We were thankful to land in Geneva and find the temperature significantly higher than we had left in Ireland. The sun was shining as we landed and made our way with no issues through immigration and baggage pick up – but then to find our pick up point for our Eurolease car. The instructions were to depart Geneva airport via the French side – but it wasn’t easy, demanding we go through another customs/immigration check point and then find the exit…ummmm where? We spent time wandering around, up and down stairs, out along the car park entry and deciding that wasn’t the way. Nothing was helped by our phone reception and internet dying as it thought we were in Switzerland, or there was just no signal. Our pick up guy sent a photo through of where we needed to wait, but all we could see was blurry colours that looked nothing like we could find. And there was no-one to ask either, the whole situation was not great. After a good 40 minutes of this we decided to wait in the underground car park at the entrance to the airport and hope. Finally a van arrived and shouted out for another couple and then asked if we were Hansen? Oh the relief – we were ok. It took probably another hour to get to the depot, sign the forms, collect our car and work out the controls, change the display language to English, and plan our route to our accommodation over an hour away. Eurolease is a great way to do long term rentals in Europe for non-EU citizens – basically you buy a brand new car with an agreement that its bought back by the company at the end for an agreed price. It works out cheaper than regular rentals as it includes comprehensive no-excess insurance and roadside assist, plus all the wonders of a new car.

We have been to this region previously and loved Annecy, but staying there was out of budget so we ended up in Aix-les-Bains, 20 minutes further away. Our apartment was huge! High ceilings, beautiful floor to ceiling french doors onto a balcony, chandeliers in the bathroom and ornate decoration, but comfortable for the couple of nights we would be there. Our host had sent us a list of potential cafes that would be open for us after 9pm when we finally arrived; we were happy to drop our bags and wander down to the busy square and enjoy our first night on the European continent, soaking in the atmosphere. French food is amazing – the following night I had the meal of the trip so far, a seafood salad with presentation and flavours to gasp over. The next morning dawned sunny and warm, we headed to Annecy to enjoy this lovely place. Wandering the streets, enjoying the warmth and sunshine, this was the summer we had been waiting for, and it was now September, officially autumn but so much better than the majority of our summer in the UK – temperatures hovered around the mid/high-20’s – warm but not unpleasant and no wind. Chris noticed that my whole demeanour changed and I know I felt the difference in the sunshine. Down at the lakeside, we decided to hire bikes for an hour and do a short ride around part of the lake – it was lovely to be out and about and the views were captivating with the busy lake, blue skies and low mountains in the distance.

All too soon, it was time to move on towards the mountains. A short drive away was Chamonix, a year round resort with stunning mountains and a characterful town. On the way, we stopped off to do the Tramway de Mt Blanc, a train up to see views of the Chamonix valley and the mountains beyond. The plan was to catch the tram up, walk down to the next stop and tram back down again, eating lunch on the way. The ride was great, climbing higher and exposing more vistas of beautiful valleys and mountains and glimpses of glaciers; the walk down was relatively easy with wide trail and more views, as well as cow bells chiming in the pastures around us. We ended up walking two stops down rather than one as it was so pleasant, It was a very nice afternoon interlude before arriving to our accommodation.

