The things you see along the way

[expedition_retirement]

The scenery you encounter on a road trip in Europe is utterly unlike anything you will see in the US (and the reverse is also, by and large, true as well). Our transfer from Budapest to Crans-Montana began with a flight from Budapest to Zürich, followed by a three and a half hour bus transfer to our hotel at the ski resort. This gave us plenty of opportunities to enjoy the views of the Swiss countryside. The first part of the drive was through the farmlands of northern Switzerland, from Zürich to the capital city of Bern. We then headed south, past Lac de la Guyère to the shores of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva, in English). We then followed the Rhône River up into the Alps to our destination. As we neared our exit from the motorway, we saw the ruins of a castle and an old abbey on a nearby hill, with the mountains reaching up behind them. This was the Basilique de Valère and the Château de Tourbillon, in Sion. These were built in the middle ages as the home for the Prince-Bishops of Sion, who ruled this area. It is the sudden appearance of old castles and churches like this on random hilltops that has come to define the scenery that we have seen driving through Europe. The history here is soo much older and deeper than ours, and there are traces of it almost everywhere you look.