Sunday, July 22, 2007

Our Next Adventure

For our next adventure we are going to hike from Chamonix France to Zermatt Switzerland, alson known as the Walker's Haute Route. We will fly in to London (August 4/5) and spend most of the day there, and then fly to Geneva that night. We will spend a day in Geneva and then leave for Chamonix the next day. Once in Chamonix, the hike starts. Each day we will start in one town/village or high alpine hut and walk to another town/village or high alpine hut.












The total distance is 170 km/110 miles and it should take us 14 days. Below is the hill profile for the trip.







We should be back to Geneva by August 21, with a flight to London on the 22nd and the flight hom on August 23rd.

We are going to try to post while we are en route, but photos may not be available until after we get home.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Day 14 - Brugges

Last night we headed out to an italian restaurant near by. It was the second time that we made the assumption that they took credit cards (it was clearly marked on the door), but once we asked for the bill found out they didn't.....so Kevin ran to the ATM, again.

After dinner we walked back to the Grand Place to try to find a bar, where we did some serious people watching.

Today we headed to Brugges. It took about an hour to get there by train. Once there we headed to the square. We climbed the bell tower, this spiral staircase was worse then the Arc d' Triumphe, it was just as narrow but everyone went up and down the same stairs, and there wasn't really a good way to pass. To practice for our hiking trip in August (ok, its not really practice but really just our little joke) we try not to use the handrail on the way up or down. I made it to the top before I had to use the railing (it was just too steep and the steps too tall and narrow). Going down, I used the railing the entire time. At the top we waited for the hourly ringing of the bells...(they sound much better from the square).

Once down we both needed a beer and to sit down (to get rid of our vertigo). After lunch we headed to a couple of museums (where we saw several van eyck paintins, the Madonna & Child by Michaelango and several other works). We spent a lot of time walking around. We were going to go for a bike ride, but decided instead to have some fries and catch the train back to Brussels.
When we made our last transfer I got on one car and Kevin got on another...I thought he was one direction so I headed that way...turns out he was in the car behind me...we found each other at the last stop. Kevin was a little scared as I had both tickets and he had to board the train in front of one of the conductors...

Now we are packing, downloading pictures, charging ipods and downloading podcasts. We fly home tomorrow, my flight is at 7am and Kevin's is at 12. I get home at 11:30am and he gets in around 11:30 pm.