Switzer-FUN!

Welcome to Switzerland, folks! The Hotchies have been on the road (or tracks) for the past week exploring the beautiful Swiss terrain. We hopped on a train in Nice last Sunday and proceeded to Geneva, then to Interlaken/Wengen, then to Lucerne, then to Chur (who knew it's the oldest city in Switzerland...and adequately charming) via beautiful scenic swiss trains zipping us over massive mountains and through winding, un-passable passes (by car that is). Over the course of our journey we were lead to the unanimous conclusion that Switzerland is unparalleled in beauty and purity far surpassing the majesty of any countryside or ocean view previously experienced. From Switzerland, we chugged on down the the Italian lake region and spent 2 lovely nights in the wonderful city of Bellagio! At this point we are wondering, how much beauty can two folks adequately absorb?! Lake Como (on which Bellagio is located) was a continuation of the Swiss breathtaking scenery BUT in the context of a quaint Italian village. Back to the land of wine and gelato! It is not going to be possible for me to successfully describe all that we have seen and done in one single post, so I will attempt somewhat of a photo-tour through our travels....these are HIGHLY condensed as we could hardly keep our hands of the camera trigger so we will be posting them, in full, online for your viewing pleasure at a later time. For now... 

Here we go!

En route from Geneva to Interlaken on the "Golden Pass" Railway. This is one of the more highly acclaimed scenic routes on the Swiss rail system and was our favorite of them all. Note the shade of the water! Do you still call that "blue?" 

Lush, green rolling hills into majestic snow-capped mountains...that's what we got on the Golden Pass Railway! Picture above is a great example of the majesty of the land when you compare the size of the village and houses to its surrounding. 

Our first adventure off the railway into the city of Montreux.

  

Our first night in Switzerland!! Our necks seemed to have gotten lost amidst the scarves... We got to experience the area just outside of Interlaken (Berner Oberland) in the village of Wengen. The photo at the top of this post was taken atop the Jungfrou. The Jungfrou is the "top of Europe" as they call it, meaning the tallest mountain in Europe. From Wengen, it was about a ten minute ride up the mountainside to this icy peak! Wengen was a fabulous introduction to Switzerland! 

Moving right along...After our night in Wengen, we boarded the train to Lucerne continuing on our Golden Pass Line. We took a cable car up Mt. Pilatus (another famous Swiss peak) for additional breathtaking views. 

The Hotchies at a pub with the famed Chapel Bridge as our background.

Now en route to Lake Como via the "Glacier Express" railway this time! No more Golden Pass...For some strange reason we were uncontrollably compelled to take a photo of every single church we saw nestled in a grassy hill...and there were quite a few! I'm not sure why we continued to be surprised. Here is one of the many and my personal favorite (above).

Not that this couldn't pass for a church also! We were in awe of the continual display of God's beauty and the work of His hands. How unfathomably enormous is that?! John did a great job capturing the magnificence of the size scale in this shot with the sailboat next to the mountain. Autumn is a fantastic choice for European travel, by the way. I'm not sure if these photos are doing it justice, but the array of fall colors on the turning trees was just another element of the stunning beauty! 

John at Lake Como. We did our obligatory Italian duty of learning about/experiencing the regional wines in full. With a sweet, Italian wine shop owner as our guide, we selected a culturally fitting bottle for a lovely, lakeside evening. John got to relax post-extensive conference call (thank goodness for wifi! even in tiny italian villages) in true Italian style. Need I note that this background is REAL? 

Lake Como/Bellagio continued. These boats run back and forth across the lake so you can get a taste of all the lovely lakeside villages lining the shore. Extremely picturesque!

En route back to France, we had a bit of a mishap in Milan....It seems the Italian train system is not overly concerned with punctuality as every train we boarded was late and continued to be further and further behind schedule as we traveled. Needless to say, we missed our train to France from Milan. No sweat! We took advantage of our few hours there in Milan to do some window shopping and see some sights. For example, the Duomo above. Incredible!!

And that's it folks! We are now back in Villefranche moving along about our usual, much less than tedious business of grocery shopping and conference calls. Peace...