Welcome to my blog, in which I post photos from recent travels and photography ideas.
These are posted irregularly, so log in at your leisure to catch my latest ramblings.
Day 31 - Finding Our Airbnb
Not only having a rainy arrival, but also our GPS's failure, made finding our Airbnb, Chez Alix, a challenge.
In this medieval village, some of the addresses do not equate with the GPS system.
This is Ruelle Romaine in St. Saphorin, the "street" that we were searching for.
Now you can see why the GPS failed us. A ruelle is not really a rue.
That door at the left bottom of the stairs was Chez Alix.
Since there was no nearby parking, we had to lug our luggage (pardon the pun) a distance up narrow cobblestone walks and up stairs. But the accommodation was quite unique. As with most ancient buildings, this one having been a wine-making building, the stairs creaked and doors were low. We entered and were immediately in one bedroom. The other bedroom was two flights lower (that became Hannah's and Chris's room) though we "allowed" them to keep their luggage in the living room, which was just next to the kitchen.
This morning I took some photos in this old town, before we hiked in the vineyards.
Since we'd arrived unprepared with food to cook, we were obliged to hike up in a slight drizzle, to Chexbres to find a restaurant for breakfast.
As we were enjoying this treat and rest (it was a long slog on an empty stomach), the sun came out, making for an enjoyable afternoon.
Here we are in the vineyards of Lavau, between Lausanne and Montreux, above Lake Geneva, in Vaud canton.
Here the lake is called Lac Leman, as the locals do not believe that it belongs to Geneva.
Though walking the paths in the vineyards was fabulous, we were disappointed in not finding any caves open for tastings or wine purchasing.
After returning to St. Saphorin, we found this one shop open, so we bought a bottle of red wine.
We then took the train into Vevey, a larger nearby town, to shop for food for dinner and breakfast.
Before making our dinner, we went back up into the vineyards for one more viewing.
This is evening light in Lavau, with the rooftops of St. Saphorin visible below on the shore of the lake.
Day 30 - Gruyere in Gruyeres
We left our location in the small village of Habkerk this morning.
Here are a few last snippets from there.
We then drove through the Simmental toward Gstaad and Saanen.
This scene was photographed at Saanen.
This photo I took further down the valley at Rougemont.
Our journey took us to Gruyeres, the centre of Gruyere cheesemaking. This may seem like a spelling error, but, no. The village name has an "s" at the end, differentiating it from the similarly named cheese produced in the region.
Gruyeres is a small walled hilltop village, but very touristy.
This is inside the walls, on the one short main walking street, where no cars are allowed.
We did have a lunch stop of a croque Gruyere.
Veda and Hannah as we are walking out of Gruyeres.
Shortly after leaving, it began raining. We drove in this rain all the way to our next destination.
More on that destination in my next blog.
Day 29 - Eiger Express
This morning we left our hotel in Habkern and drove down to Interlaken.
Even the local inhabitants bade us farewell and wished us a good day.
We carried on to the town of Grindelwald.
From here we rode up the Eiger Express to the Eiger Glacier, at the base of the Jungfrau.
This is a relatively new gondola, which cost 147,000,000 Swiss francs to construct.
The views of the countryside near Grindelwald from the gondola were exquisite.
But not so much at the top, which was enveloped in fog.
But still this was an enjoyable experience.
Once we got below the fog, I found many photographs.
Afterr leaving Grindelwald, we drove down its valley and up the Lauterbrunnen Valley, with its high steep rock walls.
Near the end of the valley we visited Trummelback Falls, a large gorge carved by millions of years of rushing water.
A geologic marvel, but difficult to photograph.
Thus ended another day.
Day 28 - Foggy Days Continue
We left our Wirzweli airbnb this morning, a morning with thick fog, as the following photo shows.
After driving down the narrow winding road, for the last time, we headed for Engelberg.
With all the recent rain, many waterfalls were flowing strongly, as was this one near Stans.
Engelberg is the departure point for the cable cars up to the summit of Titlis. Because of the weather conditions, Veda and I passed on this excursion. But Hannah and Chris made their choice, to go up. Veda and I spent some time in the town.
While we were having coffee in a cafe in Engelberg, we heard cow bells clanging in the street. We quickly got the car and caught up to the parade. I parked the car and ran to get ahead of the cow parade, hoping to get some photos.
This is one of the images I made.
After picking up Hannah and Chris at the cable car station, we headed out to our next stop.
We were booked at Hotel Baren in Habkern, a small village above Interlaken.
We celebrated Hannah and Chris's 15th wedding anniversary with a meal in the hotel restaurant.
All of us had a local specialty, some version of deer (hirsch)
A very delicious dinner on a special day.
Day 27 - Rain, Rain, Fog
This was last night's dinner at our apartment.
This morning we had incessant rain, so we were confined to our apartment.
Shortly after noon the rain let up, but it was so foggy that we could not see much.
So we decided to take this small private gondola up to Gummenalp Restaurant for afternoon dinner.
We had to call the restaurant from this station, and then got into the gondola, and up we went.
Not much we could see but rain and fog.
Three of us had bratwurst with pommes frites - tasty.
This was the highlight of our day.