DAY 107 – A Surprise Stay in a Swiss Chalet

July 4 - 4^th of July on the Beach in the Alps (what?)

** don't forget to read about our 1st Switzerland Pass Day 106 first.  

We had the most amazing experience, but before I go into that, we left at 6:45 a.m. to catch our first train. We rode different trains until we reached Montreux where we took a ferry (it was included in our pass – yeah!) across the most beautiful lake – Lake Geneva. 

The city had some unusual decor that really caught your eye.

I got a funny picture of a decorated car with flowers all in it

All these travel arrangements are really getting me confused.

 Off we go on the ferry.  A beautiful afternoon as we rode in a big circle around the lake.

Looks like these children are going on a school field trip

Beautiful Swiss hideaway chateaus

How does this poor tree survive in the middle of a HUGE lake?

What a Life!

Can it get better than this?

Another ferry like ours

Our ferry inside

Then we hopped on more trains and enjoyed more scenery and more white-capped peaks and more vineyards, and cows, and goats, and Swiss huts, etc. etc.

Wake up Shari!  You're missing the beautiful scenery!

Remember that each day is costing us $125 for these train rides to see the Alps.

I asked Rich why we didn't have more pictures of the fantastic and scenic train ride through the Alps.  He reminded me that he took a lot of videos, not still photos, so maybe I can post a short video.  The views really were something!

We came to Sierra Siders where we wanted to catch the funicular up the hill (which also was included in the pass). We asked someone where we could catch the funicular and a lady behind us said, “We go there...we show you how to do.” Her husband had a couple of bags and together they helped us catch a bus that took us to the funicular entrance. We rode with them up the hill with amazing scenery for a backdrop.

We couldn't wait to get to know this cute little man.

 

They became our new friends, taking us in a cab to their Swiss Chalet where they invited us for a drink and to relax a bit. They took us on a tour around their town. Etty and Elie were so happy to talk to us Americans and show us their home town of 25 years.

 Etty still practices as a psycho-analyist and has written several books published in different languages on the subject.

Etty was so easy to talk to - she spoke fairly good English.

There were several man-made lakes on top of their mountain village - Montana/Crans.  Water sports was popular and every spring they would truck in sand and make beaches for the children, put down lounge chairs, and have a bit of Hawaii on top of the snow-capped mountains.

Can you believe that they even bring in tropical plants for the summer?

                             

They had several small lakes on top of their mountain where there were many water sports.

 Ellie had retired from being an orthopedic surgeon, so I enjoyed talking to him about my replaced hips from 5 years ago and a few problems I was having with them. He gave me great advice and told us stories of his experiences operating on three people in their 90's. He was incredible!

Turns out Eli was born in Poland and brought to France in 1945 when he was 15 years old by his uncles, apparently after some horrible experiences during the war, which you can imagine, but he didn't want to go into that.

Long story short....they asked us to stay with them for the night and we had a wonderful meal and evening with them. 

A quick salad and cold-cuts tasted great after a long day.

What a setting looking out their kitchen window.

Looking out from their front patio off the kitchen

Can you imagine living here?

We were so lucky to have met Eli and Ettie.  We let our other hosts in Bern know that we wouldn't be coming home tonight.  We didn't have a change of clothes or our toothbrushes or anything, but we're young crazy, right?  You only live once and when you meet such wonderful people and they invite you to their private Swiss chalet, who cares about a change of underwear or a comb? 

We went on a walk and saw a panoramic view of the snow-capped Alps at sunset. All I could do was to sing and sing.   I will post a video of this tomorrow when I have more time.

Auf Wiedersehen from the top of Switzerland

We shall always remember E & E and their kindness.  When we were given the option of staying with this lovely, elderly couple, we opted to do it.  It saved time as we would have been back-tracking and getting in very late to Bern and our couch surfing host.  Our time with Eti and Elly was also something we'll never forget.We were sad not to get a picture of the bedroom we stayed in.  It was so very nice.  They invited us to stay with them in their home in Paris when we go there in September. We shall see!