Lisa B.
Grip
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2003
- Messages
- 15
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Needs for technology and electronics: Specifically how common broadband or even modem access is in the city, and/or public (or cheap) access to internet.Internet access is widespread, as are public access internet cafes where you go in, buy a coffee & use a computer hooked upto a highspeed connection, and pay by the hour of use (though most also have discount "subs" you can buy). You shouldn't have any hassle getting internet access.
As everyone else has said, voltages are different and any US appliances will need adaptors. Adaptors aren't expensive or hard to find. You mentioned hair dryers - my US based fiance used to bring her US hair dryer + an adaptor over to the UK, but got fed up with the lack of "drying power" that scheme would provide, and ended up buying a cheap UK hairdryer to leave in my apartment as it was much more effective.
As you're aware, Switzerland is a great "gateway" - you're in the centre of mainland Europe & will have real easy access to all the rest of the continent thanks to the great train network.
How fast does the train system travel? I’m just wondering how far from Geneva I could get on a day trip (say leave early morning and ride train for 4 hours or so)--- or maybe how long it would take to get over to England by train. Are we talking hours, days?If you start in the morning and ride the train for 4 hours or so, you can get to the other end of Switzerland at the Austrian border . Seriously though, Zurich is only 3 hours away and from there it's about an hour or so to Austria--Switzerland is a small country, but very well positioned so you can use it as a base for travels to France, Austria, Germany and Italy.
Going to London by train would take about seven hours... three hours to get to Paris and then from there on a Eurostar train under the Channel. However, that's really not a particularly good idea unless you really want to watch the surroundings as it is faster (and likely cheaper) to fly to London (the flight is only about 70 min).
Whew, that was a long one.
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I am a BIG fan of castles and of Medieval culture in general... Anyone have suggestions on some of the better and more enjoyable Castle visits in this region (say within a day’s train trip of Geneva)? I’m a little concerned since I don’t speak a word of German, and even my French is a bit under-developed --- but I’m hoping to find a buddy or two and set out on as many day long adventures as I can--- any tips on the bigger or more impressive castles and related sites would be wonderful!King Ludwig II (the mad king) built the most spectacular castles. In fact he built so many castles and built so elaborately his own doctor killed him to save Bavaria from bankruptcy.
Oh, Bavaria is in the south, so it's reasonably close to Switzerland.
Anyway, his most famous castle is Neuschwanstein , which was the model for Disney's castle. Several of his castles are now tourist attractions, so it shouldn't be hard to get info on them.
Have fun!
I should steer clear of easyjet because they can be shady. Maybe it's not so bad forking over additional funds knowing that you won't get royally screwed in the end.My experience was 3 days before christmas and I was flying home for christmas. After 6 hours in the airport they just said the flight was cancelled (due to bad weather) go and pick up your bags and leave. All they offered was a flight to London (as opposed to Liverpool) the next day or a flight to Liverpool on christmas eve.
Now I'm earning more money I won't even consider them, but if you are on a lower income then it can be a very attractive offer, but if you do take it, just take into account if things go wrong thier customer service is not the best.
If you want to get from switzerland to scotland for the least money then I think either easyjet or a coach is going to be your best bet. A coach will take a damn long time. maybe you suggest you both travel and meet in the middle somewhere.
When your family calls you, do you mean "free" as in you don't get charged the long distance fee? Or did you mean "free" as in if you receive an incoming call it doesn't count toward your prepaid minutes? That would be really sweet if only outgoing calls went against your prepaid minutes!When you are in your home network any calls you recieve are totally free, you don't use any of your minutes. It is true that it can be more expensive for people to call your mobile phone but with 1010 987 or similar numbers it is still very cheap, far cheaper than you would ever be able to call with out having a landline put in. If you travel outside your network then you also pay when people call you.