Saturday, October 13, 2012

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! 

14 comments:

  1. Your photos are AMAZING! Thanks so much for sharing them! Those flowers are just gorgeous. Isn't it fun to travel and see new, beautiful things! I'm so glad you had fun!

    Cheery wave from
    Bev

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  2. Nice vacation pics, Heidi:) As Bev says, amazing views. It all looks storybook. Is there a quilt design inspired by them in your future?

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  3. What gorgeous, gorgeous pictures and what a great 40th anniversary trip - Happy Anniversary! "Beautiful" just doesn't do justice to those wonderful pictures! Welcome back!
    P.S. I bet Zinnie went wild when she saw you guys!!

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  4. Welcome home Lynn ! What beautiful pictures of your 40th anniversary trip ! Looks like you 2 had a great time !

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  5. Joe does take some beautiful pictures......it sounded liked you had a wonderful time....can't wait for the next pictures of Italy and France.....Italy is our favorite place.....

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  6. Welcome home, Heidi. ;-) Joe got some beautiful pictures.

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  7. Oh my goodness have you brought back some memories! We celebrated our silver wedding anniversary at Lake Maggiorie in Italy. On the actual day we went on a coach trip to Zermatt.... we had lunch at a cafe overlooking the Matterhorn!! Switzerland is a beautiful country but very very expensive. Looking forward to seeing your next post! Hugs

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  8. Wow, Lynn! It looks like you had a BEAUTIFUL trip. Joe is pretty good at taking those pics! Thanks for sharing with us.

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  9. Gorgeous! Gorgeous! (I missed you...) Can't wait to see more! (So glad you're home safe) Does the talent in your home ever end? (Something told me to pick up my NOOK & check your blog) You are both so blessed! (I would've checked in on Zinnie were I not a few hundred miles away) Back to the routine but with beautiful memories to enrich and inspire you. (Dang! The 30th will be here before we know it! I'd better get to work on my October Magic!) So glad your trip was as wonderful as you had hoped it would
    be! (And we're so lucky you shared your excitement with us!)

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  10. PS...By the way Heidi...We have a few extra goats in the pasture if you get terribly lonely for your Alps!

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  11. Hi Lynn,

    What a wonderful trip - can't wait to hear about the rest.

    Linda Palmer

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  12. Sooooooo gorgeous. What a fabulous trip you guys went on!

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  13. Fabulous trip of a lifetime! Happy Anniversary!

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  14. Gorgeous doesn't even touch the edge of these amazing pictures. I love the cathedral pictures, the stained glass is magnificent!

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