4 a.m., June 17, Megéve, France - Yes, it's early, but not as early as when we first awoke this morning. The internal bio-clocks are definitely on lag time, and so may be the upload of this journal. Our first experiment with the dial-up connection in our timeshare room has not gone well, so we'll see what happens later at the internet café.
A couple comments about travel from New York's Kennedy International to Zurich: Comparing the airports in these two cities comes down to: There is no comparison. JFK is dated almost beyond description, a relic of some presumed golden age of air travel, much as the real JFK's image has fallen. The only restaurants in Terminal 8, American Airlines' international departure point, are fast-food joints - strictly cash and carry to your table. The terminal is dark and non-descript, not worth shooting even a digital photo.
Zurich is something else, as a couple photos to be posted later (hopefully) will attest. The most remarkable thing about the airport, beyond the cleanliness and brightness you see immediately upon arrival, is the silence. It's pin-drop quiet. You just don't hear any noise, let alone aircraft engines. Shops and restaurants abound; it's where we bought bread, cheese, wine and water for our trip. The Avis car rental transaction was easy; English is definitely spoken here. (Zurich International has a web cam you can control with your web browser, if you're into that sort of thing.)
Lennie navigated flawlessly on our cross-country trip on major toll-free highways. Not knowing what to expect, we were surprised by the rolling countryside. The predominant features are long, high ridges with gentle slopes suitable for farming, remnants of ancient mountain ranges, no doubt. Our one wake-up stop for coffee was at La Gruyere, a rest stop with character, as the phoeographs show. The locals have a thing for painted cows, which have a terrific view of a lake and surrounding villages.
The major “green” highway took us around Bern and Freiberg to Vevey on Le Léman lake, south to Monthey and on to Martigny, southeast of Geneva, where the map showed we would head off on a zig-zag “red” route through Charmonix Mount Blanc and eventually to Megéve. The closed Ausfahrt (off-ramp) threw us a curve, and we followed “Police” signs on back roads through vineyards until we came across a rural station. Ringing the doorbell, we were confronted with our first language emergency: communicating with cops who spoke French and German but no English. We opted for Doug's four-decade-old German, which was sufficient to get us around the road-closure problem (only the off-ramp was closed for construction, not the whole route) and we headed up and over the mountains. The road up and out of Martigny was a white-knuckler, a strictly keep-your-eyes-on-the-road-Jack experience. As Lennie notes, we had the sensation that we were up high, but neither of us dared to look to confirm the suspicion (see photographs). The stone wall to our left, however, had our rapt attention and can be described in minute detail.
Eventually, we lost the hairpin turns and emerged into high meadows and valleys amidst Europe's highest mountains. Mount Blanc definitely looms above Charmonix. Lennie's in-car photography does do justice to the surrounding countryside and villages. Megéve finally was reached, and after following the printed directions to our timeshare, we were lost and stopped at a boutique, where Lennie used her new French skills to obtain directions, which we followed and found our timeshare. Our home for five nights is a cozy 3-by-2 studio (measured in outstretched arms) that will do the trick as a base for our walks and car trips through these mountain villages. The map shows a nice loop over to Annecy, around to Charmonix again and back to Megéve. Looks like a plan for Friday.
(Finally, a connection in our apartment in Paris allows some serious catching up on our photos.)
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