After a nice breakfast we set out for Marie's home in Belgium. Driving a slightly different route than the one we took south, we were able to see more of the countryside off the Autostrada. Beautiful fields of green were there for the numerous dairy cows as we passed through cheese country. Again traveling through Luxembourg we stopped for a quick lunch before arriving in Blanden in late afternoon. We had encountered scattered light showers on our trip north but ...

Sadly, it was time to pack up and travel back to Marie's home in Blandon. We wound our way down off the side of the mountain from Crans-Montana to Sierre, drove east a bit, then north, and climbed again to the village of Goppenstein where we,in our car, boarded the train and were transported 9.1 miles through the long dark Lotschberg Tunnel to Kandersteg. From there we traveled through Bern and Basel to Rouffach and stopped once again at Chateu d'Isenbourg for...

Arising today to a promising morning, we proceeded to start out for a drive to see the Matterhorn. This requires some assurance that the clouds won't totally obscure it as the trip is long. We set out to come down off the Crans-Montana elevation into Sierre. From there we drove east to Visp and then south to Tasch where we parked the car and boarded a cog-driven train up to the village of Zermatt. From there we boarded another shuttle train to Gornergrat at an a...

A very pleasant surprise greeted us this morning with sunshine and clear blue skies after the gloomy yesterday. Taking advantage of the opportunity for good views of the surrounding Alps, we set out in the car for Val d'Anniviers, a beautiful valley south of Crans-Montana and south of the Rhone. We drove to the village of Zinal at the end of the road and stopped for a coffee. Along the way were charming chalets and dairy farms on the valley slopes and breathtakin...

Another surprise greeted the morning today. Snow! Light snow came all morning and covered the trees and lawns. Temperature was around 3 Celsius (35 F). The snow melted before noon. Lazy morning was followed by lunch in the village at 'Le Chalet'. Marie then drove to a place where she showed me a Bisse du Rho which channels water from a lake to where it is needed for cattle. Our sightseeing included a visit and coffee at a dog school and kennel. We took dinner i...