Entertaining visitors…one

Now we all know that I travel a lot, but some of you also know that occasionally I also enjoy receiving visitors from outside of Switzerland: that means playing tour guide, or at least showing whomever I am hosting the local highlights.

The Vevey pulling into the dock at St. Gingolph

So Thursday it was off to Martigny for a couple of nights in Les Marécottes – where I hang out in the summer.

F showed up from the USA (o.k. California to be exact) on an earlier train, but we managed to find each other without an error in spite of his not having a workable cell phone. I had gotten there a bit early as well and happily read one of the newspapers that had gotten laid to the side whilst I was gallivanting around a week earlier: he had a beer in one of the coffee shops across the street.

As the weather was good – and bad weather (really bad) foreseen for the next day, I decided that after lunch (one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Martigny) we should concentrate on anything outdoors just to make sure we were able to walk a bit.

Church steeple so old that the trees are growing out of it.

Wandered with the car back to the rest stop on the freeway with its artificial lakes and wind surfers, parking on the back side in order to also take in the fruit trees and especially the huge wind machine (for want of the correct word) in the middle of the agricultural plots.

98 meters high - ENERCON E-82

Then it was up the hill, stopping at the Gueuroz Bridge for a look back down the Trient Gorges. The Gueuroz Bridge held the record for the highest bridge in Europe for 29 years from the time it was built in 1931-1934 (187 meters) until the Europabrücke was finished in Austria in 1963. Now it is well down on the list.

an old avalanche "tunnel"

beehives on the hill

After passing through Salvan (famous for the fact the Marconi did some of his research here; the church also has a wooden plate honoring the cook who went down with the Titanic) we drove through the village of Les Marécottes then continued on to the farthest one reachable by car – Trétien as well as stopping for coffee at the newly opened Zoo and Alpine Pool. Under new management as of May 14^th they were full and I hope that they do well. Two sons have taken it over with the help of their retired father: we wish them only success! http://www.valleedutrient-vallorcine.com/data/documents/brochures/VTTInfos/vtt_journal_info_09.pdf

The train that goes from Martigny to Chamonix in France

Having seen a great deal and enjoyed the warmth and sun it was off to the Café Central and their crepes for dinner. A well-spent day of not-quite-the-usual tourism.