Zermatt

This year, the goal was to visit many medieval castles on the way to Zermatt. The first destination was Gruyère, where the famous Swiss cheese comes from. On top of the hill as a part of the old part of town is the HR. Giger museum and the HR Giger bar, both are quite an experience if you want to know what aliens are.

The next stop was Chateaux Chillon, that is built on the shore of lake Geneva. It features a prison as well as a very well ventilated "bathroom".

Driving up the Wallis, we stopped in Sion where we walked up to both castles without water and our cadence dropped dramatically when we arrived parched at the second one, where we found refuge in the nicely tempered church.

Taking the rental car and drive up to Grimentz must be a challenge for anyone who didn't grow up in the side valley. The streets are narrow and very windy with normal dump trucks, that hug the road as if the tires like staring down the embankment. We finally arrived at a village that is mostly still preserved and consists of wooden construction with a sun burned façade. Very quaint.

Our dinner was great with local specialties.

On the next day, we drove up to Zermatt, which is free of cars (nice!). Most people come here for hiking anyway and so it doesn't matter if you walk to the hotel from the train station. We were lucky and stayed in a hotel that had a very nice view of the Matterhorn. I truly was impressed with this mountain of all mountain. It is a peak that stands out with its famous bend and it looks stunning especially in the morning when there are no clouds.

A cable car took us up to the Little Matterhorn (3883m or 12740 feet), which is the highest place in Europe that can be reached with an aerial tram. From there you have an unobstructed view to the "real" Matterhorn and other 4000m high peaks.

The Gornergrat is our next site from where one can observe some of the highest peaks in the Alps. A cog railway leads up to the station on top of a ridge. The entire massif of Monte Rosa is in front of you and I cannot stress enough how impressive this is. 

Because it was such a beautiful day, we decided to hike down to the next station Riffelberg, where we hopped on the train down to Zermatt.

Turks and Caicos

After Palau, we were looking for a shorter flight to a dive destination and found Turks and Caicos, where we rented a condo, which was great because we could use the washer and dryer so that we always ended up having dry towels.

 

The sand on the beaches was very white and powdery and we usually were the only ones there. The locals raise conch, which is a mollusk or sea snail, in farms and we definitely had to try them. As with so many local "specialties", they were, guess what... special, and it turns out that I still prefer bread and cheese.

Be aware that traffic is on the "wrong" side and some of the dirt roads are very narrow and it takes some time to get used to passing on the "other" side.

Little Cayman

The Cayman Islands are located directly south of Cuba. As the name indicates, there are multiple islands that belong to this British Territory and Little Cayman is one of them. A small puddle jumper takes you there from Grand Cayman and that's why there is a weight limit. As a scuba diver there is not much weight left for some shorts and t-shirts and you're over the limit, especially when traveling with a underwater camera. Luckily, there is no dress code. 

The island is so small that you can take a bike ride around the island and don't forget to get a ice cold beer at the beach.

This solderfish or squirrelfish seems to be ready to defend its territory.

Swim throughs and turtles can be observed almost on every dive.

San Diego

What can be more exciting than a family reunion in May. That's why we went to San Diego to visit an ancient relative and his friends at the famous zoo.

The USS Midway cannot be overlooked and is one of the main attractions of San Diego. The floating museum is located a stone throw away from downtown. The aircraft carrier was born in 1945 and commissioned a week after the end of WWII. Designed as the lead ship of her class, not everything was perfect.

We were lucky and stayed at the Marriott instead of sharing a bunk on the carrier like so many navy members during the 47 years of service.

Orcas Island

We went to Orcas Island to do what exactly? You guessed it, watching orcas. It is a wonderful area with many islands. We stayed at the Kingfish Inn, directly on the harbor.

Spotting the whales popping up for air is easier said than done. The boat is moving and you just don't know where exactly they are surfacing and with a 200mm lens it's all a little guesswork. There are more than one pod that is swimming around and the captain did a very good job staying at a distance while allowing us to observe the whales movements.

From the boat we didn't just spot orcas, but also sea lions that were sun bathing.

Because we flew in and out of Seattle, we spent some time there and enjoyed the city at its best.

Palau

If you haven't heard of Palau, you're not the only one. It is a small island country in the Western Pacific. It is known for many reasons, for WII history buffs it may be the battle of Peleliu, for divers it's the Blue Corner, to biologist it's Jelly Fish Lake and for some it is the fact that the official currency is US dollars.

From the Mid-West it takes about 24 hours to get there and it's worth every minute.

Seventy islands is a protected sanctuary without access. This is great for the environment and the wild life as it is preserved for future generations.

Above picture was taken by Dan, who we met together with Tom.

Let's just say it: The diving is simply outstanding partially because there is a lot (did I say: a lot) of fish. 

It's not a fish here and there. It's fish everywhere.

There are schools of barracuda and other species and with a lot of food there is also plentiful of hunters, such as grey reef sharks. During our first dive in the Germain Channel we noticed quite a large turtle shell that looked like someone took a bite out of a hamburger. That could easily have been a tiger shark.

The boat ride from Sam's Tours to the dive site was always exciting because the captain chose a winding path between those mushroom like structures that were eroded close to the sea level.

While diving the Blue Holes our dive guide (Keith Santillano) shows us a Flashing Disco Clam, which is one of the weirdest living things I have seen so far.

One of the highlights was Jelly Fish Lake. The first encounter is somewhat intimidating since everyone learned that you shouldn't touch any wild life. So you dodge the first one, and the second one and so forth. The farther you swim, the more jelly fish you see and very soon there is no dodging anymore. You are surrounded and they touch you everywhere.

The island itself has so much to offer, be it kayaking, hiking to a waterfall or getting a history lesson.

On our last day we went snorkeling and we enjoyed lunch at one of the beautiful beaches reachable only by boat.

Rome

When you learn about the Roman Empire in school, you don't realize that today, the roman influence is still alive. People of Rome live their lives among roman ruins that have survived for over 2000 years and that is amazing.

It's not just the Colosseum, but all the other ancient artifacts that are just part of the city, like these columns.

Imagine that even Cesar saw these and hopefully was in awe as we are today.

Even as non-religious person, one can only be impressed by St. Peters Dome. It's a grand structure that was built on the backs of many people.

But is not just a structure that houses a museum among other things, it is artwork in itself and it contains a gazillion paintings that are part of the architecture. It's just beautiful and no picture can do it justice. One has to go there and experience it.

As if Rome wouldn't be enough culture, we rented a car and drove up to Florence.

And of course, when in Florence, one has to admire the probably most famous statue in the world, David. Michelangelo is credited with finishing this absolutely stunning piece of art in unmatched details from a single piece of marble.

But don't forget, David has always existed, Michelangelo has just remove the unnecessary marble.

Continuing through Tuscany we ended up in Milano, where we visited the mall and the Duomo. The details on the roof are incredible and I'm glad it's open to the public, otherwise it would just be lost to the birds and the environment.