Day 19 Hiking in Switzerland, August 17, 2007

This keyboard looks all messed up like the others, but the letters are really in American places, not what it says! If I can just figure out the punctuation, we'll be good! Today was hiking like it really should be. You will remember I am staying in Wengen, a little town half way up the mountain on a shelf looking a thousand feet down. First thing this morning, I walked a few hundred yards to the gondola and rode up higher to a saddle on the mountain. It was cloudy much of the time, but at least I could see below, if not above! This picture was taken from the gondola, looking down on Wengen.

When I came out of the gondola, I saw that the men were hosing a lot of crap off the walkway. I thought, What the heck? How could there be animals up here? Then I realized I was hearing cowbells out of the clouds below me. They bring the cows up to their high pastures in the gondola at the start of summer! I had the most wonderful hike for an hour, never out of range of hearing the cowbells. Each animal wears a bell. Sheep do too, but their bells are smaller and so they sound higher.

This particular trail was along a ridge line, nearly level. There were fabulous views downward. I understand that the 3 huge mountains, the Eiger, the Jungfrau, and the Monch are all so close you can reach out and touch, but I could not see them because of the clouds. This picture is actually one I took of a postcard on a rack, showing what it looks like on a sunny day.

This is my kind of hiking! High mountains, fabulous views, and a gondola to take you to the top of the mountain. When you are tired of hiking, no worries about your knees: take a cog train down. So that's what I did. I hiked from the top of the Mannlichen lift horizontally over to Kleinescheiddig, and took the train down like you see in the picture below. It's enough to make you want to do it again! I will have to, because I definitely want to see it when it's sunny!

I definitely want to bring people here next year.

I was back to Wengen, where I'm staying, by 11:30; so I came down to Lauterbrunnen on the cog train, and took another gondola up the far side of the steep valley, opposite Wengen. This was definitely the steepest and the highest gondola I have ever done! It went up very fast to Grutschalp, where we all got off and went to a waiting one-car train. The tiny train took us horizontally across the face of the mountain to the town of Murren. Then I walked a couple of miles downhill on a paved (picture at left) path to the next town of Gimmelwald, where I took yet another gondola back down to the valley floor. I hopped on a bus, and soon I was back in Lauterbrunnen. It's a good thing I did not reverse this hike, which I was planning to do, because the two miles would have been all steep uphill!

By this time it was only 3:00, so I went by train back to Interlaken, and bought a combi-ticket for train to Brienz, bus to Ballenberg, admission to Ballenberg open-air living museum, and return the same way. I knew I would not have much time at the museum, but I am really glad I got a chance to see it.

Ballenberg Museum is kind of the same idea as This is the Place Monument Village. It is quite large and I walked forever. They have brought in many old houses from all different regions of Switzerland and all different time periods. You can go inside most of the buildings, and they are furnished from that time period. I was too late to see them, but there are costumed people doing authentic crafts, and if you're not interested in culture, at least it's a beautiful hike. There was a house from the 1300's and various types of houses and barns and it's all very beautifully done. The temperature finally warmed up and we got a little sun, and it was beautiful.

All for now, I'll be home in a few days.