The Alps mountain range
extends 750 miles across Europe cutting through 8 countries, so it is easy to
visit the Alps in many places and in various countries. My first Swiss Alps
visit took me to more populated places/cities, still typically Swiss and
absolutely gorgeous. The scenery is spectacular everywhere.
My first mountain was the
Strasserhorn where I have vivid memories of enjoying a good cup of coffee on
the top outside patio while listening to the cow bell serenade in the alpine valley below. But on
the next trip, my first hiking trip, I found the hiking relatively easy as we
rode gondolas, cog trains and other conveyances up, up, up, then walked down
over wide well packed earthen paths. The pace was casual and you could walk and
savor the scenery at the same time.
My second mountain was Mt Pilatus.
We had nice views as the cog train chugged along taking us to the top, but as
we climbed the clouds thickened and when we reached the top we could see nada!
The agenda had called for us to eat lunch as we hiked back down to
civilization. None of us wanted to eat our sack lunches in the rain, nor was
the empty foyer at the top any more inviting. Our guide, who seemed to know
everyone in the country, talked the manager of the empty restaurant into
letting us eat in comfort inside. We all bought a hot drink and soup as a way
of saying thank you. Afterward we did hike down, but the thick canopy kept the
path from being really slippery and us from getting really wet. Singing in the
rain!
After several other mountains, the
last one required riding three gondolas,
the last the only rotating gondola in the world, the Rotair—the floor inside rotates 360 degrees as you pop up out of
the clouds. At 10,627’ we played on Mt. Titlis, a slippery glacier. It was
warmer than expected and the thin fine mist did not obstruct either our view or
enthusiasm in any way.
I was familiar with Italian
Switzerland, but was completely off balance when I found French in Villars,
Switzerland on my last trip and second hiking trip. This was the start of my
adventures in the Mont Blanc area of the Alps. The scenery in the area was
stunning. Because of a late spring we found snow in Switzerland. A couple of
days we hiked in snow and slush. With the warm temperatures, the snow melted
rapidly. What a delight to see a patch of crocuses in bloom next to a good size
snow patch! Everywhere in this part of
the world we were able to fill our water bottles from community pipes dripping
water into large concrete vessels. Cool, fresh and such good tasting!
As we moved down into Italy and
France we found ourselves hiking on narrow cow or goat paths in single file. It
also meant watching your every step as the paths were littered with rocks of
all sizes from small to boulders and many many tree roots. To enjoy the scenery
it was necessary to stop to avoid stubbing a toe and perhaps falling. There was
little level walking--although it wasn’t straight up too often, it was one pretty good
undulation after another. It is good to know that the European translation of a
walk is a hike for us; a hike for them is a trek for us Americans.
Gondolas were lacking in Italy and
the only one in France was up to Mont Blanc. It was a gorgeous clear sunny day in
Chamonix the day we chose to do Mont Blanc. It was spectacular!
This trip was to small villages,
seldom on American agendas. French and Italian were the norm with English,
except in Chamonix, pretty scarce. The people were friendly, shopping was
limited, hotels were great, the food good, perhaps a little less cosmopolitan
and a little more regional than in the past. It was a different but wonder experience
and two weeks!
Except for being unseasonably warm,
the weather was fine and the scenery defies description. It is simply
spectacularly gorgeous.
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