Wedding in Geneva

On the weekend I attended a wedding in Geneva. It was ... outside of my normal realm of experience, more like a Much Music Dance Video party (which I attended once in high school) what with the video screens, the moving lights and the pop songs. It was a Protestant church, but it's own ministry or something and the ceremony was in the community centre. There was a band that played songs about Jesus and how he holds my hand and is my best friend etc.

The ceremony (in French apart from the Jesus songs) lasted two hours. The food was tasty, the couple was happy and Jésus is Jesus in French.

Hiking to Joriseen

The last weekend I went for a hike around Davos, from the post-bus stop Wagerhus in the Fluelapass and hiked to the Joriseen lake.

The pass itself has lots of traffic and many motorcycles and the sounds echo from all the mountains. However, after about two hours you crest the first rise and the noise disappears.
On the way up I came across this built into the rock. It was very hidden and probably military. Apparently in this canton in Switzerland the landscape is riddled with military installations.

I continued up and eventually got  a view of the lakes. In Switzerland I don't mind hiking alone because there are so many people that you can stop and talk to.

I wasn't sure if I could make my bus back, but I decided to try and hike down to the lakes. The weather cleared and the day became very beautiful.

Around the lakes there were many different valley's leading away that you could follow, but I made a big loop through the Winterlucke pass and back to my post bus. There was still snow in the pass and it was all very wild. In fact, in this entire region I couldn't get cell phone reception or see a farm or village. There was still cow poop  though, it is the Swiss Alps!

Back in my apartment I can sit on my terrace and watch the parachuters land right in front of me.

Fiddle Times

These photos were taken by a band member at one of the most recent performances with the Ceilidh Band.

Hiking in Davos in May

We headed out from Davos on the city bus - very convenient, and started hiking up the mountain. It wasn't going to be too exciting because we were topping out where the ski lift was, but it started out in the pretty woods.

And the weather was beautiful for May, especially since we were starting at 1700m.

And here's more poop in the alps, this time predator poop. I have no idea what animal left this scat.

After a while we got above the trees.

And there was a fair amount of snow as we got higher. At least it wasn't too chilly.

And we had some pretty great views.

At this point we were walking on snow and I really need to get some new boots, my feet were soaking wet. They are nearly ten years old so probably a good time to invest in a new pair.

In the end we didn't reach the top, we stopped about 20 m below because the trail was quite steep and the snow patches were pretty slippery. As we were hiking down, off in the distance we could see a chamoix watching over the other animals grazing (which we couldn't see). If you look at the large version of the picture you can see him off in the distance.

And finally, for a bit more nature, here's a picture of two beetles doing it. They were everywhere and very pretty, and that's as far as my biology knowledge goes as far as beetles are concerned. Although I think the chemists go nuts about the iridescence because they are nanoparticles or something.

Visiting in Lausanne

At the beginning of June in Lausanne I had a guest for the long weekend. We went to the Castle Chillion in Montreux at the end of Lac Leman (known by its incorrect name of Lake Geneva).

The castle was built on a tiny island for defense and looks very romantic whenever you take the train on the way to Valais.
The castle was very well preserved and was clearly visited by many tourists throughout the year. It was also huge.

One 'interesting' feature were the toilettes. They were long holes (several seats in the room) that went down to the lake. Usually these were defensively weak positions because opposing armies could climb up them when attacking the castle. However, Chillion's emptied directly into the lake so they were much safer.

More courtyards (I think there were three in total)

The next day we went to Geneva and wandered around. We walked through the old town and lined up with all the other tourists to have our picture taken at the flower clock.

Then we wandered to the nearby park and slept and read our books on the grass for a few hours. It was a beautiful sunny day. Of course on the way to the park we had to try out the ride....

On the move

Wow what a move. I went back and forth four times in four days including driving back and forth with my friend. We packed the vehicle and then made a stop at IKEA along the way.

After all the unpacking we made a brief drive up the Fluelapass. It was a beautiful day and the road was full of motorcycles.