Category Archives: Adventure

When In Rome?

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When in Rome. That was going to be my travelling motto. No spoiled American stereotype for me.

My second great adventure took me scuba diving to Fiji. While there, my boyfriend at the time wanted to participate in a kava ceremony–an event that is suspiciously similar to boys night out in the U.S., in that it involves mind altering drinks and no girls allowed.

No girls allowed.

And so it was that I failed my first “When in Rome” test.

I failed the second test as well. In Fiji, women are not allowed to sit in the front of vehicles. I was already seated when I found this out. I sat stubbornly in my seat, glaring at no one in particular, and at everyone in general.

These incidents, small but significant, have stayed with me on all my travels. I love learning about and experiencing other cultures, but they’re not always as romantic as the travel guides make out. And I’m often torn on how to react.

Even within the U.S., there are some odd cultures. In Seattle, everyone drinks coffee. I now have a Starbucks addiction that I’m pretty sure I’d be better off without. In Helena, MT, Wednesday evenings are spent in the local brewery. I now know more about Montana politics than I will ever admit. And the beer isn’t even that good.

And Albany, NY. I have spent the last six months traveling every week to Albany. I’m a Georgia girl, raised on please, thank you, and Mother-may-I. They were not raised that way in Albany. In Colorado, my now home state, Mondays are for reliving the weekends. Not so in Albany. People stare at me when I ask how they are–well, when they acknowledged me at all.

I’m not really an extrovert but I do like talking with people; plus, I just believe in certain civilities. And I do care how you’re doing. Once again, I found myself torn. With six months of this travel, what should I do? I couldn’t see myself embracing it, but it was their culture. When in Rome, after all.

The holidays came during these travels and once again Facebook was awash in the “I’ll say Merry Christmas if I darn well please” assertations. And that’s when it hit me. It wasn’t so much about adaptation as it was about acceptance. I’m quite okay with receiving a Happy Hanukkah, but i do love my Merry Christmas. I can participate without letting go of what I love about my own culture.

And so it went for six months. I’d ask about the weekend. They’d ask me about the software. I’d smile and nod at fellow runners. They’d give me wide berth. I got to where I almost didn’t even notice when my good mornings were greeted with frustrated rants about something entirely unrelated.

Then one morning, the frustrated rant stopped. My client-slash-coworker broke off mid sentence and turned his chair so he fully faced me.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Good morning, Lynda. How are you?” I just grinned.

When in Rome, sometimes it’s okay to make the tourist feel at home.

Celebrating and Surviving the End of the Mayan Calendar in the Belizean Jungle

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As Todd and I were sitting in the canoe with our guide Jose, heading into a dark, narrow cave, I began to question the wisdom of what we were doing.  By pure coincidence, our trip to Belize happened to coincide with the Mayan calendar date of December 21st, a day some believed the Mayan calendar predicted the world was to end.  I won’t lie, I found it a bit spooky going into a cave that had been used primarily for sacrifice by the Mayan on such an imposing calendar day.  No one else was around and no one else knew where we were, not that anything really would have helped us if indeed the world had ended that day.  Fortunately for us, the world continued to go around and Todd and I made it safely out of the cave.  We would get to continue on with our fabulous two week Life Bus trip to Belize where we explored the jungle as well as the barrier reef cayes.

The fact that Todd and I were able to be in Belize during such a millennial event is pure chance and luck.  This trip had its challenges from the get go.  Todd had the misfortune of having a mountain biking accident at the beginning of November which caused a herniated L5 disc.  Unfortunately, the injury was so severe Todd had to undergo surgery only 4 short weeks before we were supposed to leave on this jungle and sea kayaking adventure.  Facing the real potential of losing lots of money in non-refundable deposits, I told him he would have to go – even if he were in a body cast.  In all honesty, we were both excited and yet very anxious about how this trip would turn out for us.  Fortunately, all the worry was for naught and we had an amazing time.

Given that our lodgings during the first week were going to be about three hours away from Belize City and located off of seriously bumpy, dirt roads, we opted to stay the first night in Belize City rather than try to navigate these roads in the dark.  We did have a great Life Bus moment in Belize City where we found a wonderful little Belizean diner purely as a result of a chance meeting with a Belizean lady at our hotel.  (More on that in another post.)

