Good morning

Yesterday we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary Like I have said repeatedly, "We''ve been married 30 years, 7 of those happily, and not all in a row". Come on, it's a good line and I plagiarized it from a coworker. It's still funny..

By the way, our blog says that we're in France, but we're not. I've tried to change the location but it won't let me.

Our plan was to have a mellow day on the deck, catching up on doing nothing, as being on a month long holiday is tiring, believe it or not. So my romantic plan was to take the train up to the top of Gornergrat mountain in the late afternoon, and have a nice dinner at their restaurant as we watch the sun set behind the Matterhorn. Not bad huh?p>

Off we go at 2 pm to get our tickets.....well, there are three companies that do the "up the mountain" sort of thing. We sort it out but follow our earlier "ticket please" guide on the way to Zermatt, we knew if we waited till 3 pm tickets were 1/2 price... 52 franks per person.... so we walked around and Dominique's bought one of those big pretzels and sat to eat it...next thing you know, she is surrounded by 50 birds walking around by her feet. She then starts feeding them, by throwing crumbs onto the ground. That progresses to her putting a crumb in her hand and the birds jumping on her hand to eat. Oh boy I wonder what her cats will think of that?

We then get our tickets to the train and it is magnificent. The train crawls up the mountain and stops 5 times at various stages of the mountain. My thinking is that people get on the train and then hike down from the various stages via the amazing paths. We get to the top which is 8'800 feet up from sea level and the air is thin. We wander around and we find a little church way up there, and Dominique has some catholic time, lighting a candle for her sick mom.

Now it's time for dinner. We go to this little hotel and the damn restaurant closes at 2 pm but we can eat at the snack bar. I'll be dammed if I'm eating my 30 th anniversary dinner at a snack bar.....we wander around and take in the sites, which are breathtaking, and then back down the mountain we go on the train./p>

We walk around Zermatt, and we choose a restaurant but it doesn't open for 1/2 an hour so off to McDonald's we go for a muffin and Big Mac. See, your thinking McDonald's for your 30th, pathetic. Nope, just a little appy before supper, then off to China Garden restaurant, which was good food but expensive for what you get. Meal costs 120 franks for wine, beer, three courses.....oh

Then back to our villas where Dominique facetimes the kids and her sister in law , where apparently her mother is doing better and is out of intensive care. So it appears our adventure will be finished off as planned. The 12th, we are off to Amsterdam for two nights to see the sites and then to Gierthoorn which should be interesting.....

Having down time from our previous hectic schedule has been good but the nomadic portion of me, or my ADD, needs to have that itch scratched, so I am looking forward to travelling. The three trains and flight to get to Amsterdam will be interesting though...

See ya

Harold