Yesterday afternoon we took a series of cable cars from Zermatt up to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. It really was a mountain paradise! The cable cars start in Zermatt and run through a series of 5 stations at increasing elevations. Zermatt is at 1620 meters (5300 ft) and the final stop is at the top of Klein Matterhorn at an elevation of 3883 meters (12,740 feet)! The ride took about 45 minutes and the views became more and more marvelous as we went up.

One of the most incredible things were the buildings at the top of the mountain. There was a full restaurant, viewing platforms and even a Glacier Palace with ice sculptures carved into the top of the mountain. Not quite sure how they built the place but it must’ve taken a lot of helicopter flights judging by the amount of concrete structure up there.

Ironically, we met a pair of honeymooning Gators at the top! The woman was even a 1st grade teacher from Gainesville. Once again, the GatorNation really is everywhere.

We are sad to be leaving the beautiful mountains of Switzerland tomorrow but are excited to head to Munich and explore southern Germany.

After spending 4 days in Paris, we hopped on a TGV train headed for Switzerland. Two changes later and a steep uphill train ride, we arrived in Zermatt, Switzerland, at the base of the Matterhorn. What a view! Zermatt is a really cool village of about 6,500 people where there are no cars. Just a handful of electric taxis and trucks. This makes it a very quiet city with bird chirping and the occasional church bells being the only sounds in the air.

On our last evening in Paris we took the obligatory trip up the Eiffel Tower. We actually only went half way up the tower since the only reserved tickets we could even buy in April were just for going half way up. The lines, even at 10:30 at night when we went up, we’re about 3 to 4 hours long just to buy tickets there! We even meet some random Florida Gators while up the tower. The GatorNation really is everywhere!

The Pont de l’Archevêché bridge from Notre Dame to the Left Bank of the Seine River in Paris has become well known for the “Love locks” that are attached by lovers from across the globe. Lovers attach a lock to the bridge and throw the keys into the Seine river below. Mich and I accidentally stumbled on this bridge although Mich had read about it before our trip and wanted to attach our own lock to the bridge. We bought a lock at a store nearby and the lady had a sharpie we borrowed to write on it. Now we have our own little momento left behind in Paris!

Let’s just say that the Louvre is ginormous. It used to be the largest building in the world and currently has a display area of 35 American football fields. Sure felt like we had covered a lot of ground after traipsing around for a few hours. We crammed in with all the other crazy tourists to take the obligatory pictures of the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory. It was a lot of fun to walk around a building with so much history and so many incredible paintings. This huge canvas was one of my favorites though since it was literally a huge painting of other paintings. The detail was incredible:

A rainy Sunday afternoon in Paris forced us to look for some inside activities to entertain us. Our Museum Pass was valid for the Tropical Aquarium which was just a few Metro stops outside of the main downtown area. They had lots of tanks filled with some very bizarre fish we had never seen before. They even had Mississippi alligators. Who knew they had alligators in Paris?

Our Paris Museum pass covered the Musée Rodin so we decided to go there and check out the famous The Thinker statue and The Gates of Hell. I had a Gator shirt on so it seemed appropriate for some Tebowing.

We started off our third day in Paris at Musée d’Orsay. Didn’t get to snap many pictures since cameras weren’t allowed. We followed a Rick Steves audio tour which turned into more of a scavenger hunt since the museum had moved around a number of the paintings. Mich did manage to snap this picture of van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone just before getting yelled at by a lady security guard in French!

I have always liked the Arc de Triomphe. The crazy traffic circle surrounding it, the Roman inspired arch and the beginning of the Champs-Élysées. Mich and I really enjoyed climbing up the winding stairs and getting a great view from the top.

Finally got to see a MacBook Pro Retina in person at a mall at the Chatelet station in Paris! I’m very tempted to get one now!