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I'm leaving Tulsa International Airport for my flight to Geneva, Switzerland
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After a long flight, I finally arrived at the Hotel Des Bergues in Geneva.
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Geneva is the headquarters of many international organizations including the Red Cross. This photo shows it's symbol: the Jet d'Eau, a fountain in Lake Geneva that shoots a plume of water 500 feet in the air.
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I took a walk through the Old Town. I loved these buildings, and the small, steep, narrow streets.
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This is the onion-domed Russian Church.
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You are looking at the spire, and bell tower, of the Cathedral of St Peter.
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I loved these little restaurants tucked in along the boulevard. They are just so quaint.
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I would love to have one of these.
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As you can see, there are a lot of motor cycles, which they would need to go in and out of these small streets.
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I found this cute little park, and, of course, I had to get on the teeter-totter. It's not quite as much fun bouncing yourself up and down, but I still had fun. = )
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I don't remember who this was, but she sure was a skinny thing, with very long arms. She almost looks like an alien.
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The tour I was on was sponsored by Maupintour, and I met the group the night before. There are a lot of great people. Today we left Geneva, and headed along the northern edge of Lake Geneva. There was one beautiful scene after another.
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I loved looking at all of the chalets.
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After travelling awhile along the alpine roads, and still along Lake Geneva, we came to Montreux, and went through the Castle of Chillon.
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The Castle of Chillon is a 13th-century fortress, and an infamous prison made famous by Lord Byron's poem.
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We travelled over Col Des Mosses Pass where we saw more scenes like this.
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Here we are visiting another small village where we had lunch.
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One thing I really loved about these small towns were the flower boxes. This was September, so everything was still in bloom.
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We stopped to visit this very well-kept cemetery. Next to it was this nice chapel.
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I just couldn't get over how beautiful this was.
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This was one of the biggest chalets that I had seen yet.
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We stopped and watched these farmers getting their hay raked up. The woman was working as hard as the men. You go girl!
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As we walked along the road, another family went by with their hay loaded on the wagon.
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I didn't expect to see anything like this on our trip. We went by a small bird statuary, and saw this beautiful owl.
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After arriving near the Bernese Oberland highlands, we got to take a cruise on Lake Thun.
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This ferry boat brought back some scary, but funny memories. When I was sixteen, and my brother was ten, we were visiting Thun with our parents. Mike and I took a rowboat out on the lake. We had been out there awhile, when before we knew it, one of these boats was barreling down on us. It's horn alone was loud enough to almost blow us about of the water! HOW FAST CAN A PERSON ROW A BOAT.......really, really fast. Years later we were still laughing about that.
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Believe me when I say that this boat was much more relaxing than that rowboat trip!
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If you didn't care to be out in the wind, you could enjoy the trip inside this nice dining area.
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We were fortunate to have a clear, beautiful day for this boat cruise. I wondered if some of these chalets were summer homes. That would be nice.
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As you can see, I really enjoyed being outside.
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After a refreshing and delightful cruise, we arrived at the year-round resort of Grindelwald.
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We stayed in the Grand Hotel Regina, nestled in the Alps. The staff was so friendly.
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I took a picture of my room from the outside.
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The room was wonderful. I love the beds in Europe because they always have these down comforters. So snuggy and warm.
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Ahhhh...then there was the bathroom. The window opened onto the most beautiful scenery. The air was so crisp and clean. I wanted to break out in song, "The hills are alive......"
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In a few minutes, we will be heading up to the of the Jungfraujoch, ususally called the Jungfrau. My mom and I had been there before, so this was going to be a good memories trip.
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The Swiss have engineered railways that can reach even the most inaccessible mountain locations. Here I am boarding the highest rack railroad in Europe, heading to the top of the Jungfrau.
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These are two nice gals I had met on the first night. The one on the left had made it to the first base camp of Mt. Everest a couple of years ago. I was so impressed!
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I got a shot of another train going back down.
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The altitude is getting higher, and it's getting really cold
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There was one stop, so I was able to get a photo of the outside of the train.
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I'd say we are getting closer to the top!
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We made it to the top!
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Wow! All I can say is that this is freakin' awesome!
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And then........I got to take a dog sled ride. OMG, that was so much fun.
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I loved these dogs. It's so amazing that they don't get cold.....and it was cold out there.
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After walking over the snowfields, and going through the ice hallways into the Ice Palace, I was cold. This hot chocolate hit the spot.
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After coming down from the Jungfrau, we went back to the Hotel Regina. The next morning, we boarded a narrow gauge train for a short ride to Zermatt, one of Europe's most enchanting villages. They took us to our hotel by horse-drawn carriage.
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Since no cars are allowed in the village, it was easy to walk around and look at things.
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I could have taken hundreds of pictures in this one little village because of how beautiful it was.
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I just had to get a close-up of this pretty horse. You could tell he was well taken care of.
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Moving down toward the end of the village, I found this pretty cemetery.
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This is the Matterhorn. When I was 16, I bought my first painting, and it was of the Matterhorn. I remember my parents had a huge mural of the Matterhorn in their bathroom.
