Sabbatical - 8/12: To France By Bus
After a brief few hours in France the day before, on August 12 my trip really got started. First though, I got to have fun experiences with currency exchanges.
Of the five countries I visited on my sabbatical, only Switzerland was outside the Euro zone. Since I was going to spend relatively little time in Switzerland, I didn't want to withdraw any Swiss Francs if I could possibly avoid it. On the first three days of my trip this wasn't a problem. Everywhere I went took credit cards, so I didn't get any cash at all. On Wednesday, August 12th, all I had to do in Geneva was make it from downtown out to the airport where I was to meet my REI group. My hotel was literally across the street from the train station, so all I had to do successfully buy a subway ticket. I went up to the machine, picked my fare and slide my card in... only to get asked for a pin number for the only time on my entire trip.
In light of recent security breaches, the credit card companies started rolling out chip cards in the United States in 2015, but Europe has already had them for some years. I had gotten my new chip card a few months prior to my trip, but in the U.S. you don't need a pin to use them. I'm honestly not sure if I could even set a pin on them, and it certainly wasn't something I was told to do when I got the card. In most of Europe this wasn't a problem, because you could simply ignore the pin requirement on most of the hand held scanners people used. However, at the automated ticket machine in the Geneva train station, I had no choice but to enter a pin, which of course I didn't have. Because of this, I went to an ATM, withdrew a small number of Swiss Francs and then paid cash for my train fare. This was the only time I actually needed a pin in the 4.5 weeks I was in Europe, and the only time I had to use cash in Switzerland.
Once I got past that minor hurdle, I had no trouble making it to the airport on time. I met up with the tour group and we loaded our gear into a limo bus for the hour drive across the French border to Chamonix, which was to be our based of operations for the next two evenings. After we checked in to our hotel, we were turned loose on the town.
Chamonix is a classic tourist town. In the summer people come there to hike, in the winter to ski. There's also technical mountain climbing essentially the whole year. Because it is a tourist destination and were there in August, the high season, the streets were full of people from all over Europe and beyond. Their were dozens of shops. Many shops were outdoor outfitter places, like North Face, Patagonia and Columbia. Others were high clothing stores, presumably for those tourists who just wanted to go shopping without any of the hassle of actually going hiking. I didn't go into any of these shops, but I did buy a small loaf of bread and some cheese from a local bakery and have a very nice snack sitting by one of the many statues honoring the historic mountain climbers who made Chamonix the tourist attraction it is today.
Otherwise I spent most of my day looking up at the mountains. Chamonix is at the bottom of a narrow alpine valley. In one direction is Mt Blanc. In every other direction are smaller mountains. You pretty much couldn't turn around without seeing gorgeous scenery.
That night we had a very nice group dinner at the hotel and were informed of how the tour would work. I prepped my gear and went to bed early, because we were going on a tune up hike the next morning.
The first five photos in this set are from August 12.
Of the five countries I visited on my sabbatical, only Switzerland was outside the Euro zone. Since I was going to spend relatively little time in Switzerland, I didn't want to withdraw any Swiss Francs if I could possibly avoid it. On the first three days of my trip this wasn't a problem. Everywhere I went took credit cards, so I didn't get any cash at all. On Wednesday, August 12th, all I had to do in Geneva was make it from downtown out to the airport where I was to meet my REI group. My hotel was literally across the street from the train station, so all I had to do successfully buy a subway ticket. I went up to the machine, picked my fare and slide my card in... only to get asked for a pin number for the only time on my entire trip.
In light of recent security breaches, the credit card companies started rolling out chip cards in the United States in 2015, but Europe has already had them for some years. I had gotten my new chip card a few months prior to my trip, but in the U.S. you don't need a pin to use them. I'm honestly not sure if I could even set a pin on them, and it certainly wasn't something I was told to do when I got the card. In most of Europe this wasn't a problem, because you could simply ignore the pin requirement on most of the hand held scanners people used. However, at the automated ticket machine in the Geneva train station, I had no choice but to enter a pin, which of course I didn't have. Because of this, I went to an ATM, withdrew a small number of Swiss Francs and then paid cash for my train fare. This was the only time I actually needed a pin in the 4.5 weeks I was in Europe, and the only time I had to use cash in Switzerland.
Once I got past that minor hurdle, I had no trouble making it to the airport on time. I met up with the tour group and we loaded our gear into a limo bus for the hour drive across the French border to Chamonix, which was to be our based of operations for the next two evenings. After we checked in to our hotel, we were turned loose on the town.
Chamonix is a classic tourist town. In the summer people come there to hike, in the winter to ski. There's also technical mountain climbing essentially the whole year. Because it is a tourist destination and were there in August, the high season, the streets were full of people from all over Europe and beyond. Their were dozens of shops. Many shops were outdoor outfitter places, like North Face, Patagonia and Columbia. Others were high clothing stores, presumably for those tourists who just wanted to go shopping without any of the hassle of actually going hiking. I didn't go into any of these shops, but I did buy a small loaf of bread and some cheese from a local bakery and have a very nice snack sitting by one of the many statues honoring the historic mountain climbers who made Chamonix the tourist attraction it is today.
Otherwise I spent most of my day looking up at the mountains. Chamonix is at the bottom of a narrow alpine valley. In one direction is Mt Blanc. In every other direction are smaller mountains. You pretty much couldn't turn around without seeing gorgeous scenery.
That night we had a very nice group dinner at the hotel and were informed of how the tour would work. I prepped my gear and went to bed early, because we were going on a tune up hike the next morning.
The first five photos in this set are from August 12.