The Matterhorn was our goal today, if the weather cooperated enough to allow us to see it. The mountain often veils itself in fog, mist or snow. But before heading upwards, we explored Zermatt itself - its spare cobbled streets and thickly-timbered houses that looked like they had been battered by the weather since Genesis. They sat cheek by jowl beside sparkling new hotels and spas. We had arrived during the off season, but the streets were still filled with tourists.

Beyond Visp the train wound us through green pastures and then into calamitous gorges, jagged rock and tunnel after tunnel. The mountains around us were nearly vertical. Mist reminiscent of those you see in Suibokuga-style Japanese landscapes clung to the slabs of compressed rock, and every now and again there would be a chalet or two hanging somehow onto a steep green valley.

The city is home to many great churches, but one in particular stands out—Grosmuenster. Once catholic, it is today Lutheran to the teeth. In fact it was at Grosmuenster that the Protestant Reformation accelerated. Martin Luther, a catholic priest, lived in nearby Wittenberg when in 1517 he dramatically parted ways with the pope and Church after hammering his 95 theses to the church door.

I awake to the sound of children, their voices lively and excited with the same high pitched excitement that children everywhere have. I peek out of the hotel window to see a group of these Lilliputians, marching along in colorful tassel caps, heavy snow pants, brightly colored jackets, and fur lined boots. It's a chilly April day – 45° and mist and light rain fill the valley between this little enclave and Jura Plateau of southern Germany.

Once you stand at the shore of Lake Geneva, there is nowhere to go, but up. And so we do, shoving our little Mitsubishi rental car along for our visit to Michel and Silke, who promised to take us on a little hike, and visit around the hills before heading to Zurich.

We originally met Michel and Silke almost exactly a year earlier in Fez, Morocco (that story to come). We hardly had pasesed half an hour together with them over coffee and fruit in the same Ryad before they were off, but felt an instant connection remained in touch throughout the year. Both are serious travelers having covered much of South America and Morocco and most of Europe in the RV they outfitted and took with them around the world. (For South America, they rolled the car onto a cargo ship and crossed the Atlantic that way.) Both of them also sailed a catamaran from New Zealand to New Caledonia, just the two of them.

"Almost killed us ... twice," said Silke.