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.
October 23 - Week in Review
This is a synopsis of the last week that we spent in Switzerland while on our recent holiday.
Fehraltorf is a village surrounded by farm lands, so you often see these vehicles passing through.
A church in Fehraltorf, where we spent the last few days at our friend's, Veronica's.
One day we took the train into Zurich.
How could we resist having a cappuccino and a sweet!
Another day we visited the area around Greifensee.
From there, we drove to the old hilltop village of Regensberg.
Here we were in Rapperswil, at the east end of the Lake of Zurich.
From Rapperswil we took a boat to the island of Ufnau.
These are Pinot Noir vines in front of a chapel that rests on 12th century ruins.
A small celebration of my birthday, courtesy of Veronica.
That evening we went out for a dinner at a nearby restaurant.
October 15 - Munich Airport
We left Veronica's at Fehraltorf, this morning for the drive to Munich.
We drove the Swiss autobahn east to Austria, a short distance in Austria, and then the German autobahn toward Munich.
One thing that I noticed today was that the German roads are significantly wider than the Swiss ones.
The German route was much more relaxing to drive for this reason, even though the speed limits are much higher.
Transports parked at a rest stop along the German autobahn.
This is our hotel in Hallbergmoos, near Munich airport.
Our flight with Icelandair leaves tomorrow afternoon. We'll have a stopover and change planes in Rekjavik, and then on to Toronto.
I will post a blog later covering our time in Fehraltorf, between Hannah and Chris's departure and our leaving Veronica's.
Day 34 - Adieu
This morning we departed from Tasch for the long drive to Zurich.
We drove back to Sierre and then west along the Rhone Valley.
We turned off the autobahn at Aigle for a lunch stop, but not before a few photo ops in the vineyards.
Then it was back on to the autobahn to Kloten, the airport of Zurich.
Here we bid adieu to Chris and Hannah after a fabulous journey around Switzerland.
Their flight to Toronto leaves tomorrow morning.
Veda and I then drove to Fehraltorf, Veronica's home.
Day - 33 - The Matterhorn
This morning we took the train from Tasch into Zermatt, about a 20-minute ride.
Once in Zermatt, we bought our tickets for the Gornergrat, a cog railway train which takes riders up from the lower end of the village up to an altitude of 3135 metres, and gives a great view of the iconic Matterhorn.
This is the Gornergrat Railroad train.
These are a couple views from the train as it ascends on its route.
This is also an area where we are right up among the glaciers.
Here are two photos of the Matterhorn, which sits on the Swiss - Italian border.
We spent quite a lot of time up in this wonderland, gazing at and photographing the mountain from differing viewpoints.
It was also a time to playfully create some photos.
Time came to take the train back down to Zermatt.
We walked in the village, and then returned via the Zermatt Express to Tasch.
That evening, we went out for an early birthday celebration. Hannah and Chris treated us to dinner to celebrate my coming birthday.
We all ordered the same lamb dinner. It was delicious.
What a memorable setting for the occasion!
Thank you, Hannah and Chris.
Day 32 - The Rhone Valley
Thanks to our host, Nicholas, we were in no rush to vacate our Airbnb in St. Saphorin.
So I decided to once more walk up into the vineyards above for early morning light. But I was not completely successful because the sun rose from a direction where it did not light up the hillside until well after sunrise.
Nevertheless, the morning views were wonderful. I was also much warmer once in the sunshine.
After breakfast, we packed up the car and left the Lavau.
We then drove past Montreux and into the Rhone Valley and Canton Valais.
The Rhone Valley here is quite wide. The south-facing slopes, though often very steep, are cultivated with vineyards.
We drove past Martigny, Sion, and to Sierre. From here, Valais (or Wallis) canton is German speaking.
We turned south at Sierre and drove up into Val d'Anniviers.
We stopped in Vissoie for lunch and coffee.
From here we took a side road to go to Grimentz.
This is a view from that road.
Grimentz is considered one of the most beautiful villages of Switzerland.
A couple of the "local" ladies.
These traditional hay storage sheds were erected on posts with these flat rocks on top to keep out rodents.
I found that parts of the old village had many photographic possibilities if I concentrated on the minute details.
But we all thought that the village had outgrown its traditional charm because of the infusion of tourism and development of modern vacation residences. But we can't expect these places to remain in the past.
We then returned along this road back to the Rhone Valley, and on to Tasch.
Tasch is as far as you are allowed to drive on the route to Zermatt.
Here we are for the next two nights.