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Day 38: Dijon to home

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Thursday 18th July Dijon to Oxford We were away early for our journey to Paris on the TGV.  Travelling fast, in less than 2 hrs we were crossing Paris by underground. The Gare du Nord was heaving so we escaped to a cafe 5 mins walk away for a snack. After a fairly efficient Eurostar boarding we spent an enjoyable hour or two chatting to a fellow traveller about immigration, home exchange, walking and living in cities to name just a few subjects.  A quick transfer to Baker Street was followed by a walk in the summer sunshine to  Marylebone.  The very last journey of our trip was the reverse of our first back in May as we travelled the Chiltern line back to Oxford.  So will this be our last Interrail experience?  There are a lot of trains out there, places to explore and people to meet so I’m sure we’ll be back on the tracks sometime soon …..   Many thanks to all of you who have followed our blog and posted comments. We’ve enjoyed writing it and hop...
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Day 37: Gryon to Dijon

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We awoke to another beautiful day in the mountains. This has been another lovely home exchange experience; for me the best of the trip, although Jill ranks the Perugia one as the best. We all have our own preferences and I love mountains, which probably affects my view. They’ve all been really good though.  We did the final cleaning and said goodbye to Gryon and its goats. After the lovely journey down the mountain… … our route took us along the shore of Lake Geneva… … and on to Lausanne, where we caught the TGV to Dijon. Dijon is a very pretty small city, about the size of Oxford, I would estimate, but a lot quieter and nicer because virtually the whole centre is pedestrianised. It’s full of beautiful old buildings. We couldn’t check in until 3.30 so …. time for a beer at Cafe Delirium. Not sure what to buy we ordered the Blonde. The €13 charge suggests we had the Delerium Tremens (great name for a beer)… … which lived up to its name and I was soon taking pictures of urinals....
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Day 36: Gryon

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  Tuesday July 16th Last day in Gryon The week in the mountains has flown by and we know we shall miss the stupendous views.  We have experienced a lot of weather sweeping in. One day it was bright blue cloudless skies only to be followed a few hours later by thunder and lightning with torrential rain. When I remarked on the rapid changes Neil said’ clouds like mountains’ .  After a quiet morning we caught the train upto Villars-sur-Ollon after discovering the place we were going to have lunch in Gryon was closed. Firstly though we looked around the old parts of the village including the church. There has been a settlement here since before 1139.  Arriving in Villars we decided to eat in Mountain Burger which had rave reviews including from the people whose chalet we are staying in. The food was good. We’ve only eaten out twice this week as Switzerland is really expensive. We’ve used the local shop in the village mostly and it was surprisingly well stocked.  We ...
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Day 35: Gryon

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Monday 15th June Over the last 40 years there have been walks which Jill hasn’t fancied doing and which I’ve done on my own: Mount Washington via Tucker’s ravine (which I came down to find Jill had been to hospital because she had cut her thumb wide open with a can opener), West Lion Vancouver (fortunately I met a couple of sports scholars who helped me get to the top), the Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand (where I got adopted by 3 young Scandinavian girls) etc. Today was almost up there with them (for the 68 year old version of me).  So whilst Jill stayed at the chalet, resting and reading I headed for the mountains. This time I did a cheat start: I took the gondola up to La Chaux Ronde terminal. From there it’s an easy but steep hike up to the top of La  Chaux Ronde, but there the fun begins.  From the top there is a narrow ridge path which leads up to the next summit. It’s about 2ft wide but at times absolutely sheer on both sides. Fortunately a Dutch guy caught up wi...
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