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I always see pictures of the Matterhorn snow covered, but since it's fall, the snow hasn't come yet. I still think it's beautiful.
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Another day, another adventure. We took the Gornergrat cog railway up to the Matterhorn. It's in the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy.
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After we got off of the railway, this was our first view.
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And this was my first stop: the WC, water closet (bathroom).
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Looking from another vantage point, there was a lot more snow.
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A Bernhardiner Swiss Mountain dog. It looks like he has had a hard day.
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Ahhhhhhhhhh...it looks like they are both worn out. I would imagine just standing for these huge dogs is a struggle.
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This is my official "been to the Matterhorn" photo. They were so sweet, but I could just hear them saying, "Geesh, here we go. Another tourist wanting us to pose with them." = )
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You get an amazing panoramic view from the Gornergrat telescope.
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All of the cold fresh air was making me hungry. I wanted to sit down and order some hot chocolate, but everybody else had the same idea.
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I got tired of waiting for a table, so I finally asked these people if I could sit down with them. Ah, the hot chocolate tasted so good.
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Well, I just had to have one more picture taken with the St. Bernards.
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We're back to the hotel where we stayed with time enough to go shop. It's the Hotel Mont Cervin, a very nice hotel.
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The following day, we boarded Switzerland's famous Alpine train, the "Glacier Express." We went through the Furka Tunnel, which is over a mile long. We continued through the beautiful Engadine Valley until we came to St. Moritz, the resort of the rich and famous. The Crystal Hotel was our home for the night.
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We ate dinner here, and I just took this photo because I thought the sign looked so ornate.
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I didn't get a photo of St. Moritz when we were coming up to it, so I got one when we left.
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When we left St. Moritz, we headed over the Fern Pass with awesome views of the Zugspitze mountain. We entered Germany, and headed to Oberammergau. We stayed at this delightful hotel called the ParkHotel Sonnenhof.
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At dinner that evening, we heard cowbells. I went outside, never wanting to miss a photo, and saw this man bringing his cows down from the mountain. That was so much fun to see.
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The next day was a big one. We came to Oberammergau to see the Passion Play, which is a dramatic presentation depicting the suffering and passion of Christ. It is put on by the townspeople, and is held only once every ten years. It is amazing and incredible. On my way to the theater, I went through the town.
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So many of the hotels and restaurants had these beautiful paintings on them.
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This is another example of the designs on the buildings. It was like being in fantasy land.
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Oberammergau is also known for its woodcarvers.
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This is the theater where the play is held. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed. To see photos of this extraordinary event, and it is extraordinary, you can Google it. To me, the most amazing part of the play was when Judas hung himself. The man who plays Judas actually hangs himself. Believe you me, there was a gasp in the audience. Somehow he swings behind the curtain, where the prop people have to immediately get him down. From what I heard, it's pretty risky, and there have been some close calls. I don't think I would want that part.
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It was a very emotional event, and it felt good to do some silly things afterward to relax. These painted cows were everywhere. Behind me is the orchestra getting ready to put on an evening of music.
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This is one way to advertise your sales. It was a clothes sale, not a mooooving sale. Sorry, just had to do it.
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I milked cows a couple of times as a kid, but these just didn't feel the same.
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The next morning, I woke up to the sound of a cow bell. I don't know why, but it's such a delightful sound. I took this photo from my room.
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I quickly put my clothes on and went down to get a closer photo of her. I didn't see the farmer anywhere.
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I wanted a close up of the cow bell since I had bought one in Zermatt. Mine is a bit more decorated. I was surprised she wasn't afraid of me. I guess the cows are used to all of the tourists.
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We are heading back to Switzerland, and this was the scenery we saw along the way.
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We've come to Lucern, which is in the north-central part of Switzerland, and is in the German speaking portion of the country. It is within sight of Mt. Pilatus. Lucern has been voted as the 5th most-popular tourism destination in the world.
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This is the Lucern's famous landmark. It's called the Chapel Bridge, and it is a wooden bridge that was erected in the 14th century. It is just so picturesque.
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I thought the bridge looked pretty with the sun shining through it, and all of the beautiful flowers along the side.
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I loved watching the ducks.
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I especially liked this little guy.
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My son asked me to bring him back a Rolex from Switzerland. Yeah, right! Well, I did anyway. I brought him a Rolex.....a PICTURE of a Rolex! = )
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This was a beautiful clock made from grasses and flowers, and it kept perfect time.
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There were so many promenades to walk along. This one led to my hotel.
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I had this taken in front of one of the entrances of the Grand National Hotel. This was the hotel we stayed in while we were in Lucern.
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Are you dizzy yet? This was taken from the top floor looking down through the staircase.
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I'll have to say that this was probably the nicest room I stayed in on the whole trip. The room was large, it had a pretty balcony, and you could look out over Lake Lucern.
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The bathroom wasn't too shabby either! If a bath room can be gorgeous, this one was gorgeous!
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I sat there the longest time just relaxing and basking in the beautiful scenery, and watching all of the boats go by.
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We toasted each other on our last night of the trip.
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