Swiss Heartland Untour, Summer of 2003
by Linda & Bruce Leon, Houston, TX
Tuesday, July 1, 2003
Our family of three (my husband Bruce, our 10-year-old daughter I’ll call M, and I) took the eight-hour Swiss International Air flight which was right on time. Our daughter enjoyed the video games on her own private screen on the back of the seat. Bruce enjoyed the beautiful sunrise over Ireland at what felt like 2:00 am. The clouds were hanging over Ireland and the sun was just grazing the tops, turning them a bright orange.Wednesday, July 2
Once we arrived in Zürich wearing our Untours name tags the customs official waved us through quickly after seeing our passport. The Idyll, Ltd. Untours staff met us, as planned, as we exited customs. They took good care of us, shepherding our sleepy selves through the rail pass validation and onto the reserved train car on the upper deck with a great view. The train rode smoothly, as if on slick ice. We were distressed to see graffiti on many buildings and walls near Zürich. It was something we hadn’t seen on our last visit to Switzerland 30 years before.Bruce and I became more and more interested and excited with this trip as our view from our train window became lovelier as we traveled south from Zürich. M was in a "what-ever" mood and was only interested in playing her Game Boy in the train. We were all exhausted and M lacked an awareness of the world we were seeing—so different from her Texan home in Houston. Bruce and I were stunned by Switzerland’s beauty and filled with anticipation of our vacation here. The impact of the gorgeous scenery struck us even though we had each separately visited Switzerland 30 years ago, long before we’d met. From Luzern (Lucerne), we saw the mountains, brooks, rushing streams and lakes. Lake Lungern looked opaque bright green with beautiful chalets overlooking it. I am impressed that there is no massive commercial development, and the pristine beauty of nature remains here.
We got off our train at the Brünig Pass and got onto the awaiting Post Bus which took us up into the Hasliberg area and to our Hohfluh Post bus stop just six minutes away. An Untours guide, Marianne, who lives in Hohfluh in the summer, had gotten onto our train car the stop before. With a very friendly manner, she introduced herself to us and brought us onto the bus and off at our bus stop where we were met and greeted by Frau Künzler, our landlady. She walked with us to her chalet and showed us around the apartment. There were bread and rolls from the bakery across the street, and ham cold cuts, local cheeses, eggs, milk, a bottle of beer, butter and jam in the refrigerator from the little grocery store (Vis-à-Vis) next to the bakery. There was also a bowl of apples on the table. She lives next door, with her husband and 15-year-old daughter, above a gift shop they also own and run. Our apartment is fantastic! We have the whole large second floor with many well-furnished rooms full of antique furniture with beautiful woodwork on the doors from the entry room and on the side balcony. The kitchen is modern with granite counters and wood cabinet fronts to the appliances-refrigerator and dishwasher included. We have many walls of arched opening windows revealing the mountains and Rosenlaui glacier to the south, which we see out our living room windows. It is a spectacular view. We can watch the clouds roll in and out from such a far distance we can see what kind of weather is coming in. We see the tufts of the bottoms of the long clouds as they come in and gradually sink lower, blanketing the mountain for awhile. By the evening they lift and reveal the tops of the mountains again with the glistening patches of snow and ice at the top.
We napped for a couple of hours while M played quietly with a nice toy supplied by the landlord to the apartment. Then we all walked up and down the main street to get a quick overview of the shops in town. We stopped in at our landlord’s shop next door and gave them a bottle of our favorite Texan barbecue sauce we’d brought from Houston for them to enjoy. We came home, and I cooked scrambled eggs for M and made ham and cheese omelettes for Bruce and me. Bruce made some delicious instant soups for us to try which had also been left for us. (A Co-op brand mushroom soup and a Knorr brand Bündner (from Graubünden) soup—I loved the mushroom soup but the Bündner soup had barley in it, which required more cooking than just adding boiling water.) We ate an apple and bakery bread and got to bed at 8:30 pm.
Thursday, July 3
We went to the Untours Orientation in the morning in Meiringen, then ate lunch at the cafeteria in the Migros grocery store (good food and not as high prices as in the restaurants). From there we walked to the Aareschlucht Gorge, but before we got far M spotted a large outdoor plaza type of chess set she couldn’t resist near the Sherlock Holmes museum on the Bahnhofstrasse (main street). She ran to it and played very well with a teenage boy whose family, relatives and grandparents were also there with Untours. We resumed our walk to the gorge, which was about 2 km away. To our surprise, the walk through the gorge (about 1½ km long) was spectacular and like nothing we’d ever seen before. The narrow wooden ledge (with rail) we walked/hiked on kept us deep in the gorge along, and right over, the Aare River, which very rapidly rushed by with a fierce current roaring through its choppy green water. We had some intermittent light showers, but our hooded Gore -Tex rain jackets protected us well. M enjoyed the outing, although she is anxiously awaiting a clear day for a steep uphill path type of hike.As we exited the gorge walkway Bruce got directions to the tram stop near the exit. To get there we crossed the road and walked down a very steep path in the woods with a "Wanderweg" sign until we got to the edge of the river at the gorge. Then we walked over a suspension walking bridge over the river to a circular opening in the cliff previously made by a glacier. In a carved out arched area in the stone cliff of the mountain was something that looked like an elevator with two push buttons. One was marked "Meiringen" and the other "Innertkirchen". We pushed the Meiringen button, and in about 10 minutes, I suddenly felt a blast of air on my head come from a grated window in the "elevator doors." I hopped away a bit, and as if by magic, the doors opened to reveal the entrance to a train car inside the cliff! We stepped in, and the train whisked us through the tunnel and then back above ground to Meiringen a half block from the regular train station.
We went to the tourist office, bought a nice topographical map of this region and got a free tourist card for various slight discounts and some free brochures. I also got an English translation of the local children’s magic dwarf story, "Muggestutz, the Hasli Dwarf" upon which a nearby family hike is based. M made a very creative sculpture with the Lego blocks there while she waited for us. We then went to Migros and bought groceries, which we barely were able to lug home on the train and bus.
