From Montreux to Bellagio, Italy

Ok, ok, I know Bellagio is not in Switzerland! When it came to planning our trip to Switzerland, I did not want to take any chances on weather. So, I diligently checked Switzerland’s weather statistics to make sure we were visiting the Alps at the best possible time to see them in all their splendor. I was still concerned though. I had heard horror stories from folks that went to Switzerland in the summer only to see barely recognizable forms of the Alps in the distance due to bad weather. My insurance policy for good weather on the trip was a few days in Bellagio on Lake Como, Italy.

A sun drenched September day on Lake Como

On our way from Montreux to Lake Como, we stopped in Milan for lunch. Although our stop in Milan would only last three hours, we needed lunch anyway and I wanted to photograph the Milan Cathedral. Not wanting to tow our bags on the brief stop, it was convenient that there was a place to drop our luggage for a couple of hours at the train station. It was only four Euro per bag and, since the service is provided by the station itself, it seemed like a secure place to leave our bags. If you ever use the service, please know that there is a strict 18-kilogram weight limit.

A quick stop in Milan on our way to Lake Como

The square that the Cathedral sits on is enormous, was full of people, and had the classic laid-back ambiance that is wonderful about Italy. The day was also bright and sunny, making it the perfect setting to enjoy our panini sandwiches for lunch!

Milan's City Center

Now for the task at hand. I really wanted a set of photo brackets of the interior of the church. Being the rule follower that I am, I asked Donna to go check the sign to see if photos were allowed inside. From what she gathered the answer was no and there were armed police standing at the door checking bags. Not knowing what would happen in the end, I went ahead and applied the likely camera settings for interior shots and put the camera and tripod away before entering the Cathedral.

Once I got in, I was very pleasantly surprised to see all kinds of folks with their point and shoot cameras clicking away with security looking on like there were no rules at all. At that point I decided to pull out the tripod and shoot away without a flash of course. I figured that if I got spanked, I would point to everyone else and politely comply.

The awe-inspiring interior of Milan Cathedral

After lunch in Milan, we took a 35 minute train to the town of Como. Once in Como, you can walk or take a taxi from the Como San Giovanni train station to the boat depot for a ride to one of many towns that surround the lake. Lago di Como is huge and is shaped like the letter Y. Flip the Y over and picture Como at the bottom of the left leg and the town of Bellagio where all the lines meet in the center. There are many towns on the lake to pick from but the positive reviews and location led me to Bellagio for our few days of relaxing in Italian style before we headed back home. The best boat to take is the comparatively fast hydrofoil. A bus would take two hours to reach Bellagio from Como. The fast boat gets you there in about 40 minutes with a few stops thrown in for about $15.

A few steps from our hotel in Bellagio

We arrived in Como at about 4pm and made it to Bellagio by five. Just in time to check-in, have a beer on the terrace, and find a spot for dinner. The town is pretty quiet, not over run with tourists, and is host to great shopping along charming side streets and alleys. The shot above is from one of the best alleys in town. Just head down the path to the sun drenched road and make a right to reach our hotel.

The town of Bellagio, Italy

While in Bellagio, we walked down to the Gardens of Villa Melzi. For eight Euro, you can explore meticulously manicured gardens and walk around the impressive villa on the property. You can tell from the photo below that the weather was gorgeous. What a beautiful place!

Villa Melzi

The photo below is of the interior of the chapel near the villa. It had a lovely patina and the ambiance was very relaxing. I could not resist photographing the geometric shapes  that made up the ceiling.

A quaint chapel at Villa Melzi

Like all towns in Italy, Bellagio has a nice old church, charming architecture, and beauty that does not disappoint. Imagine sitting by the lake for dinner with a warm breeze passing over you as you look to the lake sparkling from the sun setting in the distance. I am not sure what about Italy keeps calling us back. Sure I could list a ton of great things to consider, but what is harder to define is the feeling that we have when we are there. It is really hard to describe. All I know is it makes me smile every time and plants itself firmly in my mind as a place to continue exploring.

