St. Niklaus!!!

Huge St. Niklaus on the way up to the Matterhorn. The town's name is actually St. Niklaus (German) 

A lovely tribute to the big guy in a red suit...

 Train station at St. Niklaus.   A snack machine in case St. Nik needs a quick treat.

Nice blurry sign at the train station in Zermatt, which is the end of the line for this train. This makes it official that you are in Matterhorn country. Usually there is at least a foot of snow by now but the winter just hasn't kicked in yet. I'm glad...not fond of walking around in the stuff unless I have skis on.

An old door I found along the walkway that had such beautiful texture. It looked aged and had been around for a long time. The timber across the top depicts a lintel type of construction which is also a common method of supporting doorways from way back in Roman times. this was probably built in the 1800's though.

Streams formed by glaciers melting. Right now there isn't enough snow to supply the reservoirs with water, so the glaciers are the only source. You can see that the water level is quite low. 

 One of my better photos. You may be seeing more of this one. It has good focus, center of interest, linear quality, bokeh and depth of field. You may be getting this as a Christmas card when I get back....

 There was some snow on the mountain peaks, but not much to ski in yet. Skiers are very disappointed.

Matterhorn photo!

 Through the chalet rooftops you could see the Matterhorn peeking above everything.  It really is huge and a person who might be climbing it would not even look like a dot in this photo.

 Signs of Christmas trees and decoration. They really aren't much into the sparkly things here. It is more nature related.

 Another shot of the Matterhorn.  The wire looked like my initial "D"       The town tree was in the process of being decorated when I took this photo.

 The pink stripe at the top is actually a reflection in the train window. I could take it out, but I like how it looks actually...

Sharp pointy mountains = young mountains. Although in a photo you cannot get the scale of the size of these pieces of earth, a person who was standing in the foreground would be a dot.

The Switzerland Riviera - Montreaux

If you want to feel less stressed, copy this photo (you all have my permission but do give credit please) and put it on your desktop. Look at it every now and then and feel the mountain air, the quietness of the lake and the beauty of the land. Nice, eh?

A gray swan --k ind of shy but dont't be misled. He will bite you in a heartbeat. ahhhh so cute.

just an ordinary day in Montreaux

worked on this one -I like it. Mannequin heads in the window

Resto that I almost went into for a creme cafe and a creme  brulee. Next time.

Nice sign except for the kerning ( the t and the r need more space)

More photos from Lausanne...click the link below
http://travelbyedesign.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-11-09T14:12:00-05:00&max-results=10

GOOD MORNING MOUNTAINS!

These photos were taken in Lausanne, Switzerland, around 8am this morning as that is when the sun comes up here this time of year. 

It's like getting up in the middle of the night if you have to get up at 7:30am. I have been sleeping in until 8:30 most days when I am in fact used to getting up at 7:15am every day. Amazing.

This whole scene was within 4 minutes, changing rapidly.

 It really did change to this bright orange within minutes and couldn't have lasted any longer than that.

Getting ready to go to school today- International School of Lausanne  to help with room decor for the music dept. 

Accreditation committee trickling in from Tunisia, Connecticut and various other places. They will all be here by this afternoon. 

Big week and weekend at the school. My teacher host, Christopher is head of the school's accreditation committee, organizing events, meeting the NEASC members as they fly into Geneva,  and doing an intensive and  fab job. He showed me the reports and they are awesome. 

Tomorrow is a meet and greet for faculty and admin. I'll be the official photographer for this event.