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Panographic View of the Matterhorn, Zermatt, Switzerland.
Our good friends Bob Lois Means suggested that we do a ski trip to Europe. The plan was to head to a place called Zermatt. I did not know, but Zermatt is at the base of the Matterhorn, arguably the most famous mountain in Europe. After Zermatt, we would go to Lausanne to see some of Bob's ex-work mates and from there Paris. It was an outstanding trip in nearly ever respect except the conveyences. Air travel, particularly intercontinental air travel is an assault on the senses. And there is no escape. It took us nearly 30 hours of clock time to get from San Diego, CA (our starting place) to our initial destination of Zermatt. San Diego to San Francisco, to Paris, to Geneva, then on a bus for 4 hours to a railway station. Then onto a cog railroad and into Zermatt. Quite a brow beating. But it was worth it as the photos below will attest.
Our trip to Europe was almost 2 weeks long. We went to Switzerland and then back home through Lausanne and Paris. Along the way we would get to see the Tokamak fusion reactor at the Swiss Polytechnic as Bob used to work there and the lab director is a personal friend of his. A very cool trip. The weather was as good as one could expect at this time of year. In fact, the weather the first few days in Switzerland was stellar. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe was getting heavy rain that would cause flooding. We did get bad weather several days in Zermatt, but we skiied anyway.
Day | Date | Adventure |
---|---|---|
1
|
2/14/1999
|
Skiing in Zermatt |
2
|
2/15/1999
|
A ski-over to Italy |
3
|
2/16/1999
|
A cold day skiing at the Matterhorn |
4
|
2/17/1999
|
A stormy day on the Gornergrat Express |
5
|
2/18/1999
|
A down-day due to snow |
6
|
2/19/1999
|
More skiing at Zermatt |
7
|
2/20/1999
|
Travel to Lausanne |
8
|
2/21/1999
|
Aborted ski day at the cabin |
9
|
2/22/1999
|
Castle Chillon |
10
|
2/22/1999
|
The Tokamak Reactor |
11
|
2/23/1999
|
Exploring Lausanne |
12
|
2/25/1999
|
Paris Day 1: the Louvre |
13
|
2/26/1999
|
Paris Day 2: the Eiffel Tower |
Planning ahead always helps. And, one of the best parts of this trip was that both Bob and Lois had been here before, thereby relieving most of the stress associated with planning travel to strange lands. Clearly, check the State Department's travel advisories to see if anything funky is going down. France is a mainstream country, it has the tourist thing down pat. Bring your Gold Card however, as it will likely be expensive.
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Copyright Bill Caid 1999