Our 32’nd Anniversary - Greece, Switzerland and Germany
Day One - July 11
In the planning for about a year, Kimble and I departed Reno on our 32nd Anniversary. Since our flight to Greece departed San Francisco on the 12th, we decided to make a day of it in SF as we haven’t been for at least 15 years.
Deciding we were tired of the 3 am wakeup we departed Reno at a relaxing hour. In fact, the whole trip regarding transportation would be “relaxing”. Wheels were up at 11:05 AM in a CRJ-700 for the 40-minute flight to San Francisco; scheduled departure was 10:30am.
Landed, baggage all good. Got a shuttle to the Westin, San Francisco Airport by 130 and the room was ready. Hungry, we went we went to the hotel restaurant” Grille and Vine” and got a quick sandwich.
After packing for a little adventure to Pier 39 we ordered an UBER and hit Pier 39 and the 10,000 tourists about three. We walked all over the place and weren’t really all that sad that we haven’t been down there in the last decade (last time we were there Kenny and Alexander were 13 and 14. They went to Vallejo amusement park. We took a ferry into the city, end of story).
We enjoyed walking around looking at the ocean feeling the breeze. It was nice and cool. Really a treat to get away from the heat wave we’ve had in the Reno; temperatures over 100° daily for the past month.
I had made dinner reservations for 5pm at Fog Harbor, one of the nicer restaurants at Pier 39. It overlooked the bay with good food and service. We had wonderful conversation and for being married 32 years Kim still laughs at my jokes and I still feel warm and loving as she still laughs at my jokes. She had scallop risotto and I, surf and turf complimented by a Basil Hayden. All very tasty. It was just a wonderful anniversary dinner.
After dinner, I introduced Kimble to a new adventure (of sorts). I opened up my Waymo app and we got ourselves a self-driving car up to Ghirardelli Square. Not sure if Kimble really was as excited as I about the experience but it got us to a mini hot fudge sundae, which wasn’t very mini.
A fun time with lots of memories. We Uber-ed back to the Westin and relaxed in preparation for our next couple of days flying to Athens; 12th departure - 13th arrival.
Day Two and Three – July 12 & 13
We woke this morning casually at the Westin as our flight was not until 2:40pm. So we didn’t need to check out until noon. We had breakfast at the grill and just kicked back in our room until about 11:30 AM, hopped on the shuttle to the SFO International terminal and checked in with Lufthansa. All went smoothly through security and got to the Lufthansa Lounge and found out that the plane was delayed one hour; two for two flights delayed.
Kimble and I feel very blessed to have these opportunities to travel. We have worked very hard in our 32 years and made adventures like this a priority. One way we do this is our average age of our vehicles is 38.84 years. Not having a car payment for 40 years helps to save for adventure.
Our flight to Athens, stopped in Frankfurt, Germany. For the first leg, “over the pond” as it is known, was in a Boeing 747. Luckly these planes are over 50-years old so they are not subject the horrible Boeing safety issues of the last 10 years. The 747 is a huge plane and it still amazes me that it can even take off with over 350 passengers aboard. It did and it climbed right up to about 34,000 feet (quickly) and we were on our way. Push the lay-flat button on our seat and sleep until two hours prior to landing for breakfast on the plane.
We landed in Frankfurt about 10:30am and after our 1-hour delay in SFO only had 2 ½ hour wait for our flight to Athens. Got to the Lufthansa lounge and the Athens flight, delayed about 1 hour. No worries we had 4 ½ layover in Athens. Time for a Capuchino along with a brunch in the lounge. I highly recommend utilizing the lounges as it makes layovers much more comfortable.
Arriving in Athens at 6:30pm the day was starting to become mentally and physically taxing. All part of international travel I guess. Now traveling for over 20 hours with about 5 to go. We had to collect our luggage and transport it to the Agean Air counter. All with plenty of time. Checked in, through security and yes, to another lounge for our wait. The Athens Airport has real nice lounges with plenty of food and drink and comfortable seats. The one little glitch was that the counter rep for Agean, sent my bag down the ramp without tagging it so that created a bit of stress and worry but we had “air tags” so keep your fingers crossed.
