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28 September 2011

Switzerland 2011 - Day 8 to 12

Cheese-Count so far: 3 fondues and 4 raclettes.

I have not really had a chance to check in to my blog lately...  too busy eating! Plus, European keyboards are a pain - nothing is in the right place, and it takes forever to write a sentence because you have to keep going back an editing it!

At this point, catching you up on what I have been upto will be pretty much a review of my trip, and I am saving that more for a longer entry with pictures etc.   Instead, I will just entertain you with a funny story that happened to my aunt.

For months and months she was planning a surprise for us. She said she would join us in Zermatt for a day (Friday) with a friend of hers - but instead she showed up on Thursday, alone, and had also checked in to the same hotel as us for the same 2 nights.

Looking back, I might have suspected something was up, but I never put the pieces together.

When we got to the hotel, I noticed a box of chocolates on the bed. "How nice!" I thought, "The hotel gave us chocolates!!" I didn't actually pick them up to inspect them any closer, and my husband swore to me he thought we got chocolates too the last time we were there. I was SURE we did not, and concluded that he had probably just eaten them!

Later, after we finished unpacking, I flipped over the card that came with them and read: "Hi guys! Welcome to Zermatt, see you later. Auntie"  Nice!, but then I got to wondering, how did she send them to the hotel? Did she mail them? But they were not packaged or anything... then all was explained when I bumped into her in the hotel lobby.

She had checked in about an hour earlier and had the staff leave them in our room.

We had a nice lunch (raclette), went for a walk, had a drink, then back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner.  She got back to her room, and to her utter shock, found a Japanese man in her room, on the bed, reading a book. WHAT??

Turns out, when he checked in to the hotel after my aunt had, he was given the wrong room key (her key) and so they were both in the same room.  It's even MORE unbelievable when you consider that my aunt had unpacked!!  She had some things on the counter, her suitcase on the floor, bathroom items out, even some clothes on the bed! The room was so obviously occupied - what on earth was he thinking!?!!

Here is the lesson I picked up: screw hotel policy; take you key with you when you leave!

                                                                                                                                                              

As far as the trip is going - it's still fantastic! We realy liked Interlaken a lot, although the hotel was not that great, I don't think I would recomend it. More on that when I write up the trip review.

Now we are in Aadorf staying with family for the last couple of days, hard to imagine it's almost over!

The weather has been outstanding, aside from rain on the first 2 days it's been perfect. Great weather for Alp-gazing!

Bye for now, time for bed... another full day ahead tomorrow!

23 September 2011

Switzerland 2011 - Day 7

Cheese-Count so far: 3 fondues & 2 raclettes

I am blogging from my IPod - not that easy so I will have to keep it short.

What a tremendous difference between this trip to Zermatt and the last from 2006!! Amazing!! I can't get over just how much we missed. You think you know what something looks like because you've seen it on a billion post cards, and then you see the real thing... AWESOME.

Whereas last time it was rainy and cloudy and visibility was next to nil, this time we had blue skies galore. What an impressive sight the Matterhorn is, it really has to be SEEN to be appreciated. The word that comes to mind is:imposing.

We took the train up to the Gornergrat, gawked at the view then hiked down to the Riffelsee. From there, you can take beautiful pictures of the iconic peak reflected in the lake. Just amazing, one can't describe it without being redundant: majestic, amazing, awesome, imposing.

The weather was so much warmer than expected, even though we were over 3000 meters high, so we did not hike back up to the look-out but rather took the train instead. The goal was to have a fondue in the restaurant overlooking the Matterhorn, but it was so hot in there, we gave up Nd decided to have lunch back in Zermatt instead.

While we rode the train back down, clouds started forming around the peak, so we really did not miss out.

This day was not just a vacation highlight, but a life highlight.

21 September 2011

Switzerland 2011 - Day 4 & 5

Cheese-Count so far:  2 fondues and 1 raclette.

We are eating so poorly (fat and cheese and wine and meat) that the other day when I ate the lettuce garnish leaf off our meat-plate I think all the cells in my body jumped for joy!

Having a wonderful time in Chamoix, its really a dream!

Getting here was a bit of a trek, from Martigny it was a train and 2 busses because there was construction on the rails and train traffic was halted. Not that bad if you know in advance and know what to expect, but its a surpirise to be greeted by a bus when you are expecting a train!!

The ride was fantastic mind you - it was a little cloudy but we eventually climbed beyond the clouds and it just looked like we were cruising in a valley that someone had stuffed with cotton balls - hope the pictures do it justice.

This is my tenth time in Switzerland, so I was not expecting much newness but I was wrong. Now, all the chalets on the countryside are equipped with sattelite dishes!!!!  They are painted brown and blend in with the wood - but there they are. The chalet culture is hip with modern times it seems! ha-ha

Our hotel is very nice, you may remember that we were upgraded to a new location because the original one was under renovation - we saw it and its true: no windows and crawling with tradesmen.  We were excited about the heated outdoor pool in the new place. On day one, we got in our suits and made our way outside in the cold air...  only to discover that the pool was a measly 28 degrees!!  thats not heated enough for us - so only our feet got wet.  What a waste!

I have no more time to tell you about our mountain excusions yesterday and today, my time is almost up - for now I will say that they were our of this word. 
Teaser: we were over 3800m up and I almost fainted twice because of the thin atmosphere!! 

More later, bye for now...

19 September 2011

Switzerland 2011 - Day 1, 2, 3

Hello from Switzerland!

You might have seen from the updates on my Facebook page that the fun and games started right from the start. At the airport in Montreal, we were offered a 400$ voucher EACH if we would agree to switch from our KLM flight over to AirFrance. I was hesitant at first because it would arrive in Geneva over 2 hours later then planned and that would really eat into the day, but the 800$ discount on future airline tickets was hard to turn down!!  And since we already know that we are doing Paris next year, it was kind of a done deal!! 

So, Travel-Agent-Friend of mine, guess what I am going to ask of you as soon as I get home!!

Our hotel in Montreux is ok. Nothing great. We are comfortable but the bathroom is a bit moldy and this morning at 6AM there was no warm water for a shower.

If you have read previous blog posts, you know about our plans to have lunch at the rotating restaurant Kuklos.  We went yesterday... almost. We knew that rain would be in the forcast, but we decided to throw caution to the wind and go anyways.  It was cold and rainy and grey. 100% overcast, we would probablty not see a thing - but we were determined!!  What if the rain stops when we get up there!!! so, on we went. Freezing in a cog wheel train, gloomy weather, then a walk to the cable car station ... getting soaked, on and on we went, walking in the rain, wind, crappy umbrellas, underdressed - but we would not give up!!  We finaly got to the cable car....  CLOSED DUE TO BAD WEATHER.  Figures.

So we went back to plan A, got back on the train and went to Gryueres for lunch which was great. (it was 3PM by the time we arrived, so it was more of a 'lupper')

Its raining again today, we are killing some time in Geneva and then plan a lunch-cruise to Lausanne. Not the best weather for it, but whats the alternative? Maybe in Lausanne if the weather still sucks, we will visit the Olympic Museum.  It's supposed to clear up by this afternoon, and then they predict sunshine until at least Friday..

Tomorrow, its off to Chamonix!

Bye for now!