Once we got home to our apartment here, we realized we forgot to buy soap at the grocery store. Untours had provided four sample hotel size bars to tide us over. M wanted to stay home, so Bruce stayed and relaxed at home (he had carried the backpack and totebag with bus and train directories, groceries, etc). I went to the little grocery store near our chalet, got soap and salami after talking with the store clerk in my pigeon German and she in her pigeon English about all the different sausages for sale there. She was very attentive and helpful. I made salad and cooked wurst that we had bought in Meiringen as well as eating the most delicious sweet and flavorful raspberries I have had in a long time. Bruce and I shared some of a bottle of beer which was very good. M found the English language news on TV and watched it until we made her get ready for bed. (She was never interested in the news before.) Bruce read to her while she was in bed.
Then he and I went into the well-lit entryway with a large table and considered plans for tomorrow, which again has a forecast of rain. Since M has been asking for a boat ride and that will work well on a rainy day, we decided to take a boat ride on the Brienzersee (Lake Brienz) nearby. Bruce washed dishes and then went to bed while I wrote this diary. Then M came out of her room. She couldn’t sleep. I tucked her into bed (again). It was 11:40 pm. I found I wasn’t able to sleep either. We’re not over jet lag yet.
Friday, July 4
Today it is cold and rainy. We took the train to Brienz and went to their 100-year-old primary school, which was having a celebration in a large tent. It was too hot and crowded inside, so after briefly watching children in costume give presentations in German, we went to the playground where M enjoyed using the swing. Many of the mothers wore their hair punk style-cut very short and standing up spiky. The children wore worn out hand-me-down clothes.Then we went to the ship dock at the Brienz Lake, but on the way saw sheep grazing. Two lambs played while the mother sheep came right up to us. M picked some grass and weeds to feed it and threw it inside the fence for the sheep to eat it. Instead, it landed on the sheep’s back, (a mistake), and he ran away with it staying on his back. M felt disappointed all day and kept bringing it up.
The boat ride was pleasant where we sat under a canopy outside protected from the misty rain. We took it all the way to the other side of the lake (Interlaken), about an hour and a half, which was really too long, because we gradually got very chilly. We could see the green lower slopes of the surrounding mountains, but the rest was shrouded in clouds. We long for a clear day so we can see the tops of the mountains.
Saturday, July 5
The weather forecast was for rainy cloudy weather again so we didn’t want to go far today. We walked part of the Panoramaweg behind our Hohfluh chalet. It was like an alley through pasture with no cows (they are all way up high in the Alps now.) We enjoyed seeing wildflowers we hadn’t seen before, like a blue tubular one (Gentian). M was interested in a couple of beetles, one shiny green and another one brown. Then we went to the internet café in Meiringen where Bruce checked in on his office email messages. M and I shopped for postcards and got soft ice cream at Primos. When we returned to Hohfluh, I noticed in a tourist magazine that there’s a miniature golf in the next town (Wasserwendi). I was tired and stayed home, but Bruce and M went and played mini-golf. M enjoyed telling me, when they returned home, that while they were playing, a dog came up and took Bruce’s ball as he played it. The dog ran away with Bruce’s ball in his mouth! Bruce got a 5-point penalty. The dog’s owner came by later with the ball and returned it.Sunday, July 6
Finally, the sky was crystal clear, so we took the hike we’ve been dying to do, called "Grandmother’s Walk", from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. We took the bus to Meiringen, the train to Interlaken, changed to a narrow gauge train to Lauterbrunnen, and changed to an even narrower gauge train to Wengen. My impression of Wengen is it has many tall hotels and is a very nice and clean looking car-less resort situated on a ledge of the mountain overlooking the valley. I am much more comfortable living in my little dorf, though. We took a tram-cable car up in the air to Männlichen, high above the tree line. Then we hiked a nice level path along the ridge facing the Jungfrau, Mönch, and Eiger Mountains the whole way. We enjoyed the spectacular view of wildflowers and rolling deep green hills that went down to the far off town of Grindelwald to our left, and the snowy mountains in front of us.Halfway along this 3-mile hike we sat on a bench, ate our picnic lunch, and gawked at the view. At 2 miles along M got worn out and it took a little cajoling to make it the last mile to the end of the trail. There was a lovely cafe with an outside deck there when we did reach the trail’s end. We sat at a table on the edge of the deck where we could see the Jungfrau Mountain clearly. M got French fries ("pommes frites") and a milkshake, while Bruce and I got beer. M and the 8 year old boy at the table next to us became friends (he’s American but his father is originally from Switzerland). They compared favorite mini-golf courses and enjoyed using their binoculars on the mountains we were looking at. Suddenly, there was an avalanche on the Jungfrau, and we heard the sound like thunder. Snow fell down its cliff like a white waterfall. Then it just stopped completely. Luckily, we were safely on a small mountain nearby at Kleine Scheidegg.
M was interested in the huge brown and black Berner Oberland dog near the swing set by the deck. The owner encouraged her to pet him, which she enjoyed, before we left. It was hard to leave, not just because we were enjoying ourselves, but also because the waitress did not bring our check at the end of the meal. We had to ask, and then she brought a bill in a little glass cup for us. (We found over and over that waiters will not bring the check unless asked. Apparently, it's always rude to ask for money in Switzerland.) We took a very narrow gauge train back to Lauterbrunnen and changed trains to Interlaken, where we trained back to Meiringen and bussed to Hohfluh. Both M and I developed headaches. I think we weren’t used to the high 2,200 meters altitude on today’s hike. Bruce was fine, though. He cooked supper for us and cleaned the kitchen afterwards.
