Switzerland

To the World Triathlon Champs | 29 Aug 2006

Arrived in Geneva, late Tuesday, crashed and then got up early, picked up the car and drove to Bern via Rolle and Morges (small towns on Lac Leman/Lake Geneva). We had a look around Bern and then headed for Interlarken.

After dull weather on the first day, woke up to a stunner so decided to head up Jungfraujoch. Got there by cog train with the station being the highest in the world I think. An expensive excursion but was our first experience at 3459m. Went for a ride on a sled with huskies, and treked up to a hut that was even higher, where we had lunch.

On returning to the car in Grindelwald we headed over the Susten and Furka passes towards Brig. The passes were stunning and at times we were in snow. The roads were narrow and windy and we passed some fantastically ghostly looking villages full of tumble down Valais homes. Stayed at a very basic place in Brig where we managed to convey in sign language to the Swiss German host. On heading out to get dinner I was bitten by a mutant terrier while I was standing looking at the menu board... not much I could do as we had a rather large language barrier with the owner.

Next day headed to Zermatt to see Matterhorn where we parked in Tasch (as Zermatt car free). We didn't expect to be blown away but were. We went for a walk up to Riffelalp (quite a grunt in fact) which gave us spectaculor views of the mountain.

We then headed for Lausanne and to catch up with Kathrine and Rick. Managed to nearly find them with the worst map in the world. We gave up eventually and headed to a gassy for a map. It turned out we were in fact across the road and Rick could see up out the window so we'd done pretty well.

The next day we looked around Lausanne and then went and watched Kath do her race. We yelled lots for the kiwis... it was nice to be around a lot.

On our last day we had a good sleep in and then headed down to watch the guys elite race. We yelled for Hamish Carter to win and hung our flag in obvious places but it wasn't enough to get him in front of the Brit!

Locations Visited: London, Geneva, Rolle, Morges, Bern, Interlaken, Grindelwald, Brig, Tasch, Zermatt, Aigle, Lausanne, Montreux, Lausanne, Geneva, London

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