Mom's WORLD JOURNAL - Switzerland And now, on to Switzerland! Before I proceed, let me explain one little incident.  Being the good wife and mother that I am, I decided to wash ALL of our underwear and hang it up to dry. I have not hand washed anything in about…38 years to be exact. If God meant you to hand wash your clothes he wouldn’t have created dry cleaners, RIGHT? I scrubbed and scrubbed until I was satisfied that they were cleaned. We bought this fabulous clothes line that has suction cups at each end for easy attachment and I set the undies out dry. Guess what! No air in the hotel…and no drying occurred. We were leaving the next morning so what could we do. You can’t pack wet laundry! So we stretched the clothesline across the back of our beautiful rental station wagon and set off for Switzerland with our undies waving in the breeze! Max was horrified! If we parked, he stood by another car and pretended that the undies weren’t his. To make matters worse, we hit horrible bumper-to-bumper traffic for several hours on the way! Every now and then we would ask Max to check the undies…and he would just die! BY the time we hit Basel, Switzerland, the undies were dry and we set out to find the B&B where we had reserved a room. We spent the evening strolling the downtown area, crossing the adorable bridges and touring the city. Basel’s population is approximately 200,000 and thriving with industry. We were tired from our travels and decided to return home after a GIANT ice cream sundae. On the way home, we noticed several young children riding the tram alone. Switzerland feels quite safe and I wondered what it would be like to grow up in a country with such little crime. We promised ourselves prior to leaving on our RTW trip we would NEVER visit any place more dangerous than Miami. I think we are in good shape!                 We left Basel the next morning bound for Montreux, Switzerland. We have reserved rooms in advance since it is the International Jazz Festival. Mark and I have long been fans of the New Orleans Jazz Festival and until recently went every year. We were naturally curious what an “international” festival would be like.  On our way to Montreux, we were delighted with the most beautiful views; snow-covered mountains, rivers, lakes, meadows, adorable villages and bright flowers. Amazing! We decided to take a detour and visit Gruyeres, where they make the cheese. In Gruyeres you will find the most wonderful village. No cars are allowed so you park below and walk to the village. There is a cobble stone street laced with tiny shops and restaurants, leading to a fabulous castle. The castle is newly renovated and different from the other castles we visited. Each room in the castle is filled with modern, unusual and humorous paintings. In the courtyard there are powerful sculptures and impressive views. One of the towers displayed wild stained glass pictures that were backlit and incredible. One room recreated the last supper with mannequins, each brightly painted with scenes from the 1960s. In addition, they had a museum dedicated to the artistic creator of the movie Alien. It was really graphic. I chose to take a walk with Max while Mark explored upstairs in the museum. We then had lunch, what else but cheese fondue, wine and beer! A real treat! From Gruyeres we drove another half hour to Montreux. As you approach Lake Geneva with the snow-covered mountains in the background you have to catch your breath. Spectacular! Our hotel has a great view of the lake and a separate room for Max…Yeah for Mommy and Daddy! The lake is about 44 miles long and 5 miles wide. The Chillon Castle is a short 40-minute walk from our hotel. A path surrounds the lake with lots of people strolling and enjoying the fantastic day. AND IT”S NOT RAINING!! The path was dominated with vendors near the Jazz Festival. We visited the medieval Chillon Castle with its many furnished rooms with period weapons and clothing. The views from the castle overlooking Lake Geneva are beautiful. The castle has a moat that surrounds it and is well preserved. The famous poem, Prisoner of Chillon, was written about a prisoner that was chained to a pillar for four years prior to his release. The pillars were covered in “graffiti” that the prisoners had carved in them. We saw the pillar and the lovely gallows where they hung the less popular tenants. We spent a lot of time exploring the castle and thoroughly enjoyed it. Max was not very excited about seeing the castle earlier in the day because he simply wanted to ride a bike. He had wanted to do this since Amsterdam but the rain ruined our plans. But, he really enjoyed visiting the Chillon Castle and especially seeing the weapons and gallows.   The next day was a beautiful, sunny day so we fulfilled on our promise to Max and rented bikes at the train station. We biked on the path around Lake Geneva for hours. The scenery was magnificent! Since arriving in Switzerland I have often wondered if it was real or just a set for a movie. We rode through farms with corn and Swiss chard, around the castle, vineyards, over rivers and through the forest! We rode for several hours until we realized that we were only 2 km from France. Since it is not every day you ride from Switzerland to France, we decided to “go the extra…Kilometer”.  