From Italy to Switzerland....

We were sad to leave Lake Como as it was such a beautiful stay especially with the snow on the mountains and the lovely view we enjoyed so much.

BUT!!!! We were gifted by this view which was ever so special when we landed in Switzerland.  We just can't imagine how high these mountains are.  They are inconceivable by our standards - we have nothing like it in Australia.

We caught a few trains to get here then travelled by bus from Leuk to Leukerbad for about 1/2 hour which was such a delightful trip. Mountains on each side of us - snow covered and just sunning

 I couldn't believe my eyes at this grandeur.  There i was with the camera clicking here, clicking there and I am sure that the locals in the bus were saying to themselves ' pick the tourist'!

 Up, Up, Up we go, higher into the mountains and finally when we arrived at our hotel, the owner happened to mention that the snow had only just come in the night before.

How lucky are we? This is their first snow for the season. I can only assume that it blew all the way from the storm in Como the night before.!!!

So here I sit on our balcony overlooking the hills - no, not hills, but huge big mountains - snow covered mountains, did I forget to mention that!!! :)

 It is like Christmas with the beautiful snow covered trees and a fairyland view of what can only be described as 'a white Christmas' in October.  I've seen this scene under Christmas trees!

 Yes, see that snowball, Bob coped that one, lol.  Well not really but it was a good story. The snow was so soft it felt just like fairy floss. When you pick it up in your hands, you can make a snow ball and it feels as light as a feather.  Hmmm, maybe I should have thrown that one after all!!

 When we settled into our room and took in the grandeur of the view, we took the cable car up to the top of the mountain. Leukerbad is about 1400 metres high and the mountain which we went to was 2320 metres high and was it cold!!!  Brrrrr.....

 The cable car ride was almost vertical and at one point when it bumped over the pilon on top of the first hill I grabbed on for dear life as the car began to sway to and fro.  Ah, just a bump Bob says as I feint heartedly took a look at how far it was to the ground!!

 I think I left grip marks in the hand rail! In this pic you can see the sun as the clouds shifted from our very warm and wonderful blue sky to pure white.

 This pic shows the little township of Leukerbad - you an hardly see it as it is just so far below - again, the panorama is so enormous.

 The last little bit of the cable car trip brought us to a sheer cliff face.  I thought of Tertia and Nattie rock climbing this one - Girls, don't try this at home!!

 There we are, in our private cable car trip, just Bob and I - (must have been something we said) - landing after only about 10 minutes from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the cliffs

 Can you see the lake in the background in the picture below? A small patch of blue?

We took a short walk to see the lake - all of about 20 feet, before we started to freeze so decided it was time to move into the warmth of the restaurant for you'll never guess what?? Yes, yet another drink and something to eat!!! Well, it was late in the afternoon and we had only eaten breakfast, so I guess that's not too bad, hey??

 Our short treck of 20 feet to the restaurant left me in knee deep snow - can you see that? Nice of the Swiss to clear a path knowing that we were just arriving. Such obliging people.

"Here, Jen, stand out there on the patio while I take your photo" says Bob, so I was obliging thinking nothing of the potential frost bite where I nearly lost all of my fingers and 9 of my toes!!

 Hey, I have an idea Bob says - Let's have a drink on the patio?

I looked over and realised that the chairs were obviously being used for something else - storing snow!! 'You've got to be joking" I said  and much to Bob's surprise - we moved inside the restaurant.

 Bob braved the cold and took this photo of us while we were outside the restaurant. It is a pic taken from our reflections in their window - so there we stood for a few minutes aiming the camera at the window and smiling like cheshire cats while people inside were bemused at us, probably thinking that we were taking photos of them.... yet again, pick the tourist!!

 This is a lovely restaurant at the top of the mountain - just the place to take the family!!....   We are thinking of redecorating at home, so this perhaps this gives us a few unique ideas. What do you think?  A deer head or a stuffed rodent???
Hmmmmm....

 Following our decent from the mountain we took a stroll around the town and followed a road to a beautiful but narrow waterfall which came in three parts from almost the top of one cliff to the bottom of our path.

 The hills are alive........

Not bad hey?

The waterfall in the back ground is from the melting snow above.

 It came over a little cloudy after a while...

 but the green hills made it such a pretty sight

 The houses are beautiful and so are the gardens, very colourful

 The mountains are so high  that I nearly lost my balance looking up to the top. The picture just doesn't do it justice when trying to capture the magnitude of them

 We continued our stroll home...

 and saw such pretty sights.

And just for something different we went out for a racklette dinner just up the road and you will never guess what happened on the way home, yes ... it snowed.  So we casually walked home in the snow!!

Oh, what a feeling......

And then ended up at our hotel - pictured above , yes right next to the open air naturally heated swimming pool - where we plan to have a swim tomorrow night just before dinner. Yes, do not adjust your screens, this is correct, swimming amongst the snow capped mountains - as one does!

Well, I guess we will just open the curtains of our hotel room and watch the snow falling all night.  Brrrr... nice to be inside dry and warm.

xxxxxxx