After heavy rainfalls during the night, we woke up to less clouds and a beautiful view of the Alps. We spent the morning on the deck reading in the sunshine, encircled by the mountain peaks. After lunch we went for a walk to the Tourist Center and spent several hours there working on our pictures albums, since internet connection is better there than in our chalet.
The view from our deck when the clouds broke
We hopped on the city bus for a tour of Leysin, picked up some groceries for a good pot of chili and fresh baked bread. Another heavy rain shower came through shortly after we got back.
Our Swiss coffee pot
Our last two days in Leysin were cloudy and cool. Internet connection did not work well even at the tourist center so we spent much of our last day reading, playing a few games of Quibbler and packing for our last tour.
View from our deck -- a flag that says "Relax"
Our departure from Leysin proved to be another adventure! Jim had reserved a taxi to pick us up at 7:30 am. Who would have thought that we would resort to hitch-hiking in a foreign country? Well, when our taxi had not arrived by 7:35 we walked to the main road with our luggage, hoping the taxi was “just around the corner.” Our train was leaving in 20 minutes (yes – the “Little Engine That Could” cog train that we arrived on a few days earlier) and we knew we could not pull our 80+ pounds of luggage up the hill to the station. A man in a vehicle stopped and spoke enough English to understand that we needed to get to the train station. So the lumberjack cleared enough space in his vehicle for us to sit, threw our luggage in the back and got us to the station on time.
Train station in Leysin
The train ride to Geneva was alongside Lake Geneva, but the cloudy conditions blocked our view of the lake and the mountains. When we got to Geneva we took a city tour via bus and mini train -- in the rain. We saw some of the historical sites in Geneva, like the Red Cross and United Nations headquarters. However, the one thing we most wanted to see, the Reformation memorial, was half covered by tents which were set up for another event. The rain and distance prohibited us from going back on foot to spend more time at the place where John Calvin is remembered. We ended our time in Geneva with a great fondu meal at a local restaurant.
Reformation Memorial Wall
On Thursday morning our flights went well and we were happy to arrive safely in Athens (via Vienna) and see our Pilgrim tour guide waiting for us with a vehicle to bring us to our hotel. And so our R&R in Switzerland ended – with memories of cog trains, hilly streets, clouds, rain and lots of time for rest.
View of the Alps from the airplane
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