Our ultimate goal for the first few days of our trip was the Blancaneaux Lodge in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve by San Ignacio.  We were supposed to have had about a three hour drive on the Western Belizean highway to get there.  Of course, we had a few detours along the way and it really wound up taking us about five hours.

Let me just mention briefly, driving on the Belizean highways isn’t really terrible as far as international driving goes.  I think Pam and I encountered far worse driving in places such as Naples.  The one caveat I do have for anyone driving in Belize is that there are speed bumps everywhere.  Most of the time these bumps are NOT marked.  So, you really want to be observant … especially when going through roadside towns.  The speed bumps are not little rolling bumps.  Most of them would do some serious damage to your car if you hit them at anything faster than 10 mph.  Just a heads up!

One of the detours was to look for a Mennonite bakery.  I must confess, I was unaware that there was such a large Mennonite community in Belize.  It was really quite a fascinating juxtaposition between several cultures – African, Mayan, Latino, and Mennonite to name just a few.  The Mennonite in Belize look and live for the most part the way they do in the US.  The interesting note about the Mennonite in Belize is just how successful they have become there.  Apparently, they are responsible for almost all of the country’s watermelon, beef, eggs, dairy, other produce, and timber.  Unfortunately, we never did find that bakery.

As a result of all of our detours, we made it to the road to Blancaneaux just as the sun was setting.  Despite the great signage Blancaneaux has put up along the way, you really don’t want to be trying to find this place in the dark.  The road you turn on to from the highway is truly a bouncy, rutted, dirt road with no lights, 1 road side convenience hut, and 1 very basic ranger hut prior to arriving at Blancaneaux itself.  Once you pull in to the hotel, however, you realize you have arrived at your own private Belizean jungle paradise and that it has been worth every pothole along the way.

We couldn’t wait for the next day where we would actually get a feel for where the Life Bus had taken us and begin our jungle adventures.

Living My Life

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My cousin is living my life. The life I dream of. That dream I have during long, painful meetings where I’ve slipped the surly, golden bonds of corporate America and am living one crazy grand adventure after another.

Last I saw him was Key West, FL. I had just completed a triathlon, a sport I love but in which I infrequently participate, because the sport seems to attract the most obsessive of gear heads. Not many seem to do tris for the pure, unadulterated joy of movement. He had arrived there one month prior via a sailboat ride from Anaheim. The boat’s captain is a bush pilot my cousin met in McCarthy, Alaska, home to both. I am pretty sure he is living my life as well. To him, it is all routine, shuttling the adventurous off to their dream kayaking/mountaineering/skiing expedition. I have learned, though, that one man’s routine is another man’s lifetime experience. I hope one day to have the chance to buy him a beer or two, and hear the stories.

If you’ve never been to (or even heard of) McCarthy, it is truly the last of the last frontiers. It is nestled in the Wrangell-St Elias National Park–at 13.2 million acres, the largest national park in the U.S., and larger than Switzerland. I visited him there after my bitter disappointment on Denali. His home is a beautiful, modest log home that he built himself, on a piece of land with a small lake, plentiful trees, and no sign of neighbors. Completely off the grid, energy comes from a generator, the sun, or a cozy wood stove. The outhouse is the only downside of this arrangement.

Well, not the only. The town is at the end of a sixty mile dirt road (when I first looked up McCarthy, I thought the road name was “Closed In Winter”). The nearest grocery store is six hours away. That’s a long haul to get Ben and Jerry’s after a sucky day, but then, how many sucky days could there be in McCarthy, Alaska? And keeping it warm at night requires a couple of wake up calls.

When I ran into my cousin. in Key West, he had just become best buddies with some Alaska transplants and was beach and bar hopping around the Keys. I’m the epitome of introvert and rarely meet anyone new, much less connect with this group as deeply as I did. I spent three days with them, alternating drinking and having the most honest discussion of fears and dreams and growing up and old since the long ago college late night runs to Taco Cabana.

Mark left in the middle of this break from reality to hop a plane to Arizona. His next adventure was on the Grand Canyon. For most, this is a once in a lifetime adventure–for Mark, well, let’s just say it wasn’t his first time, and probably not the last. He promised to send the next invitation my way. Now all I have to do is convince work that one month vacations are totally normal. They’re still reeling from the last one. I guess I should be relieved they don’t like me being gone that long.