Our flight was at 9:30pm so about nine we departed the lounge and got to the gate. Delayed, now we are 3 for 3. The flight to Kefalonia was only about 45 minutes and somehow, we got there about 10:45pm only about 15 minutes delayed. Got bags, all of them! Exited and there was Franny and Demitri (a Greek Resident and great friend of Jerry and Franny for over 20 years) ready to take us to Poros, a village on the eastern shore of Kefalonia about one hour away.
We arrived, 24+ hours of travel completely exhausted but we had a bit left. Many of our Greek Family were waiting to see us at Taverna Grapidos (owned by Jerry and Franny’s son Maike). We chatted and hugged but politely asked to be taken to the Villa where we would stay and about midnight, we crashed into the comfort of the Grandfathers Villa that Maike had built about 2022/23. We made it. Tomorrow our first official day of vacation.
Day Tesseris (Tay-Sa-Reece) (4) - July 14
Day four on the island of Kefalonia in the village of Poros.
This day began about 5:45 AM; for me anyway. Kim was still sleeping so I was as quiet as a mouse. The Grandfather Villa was beautiful overlooking the Ionian Sea. It was calm, quiet and very still. The sun was about to rise as we were looking east. I wanted to swim and as I exited the villa I realized “this is going to be a beautiful sunrise”. Kimble and I have stayed at resorts all over the world on our travels and this is certainly one of the finest values of them all.
The next 4 days for Kimble and I are to relax, enjoy our Greek family and wind down from our very busy life. I sat out at the pool until about eight then Kimble joined me. We just swam, relaxed, watched the sailboats and the pirate ships of the Ionian sea travel up and down the coast in front of us.
Noon… we took a walk into town. Probably not our best decision. It has been unseasonably hot and humid here on the island of Kefalonia. It was mid 90s (f) and the walk out of here is up, aggressively up, and about 2 miles to Poros, the village that we visit. It was a nice walk and along the way there were many fruit and berry plants along the roadside. I helped myself to a big handful of grapes that were wonderful sweet and juicy.
We got to Taverna Agrapados, which is Maiki Kambitis, the adopted son of our hosts here, Jerry and Franny, which is one of the best restaurants in the village. It’s a four-story structure of which Maiki and his family Maria (wife) and Francesca (daughter) live on the third floor. The restaurant is on the second floor, storage on the first and and over the past year Maiki built Jerry and Franny a penthouse suite on the fourth floor. It has a million dollar view of the Poros harbor and the main waterfront.
We sat on their veranda overlooking the harbor where the ferry boat comes in and just chatted. Kimble and Franny talked in the air-conditioned comfort of the house of the penthouse while Jerry and I sat outside and debated finance and business and gold prices and the stuff he and I usually talk about.
Now about 2pm hunger sat in and the anticipation of an incredible mid-day meal was huge. Downstairs we went for a wonderful 2-hour meal of incredible Greek food. Maiki and Francesca joined us! Francesca, our waitress and Maiki, our chef demonstrating the value of family, respect and just how relaxed things are on this undiscovered island paradise. We shared delicious food, wine. stories and laughter. Kimble even got an incredible anatomy lesson from 15-year-old Francesca that made her laugh heartfelt and deep.
4pm was the time. We decided we needed to go back to the swimming pool. Too hot to walk, we grabbed the RAV4, hit the grocery store and headed back to the villa. Opened up the huge shade umbrellas, situated the comfortable chase lounges and here we are 8pm and have not moved. Tomorrow? Expect much the same. Not much text from here on out but lots of pics!
Day Pente (Pan-They) (5) - July 15
Here is a detail of our days to follow:
· Morning Swim
· Drive into the village at 6am for a walk along the Platea
· Breakfast at Denny’s, a quaint breakfast café with cappuccino and fresh baked goods. My choice daily was a raisin muffin and double cap.
· Relax by the pool for 4 hours until lunch
· Afternoon meal at about 2PM. Spiticon or Taverna Agrapidos
· 4-5pm Siesta – yep…more swimming, reading and napping poolside overlooking the Ionian sea
· Back to the village to pick up Jerry and Franny for the evening bike ride along the village waterfront. Great conversation at a beach table or one of our Greek family restaurants. Maybe a drink, gelato or an evening snack.