Monday, July 7
This morning we joined the Untours group to cable car from Reuti (three towns away in Hasliberg) up to Mägisalp to watch cheese being made. An Untours guide translated for us. The cheesemaker looks the way I had imagined Heidi’s grandfather to look-very Swiss with a grey-blonde beard. He cooked the milk in a giant cauldron over a wooden fire until it reached a specific temperature and then scooped up portions in cheesecloth and carried it to the cheese rings. The milk is fresh from his cows that day. His wife squashed it into the rings tightly, using a board weighted with boulders. They feed the whey to their pigs. That’s what makes the pork taste so good here. We bought some of their cheese that was from last year (it had to age a year, so that’s why we didn’t get the cheese which we watched them make). Outside a couple of donkeys came up to our group and everyone petted them. M enjoyed herself. Up high in the mountains we could hear the resonant sound of cowbells and see the specks attached to them-cows were up really high grazing.After the presentation, we took the Muggestutz hike that is for children and families. It took us gradually down the hill three miles (five km) to Bidmi from Mägisalp. It had children’s play activities following along with a story about magic dwarfs. I had read the English translation of the story to M the night before. Also, Bruce read and translated the story signs at each activity point. Many activities were a bit too young for M. There was a two story wooden deck with a tube through which children drop pinecones. Then they turn a crank and draw up a bucket with those pinecones in it. Another activity spot had a broken tree to climb up to, either by its roots that made natural steps in the dirt, or by a short log ladder. It also had a short path around it in the woods with a large log stretched across a tiny stream for a crossing. Further along we stopped and picnicked at a scenic overlook with tables and grills. It had a full supply of chopped firewood beside it and even had a tree stump with a saw for making tinier pieces for kindling. Many families were grilling their wurst there. Later we came to the little dwarf’s house, which had its own real garden. Although M derided it as much too childish for her, she went inside and didn’t come out for a long time. Eventually she explained she had lain down in the little bed inside and taken a nap. The last activity along the trail was a swing, which M enjoyed.
The whole walk was very lovely, passing in and out of lush woods and moss-covered scenic areas, lots of wildflowers, and cows nearby with the dinging cowbells. At some places, we could see all the way to Lake Brienz. We could see the Rosenlaui Glacier throughout the hike often framed by woods on our hillside. At Bidmi where the trail ended, M played at the playground that was at the lift station. Then we took the cable car back to Reuti and the bus home. I went grocery shopping at the little co-op shop across the street while Bruce and M stayed home and played cards.
Tuesday, July 8
This morning we took the Marmot Trail, "Murmeliweg" from Käserstatt to Mägisalp after taking a cable car lift from Wasserwendi to Käserstatt. This was a beautiful one-hour hike through meadows with views of the glaciers and mountains beyond. We came out at Mägisalp where we saw herds of cows being led up the mountain to higher meadows. Their resonant cowbells were ringing, and they filled the meadow-bowl with their distant clanging.In the evening we trekked to the beautiful mini-golf course high above Wasserwendi, and had fun in a beautiful setting. The course was full of flower gardens with the view of the Alps!
In between our morning hike and evening miniature golf game was a wild goose chase for specific restaurants and a shop and a different mini-golf course, which were all closed: "geschlossen" (closed), or "Dienstag Ruhetag" (Tuesday rest day). We borrowed a couple of children’s games from the Hasliberg Tourist Office in Wasserwendi to keep as long as we stay here (free). (We did return them just before we left.) We eventually ate lunch at an Italian restaurant "Pinocchio" in Meiringen where we ate outside - good food, but fought the flies. They had a Kids Menu (Kindermenu)!
The town playground was across the street, so we went there for awhile and M played. Their equipment is mostly different than I’ve seen in the U.S., except for the swings. A platform flops around as children walk around it. They also had a cylindrical rope ladder that one spins around like a merry-go-round. M enjoyed herself although she was a little frustrated that she couldn’t talk and communicate with the other children there. I saw a mother trying to teach her daughter to ride a bike. She had her daughter well padded with kneepads, elbow pads and a helmet. They didn’t have enough room in the little plaza around the water spigot though, and the child looked unhappy.
Our landlady delivered our laundry to our door, all dry and ironed and neatly folded—three large loads for 21 Swiss Francs.
Wednesday, July 9
Today was a hazy, cloudy, foggy day with rain forecast. Since I was incredibly sore in my upper back and shoulders (I think from using the hiking stick too much), and three of my toes had blisters, we stayed home and rested today. Bruce got croissants from the bakery for breakfast and a loaf of wheat bread. They were delicious. I never had croissants that were so good! I played a game with M while Bruce went to the little grocery store. Then, after lunch, we all played Yahtzee in the sunroom.Thursday, July 10
The weather was clear and sunny, but I wasn’t up to a hike, so we took a bus to Grosse Scheidegg (passing Rosenlaui Glacier). We enjoyed lunch at an outdoor café (Berghaus) and enjoyed the mountain view of the Mönch and Eiger. We saw paths toward First with Grindelwald down below. There were cows and cheese-making huts next to our café.The bus ride there and back was interesting. The bus often sounded its horn so cars would get out of the way. Sometimes the cars had to back down the hill until they reached a wide spot in the road to pull over. The bus horn makes three notes: C#, E, A like a tune, and some Swiss children on the bus sang a song to the horn-tune. Once an oncoming car dared to honk at our bus. The car had only a wimpy one-note honk. Our bus honked back its Post-Bus three-note honk, kept going forward (the bus gets right-of-way in Switzerland), and then the car backed up and got out of the way. It was as if the car had honked "Get out of the way!" to which the bus had replied, "No, you get out of my way!"
The bus ride took us through lovely wooded mountains and by a river.
When we got home we cooked dinner and packed for our two-day Zermatt trip.
Friday, July 11
We left early for our long train ride to Zermatt. We were surprised to see such dry parched land between Brig and Zermatt. Also, in that section the people who boarded the train were dressed more formally than our area.We got to our Zermatt hotel about 1:00 pm, but when we checked in we were shocked to see that our room was on the ground floor and did not have a view of the Matterhorn. (Untours recommended it, saying all their rooms had a view of the Matterhorn.) The desk manager was very rude, saying there were no other rooms available, etc., although we had made our reservations a few days ago and had referred to Idyll. The manager said she’d never heard of Idyll. She said a lot more rude things. Essentially the hotel was the typical unpleasant tourist trap experience.
