Getting Ready for the TMB

Today is the day to organize everything to start the Tour first thing in the morning. It has been a cloudy day with a shower in the evening though afterwards it became quite pleasant again. 

Chamonix reminds Russ of an old saying from Hawaii - bring money to keep Hawaii green (referring to US dollars). Everything is quite expensive especially considering The Aosta Valley in Italy was much more reasonable.

We saw one group of a dozen young guys walking through town - each carrying two short ice axes (for vertical climbing ice), crampons, rope, helmets and the whole kit. Looks like they were having fun.

Quechua is a brand many of us are aquainted with from the outdoor store Decathlon. Here we found a Quechua store so it is an independent brand as well it seems.

This place has more sports stores per block than we have ever seen before.

                         

Beautiful Alps Village Chamonix

An easy drive of less than 80 km from Aosta, Italy to Chamonix that the authorities manage to make a bit of a nuisance. The whole of Europe has a real mess at toll booths - you sit in an endless line to take a ticket or to pay the toll. The tunnel of 11.6 km length which opened in 1965 has a fee of 44.20 euros - one way. With very light traffic there was a half hour wait before the tunnel. They mention customs but you never see a customs agent anywhere around. 

Chamonix is a beautiful place - the setting is magnificent! Tall mountains on all sides and active glaciers/ice falls quite close by. The Mont Blanc massif is still snow covered in shady areas and at the higher elevations.

Driving Toward Matterhorn

Having come down with a cold Russ was not in a hurry to start the day. He is much improved over yesterday fortunately!

After a late breakfast we headed for a shopping center where we were told we could find a laundromat. The directions were perfect and the machines even had instructions in English - the operation was a total success.

After completing the laundry business we headed up a nearby valley toward the Matterhorn. It is a beautiful drive with small villages all along the way. The houses and business typically have a mass of flowers in front and decorating the balconies. The area is apparently one very big ski attraction in the winter months - summer tourists are a bonus.

   

  

The road is a decent two lanes all the way - not a narrow two lanes like a few others have been. It seems to continue on through the mountains into Switzerland.

The Matterhorn is at the head of the valley and a beautiful sight as you drive along. Clouds covered the top so we never did get a real good view of the peak.

On our return we stopped at a small attraction in the village where we are staying. Someone has built replicas of many of the local castles - quite a job.

Flu Day

We woke up to a "not feeling good" day. Unfortunately Russ caught the flu and suffered from a runny nose all day. He spent almost half of the day sleeping which will hopefully help him to recover fast.

The only good thing today is receving a basket from our host, full of grapes and plumbs and a bottle of homemade wine, Cuignon 2015.

Grapes, the variety is unknown to us but definetely the sweetest of all kinds we ever had.

Downtown Aosta

Yesterday we didn’t do much, only grocery shopping and we spent the rest of the day for relaxing and recovering from the day before’s hike.

Today we wanted to see downtown Aosta. We went to the main square, Chanoux Square where there is a big Town Hall and some little restaurants, cafes and pubs.

There we took a little tourist train ride only for 20 minutes. First stop was at Aosta Cathedral, then a few stops at some Towers and then we saw The Arch of Augustus. Finally back to the Square.

We spent some time to eat lunch and had coffee and then wondered in the little streets opening to the square. Those streets are pedestrian only streets and full of shops and stores expanded on the sidewalks.

On our walk to the car park we took pictures of some ancient Roman site.

And some other pictures.