so here we are in the french alps. wow, these are some big mountains.
started the day in paris, had breakfast early enough to get a full day in. walk around, then packed up.
found our way through public transit to the Gare de Lyon, but we were much too early for our train. found a nice park to sit in and sing some songs while kids played and pigeons flapped. the bench paint was old and covered in sap. so it stuck to my jeans but not aliza's.
took the TGV to geneva. amazing how fast that thing travels. it feels funny to pass cars that are already going 100km/h as if they were going a walking pace.
the green wide fields slowly started rolling more and more until they were wave upon wave of lush green pastures and forests. things soon steepened and we saw our first signs of green mountain water. the rocky peaks pocked out from the forest canopy and soon in the distance we could see our first alps.
in geneva we didnt know which train to transfer to since we hadnt checked before leaving. oops, nice one brain. so we guessed on the IR towards Brig, and we guessed right with only a minute to spare.
the ride along lake leman was beautiful. all these neat houses and old and modern towns flashed by, with the backdrop of the alps growing bigger and bigger. montreux felt like the real entrance to mountains and i also cant wait to play that festival one day (wish me luck).
in martigny we switched trains and got on the chamonix express. we had the train to ourselves; we took up 16 seats, it was great. the train slowly climbed the pass, the valleys got steeper and darker green until we were truly nestled and sliding and snaking along cliffs. it was aliza's first time ever being close to mountains higher than 5000 feet, so her eyes were very wide at the sight of the gnarly rock formations, and disbelief was next when she saw her first glacier; hard to believe that the ice is so huge and old and cold... for myself, i live in BC among mountains for a decade, so it felt like coming to an old home, and being amongst giant friends.