Well, next we are on our way to our final destination of the trip, Luzern. I may not get that posted before we leave for France. If not, I will see you when we get back! See you then!

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Making our way to Montreux on Lake Geneva

After having a fabulous time in Murren and the Lauterbrunnen Valley, we headed to Montreux on Lake Geneva. Montreux lies on the north east shore of Lake Geneva – a gorgeous location with it’s sparkling alpine lake and breathtaking views. We stayed in a funky hotel called the Tralala in the old town, which is up the hill about ten minutes from the lake. Since Montreux is the home of the famous Montreux Jazz Festival, our hotel displayed larger-than-life pictures and murals of famous performers on the walls and played a wide variety of music in the hallways until bedtime. Our room was blessed with a huge picture of David Bowie. Not quite who I am used to waking up with but the character of the hotel made our stay all that more fun.

The view from the Tralala Hotel in Old Town Montreux

We arrived by train late in the afternoon and were able to walk to our hotel with our bags in tow. The old town has a bunch of curvy roads but my iPhone was able to get us there with a few unplanned detours. Once checked in, we dropped our bags in the room and headed down to the lake for a pre-dinner stroll around town. Down by the lake, we discovered that there was a nice walkway along the lakefront that was lined with flowers, trees and plants from all over the world. In the distance, we could see the Chateau de Chillon, which was on our itinerary for the next day.

Strolling along Lake Geneva

We went from speaking German in the Berner Oberland to speaking French in Montreux. Language were not a significant barrier in Montreux. We had a French dinner the first night at a small restaurant on a dimly lit street in the old town area. It was run by a nice lady that spoke no English. A few carefully selected hand gestures and smiles all around made us feel very welcome. The dinner was fabulous and we felt like we were a part of the neighborhood that night, which is always a treat when we travel internationally.

On our morning walk to Chateau de Chillon

One of the main attractions in Montreux besides the Jazz Festival is the Chateau de Chillon. We reached the Chateau via a pleasant 40-minute walk along the lake. Donna an I really enjoyed walking Montreux. It looked like many others were enjoying it as well. People of all shapes, sizes and nationalities were strolling with us living up the views and pleasant weather. During our walk to the Chateau, we admired the steep hillsides surrounding the lake, which were peppered with hotels and houses sporting fanciful Parisian architecture. Montreaux is a relaxing place to visit and the Chateau is worth the visit alone.

Gruyere Cheese Factory Tour

In total, we spent three nights in Montreux, which was just right in my opinion. One of the days we took an excursion on the Chocolate Train. The Chocolate Train is a scenic day trip from  Montreux to the Nestle Factory, the Gruyere cheese factory and the Castle of Gruyères.

Inside the Swiss Chocolate Train

To be honest, I am on the fence about the Chocolate Train. The scenery is great and the visit to the castle is well worthwhile but the trips to the factories are more for carting tourist wallets to the shops at the end of the tour.

Exploring the Castle of Gruyeres

Well, next we are on our way to Italy for the last leg of the trip. I plan to get that leg of the trip posed before we leave for southern France in a couple of weeks. See you then!

See the next destination of this trip by clicking here!

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Now on to Lauterbrunnen and Murren

Making our way to Murren

After seeing the sights in Bern, we hopped on a series of trains to Murren to begin our tour of the beautiful Lauterbrunnen Valley. Please do not miss this area if you go to Switzerland. The scenery can’t be beat and there is plenty to do to keep you busy for several days. We planned four days in the area, which was about the minimum in my view. We wanted to stay long enough to make sure we got some good weather high in the Alps and also have time to hike and explore both sides of the valley. Oh, and take a ton of pictures! Honesty, you could spend an entire week here and not get bored.

