Leaving our Pilgrims accommodation at the Protestant Temple this morning.
Martigny with its castle and snow covered mountains.
Leaving Martigny.
Signage showing which roads are open – the road up to Col Grande-Saint-Bernard is closed. But we hope to get through anyway, either using the road or taking the Via Francigena route, we’ll get there!
We’ve walked along single tracks and bridges along our way.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s reputation in these parts of the world continues unabated. He and his conquering army of 47,000 passed this way in 1802 and crossed the pass.
Beautiful views.
The road up the pass is closed but the path, the old Roman road, is open but covered in deep snow in places, so we’ll see how difficult it is to walk up either way.
There’s been lots of bridges over lots of snow melt as we climb higher.
There’s some modern stained glass in the Sembacher church depicting the dominant agriculture in the region which is grape growing.
The mountains seem to be getting bigger and more magnificent as we get closer to the pass.
Cows all wear cow bells in Switzerland and some even sit to pose for us against the stunning view.
Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard is in the distance.
The goat farmer and his goats were not the slightest bit concerned about us passing them along the wide track.
Rest stop along today’s climb.
Fondue dinner in Orsierres, Switzerland prepared by our Italian chef.
