Annecy and the Swiss Alps

My friend Moises is living in Lyon for six months while on a semester abroad. He had a couple of weeks of vacation over Easter so we met up to make the most of the spring weather in the mountains. We travelled from Lyon to Annecy as our first stop. It was incredible. Annecy is beautiful with a gorgeous lake, steep mountains on one side of the lake, and smooth rolling trails on the other side. We did two great runs there and explored both sides of the lake while not even coming close to seeing everything Annecy has to offer.

We loved Annecy!

From Mont Baron the views are spectacular.

A consistent problem: deciding where to go when everywhere looks good.

A forest trail a few minutes from the city centre in Annecy.

Next we travelled to Aubonne to stay here for a few days and to do a day trip to the Alps. It was a pleasure for me to show Moises some of the trails I run on regularly and then we took a new route (for me) across the valley which was fantastic. There is still some snow up high, but on the trails we were running it was green, flowers were blooming and there were signs of new life everywhere. I love running in this area and finding new trails every time I'm out.

Climbing out of Martigny into the Alps.

We stumbled upon a few different refuges which were closed for winter.

Moises enjoying his first experience of Swiss trails.

I love the bridges and other efforts to make the trails passable.

Moises believes that he could easily live in this refuge.

A top day out for both of us.

We did have to work to get into the Alps...

...and coming back down wasn't much easier.

4 comments:

Patrick Thurber said...

Oh man! So jealous! Those shots and the trails look STUNTASTIC! Hope all is well, y'all!

Daniel Rowland said...

Thanks Pat! Some great trails and the spring weather makes for perfect running. Take care my man.

a said...

Ohhh boy I'm envy of you two guys !!!
Very for happy for both !!!

Daniel Rowland said...

Thanks Max. We had such a good time running in the Alps. You can't imagine how many times we said: "Max would love it here!".