I’m running out of words to describe “stunning views”, and today’s blog entry is going to test it even further!

We ate breakfast overlooking Walensee, with incredibly helpful waitresses, who were mortified when I just wanted hot water instead of coffee (I’ve brought my own tea bags with me!) and desperate to get us a parasol, even though we were just happy to be sitting in the sun.

By shortly after 10, we were on the motorway.  Tom had accidentally dropped his camera last night while watching a beautiful sunset, and it had died a death.  He’d done some research online and found a place just west of Zurich where they had the new model in stock at a good price.  The drive today wasn’t long, and the shop wasn’t too far out of our way, so we made a detour.  I think we were both slightly concerned when we pulled up, as it just seemed to be a big warehouse on an industrial estate, but it turned out to be a bit like an Argos, and Tom was soon back in the car, with a brand new camera putting a smile on his face.  It made life easier for me too, as taking photos out of the car window with my SLR is a bit cumbersome!

We headed back south, deciding to have lunch once we arrived in Lauterbrunnen.  The landscape around Zurich was much more rolling hills than the towering mountains we’d become accustomed to, but beautiful, green and luscious all the same.  The drive was then a lot of motorway, so I took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep while I had the chance; the bells at the local church in Walensee were ridiculously loud and rang every 15 minutes from 6am (including continuous ringing for about 5 minutes when they first began!), so I was a bit tired.

It didn’t take long for the motorways to revert back into typically smooth Swiss A-roads, winding their way past unbelievably turquoise lakes and over rocky mountains.  Eventually, we turned down the Lauterbrunnen valley and the views of Jungfrau wowed us right from the beginning.  The view down the valley is dominated by this rocky monster of a mountain, as well as the famous Eiger.

We parked up in Lauterbrunnen and headed first for the impressive waterfall that was flinging itself off the cliff.  We found a route that promised to take us up to the waterfall itself, and climbed the steep path, scary steps and rocky tunnels with excitement (despite my fear of heights).  Unfortunately, when we reached the end, the falls were nowhere to be found!  We presume that in the spring, autumn and winter months, the water tumbles in front of the viewing spot, which must be quite some sight, but with the warm summer, there was just not enough water for it to come close enough.  Luckily, the views back down into the valley were worth the hike and it was nice to stretch our legs after a morning in the car.

Next we wandered up into the town in search of ice cream, forgetting the place is more famous and busy as a ski village than a summer holiday destination (some of the cafes had animal fur drapes over their seats – most amusing in temperatures close to 30^o!).  We did find a lovely wine and cheese shop though, where we bought Swiss wine and cheese, and even a couple of almond Magnums 🙂

Walking back to the car, we enjoyed the atmosphere of the town, which was especially buoyant today due to a half marathon that was running through it.  More about this later.

With the MR2 safely parked up in the multi-storey at the railway station, we gathered our newly packed bags (we knew we’d need to be selective about what to take to tonight’s hotel, which will make sense shortly) and headed for the cable car that would take us some of the way to Mürren!

Neither Tom nor I are particularly good with heights, but apart from the odd moment when the cable car swayed quite violently, the journey up the mountain was really rather spectacular, if over all too quickly.  Typical Swiss accuracy meant that the train to Mürren met us at the top, and we set off on the most thrilling train ride of our lives, climbing along the edge of the mountain and affording amazing views both up and down the mountains across the valley.

Our hotel was just a short walk from the station in Mürren and was just as astounding as we’d hoped.  It was a bit of a find and a bargain, as the hotel administrator had accidentally missed a one off the beginning of the price when he submitted it to booking.com, meaning that we are paying 100 CHF less than we should be!  I suspect that we were lucky enough to be the first people of book it as this price, and that the mistake was then corrected, as our luck was mentioned to us both in an email and yet again when we checked in!  The hotel has rooms both facing out across the valley and into the town, so we’d had our fingers crossed for one with a view.  As soon as we opened the door to our bedroom, we knew we’d been lucky again!  The balcony offers the most unbelievably stunning, jaw-dropping, astounding, beautiful views of anywhere either of us have ever stayed.  We just cannot believe how epic this holiday is and feel so fortunate to be experiencing it.

We treated ourselves to a beer on the terrace of the hotel (we did consider buying dinner here too, until we saw the prices – 16 CHF for spaghetti and tomato sauce!), before a potter round town.  It was at this point that we realised that we’d been too busy gawping to remember to eat lunch!  Ah well, we’d just have to make up for it at dinner time.

We were amazed to see the runners we’d seen down in the valley finishing their half marathon up here!  Now that’s a run!  There was plenty of encouragement from the people on the streets, with many of them clanging cowbells like they do at the ski races.  It all made for another lovely atmosphere.  Tom also wandered down a path to watch crazy base jumpers fling themselves off the side of the mountain and down into the valley – apparently they get 10 – 15 seconds of free fall before they have to release their parachutes.  I think they’re mad.

We’ve just finished dinner on the balcony outside our room.  Leaving the peaceful town and the views behind tomorrow is going to be hard, but I’m looking forward to introducing Tom to the joys of Alsace next.  Mmmm – Gewürztraminer 🙂

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We started off the day with a lovely breakfast in the restaurant of the hotel.  It was a buffet style affair, but had a nice choice of pastries, fruit, yoghurt, meat, cheese and various drinks including coffee and fresh juices.  After picking up some items from our room and getting directions for the tram from the friendly receptionist, we headed down the road to buy tickets for the tram.  This was easy to do at a local convenience store and was very reasonable at 3 EUR each for a return ticket to the city centre (about a fifteen minute journey).

