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Published: June 19th 2008
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High Lunch
The girls provided all the refinements for a memorable lunch with a lovely view It's Friday 23rd. May, we leave the Lakes of Northern Italy and drive up into Switzerland. I do mean up, we start climbing up and over the Saint Gotthard Pass, 6935 ft (2114 m) high, the road is amazing as hairpin bands a built like bridges, just hanging out of the side of the mountain. No sooner had we descended from this pass and we were faced with the Furka Pass, as we turned onto the road to take us back up into the clouds we were confronted with a “Pass Closed” sign....? We stopped to enquire on the alternatives, Zermatt, our destination for the night was a mere 75kms away, we studied the map, looking at any possible alternative, we spoke with a local lady and the alternative by road was a circular trip around most of Switzerland, possibly 400 to 600 km. She suggested we should drive into the next town as a train took cars through the mountains; however she was not sure whether our Camper Van would be allowed? Rob would be right in his little Fiat but as we drove on the next 15 km, our fingers, toes, and anything else that we could cross, were
Matterhorn Tease
Our only glimpse of the Mattehorn as seen from our balcony on checking in. crossed.
Luck was with us, for a moderate cost, we drove straight onto the train for our 36km journey under the mountains above. Rob and Wilma had an anxious ride as they felt their car had not been secured, but all was well and we continued onto Zermatt.
We parked our cars at Visp for another train ride into Zermatt; cars are not permitted into the small resort town which lies at the foot of the Matterhorn. Annie and I checked into our little hotel and we were teased with a partial view of the majestic mountain in the clouds from our balcony. Next morning we boarded the cog train for our climb to about 3,000 mtrs. for our spectacular views of the famous Matterhorn...Wrong....thick cloud was all we saw, the train was fun, and we enjoyed the views as we walked the last few kilometres back down to Zermatt. But we did not get to see the mighty Matterhorn.
From Zermatt we drove to Geneva and unfortunately the weather deteriorated so much so that most of the spectacular Alps were hidden, Geneva was wet, and uneventful.
Our next stop was Interlaken, nestled between two lovely lakes at the foot
The Matterhorn
Hows your imagination, that's the magnificent Mountain in the background. of the Jungfrau, Eiger, and Monch, a beautiful town but again hampered by low cloud. We boarded our train next morning which followed the river up through the valley to Wengen and Klein Scheidegg, we then transferred to a cog train that continued steeply up the side of the Eiger and then into the mountain for several kilometres as it climbed to 3,400 metres. This time we did not just have cloud but a wintery blizzard with 118 km winds and a temp of -12 deg. C. We were not even able to venture outside, not that any of us were that keen. We amused ourselves in the Ice caves for a while and the tourist shops before begrudgingly climbing back into the train for our decent.
The following day we tried a different approach by staying at “lake level”, a lovely two and a half hour cruise on the Thun Lake to Thun. The cloud around the peaks couldn’t spoil the beauty of our trip as the boat criss-crossed the lake several times picking up commuters and tourists from the various tiny villages. Thun was lovely as we wandered the old city, stopping for a lunch with our wine
Showing our colours
Flying the flag as we motor through the Alps. and doing the normal touristy things.
A quick train ride back around the lake and we were on our way to Lucern. Lucern is another beautiful Swiss town on the shores of a lake surrounded by towering mountains, one in particular being Mount Pilatis which is accessible via cable cars. Hopefully this time we would get to see the scenery as promised in the brochures. The first stage was in the smaller type of carriage only big enough for the four of us, only just, as we clambered over one another taking video and photos of the valley below. We transferred into a larger cable car which took us at times thousands of feet above the ground below, quite scary and thankfully no cloud. We spent some considerable time at the top, wining and lunching again but mostly enjoying the beautiful valleys several thousand feet below.
Accomodation for Annie and I was again in a campground on the shoes of athe lake, although not quite 5 star, but again the location was superb. We were able to hire bikes and took advantage of these to ride the 6 km around the lake and into town. It was a beautiful ride,
Fun on the Jungfrau
The Ice caverns were fun as the fierce weather kept us inside. passing some of the old stately mansions on the right as we hugged the lake to the left. Beautiful views of the town beyond the lake with the high snow-capped mountains behind. Just magic.
Lucern was virtually the end of this leg as all that was left was the drive back to Munich the next day to return our home and then off to Paris. We thoroughly enjoyed the our time in the mobile home, the bed was not as soft as the plush hotels offered but the ability to wander as we wanted, stop where we wanted and enjoy some of the most picturesque settings to put our home was the best. But for now, it’s off to Gay Parree....love to all, Rob & Annie
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