When he’s not out living my life, Mark is at home, spending the long summer Alaskan days working for the National Park Service, restoring an abandoned copper mine. He took me for a tour last summer, and it is quite the glorious wreck. Breathtaking in its disarray, I’m not sure how OSHA would view it. He had spent the prior winter on a balmy island somewhere south, where he had spent a couple months recuperating and rehabilitating from shoulder surgery. Working to restore copper mines is tough work, and his rotator cuff was the unfortunate casualty.

When I dream of chucking it all, I seldom think about it with a realistic bent. Truth is, lifestyles of any type require some kind of sacrifice and compromise. My job allows me only three weeks of adventure a year, but also gives me a decent budget for those three weeks. It demands a lot from me, yet allows the flexibility to explore while “working from home”: five days in Key West cost me almost no adventure time. And I like coming home to a hot shower. I’m spoiled having a grocery store and take out Vietnamese within walking distance.

If I can just figure out how to get internet connectivity in a raft and a waterproof laptop, I think I’d have it made.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

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3 years ago over Christmas the Life Bus took an amazing journey to Tanzania.  Pam, Greg, Emily, Todd, and I climbed Kilimanjaro, experienced the wildebeest migration along with numerous other spectacular animals on safari in the Serengetti, and spent a week on Zanzibar.  I became fascinated by the Masai culture which manages to maintain many traditional customs while living side by side with the modern world.  On our drive from Arusha to the Serengetti, we had the opportunity to stop at a Masai village.  Despite the fact that this community probably sees its fair share of visitors, there was nothing that felt touristy about the experience.  It was, however, an incredible opportunity to actually step into (crawl into is really more what we did) one of the mud hut homes of the Masai.

The women traditionally are the ones to build these homes.  The huts are made of dung, sticks, grass, ash, and really anything else they can find.  These homes are intentionally simple as the Masai have been a nomadic culture.  That, is of course, changing to some degree.  The homes are very small, approximately 9″ x 12″ x 5″.

We were invited inside and the reality of how small the space is became very apparent.  Within this space the family does everything:  cooks, sleeps, and socializes.  The sleeping area consists of a small alcove off to the side.  The cooking area dominates the small space.  The smell of smoke inside was so thick I wasn’t sure how they are able to breath.  There was one funny moment while we were in the hut.  While sharing stories about Masai customs with us, our Masai guide took out his machete and waved it in the air.  We were all crouched shoulder to shoulder in this tiny space.  For an instant, my eyes got quite large.  Emily and I were quickly assessing the exit plan.  Unfortunately, I don’t remember what he was trying to show us in that moment.  The machete had my full attention.

I am choosing this as my selection for this week’s photo challenge because I continue to remain thankful to travel for opening my eyes as to how others in the world live and the places they call home.

Wonderful Team Member Readership Award

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wonderful-readership-award2Pam and I feel blessed that our little endeavor called The Life Bus has gotten some great people to climb aboard and along the way nominate us for our second award, the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award.  This generous award nomination comes to us from the Les Petits Pas de Jules who has been a true champion of The Life Bus and we are truly thrilled that she has found our writings worthy of a blog award.  If you haven’t had a chance to check out her blog yet, I highly recommend you do so.  It is a wonderful blog with great content as well as photos.  She does this in three languages no less.

So here is what WTMRA winner must do as a recipient of this award:

  • Display the logo on his/her post/page and/or sidebar
  • The Nominee must finish this sentence and post: ”A Great reader is…”
  • Nominate 14 readers they appreciate over a period of 7 days (1 week) – this can be done at any rate during the week. It can be ALL on one day or a few on one day and a few on another day, etc., naming his or her nominees on a post or on posts during the 1 week period.
  • The Nominee shall make these rules, or amended rules, keeping to the spirit of the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award, known to each reader s/he nominates.

Here goes for what I think makes a great reader …. it’s really more a little story so I hope you enjoy!!

My definition of a great reader is probably not much different than that of most people.  So, instead of plagiarizing what others have articulated so well, I thought I’d rather share some thoughts about a great reader I know quite well.   My mother is the person who comes to mind immediately.  Since my earliest memories, my mother has never been without her nose in a book or without stacks of books all over the house.  The best part is she actually reads them all and does so quickly.  She is almost thrown into a panic when she runs out and doesn’t have a book on hand.  My mother has no limits on subjects about which she will read.  She reads biographies, mysteries, and novels.  She reads about history, science, geography, mythology, and too many other topics to list all separately.  As a result of this massive amount of reading, my mother is quite frankly one of the most intelligent human beings I have ever encountered.  She is a repository of an amazing amount of information. I think what makes her, and others like her, great readers is that insatiable thirst to soak up as much about life and the world as possible.  I think my mother has been able to live a thousand different lives and adventures through all of the stories she has read.  I think these are the qualities that drive great readers.