We took the cog rail up to Gornergrat (3,080 meters up) and ogled at the view of at least seven glaciers, and numerous mountains including the Matterhorn. We were exhilarated at this extraordinary site at the top of the world. We sipped orange Fantas until the time, an hour later, for the train back down.
On the trip down, we kept seeing loads of marmots scampering through the fields. They look like small beavers. We also saw sheep grazing.
Beside all the Disney-looking chalet-style stores on the main walking street in Zermatt (no cars or busses allowed in town), we chose to sit outside at a crowded out-door restaurant, called the Walliserhof, for dinner. We had delicious meals of meat with cream sauce. Mine was veal with a paprika cream sauce. Bruce got duck with a different kind of cream sauce, and M ate a lot of his duck meat—a big change from her usual chicken nuggets. (She ordered plain spaghetti—no sauce—and ate it up, too.) Our waiter served us everything as we asked, but Bruce and I sensed him gritting his teeth and rolling his eyes slightly at our poor quality of German speech. Again, the tourist trap experience was very different from our warm welcome feeling back in the Brienz area of our alpine hometown.
Saturday, July 12
We woke up very early to be able to see the Matterhorn at sunrise. (The rude desk clerk/manager had suggested that a good spot was about a 20 minute walk away.) We found a good enough view was just outside our lobby. We got M up and out so she was able to enjoy the sight of the Matterhorn in its golden glory at sunrise (6:00 am).We ate a continental breakfast at our hotel, which was filled with Japanese tourists and Americans, including one shouting "GO DOGS" from the University of Georgia.
We then caught the free city electric van, which we discovered on our own, and rode to the cable car lift that took us up to the Klein Matterhorn, which faces the Matterhorn, close up.
We had a spectacular ride over boulder-strewn gorges and mountains. At the Firi station we changed cable cars, then again at Trockner Steg ("dry spot"), and finally got to the top of Klein Matterhorn, which is about 3,800 meters (over 11,000 feet) up high. It was covered with snow. M was ecstatic to play in snow for the first time in her life. We walked a little, and had a snowball fight. Then we went into a tunnel inside the glacier. It led to an ice cave where ice carvings were on display. M enjoyed being surrounded by ice. She and Bruce did fine in the high altitude, but I felt faint and found it a big struggle to walk back up to the cable car lift station. We had to stop and take breaks while I caught my breath.
On the ride down from the mountain, we shared the bus-size cable car with some Japanese tourists who were enamored with M. They visited quite a bit with us and said M looked like a doll. They gave M some "Pocky" Japanese candy (which she loved), and offered us pickled seaweed. Bruce and M liked it. They took lots of pictures of M, and when I offered to take their picture with their camera they grabbed M, hugged her, and put her in the picture. We exchanged addresses at their request. (We received some lovely pictures from them in the mail when we got home to Houston and sent them a picture, too.)
When we got down to Zermatt, we took M to Bucherer. She got to pick out a couple of souvenir silver charms for being a good girl these first two weeks of the trip. After buying them, the saleslady gave her a free souvenir spoon!
From there we walked straight to the train station and caught the train heading home to our Hasliberg area. On the way, we stopped at Kandersteg for lunch just because we had noticed on the trip down how cute and pretty it looked. We stopped and watched a horse-riding competition on the way to the restaurant and saw the obvious winner—a horse and rider who made it jumping over all the obstacles. We had a delightful meal at a nice outdoor restaurant (Hotel Bristol – catering to English tourists, no doubt) at the end of the street that leads to the city from the train station. Bruce and I got a plate of pieces of smoked trout with a horseradish-whipped cream kiss on each piece. It was about 2:30-3:00 pm and most people around us were getting ice cream sundaes with whipped cream.
On the way back to the train, we stopped at a souvenir stand when M fell in love with a stuffed animal doll. It was a Bernese Oberland dog that looked nearly real. It reminded her of when she had petted someone’s real Bernese Oberland dog at Kleine Scheidegg. We got her the doll and she loved it all the way home on the train, petting and cuddling with it. The Swiss lady sitting next to her told us that because the doll looks so lifelike, she’s sure M will love that doll even into adulthood, as her own daughter did.
We had an hour layover between train connections in Interlaken Ost. We walked out to a park by a river, which was lovely. M didn’t want to leave the bench there. She was tired after the long trip. Bruce stayed with her while I explored further down the street toward Interlaken West. It was hotel row with lots of pretty hotels dating from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. The further I walked the more "tourist-trappish" it became—full of Americans, loads of Japanese tour groups, cheap quality souvenir shops. I even overheard some pick-pocketers passing by discussing technique ("You have to wait until they’re all grouped up...").
Our train and bus connections went fine. We all enjoyed a Swiss milk advertisement that we saw at the train station, showing a Swiss cow carrying a huge cowbell around its neck. The slogan read, "Milk makes strong bones."
We got home in the evening and cooked spaghetti for supper, bathed and went to bed.
Sunday, July 13
Clear days continue. We set out this morning for a hike along the mountain ridge from Planplatten (above Mägisalp), to Balmeregghorn (above Melchsee). This hike is known as "Horizonweg" to the Swiss or as the "Crème de la Crème" to Untourists. We bussed to Reuti in Hasliberg and took the cable car to Bidmi, then Mägisalp, then up to Planplatten and the Alpen Tower. We heard the cowbells clanging throughout the meadow. M stopped to play for awhile at the playground at the Mägisalp lift station.At Planplatten the view over the ridge is breathtaking of the many mountains and glaciers beyond. We thoroughly enjoyed our hike of about 2 miles at 2,200 meters elevation. We talked with M first to set the rule that we look only at the trail while walking and we stop walking to look at the view (due to the many steep drop-offs on this trail). We stopped often to enjoy the view and the wildflowers. There were lots of blue and purple bell-shaped flowers, yellow dandelions (and reddish-orange ones), daisies, and a green plant with leaves shaped like ½" diameter artichokes, which M thought looked more like roses.