There was an immediate difference between the two countries. Right away our path disappeared and was replaced by a very narrow sidewalk bordered on one side by water and the other by speeding cars. One has to wonder what I was thinking taking an 8-year old boy bike riding here! He had no helmet and no experience riding his bike outside our neighborhood at home. Now I am following behind him yelling “keep your handlebar straight”…which upon hearing he would turn his head and say ”what?” Every time he scratched his leg or looked at the water, he would let go of the handlebars and wobble back and forth near the traffic or the cliff. What am I, STUPID? Well, the good news is we made it and enjoyed a great lunch of salad and fried perch…the local favorite. The entire trip was 18 miles and we enjoyed almost every minute of it. Max did a great job and was ahead of us most of the time. Youth! A great day indeed! The next day we decided to make a journey in to the mountains and visit a glacier. It was a long, winding, narrow road that weaved it’s way around the many vineyards, small towns, snow capped mountains and waterfalls. There were several moments when it appeared that we would be hit head-on by another driver and simply roll down in the valley never to be seen again. We made it to the top, but to out surprise the glacier was closed. Oops, forgot to check that detail. The glacier is reachable only by series of gondolas, which run only certain days of the week. Instead, we had a nice lunch and went back to explore the small village we had just passed. They had a gondola that went up a nearby mountain and you can hike down, so we decided to do just that. Max was disappointed about the glacier and wanted to go back to the hotel, so hiking was not tops on his list. He was also a bit tired from the bike ride the day before. We convinced him to go and it was my turn to entertain the troops. We sang stupid songs, rested frequently and had lots of fun. We enjoyed ice cream at the bottom and I bought some running shoes to burn it off. This day was especially challenging for me since it was the anniversary of my brothers death. Still hard to believe that he is gone…and I am in Switzerland as a result. There is no doubt in my mind that I would be doing the same old thing…like chewing the same piece of gum for years and years, if I had not lost Tom at age 36. His death reminded me that we must live everyday exactly how we want, not how society thinks we should. So I traded in my meetings after meetings discussing “profitable growth” to travel with my family, thanks to Tom…a bittersweet story.  I still have my memories, funny stories and photographs. He would have loved Montreux with all the boats, water, beautiful women and good beer. I could not have chosen a better place to remember him on his anniversary. This past year I cried for Tom every day. I just could not say goodbye. But, since I can’t change the past, I’ve decided to live with an extra zest for life and enjoy each moment. Tom certainly would have supported that! We have been traveling now for just two weeks and have fifty more to go! It still feels like we are on vacation squeezing every last drop of touring out of each glorious stop. I wonder if we can keep this pace for a whole year. We have done laundry twice and yet we wear the same clothes every day. We have been in 7 hotels in 14 days. I am really glad we packed in the backpacks. Even though we packed light, we are still looking for stuff we can dump. The challenge is the varying climates we will encounter during the next twelve months  We were a bit disappointed in the Jazz Festival itself. We enjoyed the outdoor acts, but most of the shows were too late. We had tickets for Van Morrison the last evening of the festival and were very excited. When we arrived we found out that Van Morrison had cancelled and was replaced by Deep Purple, and the concert didn’t start until midnight! So, they gave us a refund and on we went.  From Montreux we drove around the winding roads, through tunnels and by waterfalls to Zermatt, the famous ski town in Switzerland and home of the Mattehorn Mountain. You are not allowed to drive in Zermatt, so we left our car in the town below, grabbed just the essentials from our backpacks, and took the 20-minute train to Zermatt. The town is packed with tourists, watch stores and jewelry. We did not have a hotel reserved so Mark found us a great little place right in the center of town. It rained all of the days we were there until the last day. Throughout the town are tiny, one room log cabins with slate roofs. They were all resting on top of slate rocks to keep them off the ground and most were deserted. “Real” backpackers often hike to these cabins and stay in them for the evening. I hiked for two hours each day while my “men” rented scooters and played in town. It was beautiful, but cloudy so the view of the Mattehorn was disappointing. Our last day was sunny and we took the gondolas and funiculars (large gondolas) up the steep, snowy mountains. The views were spectacular and unlike any I have seen before in Colorado. At the top, there is a ski resort that is open year-round. It was freezing up there! We watched the skiers from the lodge while we sipped our cappuccinos and visited the Ice Cave. The large ice cave was completely made of ice with carvings of animals and adorable snow scenes...beautiful! From the top we had a spectacular view of the Mattehorn. It is absolutely crazy that people actually try to climb this mountain! In the town below, the cemetery has many graves honoring those who died trying to ascend the Mattehorn. The graves are very interesting and often include the climber’s ropes, ax and hiking shoes. Many were just 18 and 19 years old. There were also graves that honored three and four climbers from the same party that all died together. I was really moved thinking about what they had encountered in their final hours. I can’t imagine what the cemetery will be like at the base of Mount Everest when we visit Nepal in October. The Mattehorn is only 14,000 feet and Mount Everest is 29,000 feet!  