Just Call Me Heidi - Part One

 

Hello Everyone,

 

I'm back from the land of cow bells, villages tucked away in picturesque valleys, chalets and the Alps.  I've been traveling the road of life with Mister Joe, and together we traveled to Switzerland, Italy and France to celebrate our 40th anniversary.  This picture was taken at a park in Geneva on the day we arrived and began our fairytale trip.

 

We took over 1,200 pictures, and spent part of a day trying to distill them down to a manageable amount.  We stayed in Montreaux on the shore of Lake Geneva.  This was our view every morning across the street from our "palace". 

Sunrise over the Alps was at 9:30am!

The flowers were everywhere.

We stayed at the Montreaux Palace nestled between the lake and the Alps.  From here, our days began and ended in royal fashion.

We took so many pictures of flower boxes.  They were everywhere.

This is the little village of Vevey, right next to Montreaux.  We strolled through the Farmer's Market and enjoyed lunch and a cappuccino in an outdoor cafe.

We toured the Castle of Chillon, made famous by Lord Byron.

Mister Joe has a good eye for photography. Our only playful argument during the trip, was who got to carry and use the camera.  Joe played the, "I used to be president of the Livermore Camera Club" card, so he won and I must admit, he did a great job.  I managed to get the camera a few times when it came to snapping pictures of quilting ideas.  There was beauty in every direction.

There really are Saint Bernards in Switzerland!  No whiskey however.....darn.

We took a cog-wheel train to the base of the Matterhorn and saw glaciers.

 

We huffed and puffed our way to the top of the world at the Gornergrat, an observatory at the end of the train ride and ate lunch at The Glacial cafe looking out at the views.

The clouds and the snow made it almost impossible to see the Matterhorn, but what we managed to see was very impressive.  The liquid sunshine never dampened our spirits.  Our tour guide, Alma, explained that we were "moisturizing".

The town of Zermatt is located at the base of the Matterhorn.  So picturesque, no cars allowed, so quaint and not too many people.  I checked on the price of chalet rentals here.....how does $10,000 a week sound.....and that is for a small chalet.  The larger chalets start at $45,000/week and up, up, UP. Now if you don't have a car, how do you get your sewing machine up to the chalet in the middle of the picture?  Not to mention groceries and yourself!

 

 

Then we traveled to Bern, the capital of Switzerland and we toured the cathedral you can see in the distance.  We ate lunch sitting on steps and watched the trolleys go by.

This cathedral brought tears to my eyes and gave me goose bumps.  I'm going to read Pillars of the Earth again to refresh my memory of how great cathedrals were constructed.

Then off we went to Interlaken.   By this point in time, I'd totally run out of adjectives describing this wonderful, scenic country in my emails home to the kids. Pastoral, idyllic, rustic, bucolic all come to mind when I think of Switzerland.

More pictures tomorrow of Italy and France then back to quilting!  You can bet that one of my new designs is going to have a Swiss flair.  I have so many ideas rattling around that I can't sleep just thinking about them. Wait a minute, maybe I can't sleep because of the jet lag too!

I'll leave you now while I imagine hearing the cow bells in the distant pastures. I'm totally smitten with Switzerland.

Soon,

Lynn

P.S. Hi Judy J.  It was great seeing you in the grocery store yesterday!