The capital of the Valais

The Valais is the third biggest canton of Switzerland. As it is a bilingual canton, some cities have two names (that can be sometimes a bit confusing, when one is speaking about "Visp" and the other about "Viège" and you don't get your talking about the same town! Particularly when Evelin is reading the German Grand Tour Guide and Sabine the French one). 

So finally we arrived at the capital of the canton: Sion for the French of you or Sitten for the German (and if you're English native just choose the one you like more).

It is a medieval town recognizable by it's two castles on the hills next to the town. The one you see on the picture below is the basilica of Valère.

Valère above the city of Sion.

On the adjacent hill, you have the castle of Tourbillon. We could choose to go either on the hill of Valère or Touribillon. We choose the second option to take pictures in the ruins of Tourbillon.

Castle of Tourbillon.

From the hill you have an amazing view over the valley of the Rhone. On the picture below you see the upper part of Valais.

View from the castle of Valère (the village St-Léonard in front, the hospital of Sion on the right side in orange and Bramois/Brämis, the village behind).

The cool thing about Valère is that you can have fun making cool pictures of you in the ruins with an amazing landscape.

Evelin at the tor of Valère with the city of Sion/Sitten.

We used the opportunity to make a little photo session in the ruins. Our tip: if you're looking for a cool profile picture, you will find what you need.

Sabine in the ruins of Valère.

Evelin admiring the landscape.

Still admiring the landscape, but from another perspective.

Doing a shooting with this sun makes you thirsty! Fortunately we bought a little refreshment on our way to the castle. We took a refreshing pear juice from the brand "Valais". There are plenty of specialties in the Valais you can buy easily at almost every supermarket. For example we bought our juice at the Migros on our way to the castle. Click here to discover other fine specialties from the Valais.

Fine pear juice from the Valais.

On our way down:

Trough the vineyards

After Zermatt, we continued our journey onwards to the Rhone valley, named after the river flowing through. The Rhone river starts at the Aletsch galcier, the biggest alpine glacier, and transits through the whole Valais to the lake of Geneva.

On the road passing Turtmann (a small municipality):

In the village of Susten we went up on a little road going onto the "wine trail" that starts from Leuk and goes to Martigny. At the starting point in Leuk, you can admire the medieval Bishops palace. There is a parking space just next to the castle, so it's worth making a stop there, even if it's only to savor the view over the vineyards, the Pfyn Forest and the Ilhorn.

Castle of Leuk.

Sight over the vineyards, the Pfyn Forest and the Illhorn.

Little stop on our way in Varen.

If you have time, there are many walking possibilities through the vineyards.

You can easily understand why the people living in Valais have an "Apéro-culture" (meaning enjoying a glass of white wine and some snacks before dinner). As far as you can see, there are vineyards with caves at every corner and many good places to taste wine.
For example the town of Varen is famous for it's wine caves.

Wineyards as far you can see!

We decided to make a little stop to have lunch. What's better than having fine specialties from the region in this little paradise?

Enjoying a picnic in the vineyards.

Picnic with regional specialties.

In Switzerland you just have to take the time to look around to discover the small beauties!

After our appetising lunch we continued our big adventure. A little check on our Grand Tour map and we on we went!

Sabine checking out the way on our Grand  Tour map.

100% Grand Tour Feeling !

View over Salgesch and the Rhone valley.

Overnight at Castle Dottwil

For the first night, we went to the castle Dottenwil outside St. Gallen. We parked beside the castle and enjoyed the tranquility. On the whole roadtrip, it was no problem to just sleep at any spot because we always had our bed with us. In the morning, we enjoyed dawn and did some yoga in the calm area around the castle. The view was great and we could even see the lake Constance.

Our place for the night

View out of the bed

Nice landscape in the Thurgau

Yoga with a view

Good morning