At one point, we came to a small snowfield where Swiss children were playing. M joined right into the snowball fights and had a great time. The snow there was much softer than at Klein Matterhorn.
Eventually, we resumed our hike and got to Balmeregghorn with the additional view of a massive gorge and valley between us and more mountains in the distance, including Mount Titlis. In my opinion, this was the most beautiful and spectacular hike on our whole trip. I liked it so much we tried to go further, but M and I got too tired (we really should have brought along snacks), so we came back to Balmeregghorn where we took the chairlift down to Melchsee-Frutt. I talked to M about the importance of holding still in the chair of the lift, since it was a single seater and we couldn’t go with her. She did fine. The ride down was low to the ground and pure serenity. The cows were just below and around us with their donging cowbells reverberating throughout the little valley. We ate lunch at a restaurant a short walk from the lift station by the lake. They specialize in Rösti. Mine was topped with tomato slices and cheese melted on it. Bruce got one with Cervelat (hot dog) on the Rösti (like hash browns). M got spaghetti with a little butter. We got ice cream for dessert and saw people all around us getting sundaes with whipped cream.
Both M and I had headaches from the high altitude, but we felt better soon after eating at the restaurant and taking Tylenol (and aspirin for me). We all got sunburned in spite of using 30-level sunblock this morning. I should have reapplied it.
We walked halfway around the lake (Melchsee) to the town, passing cows and looking for the bus station. Then we realized and remembered that we have to take a cable car down much further, to Stockalp, to get to a bus. So we found the cable car station in Frutt, adjacent to Melchsee, and got in. We floated down the mountain for about 20 minutes to Stockalp. The bus there took us on a long ride meandering through green hills and woods to Sarnen, where we got the train to Brünig and the bus to our home in Hohfluh-Hasliberg. I will always remember this hike/excursion as my favorite ever.
Monday, July 14
We (except Bruce) were exhausted, so we slept late and stayed home today, in spite of the gorgeous clear sunny weather. Bruce and I sorted laundry, brought it to our landlady, and chatted with her. We picked up bread ("Brot") and croissants ("Gipfeln") and local cheese ("Mütschli") at the bakery across the street. Bruce grocery shopped up the street.We ate brunch at home and then Bruce read while I caught up on this journal. M is watching TV and playing with her Game Boy. I try to look up often for the gorgeous mountain and glacier view out our large picture window here in the living room. This evening we’ll go to the Untours party at Hotel Reuti, which is nearby, in Hasliberg-Reuti.
The party was delightful. We enjoyed visiting with other Untourists and talking about favorite hikes. The Untours staff was very friendly. They asked us how we liked their recommended hotel in Zermatt, so we had the chance to tell them everything (especially no Matterhorn view from our room). Our traditional meal of pork cutlet with sauce was served "Menu" Swiss style, meaning the waitresses came back around dishing out seconds.
We all sang Swiss songs from a booklet. A traditional band played accordion, yodeled and played Alpenhorn (sounds like a French horn). They were very talented and their music was lovely. They let the children try playing the Alpenhorn, and Untours had a contest over who could play it the best. M made a great, loud and long tone, which amazed everyone because she is so small. She was upset for awhile because she didn’t get the award for best Alpenhorn player. A teenage horn player who played the Star Spangled Banner won. Nevertheless, we all had fun, and Bruce and I especially enjoyed the party.
Tuesday, July 15
We hiked the "Grandfather’s Walk" today, which was a pleasant, easy stroll from Grütschalp to Mürren after taking a funicular up the mountain from Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp. It was free with our rail pass. A billboard at the station reminded people to be tolerant of children with body piercings. It showed a smiling 7-year-old girl with light brown pigtails/braids with a nose-ring. I have been disgusted by all the face piercings I see on children and young adults in Switzerland (nose, eyelids, eyebrows, chin, and men with an earring). A lot of women dye all or part of their hair apple-red. I wonder if the Swiss government isn’t a bit naïve, and may someday regret so much tolerance. Are they tolerant, too, about the extensive graffiti in Switzerland? I think they are unwittingly condoning destruction of other people’s property and raising a generation with a different set of values than relied upon by their traditional civilization!They are so trusting now that they park their bicycles at train stations without locking them up. Apparently, no one steals here. (Yet.) On our hike today, we forgot the camera at a rest point. As soon as Bruce realized it further along the hike, the Swiss people that came by next said they had found it and were bringing it to the next town’s station lost and found, so they gave it to Bruce. People here are very honest and helpful about getting things back to their rightful owners.
Our hike was lovely, through woods part of the time with a brook cascading down where we stopped for a snack. The railroad tracks were near and below us much of the time. Our views were of the Jungfrau Mountain and glacier from different angles, with the Lauterbrunnen Valley down below. We saw the waterfalls around Trümmelbach Falls in the distance. The tiny-looking town of Wengen across the valley perched on a grassy plateau halfway up to Männlichen was precious looking, and so was Gimmelwald on our side of the mountain which we saw from Mürren. We ate lunch on the back terrace of a restaurant in Mürren with a view of the mountain and of Mürren, a mostly car-less town. The town was very quiet with few tourists. Bruce got the plate of cheese and smoked pork. The cheese was the local hard cheese in thin rolled-up shavings. It came with a heavily smoked raw bacon ("Rohschinken") and salami slices. We had seen other people get that in! other restaurants so he wanted to try it. He enjoyed it. I got a good pork cutlet. M got a small breaded pork cutlet ("Schweinschnitzel") from the children’s menu ("Kindermenu"), and was surprised that she liked it very much and ate it all up. Her meal also came with fresh French fries ("pommes frites") which she enjoyed.
We took the cable cars down to the valley (also free with our Rail Pass!). The cable car down to Stechelberg was a bit shocking because it drops steeply and suddenly as it leaves the station. The cliffs loom beside you, but then the ride changes to a more gradual slant the rest of the way down to Stechelberg.
