and one of my oldest friends but moved few years ago to Switzerland. He had another friend visiting. This made this town actually more fun as I wasn't walking around all by myself.

Ascona itself is not very big, but it is a nice weekend retreat especially when you try to get out of the busy city. The promenade is very nice and there was no traffic at all. Moreover, the view over Lago Maggiore is stunning.

Ascona is actually at the Italian border that runs through Lago Maggiore, so we decided to make a boat trip. We took the ferry from Ascona to Cannobio. Cannobio is a really small city but on Sundays it has a very interesting market. As we were with girls, we spent more time than expected there, but at least they got some nice shoes and shirts. While the girls went cloth shopping the men were indulging the amazing food on sale ... incredible cheese and ham. For Lunch, we went to one of the restaurants along the lake. My friend ordered pasta with a truffles sauce and some real truffles on top. It was the first time I saw that they weighted the truffles, and you paid by the gram. My friend let me try and it was delicious.

In the evening, after we got back to Ascona we went to play Minigolf. I know it doesn't sound interesting, but the place had some really exotic plants one being a banana tree.

On the next day, my friend took me up into the mountains. We visited Diga di Verzasca, which is a dam that was part of the Bond movie "Golden Eye". Further up the stream is a small stone bridge Ponte dei Salti and a small village. It is part of a very popular hiking trail and the rock formation in the river are really good to cool off on a hot day in summer. Unfortunately, it was raining when we were there.

On my last day, it was beautiful weather and we decided to have a swim in Lago Maggiore ... soooo refreshing and so much fun.

After few great days in Ascona I was on my way again by train, this time to Basel. It was a direct train from Bellinzona which is fairly close to Ascona. As expected, it was another smooth trip and no delays.

I have to admit I was not too impressed by Basel, as there are not a lot of sights, I was interested in. However, I was visiting another friend, again from my hometown. So, it was all about having a good time with friends.

The Old town of Basel is very easy to navigate, and it has many small little alleys with very old buildings. Historical buildings in Basel have actually the year they were built on the wall. Therefore, if you get bored you can try to find the oldest building in town.

In the evening, I went out with my friend and his fiancé (now wife) for some good food. Afterwards we went to Kaserne Basel where we had some really good craft beer. Some of them locally brewed.

After a good night sleep, I had to catch my flight back to Nice from Zurich Airport in the afternoon. To get there I had to take the train. Again, it was an easy and smooth ride by train. Though this time the train left late, but when we arrived in Zurich Airport it was on time. Only the SBB can pull that off.

Overall, it was a fun trip with many interesting places ... even though Switzerland is expensive I can only recommend it especially the Italian speaking part.

Here some more photos.

Train trip Switzerland

Next Destination: Shanghai - How I plan my trip to China