Leanne and Don, life across the pond: SWITZERLAND

Time to visit Switzerland. After a short wait at a pub in Heathrow we would be on our way.

First stop would be Zurich,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich

this is a museum next to the train station.

Walking to our hotel we had a full moon over the train station.

As with most countries we visit, we use Rick Steves's guide books. His info on Zurich has a walk around town and that is what we would be doing this morning.

The first thing we see is Zurich's Guardian Angel, its supposed to be protecting all travelers. I looked at it and wondered who OKed this to be built.

We walked down a pedestrian only street and came to this park. It was a small park but as you can see they made sure there were plenty of trash cans.

The walk took us past the police station and past what i assume were riot vehicles.

and interesting town with very ornate chimneys

Zurich has the Limmat river going thru it and it empties into Lake Zurich. I don't think they close the outside seating in the winter here. Check out the fur coverings on the chairs.

Heading up to a park, a long up with stairs after that.

There used to be a fortress here in the 1200's that burned down.

They passed a law that no fortress could be built there and it was made into a park.

From this point you could see all of Zurich.

The best part of being at the high point of the city is the rest of the walk would be down.

Swiss cuckoo clocks, we did not stop to buy one.

One of the local churches, above the clock face is a room. The town watchman lived there, if he spotted a fire he would ring the bell and wave a flag.

More steps down, this would lead to the ruins of a Roman bath. It seems like the Romans had baths in every big town we have been too. They were a very clean bunch.

After the Zurich walk we would take a train to Murren. On the way we would stop in the town of Luzern.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucerne

We would stop there for two hours and do a walk of the city. The good thing is they have lockers at the train station so we didn't have to carry our luggage.

This it the Kapellbrucke or Chapel bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapellbr%C3%BCcke

The bridge was built in 1333 as a city fortification. A fire in 1993 destroyed a lot of the bridge, so most of it was rebuilt.

They love there flowers, the bridge is covered with them.

This is the Reuss River Weir System or Needle dam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_dam

They use this to control flooding

Picture of an old guy, the Spreuer Bridge or Mill Bridge in the back grown.

A view of the Needles in the dam.

The interior of the Mill Bridge has paintings that were done from 1616 to 1667.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreuer_Bridge

Our first view of the mountains.

Fondue for lunch, devious.

After lunch we got on another train and headed to Murren. On the way we would take a train to Interlaken, then a train to Lauterbrunnen, a gondola to Grutschalp and then a train to Murren.

We got to our hotel late and it was to dark for pictures. But it was time for dinner and wine. A long day with lots of exploring.

In the morning we woke up to this, coffee and a view. It doesn't get much better than this.

After breakfast and coffee it was time to explore and hike. We started in a slight drizzle and had a forecast of rain for the rest of the day.

Tennis with a view anyone.

We took a funicular up about 1,000 feet and would hike down to the to town of Grimmelwald.

From there the views went on for ever

Two very happy hikers

We had started on the upper right and walked past the building on the lower right. The building was a restaurant and bar and even though it was open we kept on hiking. We made it up to this ridge and stopped to enjoy the view of what we had done so far.

A little to the right was the city of Murren

And farther right was Leanne and where we would be hiking.

Farther up the trail were more views, and lucky for us no rain.

The peak on the left is Schilthorn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schilthorn

It was used for a James Bond movie in 1969. To get to the top you have to take a gondola from Murren to the peak on the right from there you take another gondola to the top.

An old hiker on the side of the mountain.

Not a bad view of where we have to go.

Leanne leading the way down the mountain.

This part of the hike took us through a forested area.

This section was very steep and slippery.

And did i mention the cows, they were more like mountain goats.

Leanne having a great time.

After a long hike down we finally got to Gimmelwald,

the locals didn't seem to impressed.

A little fire wood for the winter, we saw a lot of it.

This was a storage building, but it looked more like a post card.

Cowbells, what we need is more cowbells.

The town was small but very beautiful.

We stopped at this B & B for a glass of wine. It may be a place to go back to.

We took a gondola ride to Murren, they also hall hay on it.

The rain came as we got back to the hotel and with a good rain we got a rainbow.

After a great dinner we were treated to a full moon, the only problem was it was behind the mountain.

Saturday morning we would be heading Lausanne. When we got to the train stain we saw this older couple getting ready to hike. Just goes to show your never to old.

This looks like were at a museum but its actually at our first station.

A short ride to the gondola, views all the way.

Someone looks happy on the ride down.

This is what Leanne was looking at.

At the base of the gondola was the town of Lauterbrunnen. From here you could go farther up the valley or back to Interlaken where we would be heading.

At Interlaken we would be taking a train called the Golden Pass to Motreux. This would be a scenic train ride thru the center of Switzerland.

And we lucked out by having clear sky's. The views never ended.

As you can see i'm enjoying the ride.

The train was a panoramic train so there was a lot of glass.

Our first view of Montreux

Lake Geneva

From Montreux we took another train to Lausanne---we seemed to take a lot of trains on this trip.

Another late arrival last night but the morning coffee view was great.

We used Rick Steves book again to do a walk thru the town. In his book he says walking in this town is like a grown up game of chutes and ladders. He had that right.

The walk was short but lots of history. The railing on this bridge was designed to keep people from jumping.

A view of the city from the bridge.

This is Lausanne Chthedral, the largest church in Switzerland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lausanne_Cathedral

A watchman has lived in the tower of the church since the middle ages. He used to watch for fires but now he calls out the hour every night from 10:00 pm till 2:00 am