Blogs from South-West, Switzerland, Europe - page 9

Today dawned a beautiful clear day so it was going to be ideal for the high alps. Unfortunately, because we are early in the season many cable cars are not working until the end of the month. However, the Glacier 3000 is open. We headed off to Col du Pillon which is about 30kms away and where the seilbahn (cable car) leaves from. The road from Saanen is fairly narrow, winding up through a beautiful valley past Gsteig where we stayed on our Trans Alpine Walk a few years back. We remembered how we stayed at the Viktoria Hotel as the only guests where the manager went off to a party and left us to the 3 storey hotel by ourselves. I also remember that he was somewhat a bit overly friendly with me....... The Seilbahn ... read more

Our apartment owner's grandson turned up this morning to fix the internet. Yes, he did know what he was doing and yes the router was kaput. He took it away and added another network to the owners main network. What a nice young man he was too. He had spent time in NZ learning English and working on a property near Mt Maunganui. He and his girlfriend are coming to NZ in December for a few weeks so he's been invited to park his camper at our place if he wishes if passing through New Plymouth. After filling in the morning planning our next few days for hiking on not too difficult trails we drove down to Saanen and parked near the Bahnhof. It is a hot day with temperatures of 28 degrees so we figured ... read more

Zermatt for the weekend! We drove 3 hours from Geneva to Tasch, then caught the train up to Zermatt. Zermatt is a walking town that is at the base of the famous Matterhorn peak and 28 other peaks. The Matterhorn is the most impressive as it appears to be on its own. The weather wasn't great, the main ski season was over, but it was not quite summer weather. We spent the first day walking around Zermatt, enjoying the town, the church and paying our respects at the mountaineers cemetery. We were struck by how young many of the climbers who died were, many on their decent of the Matterhorn. As we were walking in the town the church bells rang. On the second day we caught the train up to Gornergrat. It was a cloudy ... read more

I was almost sorry to leave Bern today because I really liked it and I can see why it is routinely voted one of the world's most livable cities. BTW, "Bern" is the German spelling while "Berne" is the French spelling. Today I drove south and visited the touristy, but interesting, towns around Gruyeres, Switzerland. My first stop was a factory where the famous cheese is made and I had an educational audioguide narrated by a cow(!) that described the entire process (see photo). The 77-lb wheels of cheese are salted and aged in racks for several months before they are sold (see photo). I enjoyed my cheese tour. The small town of Broc, next to Gruyeres, is the home of Cailler Chocolate, one of the original makers of Swiss chocolate treats (see photo). They have ... read more

Last night I went out to eat and had a Swiss tradition for dinner: fondue. Appenzell, the town where I stayed, has its own cheese and its own beer (see photo). I thought both were pretty good, although I couldn't help thinking that eating fondue is a little like eating a cheese pizza in bite-sized chunks. This morning I drove into central Switzerland and paid a visit to Fortress Furigen, a decommissioned WWII defensive fort buried deep in a mountainside (see photo of entrance disguised as a shed). At the beginning of WWII, the Swiss were concerned that Nazi Germany might cut through their territory on their way to invade France. Later they were concerned that either the Nazis or Italy might invade just because Switzerland was the only unconquered nation left in central Europe. Their ... read more