Day Exl (Ex-Sea) (6) - July 16 and Day Epta (Ep-Tha) (7) July 17
Same…enjoy the pics
Day Okto (Aak-Toe) (8) - July 18
Our last day on Kefalonia and on to Switzerland – We depart back to Athens at 3pm and on to Geneva arriving at midnight.
Typical morning. I really enjoyed Denny’s double caps! I usually had two. Back to the room for a couple more hours of pool and then off to airport at noon.
Maiki and Francesca took us to the airport and of course in typical fashion, the flight was delayed an hour. We landed in Athens at around 5 PM. Got our bags got checked in at Swissair. Got to the lounge and relaxed until 9:15 when we took off for Geneva flight was uneventful and we landed in Geneva about midnight
Took a very expensive cab to the Ruby Claire. A wonderful hotel in an obscure alley off a road off the main road. Really cool, comfortable and centrally located. Interestingly, you take an elevator to the 7th floor to check in at the bar. Finally, to room about 1am and our Switzerland adventure officially began.
A note to this day…There was a huge IT outage stemming from the USA that occurred just after we took off for Geneva. It effected flights around the world and had it occurred prior to our flight, we would have been delayed getting to Geneva. So, luck was on our side. Our transportation for the next week and a half would be trains and buses. Minimal tech! We do have a bright light shining upon us when we travel.
Day Nun (9) – July 19
We woke in Geneva at the Ruby Claire and began our day about 10 AM Geneva time. I don’t remember falling asleep until at least after 1 AM and I woke up at 6 AM as the sunlight shown through the window curtains. That’s the first time that’s happened in 15 years. Today would be a chill day cause we knew we were gonna be tired. We ate at the expensive breakfast buffet and following, we went for walkabout in the city.
Heading for Zermatt!
We woke this morning 20 July knowing that we were going to be heading to Zermatt, but we wanted to get in a little more walking time around Geneva. As we were planning our morning, we were given some news about the trains that came to Zermatt in that one of the routes was closed and they had substituted buses. Not really knowing what kind of delay that was going to cause we figured we only had about three hours to wander; we did. (St. Pierre Chapel - next 3 images)
Uber in Geneva turned out to be a huge scam (if more explanation is desired, give us a call) and we took a Taxi at about the same price.
Everything was visually wonderful during the train ride of about 2.5 hours. We got on board about 1130 and we got to Zermatt about 1530; the bus took about an hour.
Up, breakfast and with clouds sparse, no rain yet but it did rain heavily during the night, we walked to the Gornergat Bahn train station and headed up to the top.
We had three great hours up on top. Took some great pictures at all the lookouts, read all of the history of the Gornergat railway along the way not realizing this train has been in existence since 1898. It’s a pretty cool electric train that creates enough energy on the downhill to drive two trains up. Not sure where or how they store the excess but it was incredible.
It was a nice walk along the railway in the forest, but it was pretty long one. I followed the trail for probably about 2 1/2 miles to the middle of town and found a stairway back down into the village.
As we woke we noticed a lot of low level clouds no rain with the forecast to be partly cloudy so we decided to take the morning nice and slow. We went to breakfast, which was included in this very nice resort the Alpine Hotel Perrin Superior. I had my typical to caffeinated cups of cappuccino, followed by a decaf cup of coffee and a wonderful little breakfast of breads, eggs, bacon, granola and fruit juice. It was really nice.
Our plan for now is to just do a walkabout of the village. And what a walkabout, it turned out to be.
We intended to head south into the village towards the Matterhorn. Looking for the tram terminal for the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise; the main tramway leading up to Klein Matterhorn. We took our normal path up the main road of the village and headed south and there was a sign, Gorge Trail, so we followed it. We found ourselves at the Gornerschlitz. Now you often overlook, "where does all the glacier water go that lies above Zermatt"?. We certainly did until we entered the Gornerschlitz (Gorner Gorge). Almost in the middle of this valley at the south end of Zermat is this culmination of all the glacier runoff into this deep gorge. The landowners built a beautiful trail of wooden decking, rockfall screens and natural geography right into this gorge. It was unbelievable. Will let the pictures tell the story.
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| Our Departing Shot of the Matterhorn! Words can not describe!!! |
Day Druzah (13) July 23... On our way to Interlaken.
