Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Germany Part III -- Lake Geneva (Switzerland) and Chamonix (France)
N: Here we are at Lake Geneva/Lac Leman at the border between Switzerland and France. Anna is behind Mama, and I am behind the camera!
N&A: Picturesque villages surrounded by vineyards; deep, clear lake with majestic mountain views -- almost heaven on earth, except that everything is very expensive, and nothing is open late or on Sundays. We loved it here, but wished we spoke a little (ok, a lot) more French...
N: Chateau de Chillon was just about the coolest thing I have ever seen. It's on an island just off shore, so the whole thing is surrounded by water (saving the Dukes of Savoy from paying for moat diggers).
N: Yes, this is what you think it is.
N: Enjoying the view from the keep. Mama learned the origin of two expressions on this visit. A "loophole" is a tiny little opening in the castle wall through which an archer can fire an arrow. "Pech" is hot tar, which is what you might have poured on you while laying siege to a castle. When things don't work out right, Germans say, "Pech gehabt".
N: Since the castle now has real indoor plumbing, we hopped into the lake for a swim. Check out the old bathrooms hanging out over the lake on the right side.
N&A: Here we are in out dorky hats in Chamonix, France. We rode one of many gondolas ("Seilbahn" in German) to this point, and then Mama and Anna went for a little hike while Papa and I took a chairlift up even higher and walked around.
N: Tada! Papa and I hiked to this lake from the top of the chairlift.
N&A: We were very happy to see each other when we met up again.
N: Here we are inside a glacier! Somebody thought it would be cool to build an ice cave, and, well, it was cool in there. But not as cool as it used to be. Back in the 80's when they built the gondola, it was only necessary to walk a short distance down to the glacier. Today there are 400 (steep!) stairs. If you want to see this glacier, get here soon...
N: In case you don't make it, here's what it looks like from above.
N: After all that gondola riding in Chamonix (and lusting after a plastic gondola in a toystore window), I suggested that we build one ourselves back in Ortenberg, and Opa was just the man for the job. The zucchini is a tree.
# posted by Brynne Harald Noah @ 9:41 PM 
