St Martins school new science and technology block?

Is this an architectural graphic representation of the new science and technology block for St Martins school, Christchurch, New Zealand? Off topic, but it would do the trick.

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

More of the Swiss Alpa. You can get a cable car to an altitude of 3000 metres at a cost of $200 NZ. We were happy with the views. For Bond film fans this is the mountain where scenes were sot for 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'.

The Murrenbach waterfall - Switzerland's highest at 417 metres.

The opening of the Trummelbach waterfalls, glacier fed waterfalls located within a slot canyon. Concrete steps have been formed inside the canyon that enable you to climb ten levels to get close up views of the waterfalls and impressive rock formations.

Looking down

We have an abnormal fascination with waterfalls

Kandersteg, Switzerland

We were very lucky to have an English couple recommend the village of Kandersteg as a base to explore the Swiss Alps. Located one valley to the east of Lauterbrunnen, the scenery is magnificent without the extent of tourists.
There is a network of cable cars providing access to ski areas in winter and hiking trails in summer. It is like cheating when tramping, the cable car does a lot of the hard work (no good for Pip, Brian or Jarad).
We took the cable car up to height of 1900m. The scenery is like seeing ten Mt Cooks.

Gretel getting her breath back after the cable car ascent.

Tony deep in contemplation, "Should I go in?"

The boats look a better option.

The rock faces show the impact of Glacial gouging and erosion by countess waterfalls

The trails are well marked, with ski trails cleared between the trees.

Dandelions are a protected species in Switzerland, they add colour to the landscape.

The Matterhorn

Snow seems to be following us around and we were forced to spend an additional night at Tasch, a small village near the Matterhorn.

What the Matterhorn is meant to look like.

Tony carving some tracks (in his dreams).

What we saw.

Big Bertha settling in along with the snow.

The land of cheese, cow bells and knives - Switzerland

Crossing from Italy into Switzerland, via the Simplon Pass, was the biggest contrast between countries we have experienced. In Switzerland everything works, drivers are courteous, rest stops are provided, roads are smooth, and you need to tow a trailer to accommodate the money you need to pay for things.
The Simplon Pass, apart from being stunningly beautiful, had a hospice at the highest point (2005m or the top of Mt Temple for the skiers). It was quite moving to see such a nice place for people to leave this world.

A photo of the plateau on top of the pass. The temperature was 18 degrees with snow on the ground.

Looking up the Simplon Pass.

Italy

Our brief visit to Italy was spent exploring some of the villages that surround the northern lakes of Garda, and Como. These lakes were extremely busy and touristy and we soon retreated to Lake Piano, a small unspoilt lake between lakes Como and Lugano.

The roads in Italy reflect the very laid back attitude of the Italians, although their driving is far from laid back, it is a competition, literally a matter of life or death.

We witnessed two near fatalities in the matter of four days. Firstly a gang of road workers (much needed) were repairing a road inside a tunnel. Rather than closing off one of the two lanes with cones, they had one man waving a flag to warn oncoming traffic. The truck in front of us wasn't warned, he didn't see the guy with the flag who was forced to sprint for his life.

The most bizarre incident we witnessed occurred when cars were waiting to load onto a ferry. You need to visualise two lines of stationary cars preparing to merge onto one lane accessing the ferry. I think there was only one space remaining on the ferry which two cars decided to compete for. The net result was both cars being towed, ambulances taking the drivers away, and a ferry worker slamming his head against the windscreen of one car before being thrown over the rail into the lake some three metres below. Several people dived in to rescue him, his injuries being so bad it took about ten minutes before they could get him back up onto dry land and into the ambulance.

Italy is never dull.

The Alfa came second in the race to board the ferry.

Varenna -our favourite village on Lake Como

Italian speciality (the drink, not the lady) is called an aperol spritz. Couldn't analyse the contents but it matched the tablecloth nicely.

Lake Garda with the early morning sun doing its best to penetrate the air pollutants that were present at all the lakes, providing a blue tinge to the surrounds. For James Bond fans, Lake Garda was the scene of the car chase in Quantum of Solace.

Lake Como without the blue tinge due to overnight rain. By midday the snow had a blue hue.

Lake Piano, probably our best campsite yet. Almost deserted.

Lake Piano, no motorised craft were allowed on the lake and the opposite side of the lake was a nature reserve, with no access permitted.

Who left the bungs out?

Route Napoleon

Route Napoleon traces Napoleon's 100 day march northward, after returning from his excile on the Mediterranean island of Elba. The march culminated in his defeat at Waterloo.
The road today is a fantastic driving road, with interest in those buildings that would have existed in 1815 when Napoleon passed through.

Vars les Chaux

Vars les Chaux is an alpine village near the French - Italian border that makes up a network of interconnected ski resorts. The road in is sealed all the way making access very easy. About the same height as Temple Basin huts and equally as visually stunning, but there the similarity ends.

 Some chalets and hotels were built right next to the tows, literally walk out your door and ski down to the gondola. There must have been about 20 separate ski tows visible from the slopes.

The slopes are the venue where Ivan Origone set the World speed record of 254.958 km/hr in 2015.

Gretel training for the luge (don't you love the facial expression). A wee way off the world record though.

View of the resort from part way up the tow.

For the advanced skiers

Lac de Sainte-Croix

The yacht club - totally open air and accessible, even the fridge was left unlocked. The lake is a fantastic yachting lake: clear water, good winds and wide expanses of water.

The lake is at the end of the Verdon Gorge.

Verdon Gorge

The Verdon Gorge was one of our French highlights. A place of great natural beauty, vertigo inducing vertical drops, Griffen Vultures soaring on the thermal currents, narrow roads and teal green rivers. To add drama to our visit the mist came and went, at times severely limiting visibility - a foreboding atmosphere.

The photographs do not come close to experiencing the real thing.

It was also the scene of the race between Jeremy Clarkson (in an Audi) and the rock climbers. The two links below give replay a part of this race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKLsBk5CijQ 

http://www.topgear.com/videos/top-gear-tv/jeremy-clarkson-vs-climbers-part-12-series-7-episode-2

A Griffen Vulture (not a dirty lens).

Leaning over the edge.

There is a kayaker (you need to look hard).

Grandchildren

We are missing Johan and Sylvie, but it appears they are not missing us.

Moustiers Ste Marie

Another gorgeous French village with a proliferation of potters producing a large range of styles, that were for sale at exhorbitant prices.

Cassis

Cassis is a small town on the Cote D'zur. It was not our kind of town; all restaurants, tourists shops, tourists eating at restaurants and motorboats. It did have a fantastic old style merry-go-round, based on Jules Verne's 'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea" and "Round the World in Eighty Days". To make our day worse it was shut, so I didn't get to have a ride.
We stayed two hours, gave up on the Mediterranean, and headed north.