EDELWEISS, EDELWEISS

           

Every morning you greet me

Small and white, clean and bright

You look happy to meet me

Blossom of snow may

you bloom and grow

Bloom and grow forever

Edelweiss, Edelweiss

 Bless my homeland forever
 

                         

You may recognize the words of the song written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for their musical The Sound of Music.  It is in reference to this unique flower, which grows on steep and dangerous mountains and is the national flower of Switzerland and Austria.  To many, it signifies deep love and devotion.  Men have been known to face treacherous mountain climbs just to pluck one for their beloved.  As legion has it, a woman who receives an edelweiss bloom from a man she is assured of his deep love for her.  For my 70th birthday, we decided to go see the Alps and, just maybe, an edelweiss up close by taking a 9-day tour of Switzerland and parts of Italy.  What an experience!

    The first leg on this journey began with an hour flight from Tallahassee to Atlanta and then another ten hours on Delta from Atlanta to Zurich.  This was tough but we bucked up, put our ear buds in, listened to music, watched videos, partook of the "free" food and beverages, and attempted to slip in a nap here and there. 

Zurich

     The first day and night were in Zurich.  Although we were tired from the travel, we were invigorated by making new friends. They came from all over the world and ranged in age from 8 to 78.  Seeing the audacious scenery, the cleanliness of the cities, and experiencing a variety of cultures that first afternoon was a great kick-off to our new adventure.   As we rode in the tour coach  through the Zurich City Centre, Ron whispered to me, "Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore." 

Charlie Chaplain character

Lake Geneva

      Day 2 took us to Bern where we took a short cruise on Lake Geneva before we visited the Charlie Chaplin Museum and Mansion.


It was fun seeing vignette's of  the comedian's black and white films and characters from our youth.  The day ended with a peaceful night in Lausanne.

Castle Chillon

Mountainside vineyard

 















On Day 3, we traveled to Zermatt for 2 nights. On the way, we toured the Castle Chillon
and lunched at the local Lavaux vineyards.



 Sunrise on the Matterhorn

 Matterhorn view from the Cable Car

     












      The next day our group road gondolas and cable cars up the Alps for an amazing view of the steep Matterhorn which was once considered by climbers as the unconquerable King of the Alps.  In 1865, the top of the Matterhorn was successfully scaled for the first time by a seven-man rope team led by a British climber named Edward Whymper.  Unfortunately, the descent proved to be even more treacherous than the climb up and four of the men fell to their death.  Today, more than 2,000 people per year attempt to reach the top.  An average of 3-4 of those never make it back down.  It is beautiful but I think this adventure will not be included on my bucket list. 

     Our inner children came out when we were in Zermatt so we slid in the snow on inner tube skis.
 

 

Isola Bella palace

     Day 5  We traveled to Baveno, Italy for a cruise on Lake Maggiore to an island to tour the Isola Bella Palace.

Lake Maggiore island with Isola Bella Palace

     Day 6  We caught the Bernina Line train in Tirano, Italy and traveled up the mountain to the Pontresina station in St. Moritz, Switzerland.  We were awestruck by the views  from the train.

Cable car descending from top of Stanserhorn

Day 7  We traveled to Lucerne and boarded an old
 timer train in Stans to get halfway up the

View from the top of the Stanserhorn Mountain

 

Stanserhorn mountain and then switched to riding a recently installed open-air Cabrio Cable Car to reach the top. The views were magnificent! In the evening, we were entertained by a local group performing a Swiss Folklore Show during  a multi-course dinner which included fondue as the starter.  Audience participation was required.  Doing the chicken dance was a blast!  We all sang Edelweiss like it was our native song.  

     Day 8  We enjoyed some free time in Lucerne which we used to check out the local shops and searched for souvenirs.  We had to spend all our Swiss Francs, you know. We relaxed at a grassy park for lunch and watched the local paragliders

Paraglider in Lucerne

soar through the sky in tandem with many tourists.  

Ron enjoys the fancy farewell dessert.

        A farewell dinner with our new found friends, tour director, and coach driver wrapped up our tour that evening.  Some of our fellow travelers had plans to extend their trip to other countries and adventures.  We were sad to leave everyone and beautiful Switzerland but, for better or worse, there is no place like home and getting back to family. 

      By the way, in case you are wondering, we never saw an edelweiss flower.  I guess you have to hike instead of ride up the mountains to see one.  Maybe next time.  We did see many, many beautiful wild flowers everywhere we went and all the houses and hotels were adorned with window boxes full of multi-colored geraniums and other flowers.