We took the bus from Stechelberg to Trümmelbach Falls and the funicular (almost an elevator lift), up to the part of the falls inside the mountain. We went upstairs to numerous viewing areas of the thunderous, powerful falls shooting enormous quantities of water through the mountain, carving away at it (20,000 liters of water per second). It drains the glaciers of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau Mountains. We were all awe-struck and glad to have seen it.
When we came out it started to rain as we caught the bus. It poured as we transferred to the train home.
Wednesday, July 16
With a forecast of clear skies in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon we set out today for a hike of the Grimsel Pass. It’s been heavily marketed for children with "Grim" the character in the shape of a quartz crystal. Several Swiss people have told us the path is strewn with quartz crystals there. We took a double-decker Post Bus there to the high up Grimsel Hospiz above several dammed reservoirs. The whole area is controlled by KWO, a hydroelectric company. The path was extremely steep down hill on stones—large and small, some stable and some loose, with sheer drop-offs on one side. The path was only occasionally marked with identification of the white-red-white stripes. It had very few areas for children. Bruce and M hiked it easily with no mishaps, but I was constantly slipping on loose and slippery stones. About halfway I slipped at a crack in the earth and toppled over on my knees, thighs, and chest, getting full of mud. From then on, I asked Bruce to hold my hand whenever we went over the more difficult terrain.We looked at a small quartz cave and M found a few pieces of quartz with a little bit of crystal quality in part of them. No real crystals around, though. It was like a milky quartz sandbox.
As we got to a smooth high slanting cliff, we saw lots of rock climbers going up it. One of them (Swiss) spoke to us and asked where we were from. When we said Texas, he asked if we have guns. We said, "No, we’re one of the few Texans without guns." We explained we were from Houston with NASA and Mission Control, and that Bruce’s father had worked there and helped put a man on the moon. He asked M her name and spoke to her a little. Then he gave her a beautiful quartz crystal. He said it had just come down from the mountain, and he had just found it there. She was ecstatic and we all thanked him. Such a kind and charming thing for him to do!
We continued on the path around the lake and then over a couple of very old stone bridges and on ancient stone roads/paths dating back to medieval and Roman times. This was a trading route, according to a sign. There were also some ancient steps carved out of the stone. We gradually got low enough to hike through some woods and then fields full of cows and their manure, which we had to dodge. We finished this four to five mile hike at the Handeck Hotel, which had a playground with a trampoline and lounge chair. M joined the other children on the trampoline. She fell a lot at first, and one of the Swiss boys (age about 11) explained to her in simple English how to jump safely (stay away from the edge...) after she couldn’t understand his schweizer Deutsch). Then he had all the children get off the trampoline and let M jump on it by herself to get a feel for it. Then they all got on (about six children) and made a game of who could be the last to keep jumping without falling. One younger boy seemed rather aggressive trying to make the others fall. I was worried M would get hurt, but then he deliberately fell and everyone said M won. Then they did the game again and M fell early. She didn’t realize what was going on, but they all told her she had to get off since she fell once (which they had previously done in the last game). I told her to come away, we had to go now, so she did, and that got her off the trampoline. I thought that the 11-year-old boy who led the rest of the children was very kind and helpful to M.
We went into the guesthouse restaurant and got a light late lunch. Then we went to the bus stop and it started raining hard before the bus came. We put up the hoods on our rain jackets and were fine. We again rode on the upper level of the bus as we returned to Meiringen. There, we got blister gel pads from the Apotheke for me and soft-serve ice cream cones at the Primo grocery store. We caught the train to Brünig and the bus home.
I was exhausted and disgusted by the unexpected dangers and difficulty of the Grimsel Pass, but Bruce and M were exhilarated by this hike—their favorite one on our vacation.
Thursday, July 17
The weather was pouring rain with thick fog and clouds, so on our landlady's recommendation, we went to the Transportation Museum ("Verkehrshaus") in Luzern, by train. M enjoyed the hands-on activities exploring communication, airplanes, cars, and trains areas. She drove a train on a large computer screen while sitting at the controls of the train (not very successfully, but we don’t even know why). She was very successful in the car area reaction time tests. She got into lots of different real train engines with Bruce, and then enjoyed the pinball machine. (I have no idea what that had to do with trains, except the ball rolls along metal tracks in part of it.) We had eaten lunch there with Bruce and me getting bratwurst that was grilled on the outdoor patio there. M only wanted a roll. (Later I discovered that there was a cafeteria next to the patio and it had good kid’s menu offerings).As we left the museum we got ice cream cones and went out to look at the nearby lake (the rain had stopped). We then caught a bus to the old part of Luzern and walked down some of the crowded, narrow streets. It reeked of "Tourist Trap" with souvenir shops everywhere and people loudly playing Dixieland jazz with a hat out. There were hats out all over there in that old area. Then we went to Bucherer and got M the silver charm she wanted, of a cuckoo clock, along with a silver bracelet to go with it. M wanted to go straight to the train station, but Bruce and I made her accommodate us and walk back the longer way, via the famous wooden covered walking bridge across the lake.
When we got halfway across the lake and were reading a plaque which explained the ancient paintings hanging from the roof of the bridge, M squealed out in glee—she had discovered her classmate (N) from Houston and his parents (J and S) in front of us! We all squealed in delighted surprise, started chatting, and then sat down together at a café on the lake for drinks together. They had suddenly come to Switzerland to visit their Swiss friend in Luzern after the father (S) had unexpectedly had a business trip take him to Milan—so the whole family came too, spur of the moment! They knew that we were somewhere in Switzerland in July, and since it's such a small country, S had even told his family that morning on the train that they’d run into the Leons when they got to Switzerland. What a coincidence! We enjoyed chatting awhile with the view of the lake and the famous wooden bridge with bright flowers blooming profusely in planters the whole length of t! he dark brown bridge. Eventually, J got anxious to explore the old town before having dinner with their Luzern friend at his house (his wife was home, cooking for them). Their friend was friendly to us all, but we knew we had to go our own ways, so we said goodbye. We went to a grocery store in the train station and picked up great items to cook for supper (curried pork cutlets on a stick, and some plain lamb meat for M). We caught the train back to Brünig and the last bus back to Hohfluh.