The day started as usual with breakfast at the Perren Superior and then to the train station. Kimble is very patient with me as I am used to USA scheduling that is never on time. So we got to the train early, as usual, and all was on time. It’s only about a 25 minute train ride to Spiesz and then another 25 minutes to Interlaken so it’s a pretty quick day on the train. [Note: Presently the airlines are absolutely out of control due to the IT crash that occurred five days ago]. I must say that the trains in Europe are incredible and they’re on time and they are all electric!
So waiting on the platform I asked Kimble if we could sit on the top train so we could see out the windows, she kind of giggled. Four minutes into the train ride into the tunnel and tunnel is lasting on the assuming probably 20 miles maybe 30 underground. We’re going inside the Alps because it’s faster. I can’t even imagine anybody in America ever putting this kind of effort into a rail system, that would allow such an easy transportation option within the states.
We got to Interlaken and our hotel an hour early so we could not check in. We went for a walk and had lunch at a nice little Mexican restaurant in an area that was kind of an ethnic melting pot; there was every food group represented in a two block area that was heavily Middle Eastern.
We came back to the hotel after lunch got sorted out and took off on the public transportation system here in town. As a hotel guest, you get free access to public transportation. So we took the bus up to the Wilderspill train station and got on the train up to Grindelwald. It was a jam packed train; standing room only.
We arrived at Grindelwald after a 30 minute ride. We let the crowd dissipate, and then we walked up and found a little café on the sidewalk and had an afternoon cap and dessert. What was interesting is that the crowds never thinned out as each train came up. It was packed and there were hundreds and hundreds of people walking up the street staying at the local places. I wanted to stay here but in our research everything was 300-400 francs per night; why we stayed in Interlaken. However, after seeing the huge crowds we were certain that there were plenty of places to stay in the 100-200 franc per night range. Grindelwald was not properly represented in the online world. What we saw on the Internet was nowhere accurate to what we saw with our eyes.
WE walked around a bit and then headed back. Tomorrow is our Jungfraujoch (Young-frow-Yock) train trip that will take us to the highest train station in the world at 11,335 feet.
A great day. We’re having a lot of fun. We’re seeing a lot of wonderfully beautiful country. The trains are cool; on time and comfortable. Our hotel, the Continental, is not far away from the train stations and public transportation; all real easy easy.
It is exciting to be here in the midst of the Swiss Alps. Looking forward to tomorrows adventure where we will travel up some 9000 feet in elevation to the Jungfraujoch which is the saddle between the Monch and the Jaungfrau peaks; the Eiger is just to the east.
Early on in the planning of our trip, there were two mountains that I wanted to go see the Eiger and the Matterhorn. In researching both, of course the tourist adventures in the regions let us to a trip up into the mountains from Interlacken via train.
So our first full day here in Interlaken was going to be a day in the Alps! We got on the train about 8:30 AM to head up into the Jungfrau region which is in the Bernese Alp section of the Swiss alps. Here there are three signature peaks, Eiger, Monch (Monk) and Jungfrau. The latter being the highest at 4158m (13,513ft).
Now the Jungfraujoch it’s not a peak rather it is an adventure to a saddle between the Monch and the Jungfrau. A very cool journey into the Bernice Alps. The Jungfraujoch and is a complete destination that is obtained by riding on the highest railway in the world.
So starting out in Interlaken, it takes about two good hours maybe 2 1/2 to get to the Jungfraujoch but...it is a must do!
You begin the journey in Interlaken via train, to Grindelwald. Then you walk down to a very elaborate tram station and get on the Eger express. Once you’re at the Eiger glacier, you then board the Jungfraujoch train which goes completely inside the Eiger and Monch; it is a tunnel all the way. The Jungfraujoch rail is 6 miles long from the Eiger glacier at 6700 feet of elevation to the Jungfraujoch terminal at 11,300 feet. It is an absolute engineering marvel in my mind that opened in 1912.
