A wonderful trip to Europe to see Zach and Jenna (and do a little skiing)

Zach and Jenna spent much of the winter in Switzerland, so naturally we had to go visit.

After flying to Zurich and renting a car, we headed straight for Morgins to see Zach and Jenna. Morgins is on the Swiss/French border south of Lake Geneva. Jenna's grandmother lives in Switzerland and has a chalet in Morgins. The kids were spending the winter at her chalet and doing a lot of skiing (and some remote work for Jenna). Although Jenna's grandmother, Jennifer, no longer lives in Morgin, it was very special to spend time with her there. The chalet, like many, is a coverted old farmhouse and is beautiful. We, of course, had some great meals together, including fondue and raclette.

After a few days in Morgins, we headed to Thun to visit our friends, Aline and Tinu.

I worked with Aline when she was a graduate student at ETH in Zurich, and doing the same type of research as I. She spent a few months in Corvallis where we enjoyed having her as part of our family. She and Tinu are now married and have two wonderful children, Chiara and Nino. Tinu works at Lindt, so naturally we got some chocolate from him. They live in an old farmhouse that has been beautifully remodeled, blending the old with the new. I loved seeing some of the old timbers with the tight growth rings and thinking about the people who cut the logs and built the house. We had some wonderful meals together and enjoyed playing with the kids. We visited their neighbors' farm, and learned about how they bring the cows up to the high meadows every spring and back in the fall. They make wonderful cheese, which she sells at the Saturday market in Thun. We enjoyed wandering around Thun and took a boat ride on the Thunersee, where we had a nice lunch and then enjoyed a hike with the family to some beautiful caves. (The kids did great!) I am so glad we had the chance to visit Aline and her family and enjoy their wonderful Swiss hospitality.

Next we headed to Zermatt for a few days with Zach and Jenna. It truely is a special place. The Matterhorn is such a beautiful and iconic mountain. The weather was spectacular and the skiing was great -- better than I expected. So much fun to be there with Zach and Jenna.

After returning to Morgins, Zach and Jenna's friend, Niles, joined us at the chalet. The three of us took a day to go skiing at Verbier and watch the final event of the Freeride World Tour. It was impressive watching some of the world's best tackle some steep slopes and cliffs. Verbier is another great ski area with some spectacular scenery including the Matterhorn to the east and Mount Blanc and Grandes Jorasses in the distance to the southwest. The Alps truely are some amazing mountains.

Sheri and I spent one day in the nearby city of Sion. Sion is a small city in the upper Rhone valley, and the capital of the canton of Valais. The area has been a settlement since prehistoric times (since 6200 BC). It was an early Celtic town and then an important Roman town after it was conquered in about 10 BC. It became an important Roman Catholic diocese, the oldest in Switzerland and one of the oldest north of the Alps (4th century AD).

We wandered around town enjoying the weekly market, then took a walk up to the Basilique de Valere, a beautiful church overlooking the city that dates to the 12th century. The church has the oldest playable organ in the world [from the 1430s). There's also a very good museum with much about the history of the region. One of the interesting events of the region of Valais is Swiss cow fighting in which cows fight one another in a bid to become "the queen of queens." Above the church are the ruins of the Tourbillon Castle.

Later that day we met a friend, Guillaume, at a small wine bar in the town of Fully. I met Guillaume at Rapa Nui (Easter Island). He is such a nice, friendly guy with a shared passion of travel. He is a reserve in the Swiss Army and had just returned to town after a week of training to prepare for a deployment with the UN Peacekeeping Force in Kosovo.

We spent a few more days in Morgins before Jenna had to fly back to the United States. Sheri and I went for a nice hike to a restaurant up the hill, enjoying the views and our reward of a tasty lunch. On the last night before Jenna left we had a pizza night, each of us making our own pizza cooked in the wood-fired oven. Yummy.

