We arrived by train and then bus to Chamonix early in the afternoon and I just couldn't believe how beautiful the Alps were there. The mountains were a different shape, much more rugged and raw and so so beautiful. The peaks were poking out from the fluffy cloudcover and it was magical.
I soon realized that I'd lost my credit card on the bus :( We got a motel for the first 2 nights with a view on Mont Blanc and explored the town. It is such a cool place with really interesting old French architecture and fun ski-town vibe. We originally wanted to spend a little time on the other side of the mountains in Italy, but the gondola was down for maintenance, and I'm almost glad because Chamonix was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. It's pretty big, so there was a lot to check out and it was pretty much the first place we went that was bustling with activity. We found a little burger place and sat outside, enjoying people-watching and the perfect 70 degree weather. Afterwords, we got gelato and crashed in the room.
The following morning, we went up to Aiguille Du Midi. That adventure has it's own post, so scroll up and you'll find all of that. We also went for a short hike straight up and almost died. It was pretty toasty that day, so we didn't make it very far. I'm not sure if it was the elevation or what, but we pooped out pretty fast.
The last 2 nights we got an AirBnB. It was a little apartment in a crazy old house that was pretty much my dream home with a little loft bedroom and gorgeous garden.
Then, we decided to take the train up to Mer De Glace-the largest glacier in France, and it did not disappoint. There were some hiking trails around and a restaurant and gondola that takes you down to the glacier where you can actually walk into it, but everything was closed for the season (apparently, the glacier is soft because of the warm weather, so they had to reinforce it and get it all ready for next winter). There was also a little museum inside that we could walk through.
We took off mid-morning and made our way, slowly, to Geneva for a final night before a long flight home. We got to actually explore the city a little bit because the check-in for our room wasn't until 5 pm.
We got an Airbnb for that night too and it was kind of disaster. The host didn't provide his address so we walked for miles trying to find the place before he answered his phone. He informed us that our room wouldn't be ready for a couple more hours but we could drop our stuff off and kill time. We got to the place and the girl that was there couldn't hear us so we sat on the porch stoop until friends that were visiting her left and I asked them to tell her that we were there. We got the key and went to dinner and then returned but nobody was home, so we just went in, took showers, and hit the sack. The next morning, we woke up super early and left...all without ever actually meeting the guy. It was a little awkward to say the least. The flight home was uneventful - always a good thing when you're flying - and then Brian's dad picked us up from the airport. All I'm going to say is that I can't wait to go back :)
