“May I help you young lady?”

At the service desk at a familiar big box store, a young man asks “And what can I do for you, young lady?”  Since I have talked about this type of comment/question recently as patronizing, I blurted out “do you call everyone young lady?”  Maybe this was rude of me, but I consider it offensive, not flattering.  A friendly “may I help you?” works fine for me.  He did answer yes to my question, but doubt it is true. But I did say “well, good”.   Am I being too sensitive here?  What have you experienced and how do you feel about it?

Day 6: Zermatt

Day 6-7, June 12-13.  Zermatt.  Finally we are among the beautiful alps. Zermatt sits nestled below the iconic Matterhorn. As a popular ski resort it’s center is a vast collection of hotels and restaurants lining its winding streets. Outside vehicles are prohibited, but small electric taxis, trucks and bikes zip around everywhere. The town is crowded with huge construction cranes used in renovating older hotels and in the ongoing construction of new ones creeping further up the hillsides surrounding this narrow valley.

We spent our first afternoon hiking an alpine trail above the town and the next morning we took a cog railway to the top of Gornergrat, a high mountain with fantastic views of surrounding peaks and glaciers as well as of the Matterhorn when it is not shrouded in clouds.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yNAdFGuCzb1yPi4T9

Day 4: Montreux - Gruyeres

Montreux sits on the edge of lake Geneva. The Swiss and the French share a border that runs somewhere down the middle of the lake. There is long lovely walk along its edge to Chillon Castle, originally built as a Roman outpost early in the 11th century.

Our room was characteristically (for Europe) small but with French doors opening to a balcony overlooking the lake.  Unfortunately with no air conditioning, no room fan, snd warm sultry weather, the doors needed to stay open all night as we listened to the weekend sounds of barhopping revelers, motorcyles, and the general roar of wandering weekend vacationers.  Not our best sleeping experience.

We did have a chance to take the train to nearby Gruyeres 

to visit their small cheese factory and the more interesting Chateau Gruyeres overlooking the surrounding valley.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DgMcJ5o4orhPE1Us5

Day 3 of Switzerland journey

Day 3, June 9: woke up at 5am. Time to take a brief stroll along the Bahnhofstrasse before breakfast and the train journey to Montreaux.

Trams run regularly and often

Balconies as works of art

The train we take to Montreaux is a special tourist train running through back country on narrow guage rails. We were able to reserve front row vista seats which gave us a clear view of the tracks ahead. Great fun ride.

Zurich

Day 2, June 8.  Stopover in Reykjavik at 6am local time to change planes. When we left home the temp was in the 90’s and I knew Zurich would be warm so all jackets and warm clothes were in my checked bag.  Who knew that Our Icelandic flight would park out on the tarmac somewhere, that the weather would be  cold, damp, drizzling, and there would be an exposed walk to a waiting terminal bus - both arriving and leaving.

Zurich, as expected, was balmy. The plane arrived at a real gate and it was a short walk to the inner city train.  What I did not expect was that the ‘two minute’ walk to our hotel would turn into a 45 minute hike as we exited the far end of the huge station, got turned around, walked out onto the  street, could not find Banhofstrasse, walked back down into the subterranean  part of the station, up and out other side, then several more blocks until we finally asked someone on the street who directed us back to the first side where we wondered around a bit until given more specific directions and finally found our street directly in front of the station’s main entrance. The hotel was a block and a half away. Too bad my fitbit can’t give extra credit for all this weight I am carrying.

Definitely not the hotel district 

The main entrance to the Zurich station is actually somewhat distinct.

Denver to Zürich

Day 1 june 7

Packed and ready to go. Got everything into my checked bag plus pillow,  hiking shoes, sunglasses, etc into my small pink - so I can’t miss it - backpack.  Plants are inside, over-watered and supplied with plant  nannies   A bit late to discover that not every brand of bottled water bottle screws in securely to those things. Had to do a last minute dumpster dive into the nearest recycle bin to find some that worked.

 My backpack/suitcase weighed in at just over 16 lbs, but since I used to carry 20-25 lbs up to  high mountain passes I figure no problem carrying it for five minute walks between train stations  and hotels.

One on the left is mine.

Ideas for future posts

After just talking with Bonnie I thought we may want to add to this post future topics when we think of them.

So today’s idea is about going to new doctor who handed me an IPad to do all the newPatient check in steps! No paper, just type and even took my own photo for their records!