Swiss Family Jestocost Returns!

I'm back home on U.S. soil after a great trip to Switzerland. Much great scenery was enjoyed, good food was eaten and acceptable Swiss bier was drunk. No poker was thought of at any time.

It's an undertatement to say that the Swiss Alps are incredible. We spent a fair amount of time travelling by trains (which run frequently and always are on schedule) and every ride took you from one glorious vista to another. Here's the standard view from the balcony of our apartment in Lungern, a small town about half way between Luzern and Interlaken.



And here is just a random waterfall also visible from our balcony. We hiked up to the base of this fall one afternoon.



I believe the mountain visible in the distance on the first shot above is Ballenberg. The mountain accessible via gondola and chair lift from Lungern, the peak of which actually can't be seen from the town, is Schönbüel. The shot below is from the far side of Schönbüel, just below the peak, at about 6,000 feet. That's Lake Brienz, with the town of Brienz on the near side of the lake and Interlaken barely visible at the far end. Beyond Interlaken is Lake Thun, which is absolutely beautiful.



The highest we actually got on a mountain was around 7,000 feet, on both Mt. Pilatus outside Luzern and in the Grimselpass. There are much bigger mountains in Switzerland, of course, and below is a view of the Jungfrou range which has several peaks higher than 14,000 feet. This was our view from the terrace of the restaurant where we had lunch in the town of Murren.



That's all on the travelog front for now. As promised (or threatened), I will be at the tables for a full slate of MTTs on Monday night and maybe for a brief appearance at some point this weekend. It's possible I have forgotten how to play the game, which could mean that I suck less or it could mean that I suck more. Either way, it certainly means that there will some easy chips out there for the taking.