"The Mountain" And Much More

The two main reasons for going to Zermatt are skiing and viewing the Matterhorn.  Well, we do not downhill ski, so I guess we went to see the Matterhorn.  There is still skiing this time of year.  In fact, there was a group from Sweden with skiers from 5 year-olds and up who were enjoying the snow this week.

We arrived in the late afternoon and checked into Schlosshotel, just about 2 blocks from the train station.  We had a very nice large room. When they built this addition to the hotel they incorporated decorations from previous buildings, including 200 year old beams and an ornate ceiling.

How would you like to wake up
looking up at this?

We walked around town, admiring all the beautiful flowers on the houses and seeing how much the town has grown since Darrell visited here 65 years ago.

Then we rounded a corner, and there it was -- The Matterhorn!





We had Wiener-schnitzel at a charming local restaurant before returning to our Hotel.







In the morning we rode the cog railway to the summit of Gornergrat for better views of the mountain ranges. There are several stops, but we went straight to the top to look around.  There was a lot more to see than just one mountain.

Dent Blanche (White Tooth Mountain)

This cube represents the amount of
plastic each person uses in a year.

One of several glaciers

There were several free telescopes which swiveled so you could see all the various mountains and glaciers.  When you saw each one, the name and height appeared in the telescope view.

We got off at the first stop to see the Matterhorn reflected in the lake.  Darrell rode on down, but I decided to walk to the next station.  The trail can be steep and rocky, but fortunately in the most rugged places there is an easier path around the spot.  I joined up with an "almost 80 year old" lady from Cologne, Germany, who hiked at about my speed.  She knew much more English that I knew German, but we managed to communicate quite well.

On the ride down the rest of the way I chatted with 3 people from Gloucester, England.  You meet such interesting people when you travel.  There was a Coop food store just a block away, so we bought lunch and supper there.  I even managed the self-checkout in German!

While we were walking, a helicopter landed at a station just below the horizon.  I thought that perhaps someone was injured and needed to be carried out.  As we approached, we saw the chopper lowering construction materials.









It was time to leave and say good-bye to our friend "Wolli."





















On our final morning in Zermatt, this was our farewell view of the Matterhorn.

Our First Bus Ride

They call this a "river cruise" but the extension we are taking includes some other means of travel, too.  We left Geneva, traveling by bus along the western side of Lake Geneva.  Our first stop was the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, home of the International Olympic Committee.  After a few minutes scanning souvenirs from Olympic Games, we saw a history of the Ancient Olympics.  Each time the games were held in ancient Greece, all fighting ceased.  How nice if that could happen today! 




There were 3 floors of exhibits, with everything from how the games were planned to costumes for various sports, examples of medals (they have gotten bigger over the years), mascots and housing for the athletes.  In another area you could choose any Olympic year and find out about where the games were held and any outstanding events taking place.  The last floor even had "games" so you could see some of the skills needed by the athletes.  There were several where you had to stand on a platform, hands on hips, and tilt the board you were standing on to get a marble sized ball along a given route or across a specific spot in the shortest time.  I did not do very well!  Several school groups were there enjoying all the interactive exhibits like racing on a mini-track. 






At the entrance the walkway was painted into 5 lanes representing the 5 Olympic rings, such things as Excellence, Friendship, and Respect.  The fifth ring was for Peace.  It is a sad commentary on our world today that, as the road narrowed from 5 lanes to 4, the lane that ended was "Peace."




Our guides kept up a running commentary on the site and places we passed through until we got to a World Hermitage Site, the Lavaux Vineyards.  Here we toured this mall winery and tasted 4 different glasses of wine.  Fortunately, they also provided a light lunch to go with the wine. 

White wine is aged in huge barrels.

White grapes are pressed and only the juice is fermented.  Red grapes are fermented in barrels, then the wine is pressed from them.  These wines age in smaller oak barrels.  Some of the barrels had the ends fastened on with strips of wood, something we had never seen before.

Wood strips on the ends of some barrels

When we left there, the guides were quiet so we could take naps.


This is actually a warm part of Switzerland, growing different fruits and grains in addition to the many vineyards.  One area was so warm that cactus grew!

As we neared the southern border of Switzerland, the mountains grew in height and the road went through small villages until we reached Tasch where we boarded our cog rail train for Zermatt.

