Alphorns

After our busy summer of travelling, we were looking forward to some down time in Geneva. We spent a few weeks getting back into the swing of work and Swiss life, and then had a nice break with the visit of Rosemary and Mike in early October!  They arrived on a Thursday morning, and while Mike immediately went to bed, and Travers went to work, Rosemary and I strolled through town, and I showed her all our favorite hang-outs.  With the jetlag, its always tough to do much on the first day arriving in Geneva, so we kept things mellow, taking an afternoon stroll to our favorite square, Place du Bourg-de-Four, then finished it off with a nice home-cooked meal.

The next day, we were up early and on a train to Lucerne. As one of the most romantic and beautiful cities of Switzerland, we decided it would be a good place to show them. We took the Golden Pass train, which took us along the scenic route through Montreux, Interlaken and finally Lucerne. Part of the ride, we were in a replica of a historic train, and another part we were in a panoramic car. It was a long ride, but worth it as we got to see a few different parts of Switzerland that we hadn't seen before.









We arrived in Lucerne in the evening, and checked into our hotel, the Waldstatterhof. A very modernly decorated hotel, it was a great location as it was near the train station, and near the ferry docks which we would be using the next day. We strolled through the town, having dinner at a brewery across the river. After such a long day of train riding, we called it an earlyish night, and decided to get an early start the next day.

Saturday, we really lucked out with the weather, and were able to take a trip up to the top of Mt. Pilatus. We did the golden round trip, which consists of a ferry, a cogwheel train, a gondola, and a cable car.  We took a boat from the center of Lucerne on an hour ride to the next town, then we boarded the cogwheel train and went up the mountain. This is the steepest cogwheel train in the world, and we were all excited to be taking it up to a beautiful mountain top.  The photo on the right shows two other trains behind us as we climbed up the mountain.

Once at the top, it was extremely windy, but we didn't let it stop us from taking in the views of the lake and towns below. After eating a quick lunch (quick because there was no indoor seating, so we froze as the winds blew our food everywhere while sitting outside), we had the pleasure of watching 7 men playing the Alphorn, a traditional Swiss horn that you've seen in Ricola commercials. It was amazing to hear each horn playing a different note, and how they all worked together. It was such a special moment to experience the music and the mountains together.  Once the music ended, we climbed the extra steps to the viewing platform, and viewed the city of Lucerne and the lake below.









Getting our fill, we then proceeded to take the large gondola back down the mountain, then hopped on a smaller cable car to take us back to Lucerne city center.  We had a beer and quick lunch at Mr. Pickwick's, one of our favorite bars, and then grabbed our bags from the hotel as we had a train to catch, heading to Zermatt!

The ride was long, but we relaxed and reflected on our quick day in Lucerne, and were excited when we arrived in Zermatt. We stayed at the Haus Darioli, which is located in the heart of town. Settling in and getting dressed up, we headed out to a delicious Italian dinner at Chalet de Giuseppe. Then hit the town to our favorite bar, GramPi's, and listened to the well-known and entertaining piano player sing all sorts of American classics.

The next day was unfortunately cloudy and then raining, which didn't really surprise Travers and I as it seems every time we go there, we get bad weather. We had one half day the first time we ever went to Zermatt of sunshine, but there were already clouds covering the top of the Matterhorn then, so out of the three times we've been, we have yet to see the peak. And this trip was no exception. We strolled for awhile through the town, showing Rosemary and Mike the river, and where one of the ski lifts was. Then once it started to rain, we had a late breakfast at the Brown Cow Pub.  Deciding that it was not in our fate to see the top of the Matterhorn, we decided to hit the road, and catch an earlier train back to Geneva.

While it was a quick 3 days on the road, we ended up doing a ton of things and showing Rosemary and Mike a lot of Switzerland.  The next few days of their trip were spent in Geneva, hanging out at the apartment, showing them more of our favorite places, and just spending time with each other. We had dinner one night at Brasserie Lipp, and spent another night at The Clubhouse having drinks and watching sports with our friends Mike and Shelley. It was a great week, but of course, went by way too fast. Everyone was sad to say goodbye, but we were so happy to finally be able to show them our life here in Geneva. Thanks for coming Rosemary and Mike!!