Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Mini Tour de Swiss - A Story of Pictures

Arrival in Grindelwald on our way to Bort.
Lois and Melinda
The Schoutens Blog, famous Berghaus Bort photo...
It was overcast, but we headed for the lake (Bachalpsee) anyway...
It actually was raining good and pretty windy, so we stopped here and headed back... (For a picture of the actual lake, refer to Post #53
Back at the Bort, we had great views of the numerous glaciers...
Wetterhorn
Group photo
You could look at the Alps all day long...
Then we went river rafting... Just Kidding, we saw this group from the train
Panoramic on our way to the lake (Bachalpsee)
Arrival in Spiez. (sounds like shh-pee-ehtz)
The castle, a nice view from our hotel window (good choice Melinda)
The lake was wonderful...
Near the castle, a church...
Near the church and the castle, some nice gardens...
With lots and lots of nice flowers...
And another garden where a wedding reception was wrapping up...
Same Castle, Another angle...
Good thing they are close to shore (and it's a lake)...
Nice Sunset...
An evening walk through the vineyards where Riesling and Sylvaner are grown...
The next morning, perfect blue skies!
Panorama of the lake...
Panorama above our hotel looking at the harbor...
Arrival in Luzern...
A view of the lake...
Lois and Melinda
The famous bridge...
And then a boat trip across the lake to Vitznau, we saw some nice houses...
Did we see this same boat in Spiez? (the lakes are not connected, I think)
Then from Vitznau, we took a funicular up to the top of Mt. Rigi...
This kid's mom convinced the driver to let him ride in the front seat, she then got off at an unscheduled stop infront of the farm...
Still going up...
And finally we get there... the weather looked ominous...
But it seemed to be holding off...
This fence is here to keep the cliff out of the field...
In the distance, thunderheads...
and the sun began it's inevitable daily decent...
The colors were fantastic...
Trying to get that "National Geographic" winning shot...
Nice!
The next day we were in the clouds with rain, but that doesn't stop the swiss... What better way to cap off a Swiss Tour than with chorus of Alphorns? The silver swiss cows loved the music, and continued to eat in the rain...
And who says cows don't eat wet grass?
Pick a train, any train...
We took the red up, and the blue down...
Wait for me, don't leave...
Sunset Panorama at the top of Mt. Rigi...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Mom Is In Town

Mom arrived on the 27th of June.
The time is going quickly - a total of three weeks feels more like one.
Since here arrival we have been to the following places:
Zurich - twice
Neuchatel - twice
Flims
Rheinfelden - Swiss and German Side
Basel...of course
And now we are off to:
Grindelwald
Spiez - The Thunersee
Luzern
Mt. Rigi


Story book cute Colmar, France
Cathedral in Colmar
Colmar, France
Colmar, France (Don't mind the muddy river - we had lots of rain)
Colmar, France - Little Venice


Basel at Sunset
Zurich - Right before Ironman
Mom and Mary in Colmar


Rheinfelden, CH
Storks in Rheinfelden...You have got to love this town!
Euro Bike in Rheinfelden


Lake Cauma in Flims...Amazing Colors!
Lake in Flims
Robert and Melinda at the Lake


Flims Village
Can you tell we loved the lake?
Wanderweg


Church in Flims
Melinda and Mom in Flims
Bike Race in Flims...we love stumbling across these things!

Lake Cauma from above

A view from our room towards Flims Dorf