Zermatt

I woke up before sunrise to see if I could catch the Matterhorn during sunrise. The weather cooperated! I took a series of pictures during the half hour it took to light the mountain. Here are three of them.




After a shower and breakfast, we took a cable car up to Schwarzsee.


After hiking around a bit, we took the cable car part of the way back down and got off at Furi. We then hiked back to Zermatt, passing through the Gornergorge.


Finally, one last picture of the Matterhorn as we were nearing the town.


Then we had lunch in Zermatt and caught a train to Chamonix!

Gruyeres

We stayed overnight at a youth hostel in Saanen, then took a train to Gruyeres the next morning. Gruyeres is the namesake for Gruyere cheese. So the first thing we did was tour a small cheese factory/museum nearby the train station.


The museum had a nice display explaining (with both voice and smell) how the different plants in the region were transferred from grassland to cow to cheese. Then we toured around the old part of town.


For lunch, we had bread and ... gruyere! It tasted great! Julie took a picture of me eating the cheese at the train station:


We took a train to the nearby town of Broc, home of the Cailler chocolate factory.


Cailler was the first Swiss chocolate manufacturer. They merged with Nestle in the early 1900s. Needless to say, the highlight of the tour were the unlimited free samples at the end!

I took this picture of Gruyeres on train back.


Then we took a train through Montreux, up the Rhone valley, to Zermatt.


Unfortunately, it was cloudy and I couldn't see the Matterhorn. I hoped for better weather the next day!

Schilthorn

On Thursday, we decided to go to Muerren, a town across the valley from Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau. After the previous day's experience, we were a little unsure of the weather. It looked partly cloudy and foggy out the window.


We took a train to Lauterbrunnen, and walked to the western edge of town to take pictures of the Staubbach Falls:


We took a cable car up the side of the valley, then a train to Muerren. The clouds were moving in!


We debated whether we should take the cable car to Schilthorn,


a peak with a tourist center made famous (although I don't really remember it) by the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. We decided to risk the clouds and go up -- and I am glad we did! About half-way up, we rose above the clouds. The view was spectacular!



Julie decided to have some fun with me, her sunglasses, the mountains, and my camera:


We decided to hike back down to Muerren. Most of the time, we had great views of Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau!




Below this lake ran a steep stream and/or waterfall.


After a little more hiking,


we could see Muerren.


We caught the train back to the cable car, which took us back to Lauterbrunnen. I took this picture down the valley from Lauterbrunnen before we landed.


Then we caught a train for Gruyeres!

Jungfraujoch

Southwest of Grindelwald are three mountains: Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau. On the ridge between Moench and Jungfrau

sits Jungfraujoch: a cluster of buildings

used for a combination of science research and tourism. The topmost building is called the Sphinx:


It has an obsolete observatory, and houses most of the scientific instruments.

Julie ran some instruments up here during grad school, so I was able to get a behind the scenes tour of the research station.


To the south runs Aletschgletscher:


Here's another picture of the glacier a little later on when a bit more sun was shining on it.


Three glaciers meet in the background, separated by the dark lines of rock debris.

Unfortunately, it was cloudy, cold, and windy


so I couldn't see the nearby peaks of Moench or Jungfrau by the time we got up there.

Here I am in the ice palace, tunnels carved into the glacier next to one of the buildings:

Zurich

I met Julie and a friend of hers from grad school, Zsofi, at the train station in Zurich. We went for dinner at the house of another grad school friend of theirs, Rahel, her husband Martin, and their young son, Lorenz (shown here with Julie):


The next day, we toured Zurich in the morning. We saw another church, the Fraumuenster, with stained glass by Marc Chagall


but they didn't allow photographs to be taken inside (and this time, I didn't buy the post cards!).

Here is Zurich, where lake meets river:


In the afternoon, we went to Baden to look around.


Baden is named for its thermal bath, which Julie, Zsofi, and I took advantage of that afternoon. It was very relaxing!

Then Julie and I took a train to Grindelwald, where we stayed at a youth hostel. This was the view out the window:


the north face of Eiger!

Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy.

Mainz

My former coworker Adam met me at the Mainz train station. We went downtown and walked around, taking advantage of the nice weather (we knew it was supposed to rain the next day). In the middle of downtown is the Mainzer Dom:


Adam told me the Dom is the seat of an archbishop.

We walked up the street to St. Stephen's church,


which is known for its stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall:


Then we had dinner outside. Here's Adam with his dinner:


The following day (today), it was indeed rainy. We went to the Gutenberg museum, where we saw several Gutenberg bibles. Pictures were not allowed, but here's one of the benches outside the museum that I liked:


We then took a ride up into the Rheingau region, known for it's wine:


I was surprised at how high the Rhein was:


We headed back to where Adam lives (a little west of Mainz) for dinner. Tomorrow, I take a train ride to Zurich, where I'll meet up with another former coworker of mine, Julie. I hope the weather gets better!

Vienna Wrap-Up

After dinner, I strolled around Vienna and did some shopping. I finally found a phone book in a phone booth (my hotel didn't have one, and not every phone booth did either):


When I went to bed, there was a large thunderstorm out my window, so I had to take some lightning pictures.




I was satisfied with that last picture, so I tried to go to sleep. A few minutes later, I heard a loud crack outside my window. I jumped up and saw a fireworks show coming from the Stadtpark:


It was raining pretty good by that time, so I felt bad for those watching the show outside! Soon after the show ended, the front hit our part of the city with furious winds and driving rains. Eventually, it passed to the west, so I took pictures of Stephansdom.



The next morning, I was lucky to catch the sunrise before it rose above the clouds: