Gornergrat Glacier...

Well, the next day started out with glorious weather! Absolutely blue skys and lots of sun. We got a late start because I forgot to turn on my alarm but we still made it to breakfast (which is included in the hotel price!). I had breakfast under the shadow of the Matterhorn!

We headed into town to procure lunch supplies and found the Coop - food on the cheap, yahoo! Today's hike started up high so we had to take a train up - a funicular actually - thru the mountain! Gotta love Swiss engineering. It saved us like 3000 feed of climbing which allowed us to do more in the day than just trudge up a big hill! From Sunnega we hiked up another 1500 feet past Blauhard to the first of the 5 lakes. On our trip up we were able to snap this beauty!

The trip up was steep - just like everything in Zermatt - it was straight up. But the views totally made up for it. You just hike slower, take more breaks and more pictures! The trails reminded us alot of the trails in Colorado, only steeper and bigger:) We saw free ranging sheep, goats, and chamois. From the first lake (Stellisee) we hiked down and around to Grindjisee and then on to what I think was Leisee (there were so many!).

When we go to the last lake we had a few choices. We could continue around the valley rim to Riffelap and then down on the train or just head down then or about 11 other permutations of that plan. I was starting to get really burned on my arms and was ready to call it a day but my fantastic husband fashioned a pair of sleeves from our coats (so i wouldnt have to wear the coat in 90 degree weather) and we decided to push on. We hit was we thought was supposed to be a hiking trail but instead ended up being an access road. I could have sworn we missed something but mark assured me we were in the right place. Thankfully he was right:) We reached the junction that would take us up to Riffelberg and on to Gornergrat or down to Riffelap and the valley.

We still had more time so we decided to push on. The last train down was at 7:40 and we started our hike up to the station around 6:00. According to the trail sign it would take us 1 hr and 15 min which meant there was little time to dilly dally. Unfortunately, the snow had a different idea. We lost our trail due to the snow and had to improvise. Fortunately, the direction was easy - up! At one point mark plunged hip deep in the white stuff and we were running behind on time! Seeing an easier path up, he took us cross country . It was worth it! We made it up with 30 min to spare and had plent of time to photograph the glaciers.

We waited around photographing and fixing blisters while we waited for the train down. It was 45 min down (which would have been a few hours if we hiked) . Dinner was kebabs (because that was the only cheap place open) and then off to bed. 9000 feet and 4+ glaciers - what a day!!

Lessons Learned:
1. Everything has a price - someone offered to buy our tripod while we were at the top!
2. The hiking times on the signs were pretty accurate for our hiking pace!

Zermatt Day One...

Today was our first day in Zermatt. I was watching the weather and saw that weather was predicted to roll into Zermatt later in the week but that I was supposed to be beautiful earlier in the week. Well, there's not much to Zermatt for hikers when the mountain is clouded in so we decided to switch up our schedule to take advantage of the good weather.

We boarded the first train out of Munich in order to have as much time in Zermatt as we could. Well, we learned a few things on our train trip. One, there is no route from Munich to Zermatt that doesn't travel thru Austria and because our Eurail pass did not include Austria, the very nice ticket man made us pay for our two stops in the country (all of about 12 Euro). Two, our Eurail pass does not cover private rail ways (which we knew) and the trip from Visp to Zermatt was on a private rail way (which we didn't know). 50 EUR later we were all set. The ticket man on the train was very nice and let us stay in first class but only pay for second:) Thank you mister ticket man.

After all our that back and forth we made it into Zermatt safe and sound. The trip from Visp to Zermatt was amazing! The train is a partial cog rail in order to get you up the mountains (imagine the things you see that pull roller coasters up the hills!) Many times you had to stop and wait for the train coming down because there was only one set of tracks in places. It gave you all the more time to sit and bask in the amazing scenery.

We arrived in to Zermatt around 3:00pm and promptly found our accommodations for the few days we were going to be there. It was quite a hike up but it was worth it - we had an unobstructed view of the Matterhorn from our place. We dropped our big packs and switched to day packs and headed out to find some solitude! We headed out on a circuit hike that connected you to 7 or 8 huts if you did the entire thing. We decided to do the first two and then head back down - just a little bit to get us warmed up for our bigger hikes later in the week.

Well, trails in Zermatt are basically straight up! They must not have know about switchbacks when they cut the trail (or the Swiss are just that hard core!) I'm really glad we dropped the big packs because it would have been really tough. Walking stick are mandatory to save your knees!

The pain of the hike was washed away by the amazing scenery we were walking thru. Waterfalls, mountains, wild animals! As we crested the hill at hotel du trift the sun started to fall in the sky. We knew we only had a few more hours of good light so after a few pics, we turned around and high tailed it down the trail into town. We arrived just in time for sunset (which was something like 9:40pm!).

We'd not eaten yet, which was a problem since most places close at 5 or 6pm, but managed to find one place that had food. Lesson for tomorrow - either take dinner or be prepared to pay thru the nose! Tomorrows trip will be to the 5 Sweeweng (5 lakes basically)

Lessons Learned:
1. You don't need a reservation with a first class Eurail ticket in Germany or Switzerland on most all trains (unless you're going to Italy or France or something).
2. Don't listen to the guys in the main station ticket booth - they'll sell you anything! Ours validated our Eurail pass but still made us reservations in 2nd class on a train where reservations weren't required. None of which we needed.
3. Learn what trains are national rail vs. private rail and be prepared to pay for private rail. We got a discount but it was still not cheap!

4. Most places take Visa!

5. Buying bread, meat and cheeze at the grocery store was a great way to have a cheap lunch on the trail. The huts and inns you passed were quite expensive.