Reference the illustrated map below to see where Murren is in relation to the Lauterbrunnen Valley. It’s in the right center of the map. Murren is not accessible by car. Sounds great doesn’t it? To get there, we took a train from Bern to Interlaken Ost (East), then a train to Lauterbrunnen (lower right of photo), then a cable car up the cliff, and finally a train to Murren. It was all very east to navigate with our carry on luggage and backpacks. The amount of walking we had to do was astonishingly minimal.

Frankly, I expected to see more people in Murren. It has a population of 450 with 2,000 hotel rooms. Surprisingly, in late August, there was hardly anyone there. Perfect! In addition to the quiet town, there are well marked trails everywhere of varying difficulty, which are a must to explore while you are there. For instance, below is a photo I took while hiking from Murren down to Lauterbrunnen. Just another day in paradise!

The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau (the Ogre, Monk and Maiden)

In Murren, we stayed at the Eiger Guesthouse, which was a quaint, clean and affordable hotel about 50 steps from the small train station. Imagine waking up to the subtle click and clack of the first morning train. Heaven! It was on Rick Steves’ list of places to stay and was not fancy. It has a homey charm and Ema, who runs the guesthouse, was very nice and seemed genuinely interested in helping us have a good time while we were there. Murren was great because it was big enough to have some variety but was not overrun with tourists. I could walk a few steps down the pedestrian-only streets and see some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen on my life.

Below is the view two minutes by foot from the guesthouse.

The awesome beauty of Switzerland's Lauterbrunnen Valley

There is another town called Gimmelwald (upper middle of top photo) within hiking distance but it only has one hotel. It was a little too quaint for our tastes. We did hike there though and it was wonderful. Below is a shot of my lovely wife waiting for me to snap a picture. We were on our way to Gimmelwald that day. Wow, I can’t tell you how fun this is writing for you and reliving my vacation!

Hiking to Gimmelwald

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I have included an image below courtesy of MyJungfrau.com so you can see a map of the entire region. As you can see, there is plenty to see in the region and the views are breathtaking at every turn!

Nature's ultimate playground - The Jungfrau Region of Switzerland

Image credit: My Jungfrau

If you look above Murren in the upper right of the map, you will see Mt. Schilthorn. To get there, we simply hopped on a cable car in Murren to the top of the mountain. We did this and saved a few Swiss francs using our Swiss Half Fare Card. Below is a photo I took while on Mt. Schilthorn. Believe me now? Breathtaking!

The view from Mt. Schilthorn

You can actually hike up to the peak on trails if you want. We did not and opted to go up and down the mountain in the cable car. Way down at the bottom you can see tiny Murren waiting to welcome us home.

Exploring the Lauterbrunnen Valley

After getting our fill of the Schilthorn side of the valley, we decided to work our way to the other side by foot, rail and cable car. The first order of business was to hike down to Lauterbrunnen. We left around 9 am after breakfast and spent almost three hours hiking down to Lauterbrunnen. I took lots of pictures and we took our time as we basked in the beauty of the area. We went through forested areas, saw 200ft waterfalls and stunning vistas of the other side of the valley.

Once we made it to Lauterbrunnen, we decided to have lunch at the Oberland Hotel, which is shown in the photo below. We sat outside on the patio with our jaws open the whole time looking at the views. See that waterfall in the background? It’s just your average 1000ft glacier-fed waterfall in every town.

Lunch at the Oberland Hotel in Lauterbrunnen

After lunch, we caught a 20 minute train in Lauterbrunnen to Wengen on the other side of the valley. It is much more swanky than Murren, allows cars, and has a lot more tourists. We did not stay long in Wengen because our goal was to get to Mannlichen where more awesome views could be found. Mannlichen was accessible via cable car from Wengen. Mind you, we are easily walking between all these modes of transportation with our backpacks. The Swiss have moving people to any elevation down to a science!

At the top of Mannlichen, this is what we saw:

Jungfrau view from Mannlichen

And again, the money shot from Mannlichen is of the entire valley. Note to file…take a wide angle lens!