Many years previously, we had visited Chamonix with our teenaged children and taken the ride up to the Aiguille du Midi, and we wanted to repeat it, this time stopping on the way down to walk across the face of the mountains to another stop with a train back to the valley. We remembered that our last trip (in September 2005) had been very chilly at the top, so we packed warm clothes to ensure we were not caught out this time. The gondola to the peak station is breathtakingly steep and you feel like you are heading straight into the cliff as you reach the peak, but the views are just stunning. The peak is higher than New Zealand’s tallest (Mt Cook is 3724m, Aiguille du Midi is 3842m). The views across to the Italian and Swiss alps were beautiful and we enjoyed taking it all in, dressed in our warm jackets and beanies as it was about 6^o. Then back to the mid station (temperature 24^o) with a rest to eat our lunch before starting the 2 1/2 hour hike across to the Mer de Glace train depot. We were expecting the trail to be similar to the one we had done the previous day, and it started off wide and relatively flat, before becoming much narrower, winding its way up and down, across precarious scree slopes and throwing in a bit of rock climbing as well. It was a much harder hike than we expected and but the views made up for it. There were so many others on the trail too, we knew we weren’t going the wrong way. We stopped several times just to catch our breath, hydrate and take in the views before finally spotting the station were were aiming for – even then it took another half an hour of down hill switchback paths to reach to terminal. We sank thankfully into a couple of seats and savoured cold drinks while chatting to a couple from the US we had met earlier on the Aiguille du Midi. It was a very pleasant way to end our day of adventure and exertion before catching the train down to the valley below and the bustle of Chamonix itself.

From Chamonix, we drove east into Switzerland, to the Lauterbrunnen valley. Our B&B was just out of the main tourist town in the village of Isenfluh. Getting here was a teeth gritting exercise as we climbed up switchbacks and into a one lane tunnel that corkscrewed upwards to the village. There were passing spots in the tunnel but it was certainly an adventure getting there. But our room and terrace had the most amazing view of the Jungfrau, it was worth it! Lauterbrunnen itself lived up to and exceeded the Instagram pictures we had seen, it was just gorgeous with a waterfall dropping down a sheer cliff to the valley floor, green pastures, “chocolate box” houses … and the mountains! We enjoyed every part of this location, although it was still very very busy with tourists. Originally I had wanted to do the train ride up to the “top of Europe” to the Jungfrau but at over NZ$700 for us both it really wasn’t in our budget. We opted instead to take the train to Klein Scheidegg where we could walk, take in the views and get close to the Eiger, then a gondola down to Grindelwald, passing across the face of the Eiger and lastly a train back to Lauterbrunnen for about a third the cost. It was a super day, with amazing mountain views at each stop, the cowbells in the valley and the green pastures below. This place exceeded all I had hoped for, it was just magical.

Keeping the mountains theme, we now headed to Zermatt, taking a tunnel train under the alps (a fun experience where you drive onto the train and it takes you through the tunnel, saving an hour of driving). You cannot drive into Zermatt, we had to park at the railway station and take the bags we needed for our overnight stay on a short train ride into the village itself. We checked in to our apartment early and then headed straight for the gondola terminal, buying our expensive, but not mind-blowing, “Matterhorn Paradise” gondola tickets to the summit. The gondola was one of the longest continual rides we’ve done, it kept going up and reaching terminals and continuing on…reaching the top, we were blown away by the stunning views across into Italy – people were skiing the top, and down into Italy. It is the highest gondola in the Alps, at 3883m it was higher again than Aiguille du Midi. The views towards the Matterhorn behind us were amazing, we were so close – and this was all ski-able terrain in winter, how awesome would that be?! It was cool but not cold at the summit, and we spent time taking in these views before discovering more secrets of this area. You wander along a cold ice tunnel under the glacier, and find carved caverns with ice sculptures and even an ice slide between two rooms. We enjoyed this experience, but more was to come as we retraced our ride down to the next stop, where we were able to sunbathe in deck chairs in 24^o heat enjoying amazing views of the Matterhorn, and then wandering past icy lakes and snow amongst the glacier moraine. It was worth all we paid and created special memories. Zermatt itself was heaving with tourists – it was supposed to be shoulder season, but there were many tour groups and individual tourists thronging the streets. The town is pretty, and VERY expensive (as was all of Switzerland) so we took advantage of our room having a kitchen, and the supermarket being next door, to eat in, enjoying views off our balcony.

We enjoyed our trip through the French and Swiss Alps, and the sunshine that brought warmth back to our bones and a smile to our faces. The mountains certainly proclaim the splendour of God’s creation and we were thrilled to be able to experience this small part of it.