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----(easy to figure it )out in your head.
---Do you speak English? Yes. May I buy a hot dog, please?
---Um-hum.
Here’s how it works. Right now a Swiss Franc is worth 77 US cents, round that off to 80 cents. If a hot dog costs 5 Swiss Francs, then it costs five 80-cent pieces or roughly 4 dollars. 50 little ones, they are called centimes here, is half a Swiss Franc or 40 cents. If mustard costs 10 centimes, a tenth of 80 cents, it costs the equivalent of 8 cents. 10 Swiss Francs is 8 dollars. Quiz yourself and practice, it becomes second nature about the time you arrive in the next country.
No, you really can figure this out pretty fast, and examine the local coins and currency closely. Those who insist on being confused, will be, and their trips cost a lot more. Those who are expected to travel smart, do. Know the money. And in Switzerland, know the lifts. Save your knees, you don’t have to rough it to get close to nature here. Let’s catch the train down to Lauterbrunnen.
The Alps are full of little villages, huts and lifts that make hiking so civilized-- this is my kind of hiking. Half the fun of all this is gliding through the valleys and over the mountains in all this creative Alpine engineering: trains, gondolas, funiculars.
Lauterbrunnen, here is a kind of mountain transportation hub. Now we just came down out of the train from Wengen which is way up there and we want to get to a little village on the top of that cliff called Gimmelwald and we could take the bus down the valley and catch a gondola up. But let’s stay with the train and we’ll ride the funicular up the steep side of this valley. If you’re afraid of heights, stay in Interlaken, rent a paddle boat.
From the top, we’ll catch the panorama train over to Murren. There’s the Eiger and the Jungfrau over there where we were this morning.
Murren is a cute little resort full of hikers in the summer and skiers in the winter. But we’re heading for a real backdoor treat about a 30-minute hike or a 10-minute gondola ride down the hill.
Gimmelwald, not to be confused with touristy Grindelwald, is a sleepy village with more cows ringing bells than people.
words to memorize:
1/funicular(funicular railway)=cable缆车
2/panorama train:全景铁车
注:与paranoia音很像，注意区分(paranoia=monomania)
3/gondola:威尼斯一种小船
4/touristy:专对游览者的
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