The Lauterbrunnen Valley as seen from Mannlichen

Once we were done taking in the views around Mannlichen, we made our way back on the trains and cable cars. The hike, lunch, Wengen and Mannlichen can all be easily done in a day.

One of our days, we took the train back to Interlaken and caught a bus to Brienz so we could visit the Ballenberg Swiss Open Air Museum. It is a great side trip where you can see pristine Swiss architechure in natural surroundings. Below is a picture I took while I was there. It rained the morning we visited but cleared up later to be a beautiful day.

A picture perfect barn at Ballenberg's open air museum

I hope this gives you a good feel for the beauty of the Lauterbrunnen Valley and of what you might do while you are there. I plan to go back to Murren in the winter someday. I won’t feel that I entirely experienced the area unless I see it full of snow. This is such a gorgeous place and it should be experienced in everyone’s lifetime. Go and you will not be disappointed!

Check out part four of this trip: Murren to Montreux

Well, next we are on our way to the town of Montreux on Lake Geneva. I plan to get that leg of the trip posted next weekend. See you then!

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The first leg of our trip - Zurich Airport to Bern, Switzerland

Touchdown in Zurich

After landing at the Geneva Airport at around 8:00am, we immediately made our way to Bern by train to rest from the long flight. The ride from the Airport to Bern is an easy one hour and twenty minutes. To board the train, we went to the ticket office in the train station and bought a Swiss Half Fare Card as well as the two discounted tickets to Bern. The rail station attendant was really helpful and spoke English very well. If you buy a discount card like we did, make sure you sign it and keep it with you at all times. You will have to show both your signed fare card and your ticket once on the train. I figure we saved about $800 using our Half Fare Card because it provides discounts on not only trains but also trams, buses, and funiculars as well. Your specific situation may vary.

Our hotel (right) and the Bern parliament building from the river

Upon arriving at the train station in Bern, We used my iPhone to navigate to the hotel by foot. It only took about 20 minutes to reach the hotel, which was perfect considering I would rather walk than take a cab. Despite arriving a little early for check-in at the Bellevue Palace (shown in the upper right of the above photo), we decided to see if our room was ready and it was! Thankfully, that gave us a chance to drop our luggage, freshen up a bit, and then head out for a some pre-lunch exploring. This is when I sized up photo opportunities and got the lay of the land for our next full day of exploration. If you stay in the old city center of Bern like we did, you are within walking distance of everything. Awesome!

A note about jet lag

To manage jet lag, we usually arrive early (8:00am), stay up until after lunch, and then take a short nap at some point between lunch and dinner. This allows us to have a productive first day without getting too tired and completely messing up our sleep schedule. It is tough to get up from the nap after lunch so I set my iPhone alarm to wake us up in time for dinner. This method works pretty well for us. After dinner, we usually turn in early the first night and try to get a full night’s sleep. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I sometimes take a Unisom to zonk me till morning. Donna can sleep through an earthquake so she is good. Jealous!

A map of Bern to help you visualize distances

Exploring Bern

Filled with excitement, I got up at the crack of dawn to go get my first photo of the day. Donna said, “See ya later!,” as she stayed comfortably tucked in bed. It was dark when I left so I only saw two or three people out as I made my way along the cobblestone road to the river location at the edge of town. I set up on the bridge and waited for about 80 minutes for the sun to rise enough to light up the clouds. It was so peaceful waiting on the bridge with my camera as Bern woke up. Frankly, I did not know if anything visually interesting was going to happen. Boy did it ever! The light that you see below only lasted about three minutes but it was glorious. Once I saw it, I snapped away in awe. Over the past couple of years, I have learned to love slowing down and patiently waiting for the right moment to snap the shutter.

With a solid victory in hand, I made my way back to the hotel to get Donna for breakfast. We ate on the patio at the hotel overlooking the river and Bern’s skyline. After breakfast, We headed out to see what Bern had to offer. There is a high level of architectural uniformity in Bern that is very pleasing to the eye. One of the jewels of the city is the clock tower that sits in the old city center. As you can see, the city is very well preserved and a joy to walk.

