Rest Day on Chamonix

We went from the hotel to the hostel this morning. After we had checked in, and got our pass for all the cable cars, we did a short hike to the Cascade du Dard. It was only half an hour, and then we stayed in the cafe there and had a pleasant lunch. The weather was beautiful today, so it was a great time to just chill in France.

We then took the bus back into Chamonix and then went up the Télécabine de Planpraz. That took us up a good height, but I had been there before and it was nothing new. Then we went up the next cable car from there, the Téléphérique du Brévent (2525m) and there the view was amazing. We had gone to the top of the mountain and were seeing the other side. A spectacular wilderness and you could see so far away. This was better than all of the views for hiking the TMB. Which was somewhat depressing. Especially since we could see good chunks of the TMB from this new vantage point. Some clearer than when we were on them. Stupid bad weather.

We then went down and crossed town to go back to the Téléphérique de l’Aiguille du Midi (3842m). We had been there before we went on the TMB, but it had been at closing and we had missed going into the glass booth that hung over the edge. I had thought there would be better uses of our time than to repeat a cable car, but this was worth It. For one, the sky was much clearer and we could see things we hadn’t before; the peak of Mont Blanc was clear and seemed very close, despite being 1000 meters above us. The glass booth was okay, but it did let us get up even higher for the views.

My only regret is that we didn’t go to La Flégère today. It would have been nice to see the scene of my defeat. But, for some reason, it was closed today.

We just had a nice meal back at the hostel of tomato salad and salmon lasagna. This hostel seems to have only four people staying here. One woman was still here from before we had left; she still remembered me as I have a reputation now for eating a lot of salad.

Tomorrow I get up early and catch the bus back to Geneva and my flight home. This has been a good vacation. It could have been better, but I have enjoyed it.

2015-9-7 20:56