We headed off early this morning to go to Chamonix (France) as Steve wanted to go up in the cable car to get a good view of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe. To top it off, the cable car has the longest span in the world as well. After driving all the way there and turning up to get our pre-booked (but not paid for) tickets, we were told that it was too windy for the cable car to operate. They said they would know more at 11 but it didn't look likely that the weather would change. So that explained the number of people just sitting around. We decided to have morning tea there and then head on over to Aosta (Italy) to have a look at the old town rather than sit around hoping the weather might change. We weren't really sure where anything was in Aosta as it hadn't originally been on our plans, but we managed to find the parking and started wandering in what we thought might be the direction of the Roman ruins. They were actually scattered around the town - or perhaps I should say the town was around them. By chance we came across the mall area where the older parts of the city were and found a restaurant down an alleyway that looked nice. Very high-tech way of deciding where to eat. We had a bit of a wander around, finally found the tourist office (if we'd gone left instead of right when we parked the car ...) and went in search of the other pieces of Roman architecture. After leaving Aosta we travelled back home via the Grand Saint Bernard pass. This is where the monastery is, and where the St Bernard dogs were used to help rescue travellers. It was quite an interesting drive as the road had only been opened after the winter snows. Even more interesting were some of the road markings on the Switzerland side (towards the end of the photos!)
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Today we walked down into the town, got some information from the tourist office and had a quick look through the shops before they shut for lunch. After our lunch we walked along a couple of the Bisses that are around here. They are old irrigation systems that were established to harness the water coming down from the ice fields to use to irrigate their crops during the summer months. Quite a lot of them are still in use. A couple of the older ones are from the 1400s on the other side of the town, while the ones we walked along were from the 1800s. It was lovely to get out into the trees and meadows again as a change from the high altitude walking from the day before. The cows are now being let out into their summer pastures and you can hear the clang of cow bells from quite a distance away. Yes, they do have enormous bells around their necks as you can see in the photos of 'Bessie'. This was probably a three hour walk and quite a relaxed easy one for the afternoon. Today saw us up and about early as we wanted to visit the Altesch Glacier, which involved about a 90 minute drive to get to Friesch. We then took a serious cable car ride to get to Fiescheralp at an altitude of 2212m and then onto Eggishorn at 2869m. From there we had panoramic views towards the Eiger, Jungsfrau (4154m) as well as the Matterhorn. The Grosser Aletschgletscher was pretty spectacular. On the other side the Fiesherbletscher glacier could also be seen. From there we took the cable car back to Fieschalp and walked across to Bettmeralp to catch the gondola up to the next viewpoint at Bettmerhorn (2647m). Now that was a long steep ride! These are photos of the villages and the walk as well as views from the top. The next leg was another hike to Riederalp and took a chairlift to Hohfluh (2227m). Not as much snow at the top and just slightly different perspectives on the mountains and glacier. From here it was two cable car trips to get down to Morel and then we caught the train back to Fiesch to drive back home again. A long day but a good one!
