Switzerland

Yesterday we went for a trip up the valley. First to the dam featured in the James Bond movie Golden Eye, where he bungy jumps off the top of the dam. Due to all the rain the dam was overflowing through the control gates, and we could hear it from the house thundering through the ravine.  And luckily the bungy jumping was closed too so unfortunately we couldn't do it.

The road up the valley is about 16kms long and is apparently the best placed valley for preserving the heritage of the area. There's little villages perched on the side of the hills, or clustered on either side of the narrow winding road. Houses made hundreds of years ago out of granite, and the river has deep blue pools around huge boulders. The water is always cold as it comes down from the mountains, but great for swimming on a hot day. The area is best known for hiking, and there's trails all around, and dappled European type forests of oak and beech, and plane trees.

We also went for a walk around the lake and gathered fresh walnuts, and it's porcini mushroom season in the forests. We went out for dinner to a restaurant overlooking the lake and had fresh procuitto, caprese salad with local mozzarella, porcini mushrooms on steak, and delicious gnocchi. Just in case you thought we weren't eating!

The view at night from the house.

It's nice and sunny today and we've been walking through a nature reserve for bird watchers. The Swiss stare at my shorts and sandals as it's autumn now and I should be wearing shoes! We thought we would have been here to help with the grape picking, but they were ready for the winery the week before we arrived so we're having a very relaxing time.