The Last days of Our Tour 😂

After our last rest day on Wednesday, we had two full days of hiking. Thursday we headed out to Val Ferret to view the Mont Blanc range from the Italian side.

                 

That evening Juliette recommended the local pizza house for our group - the BEST IN TOWN! And that it was. First the wine ........

...then the largest calzone I have ever seen !!! What an amazing meal that was !

Friday, we had breakfast at the hotel in Italy, checked out, returned to France via the tunnel, dropped off our bags at the hotel front desk. We hiked the Le Praz area looking across the Chamonix valley. We crossed into Switzerland on the hike just in time for lunch! A truly international day!

A mountainside chalet where lunches can usually be purchased or you can enjoy your picnic lunch. If you are lucky, there may even be a washroom. 

For anyone considering a G Adventures tour, I highly recommend them. There is always an interesting, if not eclectic group of travellers who spend a week or so exploring the world. Below is our hotel bar/restaurant in Chamonix where we ate breakfast. It is very typical of the G Adventures type of accommodations i.e. cozy, privately owned, friendly hotels with lots of character.

It really was a challenging, terrific week! Everybody was able to hike in their comfort zone, at their own pace. We saw Mont Blanc and the surrounding range from four separate directions in three separate countries. Here is a summary of our hiking days - I hope the steps overtook our Happy Hour calories.

Destination	KMs	Miles (for our US friends 🙄)	Steps
Sun Jun 30 Chamonix France - Col du Vosa	14.3	8.9	23,229
Tues Jul 2 Courmayeur Italy - Val Veny	14.2	8.8	23,300
Thurs July 4 Courmayeur Italy - Val Ferret	16.8	10.4	27,716
Fri July 5 Chamonix France - Le Praz	11.2	7.0	19,405
	56.5	35.1	93,650

A Free Day - Bus Trip to Aosta, The Roman City

 We have two free days in the 8-day tour agenda, so on Wednesday we hopped a public bus to the town of Aosta, about 1 hour away from here in Courmayeur. It is famous for it's ancient Roman ruins, dating back to the time of Augustus.

Before I get into that, Maureen asked me about food. Since it is one of my favourite topics, I am happy to share :-)

Breakfast:
The hotels provide us with a wonderful full buffet breakfast daily (included in price) i.e. coffee, juice, yogurt, cereals, bread and rolls, cheese, sliced meats, jellies, hard-boiled eggs, croissants, pound cake, and so on...

Lunch:
While we are hiking, depending on the day, the agenda/timing may allow us to purchase food at a restaurant along the trail  - perhaps at a shelter or rifugio or rest chalet. Or, we can bring our own lunch as we did today. A quick trip to the grocery store in the morning to buy two buns, ham, sliced cheese, lettuce and beverages allowed my buddy and I to have a great lunch for 5 euros each. I am not sure if you can read the label of the Coke can but it is Coke + Coffee, it was delicious and I think is only available here in Italy.

Supper:

Also on our own nickel, our group of eleven usually meet for drinks and a meeting with Juliette around 6:30pm, then we go out for a nice meal in town.

OK, Aosta. This is the central piazza which is actually a really attractive hotel!

Then we found our way to the ancient Roam theatre, with the facade and some remaining seating still existing.

Notice the archway has been pieced together like a puzzle - how does it stay ?

Then we moved onwards to the Forum Cryptoporticus, a stunning architectural space underneath a holy square - home to two churches above. The stone archways and barrel-vaulted ceilings were quite amazing. 

After a nice lunch of beer and pizza, it was back to the bus stop to catch a bus back to Courmayeur.  

New City and Country - Courmayeur, Italy

After the last hiking day on Sunday, we had a rest day Monday to explore Chamonix at our own pace. It was a great day to sleep a bit later, sip on that extra cup of coffee and explore the shops and sights of Chamonix. It was a great  opportunity to pick up a few essentials, trinkets and souvenirs. Since it was July 1st - CANADA DAY, I distributed Canada pins to our group members at Happy Hour on the patio. Good Fun!

On Tuesday, we cross the border via a long tunnel (took 12 minutes) under the mountains to Italy. We arrive in the town of Courmayeur, our home for the next three days. As a fan of professional cycling, I was thrilled to come here as it was  recently featured in May 2019 on Stage 14 of the Italian cycling race, the Giro d'Italia (press-cursor to Tour de France). The pink bicycle, their brand, is still very visible around town as it is an economic boom for a town to be a stop on a Grand Tour.