After such a long day yesterday we decided on a stay at home today to relax, read and catch up on some sleep. We headed out around lunchtime to get some groceries but discovered that all the supermarkets here are closed on Sunday. After having a look at Trip Advisor we went to locate the restaurant they recommended. It was open! And would be for dinner as well! We spoke to the owner who said that they cook fresh produce so didn't have a set menu. After explaining that we were vegetarians he said that wasn't a problem and that he would cook something for us. How wonderful and obliging. And it was lovely - and the first time he had made that recipe :-) Here are a few photos of around Haute Nendaz. We were up early this morning to drive from Bad Aussee across to Switzerland - a good nine hour drive. We stopped at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial - a very sobering visit. I took a lot of photos of the exhibits which detailed the events coupled with photos which occurred during that time. It is a story which should never be forgotten. We spent about two and a half hours reading and looking through the site and I still didn't read everything fully. From Dachau it was a long journey along motorways so not really a lot of interesting countryside to see. As we got to Lake Geneva we started getting some more views of where we were headed. The alps started to show in the distance and we began leaving the worst of the traffic behind, although it never completely stopped. Switzerland is a lot more built up than what I expected, and there were towns all the way up the hillsides. For anyone who though our driveway in Cairns was scary - it was nothing compared to these roads, let alone the driveways into the houses perched on the hillsides. Such a beautiful spot. It almost felt like a step back to a more relaxed way of life. Many of the locals wear typical Austrian clothes. At first we thought they may have been people working in the shops, but no, they have kept a lot of the culture alive. These are just some photos of Bad Aussee taken on our last day. I have more (surprise!) but haven't really spent much time choosing the best ones to put up. Not exactly sure what I'm going to do with all these photos. Maybe this time I will actually sit down and create a book. The area around Bad Aussee is known as the lakes district and there are certainly a large number of lakes to walk around. The walk we did today was around Lake Groundlesee. Well we walked along one side of it and then up to a much smaller lake to Fischerhutte as it was the only sign we could see for somewhere to eat for lunch. All up about a two hour walk. All this area is just so picturesque. Loving forests and creeks I don't think I would ever tire of the views around here. Fischerhutte for lunch. Situated on lakeside. Freshly cooked fish for lunch - devine! Caught in the bigger lake. After a relaxing lunch we walked back down to the small village and caught the local bus back to our car. I am so far behind in this blog! Never mind, I'll get through all the days eventually. We actually arrived in Haute Nendaz, Switzerland last night and have just had a day of really doing not a lot, which even included not playing on the laptop doing my photos. At the moment it's 9:40pm and it's just starting to think about getting dark. So, June 13 saw us do a walk around another lake near Bad Aussee in the morning. It was a stunningly beautiful clear day so we stopped at quite a few viewpoints for photos but I haven't really gone through all of those yet. I think I'll just do a gallery of my favourites once we get back home. Here are some of the lake views. This is Lake Altausee (I think). In the afternoon we headed off to Salzburg mainly to go to a concert there, but also to do a quick wander through the old part of the city. I must admit it was just a bit too touristy and didn't have the same feel as some of the smaller places we've visited. It was good to see the gardens where Do Re Mi was filmed :-) And the concert was held in the same room where Mozart performed with his father and brother and it's basically as it was in Mozart's time. Today we woke to a rather bleak, overcast day. Just perfect weather for heading into the mountains to go for a hike :-) We travelled to Gossau Lake, bought our tickets for the Gosaukammbahn (cable car) up to Swieselaulm to do some of the walks. However, just before the next leaving time it started to rain so we had a coffee with the thought that we would do the walk around the lake first and wait until the weather cleared - one never knows when the weather will change in the mountains. By the time we finished our coffee the rain had lifted and we headed on up. Silly me thought that it wouldn't involve a lot of uphill walking - wrong!!! I must admit to groaning as we walked out and were immediately confronted with a hill! Unfortunately we couldn't get very far along as there was still ice cover over some of the track and we weren't geared up for that sort of climbing. It was amazing how quickly the weather changed. It would be blue skies on one side and on the opposite side it would be dark rolling clouds. We managed to get a good walk around in and just as we were headed back down the weather really packed it in. The subtitles to the photos only show up if you let the photos run as a slide show. After we came down we were undecided as to whether to do the walk around the lake as it was still raining but we decided that we were there anyway, so we might as well. I'm really glad we did as the weather cleared up and by the end it was sunny, blue skies again. A long day of walking, but some seriously beautiful scenery. (no subtitles on these photos) Steve's birthday. Today saw us heading off for a 'walk' around the Hallstatt Lake. Once we worked out where we could actually park we were on our way. The first part of the walk was through a couple of small villages before heading up into the hills. It was a quiet picturesque walk with a gradual uphill - until we came to the stairs. Then it was a good slog uphill for awhile. The views at the top were wonderful. We had a quick break and lunch there overlooking the lake. We had planned on taking the funicular down but it appeared that one could only buy return tickets from the bottom of the ride. Back to the track to walk down into Hallstatt. Thankfully it was downhill. Hallstatt. Just gorgeous! And the prompt for today: Two
I couldn't resist when I saw this pair relaxing on the bank of the lake, sunning themselves and eating. |
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