The Bern Clock Tower, just a stone's throw from our hotel

We also visited the Bern Münster that day (shown below). One of the more striking features of Bern’s Münster is the depiction of the Last Judgment over the main portal, which contains more than 200 carved wood and stone figures. Justice is in the center with angels and the Wise and Foolish Virgins to each side. Above is the Archangel Michael bearing a sword and scales. It is not hard to conclude that the saved are on the left and the damned are on the right.

TheLast Judgment Portal at Bern Münster

One of the memorable experiences was watching young adults jumping from the bridges and floating down the Aare river. I thought, “No way would that ever happen in a US city!” Evidently it is a “thing” to do in Bern and there are a number of places that you can get back onto land after floating down the river. I am sure the water must be cold having made its way from a glacier up high in the Alps. The green water you see in the photo is not a manipulation. It is the real deal. It is a fresh green and was not murky at all. Actually quite refreshing looking.

The River Aare in Bern, Switzerland

After a full day of walking, shopping and taking in the beautiful scenery, we found an outdoor restaurant for dinner near the row houses in the photo below. It was a perfect night and we had fun watching the people of Bern relax in their beautiful city. The service at the restaurant was very friendly and the food was fantastic!

The charming row houses of Bern, Switzerland

On our way home from dinner, we walked past our hotel to the Parliament building, which was a couple of blocks away. My primary objective was to shoot a picture of the Parliament building at night. Thankfully there were not a lot of people there, which provided an great opportunity to shoot the photo below. The light blue stripe in the lower right leads to an in-ground fountain that a bunch of children were running through. The temperature was just right for summer night time fun.

Bern Parliament Building by Night

In my opinion, one full day and two half days was plenty in Bern. It is a beautiful place to see and a great way to start a vacation in Switzerland. We could see the alps in the far distance, which was a sign of great things to come, which leads to my next post. We are on our way to the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Perhaps the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Please check back next week for the travel details on this gorgeous location.

Check out part three of this trip: Bern to Murren

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The awesome beauty of Switzerland's Lauterbrunnen Valley

I would like this blog to be a source of inspiration for you and place you can come to get the most out of life. Trust me, I don’t have all the answers but I have had experiences that have enriched my life and I am happy to share some of the wisdom I have gleaned from them.

In the spirit of A Day Not Wasted and the travel aspect of the blog, I am going to share the itineraries I have used to explore the world. I plan all of our trips myself using common tools like Rick Steves’ wonderful travel books and killer Internet sites like Trip Advisor and, of course, the experience of others in my social circle.

A bit about our travel style

Donna and I like to cover a lot of ground when we travel but also like to make sure we stay put long enough to experience the essence of a place. I use Rick Steves’ books as a valuable starting point but I find some of his itineraries a bit too much on the whirlwind side for me. We pick and choose carefully from the areas he recommends and inject our own tastes into the final itinerary. I also like to use converging opinion to solidify my travel plans. I rarely trust one source alone to make my location and accommodation choices.

In the initial phases of planning, I am pretty precise time wise with our itineraries. That’s why I use Tripit.com to plan our trip schedule. Planning with Tripit works very well because I can see everything in time sequence. It really helps me visualize the trip to make sure I am allowing enough time for the primary elements of our adventure. Plus, once the trip is set up, it resides on my phone so I can pull up confirmation numbers and such at a moment’s notice. No more carrying around a folder full of paper! By the way, Tripit does not support this site. I just like the service.

I also plan way ahead because I like to fly for free on frequent flyer miles. With the airlines packing planes to the hilt these days, it is getting tougher to get the flights I want. That is why time is of the essence. I don’t like being denied an opportunity or experience because I did not plan well enough. Once at our destination, we use public transportation whenever possible and avoid tour buses like the plaque. I really don’t like being herded up on some else’s time schedule. Sometimes it makes sense to travel that way but it is always my second choice.