Munich...

The next few posts will be a little different that the others. I'll try to keep them focused on photography but wanted to outline our recent trip to Germany and Switzerland. Each day of the trip will be a different blog post. We certainly did alot of photography along the way and learned a few things about how to get the whitebalance and exposure right shooting snow but you'll see that later.

First, on to Munich. Our flight over was uneventful. I managed to score us Economy plus seating on United which was really nice on the 8+ hour trip across the pond. I didn't manage to get any sleep on the flight so we were in for a very long day! With a quick stop over in Geneva and a near heart attack when our bags were not there to be loaded on the plane (apparently Lufthansa doesnt take much luggage from United and they have to go searching!) we arrived in Munich - bags and all!

Most all announcements and signs were in both German and English (and sometimes French, Japanese and Italian!) so we had no problem finding baggage claim and then transport. The Munich S-bahn is very easy to navigate - once you figure out the ticketing system. Fortuantley, we weren't the only lost ones, we watched two or three other groups as they tried to figure it out in front of us. The S8 train takes you right into Munich city center. We stopped off at the main rail station (haupbahnhof) to get our rail tickets validated and off we went into the city to see things.

Our first stop was the Marienplatz - the center of Munich where the Rathaus stands high above the square (picture above). Surrounding the Marienplatz were a number of historic buildings - churches and the like. All were open to the public to tour and take photos. We walked into a few and snapped off the one above. The architecture is amazing!

As we walked around we saw another church with a huge tower - the DOM! For 6 EUR each you could climb to the top of the DOM and look out over the city of Munich. The pic below was after our climb (with backpacks on!) to the top of the tower. We're looking over the Marienplatz.

After all the climbing we were hungry so we set off to find the famed Hofbrauhaus! It's off tucked away on the northern part of the city center but it was easy enough to find with a street map. It was a monday afternoon so the place was not crowed however it was loud and hot! Mark had a dark bier - a huge one and I stuck with Weiss (which was only .5L). He tried the Brokwurst and I had the Spatzel (i could find macaroni and cheeze anywhere!)

After our trip to the Hof we were full of food and beer and quite tired (last nights non sleep was catching up to me). We boarded the Sbahn and after a few wrong turns and a very long unnecessary walk, we found out hotel and crashed. We have every intention of just dropping the packs and heading back into the city for some night life but that never happened!

Tomorrow we're on the train for 7 hours to Zermatt! We made reservations at the train station when we got our tickets validated.

Lessons learned today:

Sleep on the way over!
You need to push the button on the train door to make it open, they don't just open on their own!
The S and U-bahn doesnt seem to check tickets, however fines are steep if they do and you're without one
Everything costs something here - walking to the top of the DOM etc...

Absentee Blogger...

So, at this point I'm likely somewhere high in the Swiss Alps enjoying the fresh air and my new camera! We're one week into our two week Germany/Switzerland trip and likely have filled at least half of the 10GB of memory we'd taken with us. I thought I'd put together a post or two for while I'm gone to keep everyone entertained. Rest assured, there are lots of great pics coming once we get back in the States!

The image below was taken after Mark's V-ball tourney on the banks of the Potomac river. I didnt have the tripod but instead used the wall to the right of me as a balance. I've processed it a bit to bring out the colors of the night. It was such a cool moon!

Again, i'm not a huge fan of overprocessing but this one is sooo cool! I just love the purple hue it's taken and the reflection of the street lights on the water. This one took a few shots to get right because I didn't have my remote (which meant i had to touch the camera to fire it. That small movement can cause enough blur in the pic to ruin it). Luckly I found the timer feature and that worked out just peachy.

Lightroom Filters ahoy...

Some of the shots from last week were just blah so I decided to try to spice them up. I've never been one for over processed images but to tell you the truth, you can only see the Washington Monument so many times before you need a change.

I think the dark blue hue to the image gives it that vintage look and just enough pop. So not everyone will love it but I'm kind of digging it.

The chariot guy below sits on either side of the bridge right next to Lincoln. He's kind of neat and bronzy without altering but the blue again gave it a different perspective. It took an ordinary pic take at the totally wrong time of day and gave it something extra. Both of the above filters came from A Girl in Love. These two in particular are the "don't wear the ring" preset.

This one I can't remember what one exactly I used. I think it was another Girl in Love but I'm not positive. I was intrigued by the signature on the soliders leg at the Korean Memorial. I've walked past these guys many times and this time for some reason the signature just stood out at me - dunno why.

Anyways, the next two weeks worth of blogs will be from things past. I'm going on a vacation but couldnt deprive all 4 of you that read this so I'll schedule a few posts up so you have something to read in the mean time.

Memorial...

I spent today at Mark's volleyball tourney in downtown DC (where they took 2nd btw!). During the time between pool play and play offs I decided to walk from the courts over to the monuments (a 10 min walk). Since I had the new camera with me I figured it'd be a good way to waste time:)

Since I only had about an hour, I stayed to the one end of the reflecting pool up by Lincoln, Korean, and Vietnam Memorials. While I was passing through the Korean memorial and taking pictures of the hauntingly life like statues, I saw this bandanna tied to the chains.

Printed on the digital camo was the Soldiers Creed. The line that struck me the most is pictured here in the center of the frame, "I will never leave a fallen comrade". This was just one of 10 or so temporary memorials placed in front of the statues.

I'm always overwhelmed when I visit that area. Those memorials can never make up for what so many have lost but it does help us to remember that there are real heros in our midst and that those heros are ordinary men and women sacrifice everything for our freedom. I don't ever think we can thank them enough - but we can certainly keep on trying.