A trip to Europe this summer was not conceivable to me let alone a last minute trip to Switzerland at the beginning of July. But as luck would have it, my brother invited me over to join him on a quick tour in-between work trips. Although we had a short window of time we packed in as much as possible- with the preface each day that if we got distracted with things we liked or wanted to see more of, we’d go where the wind blew us.
We started in the beautiful city of Geneva perched along a glacial fed lake filled with sail boats and the famous landmark the Jet d’ Eau. After some walking and window shopping we headed out to Chamonix and the infamous Mount Blanc; a must do for any skier who grew up watching big mountain skiing movies. We took the Aiguille du midi cable car to the lookout station at 3,842 m (12,605 ft) to take in the spectacular views of the French Alps and alpinists that were fitting in a climb during a window of good weather.
After a beautiful night in Chamonix and a traditional dinner of fondue at the charming restaurant la Tablee we snaked through a twisting winding road in the Alps until we reached the Rhone Valley lush with vineyards and apricot stands. A quick hike of the Chateau de Tourbillon taking in some spectacular views of the valley, we headed further east to catch a train to the car free village of Zermatt. If I had one bucket list item on this trip it was to visit the Matterhorn. The town of Zermatt is lovely old chalets with winding cobble alleys (think Heidi). The town was buzzing as there was a marathon that weekend and of course the World Cup was in full swing. Skiing is also open year round on the glacier so people were carrying around skis and winter gear in addition to the varied crowd of hikers, runners and bikers. Bottom-line, Zermatt is fantastic and I promise I`ll go back.
From there we ventured from the top of a glacier to the balmy mediterranean like weather at Evian-les-Bains which is known as a spa town- so when in Rome… Total time in Switzerland was 4 days, but made sure to savour every second of it.