Friday, July 18
We went to Ballenberg today after receiving so many recommendations for it. It was a partly cloudy day. M didn’t want to go in the worst way, but I did. Since I let her finish the Grimsel Pass hike, which was her favorite, I insisted she accommodate my wishes today and we go to Ballenberg.Ballenberg was a pleasant stroll by and through old Swiss houses from various regions (Cantons) of Switzerland. It was interesting to see the original layout of the homes and their furniture. The stove was always in the center of the house so all the rooms had access to the heat. In the Brienz house there was a woodcarver carving a fox. M was interested and watched that demonstration. Upstairs we "oohed and aahed" at the extravagantly carved furniture: tables, chairs, cabinets with hunting motifs, inlaid wood and beautifully sculpted leaf motifs.
In the center of Ballenberg was a children’s play area. M enjoyed the old fashioned bowling with a ball made from stone with thumb and hand holes and a wooden track ball-return made from 2 logs. The pins were made of wood. M also enjoyed an old-fashioned carousel. We got grilled Bratwurst and chips (fried potato wedges) (M just ate the chips) and ate them in the outdoor gazebo. Then we watched some pigs foraging through mud nearby in a fenced area. M tried impulsively to pull off a plant to feed to a pig, but the plant had thorns, and she got one stuck deeply in her forefinger. It hurt her for a long while—really until the end of the day. The only thing that helped was we gave her a cup and she filled it with cold water from a public spigot by a trough, and the cold water dulled the sting.
We walked inside a building that had been a winery and saw the old rough-hewn wood and stone press.
We had started from the east side of the park and walked to the west. Towards the end, we saw a woman spinning thread from wool with a spinning wheel. Then we saw the bakery, but the woman was already cleaning up. We went to the shop there and bought warm wheat bread made there. We all loved it. We also bought some tasty smoked wurst from there. Then we bought ice cream cones and ate them on the way to the west exit, where we caught the bus back to Brünig and Hohfluh, home.
Bruce was anxious to hike, but not M, so I stayed home and Bruce hiked down the trail from Hohfluh to Meiringen, where he checked his work email at an Internet café. He then bought the good orange juice at Migros, and came back via the train and bus. I made supper and he cleaned up.
Saturday, July 19
Today the weather was clear, so we went to Kandersteg and the Oeschinensee. We stopped at the Käserei (cheese shop) and got mütschli cheese and three rolls, and then walked some distance to get to the chairlift. (We just followed the signs.)The chairlift was a double-seater, facing sideways outwards. We had a beautiful view of green hills, woods and mountains as we floated up to the top. Then we hiked a ways down gradually until we got to the Oeschinensee. It’s a beautiful blue glacier lake up in the mountains and surrounded by the mountains’ cliffs and waterfalls. We walked around it until we found a nice wooded picnic area. We had our lunch there with Bruce and me on a bench and M preferred to sit on a boulder nearby. Then we walked further along the lake and came to a park-like area by some grazing cows and woodcarvings on tree stumps. We walked back and rented a rowboat. M wanted to row and was able to get us to the middle of the lake. It was her first time in a rowboat, although she’s canoed before. Then Bruce took over rowing until our time ran out. It was lovely out on that lake. As we walked back from the lake, Bruce noticed the horse-taxi would be there soon, so we rode in the cart b! ehind two horses all the way back uphill to the chairlift station. We took the chairlift down to Kandersteg and then stopped at the outdoor café we liked for drinks. M was interested in the tiny little lap dog at the table next to ours. It was sitting next to the woman and drinking water from a dog bowl beside him on the bench. We chatted a little with the couple and as they left, I told them they had forgotten to take their dog dish with them. They explained to me that it belongs to the restaurant! After that, I noticed dog dishes at lots of restaurants in Switzerland.
Sunday, July 20
The forecast was for a cloudy day today, so we went to the Lauterbrunnen Valley to hike in the Valley of the Waterfalls. Unfortunately, it was the hottest day of the summer, no clouds, and M was miserable in the heat. She complained the whole way, and the only way we kept her going was that Bruce promised to take her on her favorite cable car ride from Stechelberg to Gimmelwald and back. The walk itself was pleasant, sometimes along the river and sometimes through fields, always with mountains on both sides looming and with some waterfalls along the way—especially Staubach Falls. It was burning hot in the sun, so we took to racing through the sunny areas and stopping in the few shady areas to cool off. Just before we got to Stechelberg, the path went into woods with brooks and was lovely there. (Also shady and cooler.)M enjoyed her trip up and down on the cable car. (I didn’t go up—I don’t like the feeling of the sudden drop from Gimmelwald).
On the way home we stopped at the Bären Restaurant here in Hohfluh and got dinner. We sat outside on the terrace overlooking pasture and mountains. The food was just mediocre. It was interesting watching the locals on their Sunday off, visiting with each other—the town’s so small they all know each other. As we were leaving, we saw Magrit Winterberger with Untours sitting at a table there with Hal Taussig, the retired founder of Untours! We all said "Hello" and chatted briefly. Then we walked home.
Monday, July 21
Today we went to Thun Castle. M really wanted to see a castle. We ran into Hal Taussig again on the way. He was at our bus stop and train station on his way to fly out of Zürich. We chatted about favorite hikes. While we waited for our train, a lady that was waiting for the same train struck up a conversation in German. She is another landlord for Untours. Johanna stays at her place for 8 weeks every summer. Bruce did great at conversing with her in German about the weather, economy, and relatives living far away. (She has four uncles living in America and has never met her cousins there).We took the train to Thun and walked up to the castle, which was built in 1186. It is a great example of a medieval castle with grand proportions and turrets you can walk into. It has a Romanesque square tower with four corner turrets in Norman style. It houses a museum of period pieces of furniture, clothing, ways of life including a pottery display, old military uniforms, and old souvenirs from the area from 200 years ago when it was a big tourist attraction. Famous celebrities came to Thun such as Goethe in 1779 and Brahms in 1886–8.