14 Readers I Appreciate

lisalday111711

adinparadise

Madhu

Tripperspot

Rarasaur

Carl Milner

lesleycarter

lifeoutofthebox

travelerlynne

sueannm66

rimassolosailingaroundtheworldm

miragoestomarket

theadventurejournal

The Very Inspiring Blogger Award…WOW

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I have to say that this is truly a special nomination for the Life Bus!  THANK you from the bottom of our hearts to Sue Ann of the phenomenal Sue Ann’s Balcony for taking the time to read our blog and providing wonderful support to what we are trying to achieve – creating a mindset to get out and enjoy life to the fullest!

One of the rules of this award is to list 7 things about yourself…I am choosing to write about the ‘Rules of the Life Bus’.  This is essentially how Lexi and I live our lives day in and day out.

  1. No vacation hoarding – please contact the Life Bus if you need coaching in this area – we have mastered this one.
  2. Seize opportunities when they come your way – do not turn down a free trip to the Olympics because of a violation of rule #1.
  3. Must be open-minded and adventuresome – meaning, consider pitching a tent instead of staying in a hotel – what is a little dirt and a few bugs in the grand scheme of things?
  4. Get off the beaten path – you will be glad you did.  Think of the stories…
  5. Must laugh at yourself and all of your imperfectness.
  6. Have the confidence to know you can do it – you will never know unless you try.
  7. Live in the moment!  Appreciate the craziness of it all – things always work out one way or another.

This is the list of 10  bloggers I admire and read and would like to nominate for “The inspirational blogger award”.  There are so many great blogs out there it was hard to pick!  These folks are our kindred spirits in the search for adventure and a full life!

Very Inspiring Blogger Award Rules

1-    Display the award logo on your blog

2-    Link back to the person who nominated you.

3-    State seven things about yourself.

4-    Nominate fifteen other bloggers for this award and link to them.

5-    Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements.

Riffelalp Resort … A Splurge Worth Every Swiss Franc

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Okay, as much as we Life Busers enjoy our backpacking, car-camping, huts, yurts, Toyota Tunder flatbeds, etc. … sometimes we need a splurge.  After having spent several nights in very average, nondescript Swiss and German hotels on this trip, Todd and I figured Zermatt was the place to embrace the splurge mentality.  We jumped in with both feet and booked 3 nights at the Riffelalp Resort in Zermatt.  Technically, it’s not in Zermatt proper, it’s actually about 2000 feet up the valley sidewall from Zermatt.  The hotel is only accessible via either the Gornergratbahn or a well-marked footpath leading from Zermatt up to the Riffelalp.  Just a word of caution, the footpath route is very scenic but does take about an hour uphill (obviously less time going down into town.)  Riffelalp Resort  [slideshow]

Let me just say that the location of this hotel and the superior service and luxury of this hotel will make you never, ever want to leave!!!  It will make you want to mortgage everything you have to stay another night.  Upon your arrival at the train station, you are met by one of those little golf cart buggies where they will take your luggage and give you tickets for the Gornergratbahn ride up to the hotel.  The hotel provides free tickets for each guest for both your arrival and departure train rides.

We were in room #203 with the most spectacular views of the Matterhorn.  The photo of the Matterhorn with the summit bathed in an orange glow was taken from our room at sunrise.  The linens were the crispest, most amazing linens and the duvet cover was as puffy as it gets.  The size of the room was very generous.  The service was of the highest European quality!  The breakfast buffet was another place I could have stayed all day.  It was the typical Swiss breakfast where the buffet goes on forever with wonderful muesli, Swiss cheeses. creamy butter, breads, yogurts, fresh fruit, and traditional local meats.

The view of the Matterhorn from the pool is perhaps one of the best hotel pool views in the world!!  The pool itself is like a giant hot tub with a series of jets, vibrations, and waves that ripple throughout the pool.

The proximity of the Riffelalp to the Gornergrat hiking system is also unbeatable.  Out the hotel door and you can be hiking immediately.  If you choose to ride the Gornergratbahn up and hike down the bahn is only around the corner.  The trail running was breathtaking.  In fact, the hotel is the endpoint for the Zermatt Trail Marathon which I hope to be doing in 2013.  They were setting up for the race the day we arrived.

