Four countries...one day (sounds a bit like a Barrocca ad). We began the day with breakfast in Germany, a morning drive in Austria, morning tea in Switerland and dinner in France (with no Barrocca). Who says we don’t get around? The last 45 minutes of the drive into Chamonix-Mont Blanc was very picturesque (and a little harrowing at times). We basically drove up and around the mountains, with no barriers at times on the side of the road and a sheer drop of ??? (houses and people looked like ants). But we made it and Chamonix-Mont Blanc is a beautiful town situated in a valley between Mt Blanc and another mountain range (Alps). Don’t want to harp on food, but must mention dinner last night. Ordered the roast beef fillet for two @ 25 Euro thinkng what great value it was. Shortly after ordering we were asked to move to a bigger table so that there was more space. This was a first hint that maybe it was 25Euro each and not for the total meal. The beef arrived. We pretty much knew by then that it would be 25 euro each and the end of the meal confirmed it...silly us. BUT, it was the most perfectly cooked, delicious, roast fillet of beef we had ever eaten...and it was huge. We are very tempted to go back again. AND IT WAS NOT PORK......................
(Oh, must mention that when I booked this hotel I mentioned we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary during our holiday. We were given a room with views straight out to Mont Blanc and an ice bucket with champagne and a card was delivered to our room...felt very special)
Day 2: Big Rick and I agree that we do not know how we could ever top today. We did 2 of the big attractions. First of all we caught the small, scenic ‘train’ to Montenvers Mer de Glace. This is a 20 minute train ride up and around the mountain to Le Montenevers. There is a small museum there and a couple of stone buildings, but its claim to fame is the views over the glacier Mer de Glace. I have never seen a glacier before and this was absolutely awesome. There were a number of places you could get an outstanding view of it from, and we took many, many photos. Unfortunately we could no longer get to the ice cave as it closed 2 weeks ago. There is also a chairlift running straight down to the glacier and ice cave – but closed. The views were phenomenal. The ice was so white and the sky so blue. The weather was perfect today...sunny and about 13 degrees (warming up again later this week). We stayed up at the glacier for about an hour or so and caught the train back down. Our next ‘attraction’ was the Auguille du Midi (described as the “world’s most spectacular cable car”). At the very top you have 360 degree views of Mont Blanc, the French, Swiss and Italian Alps. This was a little scary to contemplate...you know who Rick and I are with heights (and how we did not get to the top of the Eiffel Tower). Anyway, we piled into the cable car which was a reasonable size (took about 40 people at a time) and up we began. Baically it went straight up. Surprisingly it was not as scary as i thought it would be...maybe because I could not see out the windows clearly. We got to the end of this ride up and the views were fantastic. At this level there were paragliders jumping of the cliff. They looked quite beautiful with their colourful parachutes standing out against the white peaks. BUT...that was not the end. I looked up, and up, and up, and up and across the ravine was our final destination. More hestiantly we clamboured into the next cable car and we set off. Views spectacular and again, despite the height it wasn’t too bad. Then we got to the other side and the car slowed to a virtual stop as we were then pulled up vertically. That was somewhat freaky. The above photos show how high it was...in some you have to struggle to see the cable car (and again it held about 40 people so it wasn’t small). It was -8 degrees at the top and the views...can’t find the words...brilliant. Swiss, French, Italian Alps – 360 degree views. Crossed a little wooden bridge to another lookout – little freaky to see between the gaps in timber – long way down. Found an ice cave up there and we daringly caught the lift up to the very top of the look out. (very proud of ourselves – though the lift went up through rocks so you could not see out – much better). We were up 3842 metres. Must say, after about an hour up there we both began to feel light headed, dizzy and a little weird. (Rick said that it was mild altitude sickness...he had had it in The Himalayas). There were many climbers out on the peaks. Standing there looking out, it felt like you coud reach out and touch the peak of Mont Blanc (It’s height is 4809m). Headed back down the mountain. Cable car little more scary on the way down. Watched the paragliders for a while and then caught the final cable car down. Were right in front this time, looking down...not a great idea. Scared the crap out of me and I had not realised how scary it was until I could see out. Not happy when it was swinging in the wind a few times. But got back safely. WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bit of a rest day the second full day in Chamonix-Mt Blanc. Walked around the shops and Rick went for a walk/hike for a few hours. He would have you believe he climbed an alp. He actually got up quite high so I was somewhat impressed. Found a little movie theatre and they had the new Julia Roberts film in English, (only have an English film every few days), so we sat in an watched it in a tiny theatre. (Rick felt quite conned that it was too much of a chick flick...think he is still channelling mountaineer, adventurer, extreme climber thoughts).
Through the tunnel and in to Noerther Itraly tomorrow. We will begin with a few days in Bellagio on Lake Como, then on to Verona and Venice.
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