No messing around for us, we drop off our luggage at the front desk of our hotel (below) and Juliette, our leader and guide, leads us off for our hike for the day. We walk to the bus station to take the bus to Val Veny (more about that later).

Our hike this day is a gradual climb so you have time to build up your pace and adjust accordingly. It is not steep - just a steady gain in elevation.  We are surrounded by mountains, glaciers, waterfalls and glacial rivers.

One section of the trail reminds me a bit about the Kilimanjaro trail, with few trees and a narrow, rocky trail.

 The building on the top is Rifugio Elisabetta, our destination for the day.

At this point, Juliette offers us the choice to stay at this point and enjoy a nice lunch OR you could continue climbing a steep section above the rifugio. Six of us stay and eat lunch; five + Juliette ascend higher. I enjoy delicious homemade gnocchi in pomodoro sauce - SO GOOD!! It was a great spot to use the washroom, take off your boots and relax for a bit while we wait for the rest of the team to come back.  

We get a great view of the mountains and glacier from the rifugio.

On the descend, we cross a few snow paths, with Norway, Canada and Britain (of course !) tour members winning the race across the first snow patch. Juliette kindly assisted a few who are not so used to snow! So much fun and so many laughs!

Overall, it was another great day as we descend further and head back to the bus.

The bus service provided in the late afternoon doesn't quite match the demand of the many hikers who need a commute back to Courmayeur. There were some nasty scenes but Juliette , as usually handled the situation professionally and ensured we got our space.

Just a few shots of our great town. One guy in our group calls it sexy and chic haha! It is not a tourist destination in the summer and there are very few tourist traps, just really classy local shops and businesses. I love it here.

Well it is late and we have a 7AM start tomorrow - have to go. Thanks for coming along on my journey.

Chamonix, France - G Adventures Mont Blanc Explorer Tour June 2019

Hello from Chamonix, France. 

THE TOWN

Chamonix is a cozy, valley town filled with many shops, cafes, restaurants along with many buff, healthy people. It is a destination for skiers in the winter while the summer inhabitants include hikers, para-gliders, marathoners, and any other extreme sport you can think of.

The temperature is hovering around the 28-32 degree mark, very warm and unusual for this time of the year. There was a marathon event here on the weekend that brought 25,000 extra people to Chamonix - it was a zoo!  It is back to normal now but I felt for those poor runners running in this heat.

We have waterfalls, Mont Blanc and surrounding mountain ranges, rivers and glaciers that provide a beautiful backdrop to this town. Below is the train station which happens to be just across the street from our hotel. 

We had our first group meeting on Saturday evening where we met our CEO Juliette who will be our guide for the week. She is wonderful! She lives only one hour from here and know the area very well.  Our group has a great mix of nationalities: Australia (1), Britain (1), Canada (3), Norway (2), and US (4). They are an awesome group and we get along very well! 

On our first day of hiking, on Sunday, our group met up at 8:30 AM and we took Chamonix public transit to the LesHoutes cable car where we ascended part way up the mountain. We trek uphill further to get spectacular views of the mountains, glaciers and valley towns below. 

This section of the morning trail is fairly narrow but not too steep.

We descend for the next few hours and from running races you know that for all that downhill, a crazy uphill is lurking in the near future. We sat in a meadow and enjoyed our lunch before we hit the steep ascension back up the mountain pass.

The trails today are varied: standard mountain trails, local dirt roads, grassy meadows and narrow/steep mountain pathways with cable fencing for support if required. 

Here we are - heading out after a little water/shade break. There were spots along the trail where we could top up the water bladder with cold, clear water. It was awesome!

The unavoidable incline back up was difficult, especially in the heat. We eventually made it to the cable car which took us back to the base. There just happened to be a small bar across the road from the bus stop which came in handy for a quick cold beer until our bus showed up to bring us back home. A great day!

Geneva, Switzerland - June 2019 in a Heat Wave

I never dreamt when we booked this trip in January that we would land in Europe, in June, in the middle of a heat wave. Here in Switzerland and in neighboring France, the daytime highs are reaching 33-34C Degrees.

