annhig

More gorgeous photos, Mel - so far your planning has paid off handsomely. Such a shame that that pesky wasp had to decide to sting you.

Those 5 days must have awfully long.

WeisserTee

That's such a shame about the wasp and really bad luck for you -- this year the wasps have been almost non-existent, probably due to the summer's weird weather. But I guess this is their last chance before the cold sets in and they die off.

Melnq8

Oct 6 –

Today's skies looked slightly more promising, yet not promising enough to commit to four buses, the Tignousa funicular up and then back down, plus a four hour return hike to the historic Hotel Weisshorn, so instead we chose to set Bill’s engineering bits all a twitter by visiting the Moiry dam, which is located above Grimentz.

https://www.valais.ch/en/touren/hiki...-de-moiry-2500

We could see the road to Lac de Moiry from the kitchen of our apartment, and trust me, that sucker is every bit as steep as it looks. Toss in a series of impossibly tight switchbacks and a few scary drops offs and it’s quite the bus ride; a 2,300 foot elevation gain in less than 5 miles.

There were only three of us on the bus, which deposited us at the shuttered restaurant near the dam. The women’s restroom was blocked with a table, so I had no choice but to use the men’s, which looked rather neglected. I got the impression it was mostly for the use of the bus drivers on this route.

The dam rises an impressive 485 feet. We’d hoped to walk around the lake and up to the Moiry glacier, but there was conflicting information on how long the trek would take…and it was cold…and snowing…and the fog was moving in yet again…and I was a bit worried because there are only four buses a day to this very remote area and I sure as hell didn’t want to get stuck up here during a blizzard. So, Bill grudgingly agreed to settle for following our bus driver, who walked across the dam and up an incline or two; me determined to not let our ride back to town out of my sight.

Note: There’s also a bus to the glacier, but this time of year it only runs once a day, and it’s a pick-up service around 4 pm.



Road to Lac de Moiry from above

Lac de Moiry

Is that what I think it is?

Lac de Moiry

Lac de Moiry

Lac de Moiry

Lac de Moiry

Lac de Moiry

Then it was back to Grimentz (on the same bus) and onto a bus to Vissoie for lunch and to poke around.

We pursued the menus of the few restaurants in the main square of Vissoie (which also serves as the main bus station – it was a bit of an obstacle course – buses coming and going, cars dropping off passengers, confused pedestrians milling about, and entirely too many screeching rambunctious school kids running amuck).

We chose Au Manior D’Anniviers, Bill drawn in by its lunch menu of seasoned beef, me taking the large number of patrons on the terrace as a good sign. Wrong.

Lunch was pretty awful. Bill was facing the kitchen and saw someone pour what appeared to be a box of commercially prepared soup into a pot on the stove. Oh no. The soup wasn't good. Sections of his seasoned beef were near raw and all of it was tough as shoe leather. We looked around and noticed that no one else had ordered the lunch special – maybe they were locals who knew better.

My cheese crepe was – melted cheese in a crepe - not good, not bad, but definitely not worth 14 chf.

Overall a very disappointing 55 chf meal (including an Aperol Spritz each).

Afterwards we wandered the streets, me happy to see the sun for the first time in days. We watched Porsche after Porsche head up the mountain to St Luc, wondering what might be going on up there.


Vissoie

Looking from Vissoie towards Grimentz

Looking from Vissoie towards Grimentz

Vissoie

View from Vissoie near bus station

We took the bus back to Grimentz, where that elusive sunshine sent me on a long walk and a photo taking frenzy.


Grimentz

Grimentz

Grimentz

Grimentz

Grimentz


Grimentz

Grimentz

Grimentz


Then it was back to Claire Fontaine for drinks and Apero raclette (28 chf) – we sat inside this time as it was so cold.

​​​​​​​That COVID certificate was proving to be a wonderful thing.

To be continued…

cafegoddess

Thank you for your trip report. I am enjoying reading it and looking at your beautiful pictures. I admire your ability to walk so many miles per day.
Sorry about the wasp. Ouch!

Adelaidean

Those villages really do look charming, Mel, more so when the sun shines!
The contrast between the really beautiful (in a gloomy kind of way) wintry scenes and the green, sunny, flower box pictures feels so different it’s hard to believe it’s the same day.
I think you are much better equipped than I to deal with the inevitable issues of infrequent bus schedules or few restaurants in the out of season, less touristed areas - hats off to you.

Melnq8

cafegoddess - Thanks for reading. That ability to walk so far in a day is rapidly waning I'm afraid.

Adelaidean - I'm all about sunshine, so was glad to finally see it! Makes everything better, especially my mood. Was it you who was looking into Grimentz for your own trip or am I confusing you with someone else?

Adelaidean

I did consider it, but we are not nearly as well travelled or adventurous as you, so thought we’d stick with the beaten path.

I am more likely to do a longer stay in Locarno, for example, than I originally planned, because of the excellent day trip options and a town that offers DH a bit more.
So while I love reading about your bases in more remote hamlets, I don’t think that’ll be on our radar.

