Alpine Adventure

Booked passage to Zurich (above) for late summer, 2012. I've always wanted to tour the Swiss Alps and see the Eiger, the glacier-encrusted monolith that serves as the focal point of the Clint Eastwood professor-cum-assassin-cum-mountaineer yarn: The Eiger Sanction. Daughter Gina will join me on this alpine adventure.

Leaving Eugene on August 22, I'll arrive in Amsterdam the next day, followed by a quick flight to Switzerland. Frequently cited as one of the most livable cities in Europe, Zurich began as a Roman encampment called Turicum before joining the Swiss Confederation.

Today, Switzerland's largest city is undeniably hip with a grungy, wacky freedom that one might associate with Munich or Genoa. Once in Zurich, I'll hole up at The X-tra, a three-star hotel in the city's old town. When I have my bearings, I'll tour the city before disappearing into the hinterlands of the Swiss Alps.

First stop: the Bernese Oberland, the heart of the Swiss Alps, including the Jungfrau region near Grindelwald to view the "big three" peaks, the Eiger (above), Monch and Jungfrau (Ogre, Monk and Virgin). All have an enduring place in mountaineering lore, particularly the Eiger, whose fearsome north face has claimed many lives and remained unconquered until 1938.

Also plan to see Interlaken, an alluring isthmus straddling the crystalline lakes of Thun and Brienz, as well as Lucerne, where the city's cobblestone streets, slender spires and fresco facades evoke the classic storybook image of a Swiss village.

If I have time, I'll take a side trip to Liechtenstein, a tiny principality about the size of Manhattan on the eastern border of Switzerland. Like it says in Lonely Planet: Switzerland: "if Lichtenstein didn't exist, somebody would have invented it."

It resembles many small duchies conjured up in fiction and film, like in The Mouse That Roared: the little country that declares war on the United States hoping to lose for the foreign aid. Most come to Lichtenstein to say they've been there. After thoroughly exploring Zurich (below) and environs, I may as well.