Alps and Med Day 12: BOS to IAD

From home …

Switzerland, northern Italy, south of France, and Barcelona. What a beautiful part of the world! From looking out over the Swiss Alps at 10,000 feet at the top of Mount Titlis, to walking down the Formula One race course next to the harbor in Monaco on the Mediterranean Sea! Some trips are about history or hard to reach locations. This trip was all about the stunning scenic views! And as Greg reminded me, these trips are traveling and not vacations.

This morning I check out of the Courtyard Boston Downtown at 6:30 AM. By 7 AM I’m in United’s Lounge at Boston Logan. I like this lounge because it offers a great view of the runway and flight activities on a busy Tuesday morning at Logan. United Flight 2098 departs on time at 9:30 AM and I’m home by noon to start unpacking.

Shortly after returning from the Italy and Greece trip in 2024, the M&M’S (Michael, Michelle, and Sophie) started looking for another travel experience. This trip fit the bill for location, itinerary, and timing. So we signed up with Greg completing our foursome. And once we got to Zurich, Peter joined the travel pod. Our group of 5 shared a lot of laughs, few great meals, and a decent number of adult beverages. And on this trip there were multiple travel pods all sharing the same kind of experience we were having.

For trips with smaller groups I usually add a few comments on the final trip post about each participant, and when the group is 30 travelers that’s a tall order. But what a fun and cohesive group. As we walk from bus to destination or to another part of town, inevitably you start the walk taking to one person, shuffle around at the next traffic light and resume an earlier conversation with another person, and repeat until you arrive at the next location. Over the course of a week or two you have a chance to catch up with everyone on the trip. Here is our entire group at the peak of Mount Titlis!

A big thank you to Sophie for being my Social Media Consultant during the past two weeks. I got helpful input and advice whenever I needed! What a resource! And thanks to both Sophie and Greg for proofreading the daily blog posts … usually in the middle of dinner when there are better things to do! Our Tour Guide for this trip was Rodolphe Rousseux. He is passionate about travel, easy-going, and adept at last-minutes changes based on weather or traffic. Our Bus Driver was Silvano … or Silvano Andretti as we came to know him! Silvano got the bus and us to our destinations quickly, even when traffic was working against us.

I’ve mentioned before that I really enjoy the days on the bus. Some time to look out the window at the countryside and work on some bus window photography. Holding a camera up to the window of a moving bus is a metaphor for life’s uncertainty. Looking out that window as the scenery comes rushing by, who knows what will come into frame. Maybe there is a plan. Maybe not. Will I be ready to press the shutter. Ready for the decisive moment? Sometimes not! One of my favorite images from our bus journey was leaving Nice early in the morning on the way to Avignon. Through mountain tunnels and over valley bridges. On one such bridge I noticed the silhouetted shadow of the bus above the arches of the bridge as the valley descended into the distance. I didn’t take that picture. I wasn’t ready. The camera was stowed in my camera bag. I tried for the next hour to get something similar. But the angle of the sun was different or the road curved in another direction or the shadow was too small. I came close and included a similar picture in the post that day. But not that photograph. It happens, That’s life!

But here are some of my favorite photos I did take on this trip. I hope you enjoyed these posts over the past couple of weeks as much as I enjoyed writing and photographing each day’s highlights. Thank you for taking a look, reading the posts, and commenting. It’s been much fun to share with you!