You're Not in Florida Dorothy...

No questions about it...the Alps is a big place. Photos do not do it justice. They are huge and if I were to place a person on any of these shots they would be a DOT.

The Matterhorn is of course very famous. I did get a shot of it through the village chalets. This must be one pretty place when it snows.

And naturally the emphasis is on...skiing. If you don't ski, what else could you do? Probably take photos...OR, spend time being in the Apres Ski groups. Except you would only be part of the apres...no skiing.  You would have be fond of...FONDUE...too. cute.

 The shadows are mountain shadows. Some areas get no sun at all if they are on the north side, even at high noon.

Train station in Visp which is the point to change trains to go UP the mountains. I had just been on a train for 3 hrs. from Lausanne. I was also very fortunate that Christopher 's  teacher friend offered her  ticket for that day so I was able to travel the whole day on it.  Much grateful.

This red train, of which you only see the engine, actually went UP the mountain via cable. If you look at the tracks on the left you can see the cable in the middle that also slows the train down when coming back. 

You wanted mountains?????  Here they are....

Arrival at the train station in Zermatt. This is at the base of the Matterhorn. To actually GO to the Matterhorn you have to take 2 cable cars that swing in the breeze and when you get there to the top you touch the ground and say, yup I've been there. Well the closest I got was to photograph it. The cable trip was very time consuming and I wanted to be on the train before dark. But I did see the Matterhorn as you will see below...

 The Chalets are all at the base of ascending mountains. You are always in the shadow of an ALp of one kind or another.

Zermatt's Village Christmas Tree in the process of decoration. If you look to the right of the tree, there is the infamous Matterhorn. There are photos, paintings, sculptures, drawings, etc. of this famous place. 

In another couple of weeks this place will be covered in white stuff. Meanwhile, the mountains were a little short of snow this time of year, but it certainly was cold. 

Walking along the streets was a pleasure as there are no gas powered vehicles allowed in the town. It is also very quiet. No one was even yodeling.

 Walking in the shade it was cold. This is later in the afternoon when the sun was higher and you could actually walk to get warm in it.

On the way back down the alps - photos while moving. The dark areas get sun maybe 2-3 hrs. a day because the mountains block it.

 It looked cold...The other streams were already frozen over.

 I did some studies on Bierstadt, American painter and this photo reminded me very much of his stuff.

The snow line is rather high for this time of year. Usually skiing is pretty good right about now, so they tell me. I didn't want to stick around to find out. Pretty though....

More later...