Day 31: Gryon

 Thursday 11th July

After a shortish night (Neil watched England play which didn’t start till 9pm local time) we were awake by 6. 

The mountains were pink when I made our morning cuppa. 

After a leisurely breakfast we set off for a walk to neighbouring Barboleuse about a mile or so away through the woods.



We found the bakery/ cafe and sat outside. Neil had a Swiss hot chocolate. 


Afterwards we followed the road towards Solalex which afforded wonderful views.


By midday it was getting hot and we were glad to reach the fast flowing river and begin the return section of the walk. Our aim had been to do a short orientation walk. Due to losing the track it turned into a seven mile circular one.








Reaching Gryon we shopped for our ‘pick and mix’ of meats, cheese , salad, bread and boiled egg meal and enjoyed sitting on the deck in the sunshine enjoying the silence and mountain vistas.


After the meal the sound of thunder sent us indoors. 

An evening of planning our next five days followed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1: Ducklington to Cologne

Image
  Sunday 19 May - Day 1 And we’re off!  Our taxi driver picked us up promptly at 8.55 … and doubled as a very efficient station porter. First train Oxford Parkway to London Marylebone.  But what happened to First Class? We have First Class tickets! … A couple of families of noisy but very friendly Crewe Alexandra supporters sat by us from High Wycombe on their way to Wembley for the League Two play-offs. Hope they have a great day.  Eurostar terminal at St Pancras was busy - like an airport departures lounge. Eurostar quick and comfortable but took a while to get off the platform in Brussels and caught the ICE train to Köln with 3 minutes to spare.   We arrived in Cologne on schedule at 6.15pm (5.15 UK time). Hotel Santo is a 10 minute walk from the station. Jill and I were rather surprised by the hotel art … so we needed some kölsch  and German fayre. With our spirits revived we wandered around Cologne getting our bearings and a feel for the plac...
Read more

Day 37: Gryon to Dijon

Image
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....
Read more

Day 17: Aci Castello to Taormina

Image
Our original plan had been to go to Taormina for the day and return to Aci Castello before departing for Siracusa tomorrow. However, after having looked at the travel logistics we decided to stay the night in Taormina. So, farewell Aci Castello. Cannizzaro station was deserted. Literally. There were no staff. Mick Lynch would do his nut.  Still, we managed to get on the train and in 45 minutes were in Taormina. Taormina station was not deserted. Neither was the area outside where people were waiting for the shuttle bus up to the town. The throng surrounded the young woman selling tickets like a crowd around someone offering spare tickets on match day. She refused to sell any more until the bus arrived. The bus arrived and then there were two intermingled throngs: the one to get the bus and the one to buy tickets to get on the bus. We were the last ones on the bus. Taormina is Sicily chic. It’s where we needed to be seen.  It’s gorgeous. It was crowded. We needed canolli. ...
Read more