Finally got around to putting in another blog entry, it has been 6 weeks but I have a good excuse as I had been away for a month. Each year myself and my wife Jennifer usually plan one big trip which involves hiking or cycling. This trip was actually planned for 2017 but had to be cancelled as I ended up being quite ill last spring with a prolonged hospitalisation. To prove that I was all recovered, we decided to take a hike in the Bernese Alps.
The hike itself was 9 days, but we attached a week in France before and after, and I then spend the last 2 weeks in Montreal with my daughter and son. It was really a great trip although I have to say that hiking was much more arduous than our walking trip through
Tuscany 2 years ago. We did about 16-20 km of walking per day (10-12 miles for the metrically challenged).
We have been to France many times but not to the south east, aside from the Côte d'azur. There is a very convenient direct flight from Montreal to Lyon which is quite close to Switzerland so it was a good choice as a starting point. Anyway, I will let the photos do the talking, my apologies for so many.
Lyon
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| View of the Rhone and the Saône Rivers from the Notre Dame de Fourvière |
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| We stayed in the Vieux Lyon which was quite nice |
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| Somewhat of a peculiar hotel, I fell down a staircase in our room on the first day and was not even drunk, a bit of an inauspicious start as I really as I got a pretty big hematoma on my hip and flank! |
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| But as you can see this did not stop me and I was quickly in good fettle |
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| Lyon Hôtel de ville, je crois. |
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| Parc de la Tête d'or. |
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| I was surprised at how many animals there was in the zoo |
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| I am not sure why my wife so liked this wall painting |
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| One of the highlights of the city is the museum detailing the Roman city of Lugdunum. Really quite impressive 7 floor display. The amphitheatre has been restored as above and hosts a major festival each summer. |
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| Of course the reason I wanted to go to Lyon as it is regarded as one of the major gastronomic cities in the world, this restaurant was so good my wife made us go twice! |
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| So on to the hike, we rented a car in Lyon and made the 4 hour drive to Lauterbrunnen. We could of easily taken a train but our trip back from Switzerland involved a somewhat complex detour so we went with a car. Wengen is car free so we had to park in Lauterbrunnen and take a 15 minute train to Wengen. This sounds complicated but it was very simple as Switzerland is probably the best organised country in the world. |
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| There are really no words to describe this part of Switzerland so I will just present our photos with a very occasional commentary. I believe this was the only cloudy day. |
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Walking to Kleine Scheidegg
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| The path to Grindelwald, we spent 3 nights in Wengen hiking about. |
Grindelwald
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| View of the Eiger from our hotel room |
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| Sunsets were quite spectacular |
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| A trip by Jungfraujoch to the Jungfrau is a must, 4000 metres! |
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| Eiger on the Mönch, finally no clouds |
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| Gondola to First |
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| Wetterhorn to the right and Schreckhorn on the left. |
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| Add caption |
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| One of the lakes around the First |
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| Walking from the First back to Grindelwald, this was a relatively easy descent but some of them were quite tough on the knees, especially when you were dropping 1500 metres in 1 day! |
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| Start of the hike from First to Meiringen |
Meiringen
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| Going to Meiringen was a really an important part of the trip to me as would be known to any fan of Sherlock Holmes |
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| Reichenbach Falls |
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| Meiringen |
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| The red star marks the spot where the final struggle between Holmes and Moriarity took place |
Annecy
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| I thought I had more photos of Annecy, a lovely small city but very crowded when we were there and very, very hot. We rented a boat and went out on the lake, the swimming was great. |
Pérouges
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| An interesting walled hilltop medieval city which we stopped at on the way back to Lyon |
Lyon
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| It was good to put my feet up after 2 weeks |
Well this was a fantastic trip, I could go back to Switzerland tomorrow. My friend Nick pointed out to me that we never made it to the Schilthorn, next time! If I was a younger man, I would think of immigrating there. I know it is expensive, but it was nice to be in a place where everything works and I have to admit the older I get the more I appreciate civic pride and respect for one another that the Swiss people so clearly demonstrate. I was in Basel some years ago and I really thought I was hallucinating but it was not so. I found it quite difficult this time to return to the US.
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