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Mountains.58

Mountains.57

So I told two Swiss friends (during text chats conducted as I walked along the shores of another stunning arm of this lovely neighbor lake) that Switzerland has officially annoyed me in the way that a vegetarian restaurant annoys me: too many irresistible options. Those texts were about where I’ll go next – and these shots just share more. Everywhere one turns here, one just sees more lovely things to photograph. In the gallery below are two photos shot from moving trains en route to Zermatt, plus three including the bottom panorama taken from the balcony of the place I stayed in. Impossible to do anything other than gawk out train windows around here, if it’s daylight.

Lake Living.47

A suite of images from yesterday’s morning walk to pick up a few groceries, though indeed with a detour or two along the way to savor the views. The nearby pyramid-tipped mountain is Monte San Giorgio, on the border w/Italy and apparently a UNESCO world heritage site, whatever that might mean.

Lake Living.46

This is Lago Maggiore as seen from the train I took from Domodossola to Gallarate on Saturday. Lago Maggiore is mostly in Italy, with only its northernmost part in Switzerland. This photo was taken from the train (hence the light reflections, sorry) as we pulled away from the station at Verbania Palanza, and below are two more train shots of the only lake I expect to be showing you which is fully inside Italy: the little Lago di Mergozzo which sits just west of this westernmost bay of Lago Maggiore.

Mountains.56

In case anyone’s trying to follow along, these are all taken looking away from the Matterhorn, i.e. looking north to the village of Zermatt and the mountains north and east of the Matterhorn across one or more valleys. And all from that first morning hike last Tuesday – I really am deleting a lot of photos, but everywhere one turns around here, one sees beauty and I do love to enjoy and share beauty, as my small but loyal band of readers knows :-).

Mountains.55

This is – should you have any doubt – the Matterhorn as seen from a much higher elevation than I showed you in our very first post from Zermatt, a few days ago. As yesterday evening’s post noted, I’ve now amassed many lovely images and experiences of sunny landscapes full of mountains – and, especially beginning with yesterday’s delightful multi-connection journey from Zermatt over to Bissone (in Ticino Canton, the southernmost part of Switzerland) – quite a few more of lovely lakes and lakeside towns and villages with mountains rising behind them. These lovely sunny views will hopefully boost me in the darker rainier A’dam months days ahead. On the purely photo side, they also mean I’ll concentrate on these two series for a bit :-).

Lake Living.45

Lake Lugano in Bissone, Ticino, Switzerland. We’ll be sharing mostly Lake Living and Mountains images for a bit now, eh? 🙂

Lake Living.44

Taken from the train while still in France, en route to Geneva then onward. Pretty sure that’s Lac de Nantua, if I was following our route correctly.

Ah, Royalty.44

Some views from the Domaine National du Palais Royal, one of Paris’s many formerly-royal compounds that’s currently home to the Ministry of Culture, the Conseil d’Etat and the Constitutional Council. After all, when you’ve had a few revolutions and are on your fifth republic, naturally the buildings have been repurposed a time or two… 🙂
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Longest Beach.44

Mountains.54

From the Air.63

As I mentioned yesterday, I was heading to Switzerland from Paris. This is me today in Switzerland … in mid-air on a suspension bridge. Looking directly down from said bridge, you’d see what I show you next. Thereafter, a few more scenic shots all from mid-air on that bridge :-). The village in the valley is Zermatt, my home for a few more nights this week. Some of you may be able to deduce what this means you’re likely to see next…

Islands.73

Notre Dame of course sits on Ile de la Cite, with Ile St Louis nested upstream and next to it. You can just see St Louis’s tip in the photo at the bottom, to the left. Why oh why did it take me more than three years of living in Amsterdam to finally just hop on the train down here? I’d forgotten how much I love this city.


City Lights.73

Yes, we’ve made it back to the City of Light for the first time in — wait for it — fourteen years. Today I’m heading on towards Switzerland after three days of getting reacquainted with this unique city in which I spent a fair amount of time between 2005 and 2010. These are all from an evening walk along both banks of the Seine and around the Marais on my first evening, last Saturday.