When we pack, we pack light. Donna and I both do two weeks in Europe with a carry-on bag each plus a backpack. Carry-on bags are great because they don’t get lost. Trust me, it can be done! Donna’s backpack has all her essentials including a Kindle and mine has DSLR camera gear and a MacBook Air. We buy lightweight travel oriented clothes from Eddie Bauer or Columbia because they are light, pack tightly, can be washed in the tub, and are dry and ready for wear the next day. We even buy sunscreen wipes because they don’t count toward our security imposed liquid allowance for carry-on baggage. Trust me, as Rick Steves says, it is a liberating experience to travel light.

I think I am going to make it!

Our standard for accommodations is slightly above what Rick would normally pick. I don’t mind washing my clothes in the bathtub if I have to but also don’t mind being pampered during portions of our trips. To me, being pampered in Europe means picking hotels in absolute prime locations with nicely appointed rooms with big fluffy pillows.

And finally, we like to walk…and walk a lot! Because we stay near the city centers when we travel, most sights are within walking distance. Despite the close proximity, we still end up walking a ton and it is a good idea to stay in decent shape during the year. We both use an elliptical trainer everyday, which always keeps us ready for activity on vacation. We also walk a four-mile trail around our neighborhood in the summers to make sure our true walking muscles are in good shape. Oh yeah, it is good for you too!

The charming row houses of Bern, Switzerland

First up: 15 fabulous days in Switzerland

–> DOWNLOAD PDF Itinerary

The first itinerary I would like to share is the one we used for Switzerland, which also had a brief diversion to Italy for good measure. I have seen a few incredible things in life, but I must say that the beauty of Switzerland made me weak at the knees. Being in the presence of such beauty is something everyone should experience in his or her lifetime. Call me sensitive, but I almost weep with joy just thinking about our time there. To experience Switzerland is to bask in its meticulously preserved natural beauty. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before.

Now let’s get to the details of the trip. For convenience, I have created a PDF file (download) that has the primary elements of the trip outlined by day. The file covers the transportation and hotel arrangements so you can get a sense of what kind of ground you can cover over the 15 days.

Others told me this would be a vacation of a lifetime and they were right. Come along for the ride and start planning you own trip to beautiful Switzerland!

You can download the itinerary below now but please check back each week for a post on each leg of the trip. The details are too many to list in one post so I need to break things up.

–> DOWNLOAD PDF Itinerary

–> Go to Part 2 of this trip – Bern, Switzerland

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A moment of light at the Ballenberg Museum, Switzerland

As the wind swept the clouds across the sky, the fleeting sunlight illuminated the landscape for a brief but glorious moment. I don’t always know what attracts me to a scene, I just feel it. This photo was one of those occasions when I looked up and and clicked the shutter without thinking. The drama of the clouds and mountainous backdrop combined with the sun kissed foreground and chalet to inspire a moment of beauty for me.

The shot looked painterly to me so that is the way it was processed. This piece is made up of three bracketed shots from -2EV (exposure value) to +2EV. This enabled me to process the full dynamic range of the scene. Nothing was left on the table as they say. Once I merged the three exposures and made basic adjustments, I applied a few plugins in Photoshop including Topaz Adjust and Topaz Simplify. As I have said before, I never quite know where I will end up in some cases but I like how this one turned out. This unique light existed for no more that a second or two and I am glad I was there to experience its splendor!

A beautiful Swiss barn on the Blumental Trail in Switzerland

The day we arrived in Murren, Switzerland, the weather was a little unsettled. Clouds were making their way over the Alps causing unpredictable bursts of rain. Without a care, we grabbed our umbrellas, donned our rain-ready windbreakers, and headed out for a hike on the Blumental Trail. Blumental means flower. How could we resist? After hiking up the hills behind Murren for about 30 minutes, we came across this beautiful barn. I loved the lush green foreground surrounding the barn with the drama of the Alps and sky in the background. This is what I felt and saw and I am happy I have enough image data from my camera to share it with you.

