2019-06-28 Zermatt, Chillon Castle, Drive to Dijon

The nice folks at Crossfit Zermatt let me come in for an early morning workout. Gave me the keycode and I had the place to myself. We had breakfast and hit the road. Drove to Chillon castle, which was amazing and also contained the most impressive automaton I've ever seen. Pix below. Then we drove on to France, and to our destination. A chateau near Dijon (link). Had a walk through their gardens, got a bottle of wine from the cellar which we enjoyed before going to bed.

Some shots of Chillon Castle:

Alisa, Jenny in cellar

Tom & Matthew in one of the windows

longsword, Jenny for scale

View of lake from tower

Shots of the AMAZING Automaton:

Castle w workings underneath

Over 100 moving mechanical figures, only half of which are out front. Rest are inside doing various things.

Look at the detail on that music box cylinder!

Working baffles, pipe organ and drum!

Some shots of the chateau we stayed at: (Barbiry-sur-Ouche)

Guest house we stayed in (former stables)

Taking a walk in the garden

Front of Chateau

Pigeon tower!

Wine cellar

And what we found there.

The day's drive

2019-06-27 Zermatt

Early morning park workout, then grocery shop and made breakfast for the gang. Rode the lift up to Zermatt's Klein Matterhorn, the highest point in europe served by a lift. Admired the view, had lunch up there, then took lifts partway down and then did a 10k hike down. Scenery was amazing but everyone was pretty beat after that.

Matterhorn!

Alisa and Matthew in gondola on way up (and Jenny if you look carefully)

Scenery

Sheep!

Tom & Matterhorn

2019-06-26 Leaving Venice, drive to Zermatt

Went for a last run around Venice and snapped some pics. Checked out of our Airbnb, hopped the water bus to the rental car office, got our car. After a game of suitcase-tetris trying to fit everything in the tiny trunk, we hit the road.

The drive was scenic but HOT. Inland, Italy got up to almost 40 degrees and the car's air conditioner could barely keep up.

We arrived in Tasch, parked the car, then caught the train to Zermatt (no cars allowed here). Five minute walk to our AirBnb here which is *beautiful*!

Evening time we went out to dinner and did a little walk around town.

Gondola repair shop I spotted on my morning run.

Alisa at the wheel

Driving in Italy

Driving in Switzerland

Riding train up to Zermatt (no cars allowed there)

Deck at the Airbnb (Matterhorn in background)

The day's drive

2019-06-25 Touring Venice

Early morning run around the city, followed by breakfast and then headed out to the city for some touring. Did requisite gondola ride, Doge's palace tour (amazing), some shopping. Kids had dinner at the airbnb, took them out for some dessert, then Alisa and I went out for a nice dinner on the waterfront and out for drinks and live music afterward.

Gondola ride (Doge's palace in the background)

SWORD PEACOCK!

Grand hall in Doge's Palace

Family Doge'd out (Actually Alisa was doing this to take in the ceiling, but kids were fatigued)

Jenny in prison cell

Beating the heat

2019-06-24 Athens to Venice

Early run around Athens, followed by breakfast then headed to airport to fly to Venice. Water taxi from Venice airport into the old city then short walk to our Airbnb. Checked in and then walked the city for a few hours and got dinner.

Water taxi was pretty cool

Airbnb for a few days (we had top 2 floors plus the deck on the roof)

2019-06-23 Athens, Acropolis

After a screw-up with our tour guide reservation (my fault), we rescheduled our tour of the Acropolis for later in the day. Explored the national garden a bit in the morning, chilled (literally) inside during the near-hundred degree mid afternoon, then went for our tour. Acropolis was amazing. Boys went back to the apartment and Jenny, Alisa and I had dinner at a sidewalk cafe.

Auditorium

Alisa at Acropolis gates

Alisa and I in front of the Parthenon

 Matthew has had enough. 

(Notable quote: "Get me back to the hotel before I turn this place into the a-crap-olis")

Jenny making friends again.

2019-06-22 Exploring Athens

After spending our last night on the boat, we checked in early to our AirBnB in downtown Athens. It was super-hot so we explored the Acropolis museum (plan to hit up the actual thing early tomorrow before it gets too hot). Alisa escaped whiny kids and explored some more on her own.

Acropolis Selfie

Acropolis selfie

Look how happy we look without kids!

Matthew having reached museum limit

2019-06-21 Sailing, return to Athens

Last day of sailing. We did a couple swim stops, then sailed back to Athens, spending our last night on the boat in port there.

More sailing

More swimming

Today's route

2019-06-20 Sailing

More sailing, more swimming, more exploring. Stopped in a sleepy town for some pizza & ice cream, then anchored in a bay for our last night at sea, just chilled and ate dinner on the boat & watched the stars.

Lounging at lunch

Zooming in on that 'tude

Relaxing

M at the Helm

The day's route