Sianara Switzerland

July 15, 2014

 

We are long gone from Switzerland as I said in my last post, but here are my final pictures from our whirl wind last days there.

 

The town of St. Moritz - just as expensive as expected, but I didn’t bump into any royalty like planned.

Omar and our youth hostel for the night in St. Moritz. A steal at only 50 Swiss Francs each for a bunk bed in a 6 person dorm.

 

We used our rail pass to ride the famous Glacier Express.  The train had gigantic windows, a bar train, and dining service all while we chugged along beautiful mountain scenery and through UNESCO areas.

 

Just an idea of what life was like on the train.

 

We finally made it to Zermatt, 7 hours later, just in time to see the Matterhorn emerge from the clouds over the town.

We visited the mountaineer’s cemetery, where about 50 souls who died climbing the Matterhorn and neighboring peaks now rest… when hoards of tourists aren’t cruising the cemetery to take photos.

 

Our main plan in Zermatt was to spend the day hiking in the Alps. 

 

Which was not hard to do.

 

We did have to stick to lower elevations though as there was plenty of snow - no surprise really with the year round skiing here just a cable car ride away.

 

We could have gone swimming in this Alpine lake but after dipping a toe in - no thank you!

 

We spent an afternoon in the Alpine Museum looking at how trekking equipment has changed over the years...

 

And learning about how the Matterhorn became famous after the first 4 people to ever summit the peak, died on the way down when this support rope broke.

 

Omar in front of the Red Cross Museum in Geneva.  I didn’t even know the Red Cross also uses a red crescent for some countries!

 

I learned how Red Cross used to catalog and look ok up soldiers or missing people for family members during previous wars.  It’s all done electronically now.

 

The only thing that could have made this picture better would have been if the tour was open that day!

 

A giant chair sculpture outside the UN to honor the disabled - from around the world I am guessing?!?!