Slow Europe

After two long days of travel last Thursday and Friday, we got home to Santa Fe on Friday evening. We are getting caught up on work, caught up on some things around that house that need fixing (we got some type of power surge during a thunder storm and it knocked out our phones, DSL and some electricity in the house), adjusting to the time change, and adjusting to the higher altitude.

Most towns in Switzerland are below 5,000 feet, but Santa Fe is at 7,000 feet. After all that great exercise in Switzerland, I come home to Santa Fe and feel like I am out of breath after five minutes walking!!

We are sticking to the original plan. Leaving Switzerland tomorrow evening, overnight near Gatwick, home on Friday. I thought the cottage we had originally booked was available for the next two weeks (except for a few days when we would move to one of their other cottages), but some last minute bookings had been made. I figured no one would be booking in the Cotswolds after all that flooding - but I was wrong.

Rural Retreats had a few other cottages available, but none was what we wanted (too large or not in the right area or no phone/internet/cell reception). I did some quick searching, but realized we had left it too late to get everything organized. We would have had to book today and changed our flights tonight.

» Read the rest of this entry

We are scheduled to fly from Geneva to Gatwick on Thursday evening, spend the night, fly home on Friday. Today I thought to myself - why are we going home? I checked the Stroud newspaper (in the Cotswolds) and it looks like all is back to normal. Everyone has water and it is now drinkable (just announced today).

We are thinking we might spend a week or two in England. We could fly to England on Thursday, but change our return flight from England so that we could have a week or two in the (now dry) Cotswolds!! I checked the weather and the next two weeks look good in the Cotswolds - temperatures in the high 60s, low 70s, rain on two days. The Switzerland forcast calls for more rain.

We’re going to sleep on it and decide tomorrow morning.

Monday August 6, walked up to Eggli (2.5 hours uphill), then back down on another route. Over 4 hours. Hot day and sunny. 1050m to 1550m

Today we did the same hike we did four weeks ago, when we were staying in Leysin - Walking from Horneggli to Rinderberg. It was almost the same - a sunny, warm Sunday with lots of people on the trail. This time I did not have the video camera and only took a few snapshots - so the hike went much faster. An easy two hours and a bit, with a stop for lunch at the start of the hike.

The cost for the mountains rides (a chairlift and a gondola), plus the train is 49.50SFr each, but we had our Easy Access pass, which cost 44.00SFr for 4 days - so the cost of today’s hike paid for the four day pass. I had suggested that we ride every gondola up and down today, to get full use of the pass, but that idea was shot down. :)

» Read the rest of this entry

Everything seems to speed up at the end of a trip. At the beginning, when I emerge from jetlag and start to feel human, the whole trip stretches out in front of me. I write my journal, I write in the blog, I organize the day’s photos. I can keep this up for a few weeks. Then things speed up, the photos are not so organized and I start to write in point form.

Another wonderful day! Do you know the South Park episode where Cartmen gets a lot of money and buys an amusement park? He is standing there in the park and says “I am so happy”. Well that is us. Switzerland is the amusement park, but, unlike Cartman, we are sharing the park. However, some days it does feel like you have it all to yourself. Switzerland is not crowded. The buses are hardly every full, you wait in very short lines for gondolas if there is a line at all, there is always a table available in the restaurant and the even serve all afternoon (past the normal 2pm cutoff) in the hiking areas, you can always find a parking space.

» Read the rest of this entry

On Wednesday we did a very easy hike. After lunch, we drove up to Gsteig (15 minute drive), then drove another 5 minutes to the Sanetsch gondola. We had not been on this mountain ride before. The gondola holds eight people and takes ten minutes to go to the top. As with most gondolas, as one goes up, the other goes down. They pass in the middle. We were the only ones on the gondola.

I am afraid of heights. I always have been. But I can ride the gondolas and chairlifts in Switzerland and not be terrified. Possible reasons: Most of them don’t go that far above the ground; you are enclosed so can’t fall out; I trust everything made by the Swiss. But on the Sanetsch gondola I was terrified. The little gondola starts out up a steep valley, then goes straight at a rock face, just missing it by a few feet as it goes over the top of it. The elevation change is 800 meters, from 1200 to 2000 meters, similar to the gain on the ride in Leysin. Both Steve and I stumbled off the Gondola gasping.

Sanetsch Gondola from Gsteig to the Valais Alps

The Sanetsch gondola takes you right up to the alpine area in mountains that we look at every day from our balcony - the rocky ones at the south end of the valley, behind Gsteig. There is a cluster of old weather-beaten buildings, including a good looking restaurant, and a good sized lake - Sanetschsee or Lac du Senin. There were a lot of people out and about and we started to think this was a big mistake coming up here late in the day on the Swiss National Holiday. But then we saw all the cars.

» Read the rest of this entry