Sun and fun near Interlaken

Blair, Carla, Allison, and I hopped on a 4:55 train from Lugano. We were all very pleased to get away from campus for what we hoped would be a wonderful weekend of hiking in the Swiss Alps. Our Friday night destination? Interlaken, a good five hour train ride away. But five hours can go fast when you are surrounded by good company and occupied by fantastic views of the Alps outside the train window. We had already passed this way before on a weekend trip to Zurich. But this ride through the heart of Switzerland never gets old. We made our way to through a wooded stretch to Bellinzona and then climbed up the rest of the valley before leaving Italian Switzerland through the San Gottard tunnel. On the other side you come into German speaking Switzerland at Goshenen and then make your way through the steep green hillsides up to Zurich with mountains towering over us on each side of the train. Surprisingly enough, this ride is so smooth and steady that many a traveler have been known to fall fast asleep and miss the whole set of breathtaking views. The four of us, having seen such views before carried on with conversation and a game of cards as the daylight faded outside. Two transfers later and after a number of games of hearts, we finally arrived in Interlaken. We had expected to step off the train and experience colder temperatures than what we were used to from the Mediterranean climate of Lugano, but the night air was pleasant and we walked our way from the station through town to our hotel. Hotel Bellevue looks out over the lake and up to the mountains. We knew the mountains were all around us but we could not see them until the next morning when we went to the balcony of the hotel.

Saturday morning was mild and bright. After a set of bus and train rides through Lauderbrunnen and up to Stechelberg, Blair and I split with Carla and Ali. In truth, I am not a huge fan of gondolas and preferred to walk up to the town of Gimmelwald 500 meters up. Blair and I walked along the babbling river in the valley. It was brisk as the sun had not come up over the mountains and we now found ourselves up above 900 meters. We climbed up the ridge which was wooded but we could still peek behind us to the views of the valley below. We came across a bridge over a small but rushing stream that dropped down the mountain underneath as we stood on its wooden planks. I pondered how often they had to replace the bridge, perhaps every spring with the runoff from the peaks above knocking down the manmade structure. The mountains surrounding us, although more rugged than any anyone will ever see, are hardly what one would call secluded. I marveled at the meticulous trail work that was done to keep the trails clear. The sun rose out from behind the surrounding mountains in the midmorning as we climbed our way closer to Gimmelwald. We passed a set of cows in a pasture on our left and the bells around their necks clanged loudly which gave me flashbacks to high school football games and those fans that always ring those loud and obnoxious cowbells. The toll of these bells in the midst of our surroundings rang a much more peaceful tone.

Gimmelwald sits at near 1400 meters. The mountain hostel where we were supposed to stay tonight was the first thing we saw as we came to the building. The rest of the town sat to the south cozy and quiet. The rustic inside was quaint and comfortable. Blair and I left some of our stuff at the hostel and then walked up the small and peaceful paved road to Murren which was the next village up and hung to the side of the cliff above the valley below. We met up with Allie and Carla and then proceeded on. In Murren, Blair spotted “the perfect house.” But I missed it and we didn’t get a picture so I guess we will have to go back sometime. The house in the picture in my head had a deep wood brown shade; it had red shutters and a Swiss flag hanging outside. I also definitely know that there were flowers outside because Blair thinks that the flowers make these types of houses all the more attractive.

We headed up the valley and tried not to feel too discouraged when a pair of bikers pedaled past us along the trail. The weather was outstanding: 15 degrees Fahrenheit without a cloud in the sky. We stopped many times to get pictures. Across the valley stood the Eiger and the Jungfrau, two very impressive Swiss peaks. The 10,000 foot slab of rock on the other side of the valley was a most awesome sight and it was even more amazing to imagine climbing it which was first done in 1932. It took three days for that expedition to reach the top which means that they had to sleep on the side of the cliff bivouacking at least twice. The risks of injury from rolling out of bed increase significantly when you are 1000s of meters above ground.