Melnq8

Will this be your first visit to Locarno?

Adelaidean

Yes.

Trophywife007

What lovely pictures, Melnq8, but sorry to hear about the wasp sting with such a violent reaction. There were lots of bees/wasps, whatever they were, in Berlin in the summer and the ladies at the bakeries would just swat at them with their hands to get them out of the way, but I remember being attacked -- totally unprovoked on my part -- in Sept. Mean little buggers in the fall, I think.

Melnq8

Mean little buggers indeed Trophywife. They were very thick in Switzerland for whatever reason. At least around me. I seem to attract them.

One got me on the ankle here at home last summer - I was just walking up the steps minding my own business and wham. I guess I was in its way.

Melnq8

I hope you enjoy Locarno Adelaidean. This year was our first visit too and we weren't that crazy about it, although the surrounding area does have a lot on offer with loads to do.

swandav2000

Mel, Grimentz is BEAUTIFUL! Holy cow. You really found a gem there. Sadly, though, my walking ability has well and truly waned, so I've found I need a larger town as a base, where I can poke around shops and alleys for a few days. But. You did a great job poking around the alleys and homes of that village. Thank you for these gorgeous shots.

Annh, I'm gonna have to (repectfully but forcefully) disagree with you about German being easier to learn! I've read that it takes about 3 months to learn English, 3 years to learn French, and 30 years to learn German. And that seems about right to me (I learned French pretty easily in high school, college, & a year in Paris). I was doing ok in my process... until I ran into the declination of adjectives. I find it nearly impossible to remember those 32 or umpteen-hundred options for adjectives. Also, btw, Mark Twain also disagrees with you -- see his "The Awful German Language," a 10-page essay. Your teacher must have been a magician!!

s

Adelaidean

Swandav, my hosts were very confused when I spoke about “geschieden’ rather than ‘entschieden’ - and i merrily continued my weird conversation with them, until they worked out what I was trying to say

Of course I hadn’t divorced yet.... lol.

annhig

<<Annh, I'm gonna have to (repectfully but forcefully) disagree with you about German being easier to learn! I've read that it takes about 3 months to learn English, 3 years to learn French, and 30 years to learn German. And that seems about right to me (I learned French pretty easily in high school, college, & a year in Paris). I was doing ok in my process... until I ran into the declination of adjectives. I find it nearly impossible to remember those 32 or umpteen-hundred options for adjectives. Also, btw, Mark Twain also disagrees with you -- see his "The Awful German Language," a 10-page essay. Your teacher must have been a magician!!>>

Swandav - I think that a lot of it has to do with the age at which you start to learn and how your brain is wired. I was lucky enough to have learnt both french and german at school and german just "clicked" for me, [possibly due to our wonderful teacher, it's true] but french not so much, though I'll still make a stab at it if they'll let me. Then at about age 50 I started to learn Italian and that has been much more of a slog though a joyous one. Though I've not had a german lesson for well over 40 years, it comes back to me so much more quickly and easily than Italian which i've been doing seriously now for over 10 years. So it may well be a combination of the two - a natural inclination towards french and the age at which you started German. but hey - the most important thing is to communicate. Germans also make mistakes with gender and word endings. Who cares if you used the accusative when you should have used the dative? As the wonderful Michel Thomas says, the thing is to get the ball over the net. Sorry if I sound preachy - here endeth the lesson!

swandav2000

Preach away!! It's good stuff! And I have said the same thing, both to myself and to others -- the most important thing is to open your mouth. Indeed, yesterday I had lunch with my oldest friends in Garmisch, and I spent 2h mangling tenses, grammar, and vocabulary; but they did understand me. Nevertheless... when we speak about learning a language, that has to include grammar.

I agree about the problem of aging and learning, too. I started learning German when I was 57 years old. I can stare at (lol, "study") a list of vocabulary words with articles for 2h, then the next morning it's like they are completely new to me. It's frustrating. Eventually, I learned to learn gender by association -- I have a base word in male, feminine, and neutral, then I associate the new word to the base word. For example, my male base word is der Platz. When I learned der Vogel, I pictured it flying over der Platz. Works.

And so, now.... more Mel travel stories and amazing photos, please!

s

Melnq8

Oct 7 -

Sunshine was promised until early afternoon, so we wasted no time, we the only passengers on the first cable car of the day from Grimentz to Sorebois…an aerial tramway that can hold 125 people! Early bird = worm.


Grimentz to Sorebois cable car, just us and the driver

That's us going up, taken from inside the cable car

We were greeted with -2 c (28 F), snow and ice at the top (Sorebois) and took our sweet time taking in the glorious views.



Cable car going back down to Grimentz



Views from the top


Views from the top

Then we continued on the newly constructed (opened December 29, 2020) Sorebois-Espace-Weisshorn gondola, where we had our own 10 person gondola to ourselves (we’d purchased a day pass that covered all three sections, Grimentz to Sorebois, Sorebois-Espace-Weisshorn and Weisshorn-Zinal and return, 18 chf each with Liberte guest card, 50% reduction).