Bars are everywhere when you feel like that sort of hydration, but water bottles are easily filled from the many fountains across the city, with clean, cold drinkable (they call Potable) water. Many are very tastefully landscaped or decorated. Here are a few that caught my eye (you can hover and click the pictures to enlarge:-)

and also this one

After a lazy morning, we strapped on the sneakers and headed to the Place de Nations, the headquarters of the United Nations in Europe. It was in the northern part of the city,  approximately 2-3 km from our place downtown. Unfortunately, security is very high and you can only view the buildings from behind secure fences. The Tibetan community was holding a protest across the way while we were there.

I really enjoy Geneva, it has an easy, lay-back vibe! Traffic, while busy, is friendly to pedestrians and there is very little horn-honking (quite a change from China!). Many people just meander around on foot or lots on bicycles. The transit system appears to be really well used as well with trains, buses and trams criss-crossing the city.

The majestic, stately buildings along the lake i.e. Rolex, Louis Vitton, Swiss banks and others all form a consistent (8-10 storey) backdrop to the beautiful lake with the huge spout. 

There are several bridges that cross the lake and river, a great spot to find a comfy chair and down a few cold, tasty homemade lemonades on a hot day.

A stop at the Victorinox Swiss army knife store was a great score - so many styles to pick from but I found a nice camper model with a little saw but also a corkscrew. That's about how I roll!!!

This is our last day of our two night stop in Geneva. Tomorrow morning we have just an hour long bus ride to take us across the border to Chamonix, France where we will meet up with our G Adventures tour group. The hiking begins on Sunday - can't wait to get up into the mountains. 

Take care and we'll chat again soon...... Blaise 

Exploring Chengdu

Well I have made it to Week #2 here in Chengdu. This time next week, I should be on a plane heading to Beijing for a weekend of fun! Next Friday will be the last official day of business here in China.

Last weekend I booked a tour guide to take me to all the cool places in and around Chengdu, and that he did! It was 14 hours on the Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday. I was beat! Our first destination was the Leshan Buddha, but since it was a 2-hour drive to get there, we stopped for a 'Pee and Tea' break at a tea factory where Max and I were treated to a tea service of green and jasmine teas.

Then it was off to see Big Buddha. You travel up the river by boat and there he is carved out of the mountain, all 233ft of him. He is a sitting buddha, a fairly content looking chap I would say. It took the carvers 90 years to finish him. And look at that - there's me and my new buddy Buddha

That evening I attended a cultural show at a tea house with traditional dancing, skits, shadow puppetry, music and the crazy face-changing, where in a split second their mask changes. It is magic or something, quite amazing to see.

Next morning it was off to see the pandas at the Chengdu Panda Research Base, about a 40 minute drive from my hotel. Pandas are revered here, so it is a very busy spot for locals and tourists, with tons of pandas on the move. They are cute but don't do much but eat and sleep - what a life.

We did some shopping and stopped in at the Wenshu Buddhist Temple, a nice quiet spot that is in the centre of downtown. Here they are burning incense and offering up some prayers.

Next we stopped in at People's Park. Think Point Pleasant Park, only smaller and 100,000 people there. It was insane - I had to get out of there. But I did have a chuckle of the day with the display of notices on the fence. I will call the picture 'Desperately Seeking Susan'! 

Desperate parents will do up a notice about their single son or daughter and post it on the fence in People's Park on Sundays. I guess they figure the kids are too lazy or they are getting old or something and they want to get them married off. I'm not joking - seriously!!! What a riot!!!

Of course the weekdays are consumed with school work. I am teaching most afternoons (except Fridays where I switch to mornings). My class room is on the top floor of the building below on the left. The big grey building is the Library. There is not much time to do anything else during the week as you have the lesson plan, quizzes, projects and homework assignments to check.

 Here is a panoramic from my school building - since the sun came out for only the second day since Oct 12th, I figured a picture to celebrate was in order. As you can see , the skyline is dotted with a high-rise or two.

My hotel is the tall building here on a busy corner right next to a a shopping mall and supermarket.    Pedestrians have no rights here so its a constant chicken or go with the cars, bicycles and scooters. Pedestrians are at the very bottom of the list. Crime is not an issue - getting mowed down is HAHA.