SWITZERLAND

Home of chocolate and cheese, mountains and lakes.

Switzerland is just as we expected, gorgeous scenery with the Swiss Alps everywhere!  And still with snow on them.  The plan was to spend a couple of days in the Alps so Kevin could ski here but as it turns out, there is not enough snow for year round skiing as they claim.  So he settled for a long hike, on his own without me to slow him up. I took a small hike myself around the shopping mall :).  Does that count for exercise?

We missed driving through the northern part of Switzerland in lieu of traveling through the southern part of Germany………un-planned 🙂  But we don’t regret it.  We really loved our drive through Germany.  We barely touched on actually seeing Germany, but I think it counts right?

Our first stop was Zurich where we stayed the night but unfortunately didn’t really spend any time there.  Zurich is a real hopping city and I would have loved to spend more time there, although very expensive.  

Switzerland is very expensive to visit!  That is the negative, the only negative!  Switzerland also has a very low crime rate and is one of the best places to live on earth.  There are several different languages spoken here which actually makes it easier to communicate because everyone is kind of in the same boat.  I’m not sure if that makes a difference but we have noticed that the people here are super friendly and helpful.  A welcome change from Austria and Germany where the people are a bit stern.

Our second stop was Lausanne, home to the Olympic Headquarters/Museum.  We went there, however, they are closed on Mondays so we missed out.  Instead, we bought metro tickets, fumbled through getting on the wrong/right train and ended up at Lake Geneva.  Lake Geneva borders both Switzerland and France and is the largest lake in the Alps.

Our third stop is Sion where I thought most spoke French but as I am sitting here in the hotel restaurant I am hearing different languages.  This is a ski resort area where we booked a couple of days for skiing but then trashed that plan.

Kevin enjoyed his 4-hour hike immensely.  Being alone in nature is Kevin’s idea of heaven.  It started out with the idea of hiking up a mountain but it seemed to take longer just getting to the beginning of the foothills than he anticipated.  There were no pathways to get there and he found he was having to walk through peoples properties.  But he was determined to find a path, he said it was just too beautiful to not have pathways. 

He passed several villages with homes and 1/4 mile between each village.  On two occasions he met people that owned homes along his path.  Both times the men were very eager to communicate although neither spoke english.  Kevin felt it was like playing charades but it was fun and rewarding for both parties.  Of course, he asked if he could take their picture and they let him.

Dinner here in Sion was a huge success!  And it had nothing to do with the food 🙂  We went to a Golf Club where they have a bistro overlooking the 18th hole.  I believe there was a women’s tournament of sorts going on as all the women were wearing pink and black.  As they finished they came up to the restaurant. Soon we were engulfed in ladies drinking tall beers and chattering endlessly.  

Our view was spectacular!  We were able to watch each group finish up on the 18th hole, with the snow-covered Alps in the background.  

Switzerland seems to be big on Italian cuisine.  We haven’t exactly had a great meal yet, kind of disappointing actually.  What you order is what you get.  It’s all you get.  And no garnishing on the plate.  But the hardest part is that dinner doesn’t start here until 8:00 ish.  So at 4:30 or 5:00 when we are used to eating, the restaurants are either closed down or not serving their full menu.

Here’s our path to date. We are into week 5 of our 6 weeks. It has flown by so far and I’m sad to say we are headed back towards Portugal. But first we have a week in Paris.

Ooo la la!