The Center of Many Things

Geneva is headquarters for the International Red Cross, the European headquarters for the United Nations and scores of other international programs as well as hundreds of NGO's (Non-government organizations.  Some of the NGO's actually have offices here; others simply use Geneva as a mailing address for its prestige.  The United Nations alone has over 7000 meetings a year.  About 30% of the residents of Geneva are not Swiss citizens.  Either they work for these organizations or just like the area and have homes here on or above the lake.  The actual lake does not belong to any one person, so there are no "Private" beaches.  In fact there are not too many people who face the challenge of swimming in water fresh off a melting glacier.  The Rhone River starts just above Geneva and flows through Lac Lamon (Lake Geneva) before turning south.

Farel, Calvin, Beze and Knox on the "Reformation Wall"

One name for Geneva is The Protestant Rome.  Luther was in Germany, but Calvin and Knox were from Switzerland.  The activities of Calvin, whose followers preferred to be called "reformers" rather than "Calvinists,"  led to the Swiss Reformed Church and, I believe, Methodists.  Knox left for England, then Scotland, where he was instrumental in forming the Presbyterian Church.










It was in Geneva that the Cantons in Switzerland, formerly individual states, became the Swiss Federation or the Country of Switzerland.

Murals outside city Hall (Hotel de Ville) show the history of
Geneva and canons used to defend the city in the Middle Ages.

When the ship, The Alabama, an unarmed merchant ship, was attacked during the American Civil War, the owners, builders and governments involved came to Geneva to settle their differences and establish international rule for some aspects of modern warfare such as not attacking unarmed ships (though they may blockade them) and how to deal with prisoners of war.  Have you ever heard of the Geneva Conventions?

The caption lists the men who formed the
International Committee of the Red Cross

It was Henry Dunant, a gentleman from Geneva, who was so appalled by wounded men left on a battlefield to die that he persuaded the opposing force to allow the wounded to be removed for treatment.  When he returned to Geneva, he met with 4 other men, including a legislator, a doctor who had served in the war and a general to discuss the situation.  The Red Cross came out of that meeting.  The Swiss flag is only one of 2 square national flags in the world, and it has a white cross on a red background.  (They say it has nothing to do with religion -- that is the shape of a lake in Switzerland.)  The group chose to reverse the colors, so the Red Cross flag is a red cross on a white field.  Muslims saw it as a Christian symbol, so formed the Red Crescent Society with the same aims, but a red crescent instead of a cross.

The steeple and bell tower of St. Peter Cathedral

St. Peter's Cathedral, built on the ruins of a pagan worship site, was an ornate Roman Catholic church, but during the reformation most of the interior decorations were removed.  Only one small room, the Chamber of the Maccabees, retains the ornate decorations.

St. Peter's Cathedral 

Even the floor of the Chamber of the
Maccabees is ornate.

From Darkness Came Light
(The slogan of Geneva)

We think of a carousal as an entertainment for children, but its original use was quite different.  When tournaments were held to test the quality of knights, many knights were injured or killed in the jousting event.  In order to have a safer event, horses were placed on a revolving platform.  Knights mounted the horses and used their lances to spear rings instead of other knights.  The tourney winner was the one with the most rings on his lance.




Geneva has one other symbol beside the fountain in the lake.  It had the first, and at one time largest,  "flower clock" with a second hand over 6 feet long.  The flowers are changed according to the season.  Many other cities now have similar flower clocks, but Geneva had the first.

Off to Switzerland (and Beyond)

We have arrived!  After about 24 hours of flying/airport time our plane landed safely in Geneva, Switzerland.  The flight from Minneapolis to Washington Dullas airport was uneventful.  The crew on the overnight flight to Geneva was truly international.  Jean Phillippe was French, Julianna was from Cambridge, England, Sven was from Sweden and Annie was an American.  The seats reclined to an almost horizontal setting, the food was good and we had a reasonable smooth flight.  The only problem was that I had trouble getting to sleep.

A table made of logs decorates the lobby

Our hotel is the InterContinental, near the Red Cross Museum.  Both of us took naps, and now we are going out for lunch and some exploring. The first thing scheduled for us is a group 

meeting tonight.  Tours start tomorrow.

Along with our room we each got a bus pass for the days we are here in Geneva, so we took the bus downtown to look around.  All the buses are "articulated" so they can go around corners better.  There are also streetcars powered by overhead lines and running on tracks.  Some of them have up to 5 sections!

This streetcar has 5 sections with an accordion-like
section between each section

 There is a mixture of old and new buildings with a lot of "green space," small parks even in the heavily built up areas.  They even have green couches at the bus stop.  However, some of the users of these do not hesitate to pollute the atmosphere.

One building had a design on the side.  I suspect it lights up at night.  Notice all the motor bikes parked there.It seems strange to see men in suits carrying briefcases going down the sidewalk on scooters like we used as kids.

This tall fountain in the lake on the Rhone River has become the symbol of the city.