We stopped at the Weisshorn station to take a short, muddy walk, and then continued on the gondola to the village of Zinal, which is nestled at the end of the Val d’ Anniviers, at the foot of the Courrone Imperalle peaks, the highest peaks in the Alps.


Walking around intermediate station

Intermediate station

Walking around intermediate station

Taking in the views from intermediate station


Zinal

Zinal

Zinal

Zinal

Zinal

After poking around Zinal and taking a walk along the river (both of us really liking Zinal!), we backtracked on the gondola, bypassing the intermediate station, hoping that the Bar-à-Pente at the top terminal of the Grimentz-Sorebois cable car would be open for lunch (it wasn’t) and to explore the very steep hike to the Corne de Sorebois, a mountain in the Pennine Alps.

Near the top we parted ways, Bill wanting to see the view over the valley, me wanting to see the lake before those nearby clouds moved in.

While the trail was only .75 mile long it rose 640 feet, and was quite the mud-riddled slog, which, thanks to the beautiful day, offered spectacular views over Lac de Moiry, and showed us what we’d missed the previous day.

https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/...e-de-sorebois/

As I stood admiring those incredible lake views urging Bill to hurry over before the rapidly approaching fog moved in, a few bikers pulled up and gazed down at the switchbacks that led to the lake below. After a few moments, they made their decision and slipped over the edge, quickly disappearing. Ah, thanks, but no.


Slog to Corne de Sorebois

Views from the top of Corne de Sorebois

Views from the top of Corne de Sorebois

Corne de Sorebois

Lac de Moiry from above

Bikers headed down to Lac de Moiry

Clouds moving in

Clouds moving in

Clouds moving in


Then we backtracked, taking the gondola back to the intermediate station for a snack and drinks on the terrace of the self-service Restaurant Sorebois surrounded by those gorgeous sun-drenched Alps, before returning to Grimentz the way we’d come. A beauty of a day and a good way to end our stay in the Val d’ Anniviers.


View from terrace of Restaurant Sorebois


Return cable car to Grimentz

That's us, headed back down to Grimentz

One last Aperol Spritz and Apero racelette for two at Claire Fontane (28 chf) and our time in Grimentz had come to an end.


Apartment in Grimentz, third floor

View from apartment balcony, Grimentz

View from apartment balcony, Grimentz


To be continued…

Melnq8

Oct 8 –

It was time to leave French speaking Grimentz; we tidied the apartment, packed our bags and set out for Italian speaking Locarno, where we had never been.

We intentionally chose the longer six hour route to 1) avoid having to go through Italy and test the validity of our Swiss COVID Certificates and, 2) because this route was showing fewer passenger numbers; which is always a good thing in our book.

Our route involved two bus rides (Grimentz to Vissoie and then on to Sierre on the same bus, our busiest bus to date but still not full, and four trains, Sierre to Visp to Andermatt to Goschenen to Locarno. The Sierre train station is a short walk from the bus stop, but involves going over and through a parking structure. At least the elevator was working this time.

Our route also took us through the 15.4 km Furka Tunnel on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn.

And a bonus, the short and dramatic ride on the Schöllenenbahn, a cog railway that operates between Andermatt and Göschenen through the spectacular Schollenen Gorge. Just wow.


Andermatt to Göschenen

It was more bus and train changes than we’d usually choose when toting luggage, but a good choice as we had a carriage or two completely to ourselves and we saw some wonderful scenery in a country full of wonderful scenery (51.20 chf each).

We were pretty wrecked by the time we finally arrived in Locarno, and were none-too-thrilled (but not that surprised) to find a seriously steep hill that separated us and our luggage from our Air BNB. Thank god for wheeled luggage, but I sure wish someone would invent big 4x4 wheels that can deal with the cobblestones and brutal hills of Switzerland.

Despite our detailed directions, and consulting with two cops at the top of the hill (wondering if they’d been called by a resident because we looked suspicious as we wandered around lost) finding the apartment was confusing and frustrating. The cops kept pointing to a house, but the number didn’t match the number we’d been given. Turns out the cops were right; our apartment was on the backside of the house, hence the number discrepancy (we had a similar issue in Grimentz).

Once sorted, we hurried to the nearest Denner and Coop for breakfast provisions before they closed, then hauled our groceries back up that killer hill. Then we walked back down the hill to town for dinner; me seriously hangry at this point. We ended up at Oasi Bar for alfresco drinks and pizza. Not great, but I was starving and it did the trick.

Our first impression of Locarno – busy, noisy, lots of people and traffic.

Then back up that killer hill. This was going to get very old very fast.

Then began the fight to get the internet sorted; a strange set up and not secure. I sent the owner a message, but no response. Figuring we were just tired, we shelved it until the morning.

To be continued…

Adelaidean

Wow, awesome day!
I had my coffee ready for my morning catch-up on your TR, glad you posted your update (no pressure )

Melnq8

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