(arriving at) Arolla, Switzerland, the Alps. Yes, that's a glacier. And that. And that.

Ah, a (second) wonderful trip into the land of mountains, vineyards, and glacial lakes. Where every photo is postcard-material.

[Last year, I had an opportunity to visit Switzerland for the first time. You can read about it (and see the awesome pictures) here and here.  ]

I was in Switzerland to attend a conference a few weeks ago in the Alps, specifically in Arolla. Which is here:


Larger map view


To get there, I had to take a flight to Geneva, a train to Sion and then a bus to Arolla, since trains don't go that far. On the train this time from Geneva to Sion, I was remarking how it seems like every picture that the Swiss Tourism office uses is from the walk I took to Vevey, and the guy sitting nearby agreed.

Arolla is in the canton (think: State/Province/Bundesland) of "Valais", meaning, appropriately, "valley", as the towns are generally nestled amidst a reasonably sizable valley. Its at 2000m above sea level, which is about 1 and 1/4 miles, for the non-metric-users. That is, it's higher up than Albuquerque. This site tells me that its population is 200, it was not accessible by road until 1960, although it was already settled in the middle ages. Its main exports are...Arollans? Well, Arolla, as perhaps expected, is a place people go en route to skiing and/or hiking.

En Route to Arolla, here are my pics: 

From the bus from Sion to Arolla (too hard to take pics on the train when not sitting by the window).

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Here's one that's a bit darkened so it's easier to see that there's a glacier on the mountain:


From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

We passed a few intrepid motorcyclists as well:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

While riding to Arolla from Sion, besides passing through and over and into (via tunnels) these beautiful mountains, we also got to go right pass one of the main tourist things in the Valais canton, which are the ''pyramids'':


From Arolla-Switzerland 2012


From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

This is what the Swiss tourism site has to say:
"The earth cones are 10 to 15 meters high and most of them are protected by a rock lodged on the top. The cones were created in the end phase of the last Ice Age, about 80,000 to 10,000 years ago.
When the ice retreated, glacier tongues left enormous piles of debris behind, which contained boulders. Rain and meltwater gradually freed these boulders. While the water continued to erode and carve out the area surrounding the boulders, these rocks served as protective caps for the soil underneath them, enabling the formation of the well-known natural monuments. "

In Arolla itself. 

Almost all of us stayed at Hôtel Mt Collon, with a few in the nearby apartment building.
 Here's a view of the valley while taking a walk up to ''Arolla'' proper.

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

and the view of the same mountain from the town (which is a little higher up than where I was first standing):

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

The light was really nice that afternoon. Here's a view of the mountains on one side of the valley:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

and, as you've all been waiting for...the first glimpse of the town of Arolla itself. It has a shop that carves things, and a telegraph office. To the very left side of the picture you can see the sign for Arolla's tourism office. They also had a grocery store, an outdoor-gear store (which rents hiking boots for 16 CHF/day) and another sort of conveniency-kiosk store.

the building on the right says 'telegraph', although I think it's been a while since it served that function.

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

An even better view of that mountain (Mt. Collon, which is 3637m high), in which you can tell there's a glacier. People who liked running would go for a run up to the base of the glacier and back in the mornings before breakfast (it wasn't far):

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Downtown Arolla, as it were, also had a few of these cute little 'swiss chalet' birdhouses:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

And another mountain-with-glacier!

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Leaving downtown, I saw this place, which gave me the feeling that perhaps the winters here are cold and long (looking at the wood pile):

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Tune in next time for hiking in the Alps (hikes I and II).  I also stayed in Sion for a day and then Bern for two and a half more, so, much more to come.