We stayed in Zermatt for two days and left late in the afternoon for Saas Fe. I loved this town! It is touted as the “down to earth Zermatt” or the way Zermatt used to be prior to becoming so commercialized. Saas Fe is home of the highest mountain in Switzerland, The Dom. It is almost 15,000 feet. Ten dynamic peaks surround the town with breathtaking views wherever you stand. I could live here! The people were so friendly and the town is filled with young snowboarders. We took the funicular to the top, watched the skiers, and visited their ice cave. Close to the lodge there was a large rock that you could climb and look out over all of the peaks. We decided to climb the rock and enjoy the views. Somehow from the lodge it looked relatively easy and I was quite surprised when we started to ascend the rock. The rock was covered with snow, very slippery with a steep, narrow path. To get up, you had to hold on to a steel cable that was on the inside of the rock, which meant all the way up you looked straight down tens of thousands of feet to the ground below. We were higher than the clouds! I was behind Max and he kept letting go of the rope to talk to me. I was more scared than I can remember ever being before on my life. I just knew that Max was going over the edge! We had only 4 inches to spare in some areas of the path. My shoes had no tread and I felt like I was climbing in pumps. I literally almost cried. When we got to the top I didn’t even enjoy the view, I just wanted to get down. To make matters worse, there was a memorial at the top for all the people who have died trying to climb the nearby mountains! Never again! Some moments I can live without! Terrifying! We left Saas Fe and met Mark’s brother and his girlfriend, Steve and Suzana, in Lucerne. We stayed on the lake in a very nice hotel that was, to our surprise, in a town called Weggis that was 20-minutes from Lucerne. But the rooms were great and right on the lake so we decided to stay. Lucerne is a charming city nestled around the lake and bordered by mountains. In the city they have large painted frogs everywhere, similar to the cows in Chicago. We spent the evening walking the city and eating along the water. While I enjoyed Lucerne, we are beginning to appreciate the smaller cities as we travel. The big cities within a country seem to all look alike. Switzerland in general in very “sterile”. You can always count on a clean bathroom, clean rooms and beautiful scenery. We took a gondola to the top of Mount Pilatus, which was very nice, even in the rain. On the way down we rode the steepest cog railroad in the world that travels along a 47- Degree angle. We got caught up with a senior group of Germans, those old folks can move when there is limited space on the train. Suzana kept getting hit on the head by two angry German women who wanted the window closed. They were shouting at her in German. She said, “one more hit and I’m going to make a scene”. So, when she wasn’t looking I rolled down her window hoping to incite the women. I had my video camera ready to tape the event which I’m certain would have been more entertaining than a Tyson fight! But, no luck…they had given up on her.  From Lucerne we went to Bern, which is about one hour away by car. Unfortunately, we hit stand still traffic and took a different route that ended up being 5 hours! Bern is well worth the trip, even at 5 hours. It is well known for it’s bear pit in the center of town. The bears have been there since before Napoleon. In fact, the bears were kidnapped by Napoleon at one point. The bears will do tricks for you if you give them some chocolate, my kind of bears. They clap, pray and roll on their backs and hold their feet. Adorable! The town has incredible architecture and the streets are lined with “arcades”, not the video game variety, but an outdoor covered shopping area. There appeared to be many modern home design stores and clothing boutiques. The town is surrounded by water. A really enjoyable visit, although a little short.  We left Bern for our last stop in Switzerland, Zurich. Zurich calls itself the “big, little city”. We had originally planned on leaving Switzerland earlier until we realized that they celebrate their “independence” day on August 1st and we wanted to be part of the celebration. Switzerland is part German, part Italian, and part French. So their celebration is a “coming together” of the different factions to form the country. So rather than “independence day” it sounded to me like “dependence day”. We did not have a hotel reservation and spent the first afternoon hunting for a room. I was really disappointed in most of the rooms. They were really expensive, as we found most of Switzerland, and not that great. I was about to give up and stay at the “Rock & Roll Hotel”, in the Axel Rose room…you can just imagine. The entire room was full of posters of Axel Rose and decorated in bright, primary colors. Max loved it! I also felt that it was in a seedy part of town, lots of girly bars and adult shops.  But luck was on my side. We found a great room off the main drag in a quieter part of town. We moved in and then I noticed that there were several strip clubs and a whorehouse on the corner! As we would walk home late at night, the girls would be out on the street corner or leaning out the windows drumming up business. Our room included breakfast in the small restaurant downstairs. The room was decorated with orange walls with glitter and there was a stage in the center. At first, I thought it was for presentations until Max noticed a metal pole on the stage and decided to swing around it. A breakfast restaurant by day for the hotel and a strip club at night accessible through another door on the street. I insisted that Max scrub his hands and there would be no more swinging on the pole...God only knows what was on that thing! Gross! We decided to do very little sight seeing in Zurich and rest up for Turkey. We had a total of three days so we boated around the lake, went to a water park along the lake and just relaxed. The Independence Day celebration was really fun. There was a parade in the morning with folks dressed in their native attire, young men swinging GIANT cowbells in unison creating some interesting music, and lots of marching bands. We asked what time the fireworks display would begin and discovered that there was no formal display but to go to the lake. That’s when we learned that there must be no lawyers in Zurich. These people are NUTS! They just light the fireworks all around the lake; some folks light them and throw them into the crowd. Everywhere you looked you saw fireworks all over the city. It was really fun. We decided to call it a night around 11:00 before the real crazies came out. The next day we left for Turkey!