This is a very difficult image to grab with a single shot. The sky was very bright and the shadows on the front of the barn were pretty dark. Equipped with my travel tripod, I took three exposures to bring home with me. One was a “normal” exposure and the other two were two stops lower and higher. In the end, I blended the best two shots together with Photoshop. One exposure had all the foreground detail and values I needed and the other had the beautiful detail in the sky without blown out clouds.

I love going back through these images. They put me back in the moment every time and make me want to catch a plane and start exploring all over again!

The awesome beauty of Switzerland's Lauterbrunnen Valley

There is a bit of a trick to pulling an image like this off. The wide dynamic range of this scene from the brightly lit clouds to the shadows in the trees are beyond even my $4,000 camera’s capabilities. What to do? Since I did not have any graduated neutral density filters with me, I had to take at least two exposures to capture this scene. One shot was captured at a normal, or “0″ exposure value (EV), and the other was shot using a negative exposure compensation setting of -2EV. The -2EV shot dropped the light hitting the sensor by two full stops, which made the landscape too dark but allowed me to capture all the detail in the brightly lit clouds. The 0EV shot contained all the detail in the landscape I needed. So, to get the entire value range of the image into a single shot, I brought both exposures into Photoshop and put them on two stacked layers. I then used a layer mask to blend the two together. This is not cheating, it is just a way to work around the limitations of the camera’s sensor to capture the true beauty of the scene before me.

This shot was taken from Murren, Switzerland at about 2000 feet above the valley floor. The only way to get to Murren is by hiking or by a combination of cable car and train. I loved laying in bed at the Eiger Guesthouse after a restful night’s sleep and hearing the subtle click and clack of the first train in the morning at about 6:45am. This view stopped me in my tracks and caused me to think, “Can this actually exist?” The natural beauty of Switzerland is beyond belief!

The charming row houses of Bern, Switzerland

I have wanted to share this picture for a while and finally got around to finishing it up for presentation. In the old town of Bern, Switzerland, there is a beautiful winding street that leads down to the river. As we walked down the street, these charming row houses greeted us, drenched in late afternoon light.

If you ever visit, a day and a half is plenty of time in Bern and I highly recommend stopping by to see this gorgeous and beautifully kept medieval town in the heart of Switzerland.

Originally posted on Lee’s Flickr page. See the complete photo stream on Flickriver.com.

A beautiful Swiss chalet on a rainy day

I am just kicking back tonight having some fun going through my Switzerland pictures from last August. Taking up photography has been a true blessing for me. I love the memories that my photographs rekindle of my travels with Donna. It was raining the day we decided to visit the Ballenberg Museum near Brienz. At first I was disappointed but I quickly snapped out of it after remembering the absolutely brilliant days we has just had high in the Alps. Besides, I was ready for it. Remember the “Adventures in Vacation Packing” series? Although it was raining, it was not miserable. The temperature was rather nice and the rain helped saturate the colors nicely for my pictures. My only concern was keeping the camera dry. I did not know about rain sleeves at the time so I employed the help of my handy assistant, Donna. She is pretty particular about the state of her hairdo in public but she was more than willing to stand out in the rain to hold another umbrella as I shot pictures of the beautiful structures at Ballenberg.

The subject of today’s photograph is the House, Bergdorf, which was built in 1872. It is a stunning example of Swiss architecture typical of the Bernese Midlands. The dramatic roof overhangs and skillfully appointed decorations were a joy to survey by eye and capture with my camera. I actually like this rainy day shot. I think it adds a fitting atmosphere that is typical of the region. Switzerland’s lush green landscape is fed by large amounts of rain and the scenery would not be the same without it.

All is well that ends well. As the day moved on, the rain subsided and the sun peeked through the briskly moving clouds to create even more exciting photo opportunities. I do have a picture of this chalet in the sun but I like this one better. It put me right back in the rain behind the tripod and refreshed all the memories of our incredible time in Switzerland.