There is nothing upon which the Riffelalp does not deliver spectacularly.  So please, if you find yourself in Zermatt, do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a stay at the Riffelalp Resort.  You will find it very hard to return to reality.  Hey, sometimes the Life Bus needs to park itself in Valet parking!!

Please note there are a few caveats about taking the Gornergratbahn to and from the Riffelalp.  Here ya’ go:

The bahn is very easy to catch in town and is a scenic ride up to the hotel.  From the place where the bahn drops you off to the hotel is about a 5 minute walk on a nice pathway.  There is a caveat here that is very important to note.  The ride on the bahn costs approximately $20 per person each way from the hotel to town.  Todd and I thought we would just cruise up and down between the town and the hotel.  We definitely got a wake up call when we walked down into town and then went to ride the bahn back up.  It was $40 for the two of us to get back up to the hotel.  Needless to say, we didn’t cruise down into town again.  Instead, we enjoyed all of the hiking being in such close proximity to the hotel.  You can ride the bahn from the hotel to the top of the Gornergratbahn and back down as well.  These prices vary depending on the distance you are riding.  Check the website for pricing, stops, times, etc.  Gornergratbahn

Watch the Manta Rays Go Round and Round…

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I don’t know about you, but I wanted to be an Oceanographer when I was in college – must have been sitting in the middle of a tax accounting class when I had that overwhelming desire.  Why do I bring this up?  I have always been fascinated by the sea and everything in it.

The Big Island (BI) is my favorite island in Hawaii..volcanoes, green sand beaches, rugged cliffs, lava, amazing golf courses and home to the phenomenal Iron Man competition.  BI is also the stomping grounds for Manta Rays, one of the largest fish in the ocean.  I hear they have wingspans of up to 20 feet – though I cannot confirm the stat via personal experience.  Have you ever seen these guys in action?  So graceful when navigating the big, blue magnificent ocean.  They also have incredibly large mouths so they can scoop up as much plankton as possible.  It is amazing to me that something so large can subsist on such minute bits of food.  I personally need a ribeye and a loaded baked potato – throw in some cheesecake and I am good to go.

If you happen to find yourself exploring the BI, one of the the best places to see these amazing creatures is off the Kona Coast. Specifically, just offshore at the  Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keahou Bay.  It sounds ridiculous but it’s true. In fact, the hotel has lights that shine at night so you can see them swimming from the viewing deck of the hotel.  The lights attract plankton like moths to a flame, thus drawing the Mantas into a feeding frenzy.

Photo: Courtesy of Mail Online.com (http://www.dailymail.co.uk)

If you want to get up close and personal with these gentle giants (assuming you are not a SCUBA diver), consider a snorkel tour with Hula Kai Adventures.   What is the scoop you ask?  Once the sun begins to set for the day, you hop on a boat which will take you about 100 yards away from shore, don a wetsuit (if needed), life jacket and snorkel gear and jump into the water.

Once in said water you hang on to a floatation device that looks similar to a raft and will be instructed to stretch out as far as possible, plank-like so the chance of accidentally touching the Mantas will be unlikely.  Your legs will be held up by the assistance of a ‘pool noodle’.  The tour operator will shine lights in the water to attract the plankton. Within 10 to 15 minutes a Manta will be inches from your face – and I mean inches. They got so close to me, I screamed in my snorkel which subsequently led to hysterical laughter as the sound was so ridiculous! They seem to be starving when they arrive – they will circle round and round like there is no tomorrow.   The tour lasts for about 90 minutes (varies) – just long enough in my opinion.  We had the opportunity to see 2 mantas, but there can be a heck of a lot more if you are lucky. If by chance you don’t see any, you can come back FOC.

It is definitely in the top 5 of things to do in Hawaii and most definitely in the top 25 of all time experiences.  I think this is the one time in my life where I regretted not buying the video :-/.

Noteworthy Information:  I have a propensity to get motion sickness so after watching these guys and gals go round and round for 60 minutes or so, I almost puked – but it was well worth it!

Get on the Life Bus and hang with the Manta Rays on the Big Island of Hawaii – you will not regret it!