Upon arriving in the city centre, we were greeted with the magnificent Duomo in the central square.  We took a few pictures from outside and then headed in, passing through armed forces security guards checking bags!  As all we had in ours was some water and leftover pizza, we were allowed in, hehe.

As soon as we entered the interior of the Duomo, we were both blown away by the height of the ceiling and the grandness of it all.  It was quite dark inside and strangely warm, but the amount of sculpture work and stained glass on show was enough to keep us hooked.  We circled around the interior before heading out to pay for the lift up to the terraces of the Duomo.  Through more security checks and up the lift we went.

The terraces were not what we expected at all (possibly a small viewing area crammed with tourists taking awkward photos through railings).  We couldn’t have been more wrong!  You basically had access across most of the pathways around the roof of the Duomo along with being able to explore the many ancient tunnels that had been constructed as part of the terraces.  There were so many photo opportunities and the sun started to come out, which helped with the photos.  After we had enjoyed all of the views, we made our exit, after a slightly nervous descent down the main stairs from the high roof terrace (with Lois clinging to the back of my rucksack!).

When we got back down to ground level, we decided to go and see the baptistery and treasures in the underground vault of the Duomo, which meant entering the grand hall once more.  Lois decided to purchase a photo pass this time, which gave her a great opportunity to get some nice photographs.  We did find time to laugh at people ridiculously taking photos on their iPads!

After the Duomo, we pottered through the main shopping street, a beautiful indoor affair.  We’d been surprised that the shops hadn’t seemed that expensive, but had obviously been looking in the wrong places before (see the Louis Vuitton suitcase with its price tag in the photos)!  We then had a brief sit down near some other impressive sculptures and before treating ourselves to a proper Gelato ice-cream each.  Lois went for a chocolate mousse flavour and I got a bit greedy and had nutella, coffee and mango scoops, all of which were amazingly tasty.

Following the ice-creams, we headed to the famous castle of Milan, attempting to dodge the street sellers trying to trap tourists by tying decorated strings around their wrists and then demanding money – not something that does the city any favours.  We found that the castle was mostly public access, which was a really nice thing to have in the city.  We ended up having a nap in sun on the grass in the grounds of the castle and many other people were doing the same.  After awakening and watching some beautiful (and actually quite healthy looking) feral cats playing in the tall grasses, in what we think used to be the moat system around the castle, we headed towards an arch monument at the bottom of some lovely flowing green gardens.

We leisurely headed back through the park and the grounds of the castle and went in search of somewhere for tea.  A smart restaurant within sight of the castle and fountains took our fancy and we enjoyed a pasta dish each along with a lovely ricotta mousse and nougat desert – washed down with a surprisingly nice bottle of house white.

After finishing the meal, we headed back to the tram stop and caught the number 2 tram back to the hotel, where we spent the last few hours of the evening relaxing and chatting about all that we’d experienced in Milan (with Back to the Future II in Italian on in the background!).  I also treated myself and opened one of the bottles of cider that I’d bought in Honfleur, which was fantastic.

We’re off to the Stelvio Pass tomorrow, which we’re very excited about!

Enjoy the pictures!

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We’re getting quite good at this packing lark – showered, packed and checked out all in less than an hour this morning!  The MR2 seemed happy to be on the road again.  After Tom’s minor tweek yesterday (just to fix a slightly loose alternator belt) she was running beautifully.

As we left the lovely city of Geneva, we were soon over the border again and back in France.  I think today has been our favourite drive so far.  The motorway took us high up into the Alps between France and Italy, with jaw dropping views in all directions.  Mountains towered above us, as we swept past Alpine villages, lakes and clear, turquoise rivers.  Climbing up towards Mont Blanc gave us a taste of the Swiss passes that are to follow later on in our amazing holiday.  We also passed over many more viaducts – the motorways over here are quite a feat of engineering!

Eventually, we reached the mouth of the Mont Blanc tunnel, where we were ushered to one side by a group of French policemen.  I nervously answered their many questions (this holidays is seriously testing my language skills), but they sent us on our way with no problems – after a quick nosey around Tom’s car of course!  Next came what we thought was going to be the border.  I prepared the passports, but, no, this was the toll for the tunnel.  A quite astounding 40 EUR 90 was handed over!!!  Let’s just say we’re glad we’re not travelling home the same way!

Speaking of passports, they have not been checked by anyone at any of the borders we’ve crossed so far; we’ve now crossed from the UK to France, France to Switzerland, Switzerland to France and France to Italy!

After passing through the impressive (but rather monotonous) Mont Blanc tunnel, we emerged into more epic scenery and descended through more stunning mountains (and tunnels) onto the planes of northern Italy.  From then on it wasn’t quite as exciting and was quite a long (and very hot) slog to Milan, with a brief break for lunch, after which I nervously took over the driving. However, the suburban roads of Milan were pretty quiet and the SATNav took us straight to the door of our hotel.  No covered parking for the MR2 here, but we found a shady spot in the hotel car park for her to cool down after her mountainous journey.

The hotel seems to be quite a way from the centre, but it’s in a quiet part of town and is nice and quirky, so it suits us!  It’s almost more like little apartments off a central courtyard, with their doors off long, shared blaconies.

We were very glad of the air conditioning when we arrived, and spent a good couple of hours just cooling off!  We then headed out to search for some dinner. but all the local restaurants seemed to be closed for the holiday season!  We did find a bar that served us a nice cold Morretti beer each 🙂  Following the advice of the hotel, we then went back to a pizzeria that we had passed and purchased some wood-fired-oven-baked pizzas, which we took back and ate on the balcony outside our room – yum yum!

Tomororw we’re off to explore Milan’s city centre, possibly with our waterproofs in tow – but who cares?  We’re in Italy!

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