The next day we packed into our rental car, Zach and Niles sharing half the back seat, and headed to Chamonix, France. Chamonix is another classic European Alps mountain town, famous for skiing and mountaineering. I surprised Sheri by booking a very nice hotel in a small nearby village (with a pool, massages, and excellent restaurant for my sweetheart!), while Zach and Niles met up with some friends and stayed in an AirBnB in town. While Zach and his buddies went backcountry skiing, Sheri and I enjoyed skiing at some of the resorts in the valley. The skiing was excellent and the views were magnificent, especially looking across the valley to Mount Blanc, the Grandes Jorasses, and the Aiguille du Midi. We took the tram up to the Aiguille du Midi on our last day in Chamonix. Spectacular! I was jealous seeing some of the alpinists topping out after a climb or skiing some incredibly steep slopes. I only wish I had the time and ability (and younger self) to do some of it.

After saying goodbye to Zach and his friends, Sheri and I took off for Italy and skiing in the Dolomites. The road to Italy from Chamonix involves a 11.6 km tunnel that lies 2,500 m below the Mount Blanc massif. We drove across northern Italy to Verona, where we stayed the night at a charming hotel a hundred meters from an ancient Roman amphitheater. The Verona Arena is among the best preserved Roman amphitheaters, and still hosts regular music events including a summer opera season. (I actually saw Journey play there in 1985.) Verona is also famous as the setting for two of Shakespeare's plays, Romeo and Juliet and Two Gentlemen from Verona. Verona capitalizes on its fame by claiming that a balcony is the setting for the famous scene in Romeo and Juliet. There are many fine medieval buildings and bridges in Verona (it's listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Sheri and I spent the morning wandering around the city center before heading on to the Dolomites.

Our first stop in the Dolomites was the small town of Alta Badia. On my first day of skiing I did the Sellaronda, a 42 km circuit of ski trails that circle the Sella massif between the four Ladin valleys of Badia, Fodom, Fassa, and Gardena. (Ladin is a language of Latin origin spoken by a minority in northern Italy.) The circuit takes most of the day, but I moved quickly so was able do some extra runs at Val Gardena and Colfosco. Quite fun.

Our next stop was Cortina d'Ampezzo. It was a beautiful day and the skiing was once again great. The 2026 Winter Olympics are to be held in northern Italy and Cortina will be the site of the women's alpine skiing events. I particularly enjoyed skiing on the famous women's Super-G run and imagining what it might be like. (The Verona Arena will be the site of the closing ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympics.) Sheri and I also enjoyed some of the mountain restaurants. From the top of the lifts, we could see out towards Cinque Torri, some towers where my friend David Neale and I did some climbing a few years back.

From Cortina, we drove on to the delightful town of San Vigilio and the ski resort of Kronplatz. Because it was towards the end of the ski season, the town and the resort were not crowded and quite peaceful. Kronplatz does an amazing job of making snow and grooming the slopes. The resort has some especially great long black-diamond runs from the top of the mountain down into town (up to 7.9 km long, 571 m vertical). On one of the runs I came upon a large grouse, a western capercaille. At the top of the ski area is a wonderful museum of mountaineering, the Messner Mountain Museum.

Leaving Italy, we headed to St. Moritz where we stayed at a modest hotel outside of town with a nice cozy feel. Another great day skiing with nice views, especially from the restaurant at the top where we enjoyed some coffee and cake.

On our way back to Zurich we decided we needed to add one more country to our itinerary and took a slight detour to Lichtenstein. It's a fascinating country with a unique history. It's a very small country (about 25 km long by 10 km wide) sitting between Switzerland and Austria. It.s a constitutional monarchy in which the power of government rests ultimately on the Prince of Lichtenstein. It's a very wealthy country with one of the highest gross domestic products per capita in the world. We walked around town a bit and drove up the hill to see the Valduz Castle, the residence of the prince.

We carried on to Zurich with a stop along the way at the Lindt Chocolate Museum. We got a hotel near the airport for the night before flying home the next day.

It was a wonderful trip to Europe. I feel like we really got a feeling for the culture and hospitality of the Alps, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing Zach and Jenna.