billbauer

First some catch up food photos from dinner last evening in Vevey.  Bev's fois gras and my fried cod and pomme frites. Since we're not getting breakfast with our hotel room in Vevey and everything is formal and expensive at the hotel, we decided to find a bakari in Old Town for pastry, quiche and kaffe.  It is a pleasant change from hotel scrambled eggs and bacon. When we left you yesterday, we were deciding how to spend today.  Geneva won.  After starting out leisurely, we checked out of the hotel receiving a wonderful chocolate parting gift and took a late morning train directly (meaning no change of trains) to the Geneva Aeroporto, found the hotel courtesy shuttle and checked into our last trip hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Geneva Airport.  It is small, utilitarian and exactly what we need just to put our heads in the beds and get up early tomorrow for our flights home.  It does make us appreciate the wonderful rooms that we have had through...

A rather lazy, sleep in morning in Vevey after a night of heavy rain.  Nice lying in bed listening to the rain.  Upon arising we check the boat schedule to go to Chateau de Chillon, a landmark defensive castle built on an island in Lac LeMan, a few stops down the lake.  We realize that we no longer have time for breakfast before boarding our 1907 paddle wheel steamship. We make up for missing breakfast ashore by having la petit dejuene on board. Here is "Bevy" leaving Vevey and lounging on a deck chair on the upper deck of the boat. A view of the coastline.  The Chateau was established a thousand years ago by the Savoys to control the north-south trade route through area. Old stonework.  Windows added much later, maybe a hundred years ago. We finally encounter a mostly rainy day as we get a brief sprinkle while in the Chateau and then a steady afternoon rain after returning to the hotel.  But we stayed dry.  We laid l...

We easily survived our last four train (three transfers) journey today from the sleepy mountain village of Grindelwald to lakeside luxury on Lac LeMan (Lake Geneva) in Vevey.  We were startled by an announcement on our train between Interlaken and Bern announcing that the train we were on was being terminated in Bern "due to an accident with a person" (affecting a train on down the line).  I don't know what that was but, thankfully, it did not affect our continued route to Lausanne since we were switching trains anyway in Bern.  We even had twelve minutes at one transfer and looked around wondering why we were spending of all that time on the platform. The Grand Hotel du Lac welcomed us. The view from the balcony of our room overlooking Lac LeMan. Vevey has a very nice promenade directly behind the hotel along Lac LeMan. Vevey also has many sculptures.  The hotel clerk told us about their famous "fort".  We didn't know about a famous ...

Easily the best weather day that we have had so far: bright sunshine, mid-70s even on the mountain.  The weather has been much better than expected all of the way along.  Before starting out, I asked Steve from Remarkable Journeys, our travel agent, about the expected weather.  His response was that the weather is always remarkable with Remarkable Journeys.  And so it has been. So it is a great day to go hiking on the mountain, starting out from First after a cable car ride. It is hard to get lost with directional signs everywhere. We've talked about the cows before.  But the fact is that hiking in mountains ... with the cows ... with the bells has been a primary goal of mine for the trip.  So it was delightful today to encounter yet more cows with bells grazing on mountain-side and creating their bell symphony. After hiking for over four hours, a coffee break at a sidewalk cafe in town is deserved. Easy day in the ho...

First a picture of the outdoor salt water hot tub that was missing from last night's blog entry. Our hotel has a set of musical chairs lining the driveway. A glacial river gorge with a catwalk of which OSHA would not approve. Nor did Beverly. On the way back into town we pass a quiet little water fall. And cows.  Of course, cows with bells.  Beverly read that the cows are deaf from the constant ringing of the bells.  And I think that she might be right because not one cow has understood me.  And I thought it was the language. We certainly didn't want to do Switzerland without doing traditional Swiss fondue.  We waited until we could do it in the little Swiss mountain village, Grindelwald.  At Barry's Restaurant in the Hotel Eiger, traditional Swiss cheese fondue with smoked sausage.  Delicious. Tomorrow we have plans to do much hiking high on the mountain.  Good night.