The Life Bus Hits Portugal

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Anyone ever been to Portugal?   Believe it or not, I found only 2 friends who could offer up advice on the topic.  This fact has made it a difficult trip to plan….North or South? Rent a car or take the train? How many nights in Lisbon? How about a side trip to Spain? Good lord my head has been spinning. One of my buds used to live there and steered me North in a rental car. Spain is out, mostly because I would like to have more time to explore that amazing country and the stay in Lisbon is going to be limited to one night on arrival and the night prior to flying home.

The trip has not yet been kicked off – 2 more days to go before we (Greg and I) hop on a plane and cross the seemingly never ending Atlantic ocean.  We have 12 glorious days to explore this untapped country and plan to head North through the wine country, wind around to the Eastern boarder with Spain and drive as far South as we can.  The route currently mapped out is shown via google maps.  This whole trip is about 22 hours of driving over 12 days – that seems pretty doable assuming map reading skills are fully utilized.

Where are we staying you ask?  Have no idea.  2 reservations have been made, one in Lisbon and the other in Porto – everything else is going to be full-on gypsy.  Should be a wildly interesting experience, one I am anxious to share with you when I get back.  Stay Tuned.

 

 

Zermatt – A Bucket List Must!!

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I have to admit that when planning our trip to Zermatt, I was looking forward to going there but I wasn’t so excited that I couldn’t contain myself.  I felt more like it was going to be one of those “check-off-the-list” kind of places that we should see since we were going to be close by in the Berner Oberland.  I thought it would be an over-rated tourist town with an interesting mountain.  NOTHING could be further from the truth!!  From the minute Todd and I got to Zermatt we were entranced by the natural beauty of the surrounding scenery and by the loveliness of the town of Zermatt itself.  It has become one of our favorite places ever and one to which we hope to return many more times in our lifetime.  [slideshow]

Zermatt lies at the end of the Matter valley (Mattertal).  To understand the majesty of this place you have to know that the Mattertal is only about a mile wide at most and that the town of Zermatt sits at roughly 5200 feet.  This valley is surrounded by Switzerland’s highest peaks.  Rising up abruptly on all sides of this narrow valley are many peaks with at least 50 of them exceeding 13,000 feet.  As if these peaks, and the numerous massive glaciers, weren’t awesome enough, add the massive, looming presence of the Matterhorn itself and you can begin to understand why this valley takes your breath away!!  The Matterhorn is so much more than just an interestingly shaped peak.  It’s presence is everywhere you go in the valley and it’s history and grandeur are awe-inspiring.  Do I sound really enthusiastic about this place yet?

The town of Zermatt is the quintessential, immaculate, geranium-bedazzled Alpen mountain town you would expect from the Swiss.  One  thing that really makes the town nice is that it is off limits to all motor vehicles unless you live there.  The only other vehicles are these funny little golf-cart type vehicles they use to transport hotel guests and luggage around.  To get to Zermatt you leave your car at a very large garage in Taesch and take an easy train ride into Zermatt.  Don’t panic about leaving your car behind.  Remember, this is Switzerland and the garage is extremely safe and clean.  The town can be a bit touristy but only in the sense that there are quite a few people there in the summer and there are the typical Swiss watch shops, etc.  We really didn’t see any tick-tacky touristy shops selling cuckoo clocks made in China or anything of that ilk.

You really don’t come to Zermatt to just hang out in the town anyway.  You come to Zermatt to experience the Alps and the loveliness  of the outdoors here.  I should mention, however, that the town does have a wonderful, little, rustic museum that is well worth a visit.  It has information on life in the Mattertal hundreds of years ago as well as quite a bit of mountaineering history.  The rope used on the first ascent of the Matterhorn, which then infamously broke on the descent, is on display at the museum as well.  There’s a small cemetery by the church dedicated to fallen mountaineers as well. Quite sobering!

Obviously, the outdoor adventure options in Zermatt, and the surrounding area, are too numerous to list them all here.  Todd and I spent most of our time hiking the trails off of the Gornergrat.  The Gornergrat is a ridge of the Alps surrounded by 29 peaks rising above 13,000 feet and several glaciers, including the Gorner Glacier – the second largest glacier in the Alps. There is a cog railway that makes several stops on its way to the top of the Gornergrat.  You can hop on or off at several stops a long the way.  Gornergratbahn

This trip truly impressed upon me why the Matterhorn and Zermatt are as famous and iconic as they are.  I urge you to make sure your Life Bus steers towards Zermatt at least once!!  You WILL NOT regret it!!  Have fun!!