Hotel Berthod Courmayeur

... autant m'amuser ici, dans les montagnes, simplement d'une manière différente. Au moins j'ai pas besoin de dire adieu à tout ceux qui comble mon présent, du moins pas après 3 jours. J'ai déjà hate de revenir, déjà hate de repartir, déjà hate de courrir, déjà hate de tout recommencer encore une fois. J'ai surtout aimé de cette première partie : les longs voyages en train en voyant défiler les différents paysages au gré de différentes ...

... control recently has broken down, this was the perfect sign to follow, where I planed to cross the border to Switzerland.

Just arrived in late afternoon to Aosta, I was not only already entered to the italian part of the alps but also to the point of good bye. Here I decided not to spend another night in Italy and crossed the border to my homecountry Switzerland a hour later at Calle del Gran San Bernardo.

BIENVENUE EN SUISSE - WELCOME TO SWITZERLAND

... out from lack of oxygen I was able to gather myself and enjoy some really amazing views along with a packed lunch. After the mountain trek we went into the small ski town and enjoyed some of our "favorite brewage and enjoyed the surroundings" (per request of prof. Delmar).

Heading to Rome and Barcelona next week, another post should follow shortly after.

We're approaching the final week of this "bi-mester." The work load is getting steadily heavier and I combat it by ...

Thursday



Thursday was a beautiful day
and I decided to head up into the mountains to check a few famous ski
resorts. I got in the car and worked my way down the valley on my
way to the ski resort of Megeve, according to the GPS, about an hour
drive away. I took the highway to the bottom of the valley and
found the road to Megeve. The map showed a thick yellow line meaning
a good road, I thought. I found a narrow two lane road in the trees,
winding ...

... the first day
and then wandered through the old town the last day and had a great
time.




Upon returning from Spain,
two days later I then boarded a train in East Lansing for a tour that
I was leading for America by Rail, that took 44 people from Chicago
to Albany, NY and then by bus through Vermont and New Hampshire for a
fall foliage tour. The color was not quite at peak, although it was
very pretty. I had a great group of people and every ...

... it doesnt look like a cleanup is happening, rather just a slowing down to go through it. Its getting quite late although the GPS says that will be there by 7pm. We are paying for a few tolls, but the mountain views are worth it. We can see Mont Blanc and the glacier that is on the next mountain ans we wind our way through the outskirts on Chamonix, our GPS knows where out hotel is..which is in the middle of town. You can tell this place is a massive ski resort in the winter and the ...

... poorly marked. Half the streets in Europe are so narrow anyways; they all look like one ways. So this car pulls up behind up and blocks us in, sweet, it’s the cops. They tell us we went up a one way.... So we honestly tell them it was a mistake and we're trying to turn around. Then they ask us where we are coming from and how much have we had to drink? Here we go... We had 1 big bottle of beer each 2 hours ago, then split ...

Another beautiful day of sunshine! Skinning up Col de Bouchon from Flegère and skiing down skiers right between Aig de l'Encrenaz and Aig de Mesure, finishing in le Buet. Excellent snow on the north faces all the way down. A lot less wind effected than Col the Passon. Ski mountaineering enthusiasts at Mountain Spirit Guides

The reason I went to France was to go skiing at chamonix/Mont Blanc, which i did and it was fantastic and i will be doing again very soon before i get tied up.. while i was there i did the world famous ski run Valley de blanche you ski over a glacier. which is amazing, the veiws you get on theis run are spectacular. definately take a camera.
to start this run however you take a gondola up to the summit of Aguille de medie (i'm unsure of the correct ...

... 1 in Italy but about $2.50 in Montreux. Ice cream vendors are $1.60 for two large scoops in Italy but $2.60 for one small scoop in Switzerland. Eating out in Switzerland is very expensive. I found the language in Montreux very interesting. French is the predominant language but German is also spoken (actually a dialect called Swiss-German). Most people would admit to speaking English. It is very near the border to France and the border splits the lake in half.