Up and up we went…

We reached a small lake at about 2400 meters and then finally got to the top of the Shilthorn (2900 meters or so) around 3:30pm. I was proud of all four of us. And I couldn’t believe that Blair and I had climbed 2000 meters in six and a half hours. There were a number of tourists at the top that had taken the gondola to reach the revolving restaurant and gift shop. An open cockpit two-seater plane flew within 50 meters of the observation deck, looped around and then passed by us again. It reminded us that a James Bond film was filmed here a number of years ago. We also saw lots of Para gliders this weekend. Carla and Allie took the gondola back and Blair and I booked it down the mountain 5000 feet back down to Gimmlwald. It was easy going and we walked along the ridge on the way back and snuck peeks into the valley from the top of the ridge. The sun was still bright but was ready to nestle itself behind the mountains. We stopped a few times to listen to the silence of the mountains. Every few seconds the silence was interrupted by the crack of ice from the glaciers across the valley on the huge cliffs that towered above. And even when the ice was not cracking, the silence was not complete as we heard the constant sound of rushing water from down in the valley, seemingly as loud as a highway full of speeding cars. The valley that we had climbed up was all in shadow now. Eventually we had to abandon the sunny ridge and climb back down into the cooler valley. We walked down to a brook and followed it through a dark stand of woods and back down into Gimmelwald. It was about 7pm when we reached the hostel. Both Blair and I felt pretty good considering the long day. I had been worrying about a calf that had been hurting me earlier in the week and she a quad that had been acting up. But both of us felt great during the long hike. It was quite an accomplishment but I think both Blair and I feel we could do even more. I personally am intrigued by a three week trip across the mountain passes of Switzerland. Maybe it is something to look into for next summer.

That night at the hostel was heaven. If the hot shower didn’t feel good enough, we ate pizza; we drank a little wine, and had some chocolate fondue. We even got a round of hearts in. Meanwhile, I tried to study the map for a hike that we could do the next day; that is, if we were even able to get our exhausted bodies up the next day. The hostel was crowded with people which surprised me seeing how it was mid-October. But they were like-minded young folks out for a great time in the mountains. The feeling of exhaustion was enough to drive us to our separate dorm rooms by a quarter to ten. As my head hit the pillow I was grateful to have spent the day doing what I love and with such great company. Unfortunately sleep did not come easy for me or Blair as I believe the chocolate must have had a significant amount of caffeine in it.

Nevertheless, we were up the next morning, and after a bowl of cereal, we hiked to a waterfall at the end of a valley. It was a bit cold as we waited for the sun to pop up over the mountains. But the sun was blocked by the huge wall of rock in front us that jutted up thousands of feet.

Blair and I spent the late morning and early afternoon on our own hiking back up towards Shilthorn but from a more southerly direction. We passed through a little village before making our way to a mountain hut that we had hoped to stay in before we made reservations at the hostel. We went inside and I kind of felt how Goldilocks would have felt when she barged in on the three bears’ house. There was no one around. But two bunks with room enough for eight people were all made up and there were slippers underneath the bottom bunk. It would have been very cozy to stay there the night before but during the off season it is first come first serve and I did not want to take a chance on whether we would get a spot or not.

Blair and I lied down on the grass as we gazed at the valley below and the para-gliders taking off from above behind us. The sun felt wonderful on our faces and Blair quickly dozed off to sleep. Time passes very quickly on that hill. And it was almost two hours later that we motivated ourselves for the hike down. We passed through the same thickly wooded forest as the day before back to Gimmelwald but this time we came across a waterfall. The trail actually went behind the waterfall and we had a view from behind it down into the gorge.

We showered back at the hostel and then took the gondola down. I haven’t been on a gondola in over 15 years. But with some of my own positive thinking and maybe a soft caress from Blair I thought I could do it. The gondola reached the first pole then took off dropping quickly and steeply down into the valley. The ground was over a 1000 feet below and the gondola was packed to the brim with what seemed like 50 people that had just gotten off the gondola from Murren. There was something exciting about facing a fear with Blair there to witness it. She grabbed at my shirt to balance herself among the hoard of mountain goers as we made our way down to the floor of the valley. When we reached the bottom she asked me

“How was that?”

“Piece of cake.” I said trying to act uncharacteristically arrogant in a situation that would never conjure any right for arrogance by anyone. But for me, it was a start, an accomplishment. When we got on the bus in Stechelberg to Lauderbrunnen I felt great.

Blair and I did not get home till 2 am that night. We got an eight o’clock train from Interlaken which gave us enough time to chow down on kebabs near the station and talk about songs we should sing at the next TASIS faculty sing along. Train rides with Blair always go fast, too fast it seems, and before we knew it, we were walking back to TASIS from the train station ending what had been one very terrific weekend.