The train ride was what excited me but it was an epic day of sun up on top. We have been in the clouds and rain most of the time from Zermatt to this point in time. It was nice to see these glorious mountains without obstruction. We spent the entire day 12 hours traveling up and down and wandering around the mountains themselves. We were able to walk out on the glaciers go through the ice caves carved in the glacier where the Jungfraujoch resides. Upon our return journey, instead of taking the tram, we rode the train back to Grindelwald. Just an option to put us closer to the environment. Here, the pictures tell the story:
Inside the Jungfraujoch:
Inside the Ice Cave:
Lunch:
On the way down:
We got back to the room about 7 PM. Sidenote the trains were packed from Grindelwald back to Interlachen. And we’re thoroughly exhausted from the entire day. We probably walked over 7 miles and saw some of the most incredible mountains and glaciers imaginable.
Day Fufzah (15) - July 25 - A visit to Schnynige Platte
Yes, another train ride and as I write this, there was a big stock market correction in the USA! We needed a good correction regardless of the immaterial reasons for this one.
I’m sitting outside here at the hotel Continental. I’m overlooking the Jungfrau Peak and sweating because it’s hot. The sun is out not a cloud in the sky a beautiful day and I’m having coffee with caffeine so I’m kind of lit and sweating getting ready for our day.
Today we’re gonna head up to Schnynige Platte and look toward the Bernice Alps from the north looking south. The train ride is up a very steep hill on a cog wheel train and we left about 10 and got to the top around Noon. The top was 6800 feet of elevation from the base elevation of Interlaken of about 1800 feet so pretty steep climb on this train and took about 90 minutes.
Upon arrival at Schnynige Platte they had a couple of Alphorn musicians playing the vintage Swiss Alp Horns. It was an impressive greeting to the beautiful alpine flower garden that we walked through. We walked this gorgeous hillside area and took lots of photos.
Had lunch about 1:30p with an incredible view...
After a few stops, one being getting our ticket to Munich because we couldn’t use the SWISS Rail app for international tickets, we ended up back at the Hotel Continental about 1530 (3:30pm).
For dinner, we decided to do a traditional Swiss fondue at a restaurant overlooking Interlaken, the Harder Klum. On the southern slope of a mountain directly above Interlaken, you take a funicular up this steep slope from 1800 feet (600 m) up to 1320 m (4000 feet). Really impressive and packed full of people. Our last night here we wanted a special dinner to remember it by. Boy was it special.
The meal was absolutely fantastic. The best view we’ve ever had for a dinner. A great way to end our time here in Switzerland. Tomorrow, Munich.
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Theatinerkirche St. Kajetan |
A special note about the Neues Rathaus: it had a huge ornate Bavarian style cuckoo clock that activated at 11 AM, noon and 5 PM every day. We missed it completely!
We continued our walk to the huge Englischer Garten ( a huge garden area along the Isar River) like Central Park in New York. Everybody was out on this hot day playing in the waters having picnics having birthday parties and various get together it was quite active.
We stopped at a sidewalk cafe and had pizza, beer and water for lunch. We had seen a lot in town and wanted to go to the Nymphenburg Palace. The Aristocracy's summer residence about 4 miles to the west. Hopped on a bus, then a train and were there in time for a cappuccino and a pastry. I love these great sidewalk cafes.
As we wondered the grounds, we realized we needed a plan for tomorrow and after an hour or so, and extremely hot, it was 3p and we decided to head back to the room and rest before dinner. We had put a bit over 6 miles on our Fitbit's and were hot and tired.
Hopping back up on the metro system, which is pretty cool once you figure them out you can go really anywhere quickly. A simple transit map and a basic understanding of direction, you can move around these big cities pretty easily. We got back to Karlsplatz, grabbed a smoothie which we call, "moonies" for a drink back at the room. Shit... it was like 100% sugar so I took the hit and drank the whole thing sparing my lovely wife from the badness.
Dinner and shopping was the plan for the evening. We wanted to get our Granddaughters some "lederhosen", authentic German clothing, that we wanted to visit to get the girls a couple little dresses.
Funny little story here is that the store we saw earlier was further down the Platz and we ended up walking another 2 miles, down and back, for no reason. The store was closed! But.... Kim looked across the way and saw another clothing store. We went in and found exactly what we wanted. Found a Bavarian Café in front of the Neues Rathaus on the Platz for dinner and got back about 2000 hours calling it a day; 8 1/2 miles walking and some 20,000 steps. Interesting definition of a chill day. One more day left before heading home.
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| A perfect dinner to end a perfect trip! We are blessed to look forward to many more... Love, Martin and Kimble |