We saw a Catholic girls’ school class touring the castle with the priest and women teachers. They looked happy and excited to see the castle. They were all wearing very used worn out skirts and dresses, and I wondered if they were orphans being cared for by the church. It made me remember that the Catholic Church has helped and aided society, even though it has also destroyed parts of society, too, such as in the Spanish Inquisition.
We considered visiting one of the nearby palaces after the castle, but M just wanted to go home. She’d seen what she had set out to see, and her feet still hurt from yesterday's hike, and she was done. After we had practically dragged her through the hot hike yesterday, we accommodated her today. We walked through the quiet and charming ancient town of Thun with its narrow cobblestone streets, and walked through the covered wooden bridge over the Aare River back to the train station and home.
Tonight, Bruce told M a funny bedtime story about a reluctant girl walking through a hot, boring valley, urged on by her enthusiastic parents, who always seemed to think that the most trivial things were interesting. M laughed heartily at that one.
Tuesday, July 22
We took the long train ride all the way to Lugano, in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino, to get a feel for Italian Switzerland. M played her Game Boy for the four hours down. We took a funicular down to the lakeside city and walked the narrow cobblestone streets full of produce vendors down to the open plaza. We sat at one of the many outdoor cafés in the plaza and got lunch "al fresco" at a pizzeria. The pizza was toasty-tasty with luscious cheese. We felt a little awkward surrounded by the Italian language, which we don’t know, but it was a different experience. After eating lunch, we got gelati cones. The ice cream was rich, smooth, and very flavorful. We walked on down to the lake which is surrounded by mountains and very scenic. We walked through a large park at the lake full of blooming flower gardens. People were dressed up in resort-chic with white hip-hugger pants, spaghetti strap tops, high heels or long dresses with a long side slit. Many Italian-looking men were wearing expensive looking Italian clothes and shoes. We saw one couple on a cobblestone street who were kissing, then walking as if they were in a perfume commercial. They were very tall. He looked very rich, dark, wearing expensive clothes, and she—also tall—was very blonde wearing very expensive clothes. M went "Eew, they’re kissing!" We caught the funicular back up to the train station and traveled back home. M played her Game Boy for the four hours back. I will always remember hearing the music of her Game Boy as the background to the spectacular Swiss scenery.Wednesday, July 23
Thunderstorms and rain started last night and continued most of the morning. We stayed home and rested, read, did laundry by hand in the bathtub, did some grocery and bakery shopping across the street. M watched cartoons in German and played her Game Boy. About 3:00 pm Bruce and M headed out to take the steep downhill hike to Meiringen. (The rain stopped a few hours ago and they wanted to get outside. I worried that the path would be too slippery, but they thought I am the only one who has difficulty with slipping.) They’ll pick up our developed photographs, get ice cream, and play chess on the plaza there. I felt very tired today, and Bruce thought I would have trouble hiking such a steep path based on my experience at Grimsel Pass. So I stayed home, read, and then caught up on this journal.M and Bruce returned this evening from their hike and Meiringen outing. Bruce had slipped on a wet rock, got a sudden leg cramp, and hurt his toe on his other foot where he caught himself. It’s not bad, though, and he was able to continue hiking. They did pick up the developed pictures (50 CHF for 2 rolls of 24 pictures each = US $37.50 = $18.75 per roll. They came out beautifully: clear and full of good color.) M and Bruce had played chess on the plaza with the large pieces. M made a royal fork, got Bruce’s queen and won the game. Then M played on the playground adjacent to the plaza. She slipped off a boulder she was climbing and banged her knee. It was sore until she walked home from the bus stop with Bruce after they had taken the train and bus back to Hohfluh.
I cooked supper and Bruce cleaned up. We all went to bed early.
Thursday, July 24
We had expected a sunny day, but instead got overcast, foggy weather with today’s forecast of thunderstorms. We decided to stay inside today. M’s back of her hips is sore—maybe from too steep a wet downhill hike yesterday. Bruce’s leg and toe are a little sore, although he is fine for a hike if we were doing one.We took the train a couple of stops north to Kaiserstuhl and ate lunch/dinner at the very nice restaurant there with a view of the Lungern Lake. The lake is always a brilliant blue-green color, but we could see what looked like a spring welling up spreading brown around it. Maybe the pouring rain caused it.
Bruce got very fresh trout from this lake and it came with a variety of salads-corn salad, beet salad (not sweet, but tasty), lettuce salad... He liked it very much. I got a sautéed chicken breast with ham slivers on pasta shells, tomato sauce, and sautéed kohlrabi squares—tasting like cooked celery without the strings—and I liked it. M got the pork cutlet (Schweinschnitzel) and fries from the Kids Menu, and it came out on a teddy bear plate. She ate well. We got ice cream for dessert. M got a "Bibi"—a plastic toy filled with chocolate-chip ice cream and a toy top. Bruce and I got a sundae of vanilla ice cream with hot cooked berries and whipped cream and almond slices. Delicious! Bruce and I got coffee, also, and enjoyed it, but now I’m so wide awake I’m afraid I won’t be able to get enough sleep tonight to be fit for our hike tomorrow. We are expecting clear sunny weather for a nice hike at the Jochpass.
Friday, July 25
We took a beautiful trip today! The weather is sunny/partly cloudy. We caught the 8:01 am bus from Hohfluh to Brünig and the train from there to Hergiswil (south of Luzern). Then we caught a different train to Engelberg. We walked about 10 minutes to the cable car and took it up to Trübsee Lake. We walked about 15 minutes around this ordinary-looking alpine lake on a concrete sidewalk and got to the 4-seater chairlift and took it up to the Jochpass. There we had a gorgeous view of Mt. Titlis and its glacier and of the Wetterhorn group of high mountains. We walked over to a small chairlift (2-seater) and took it down to the Engstlensee. Here was a beautiful blue alpine lake surrounded on three sides with hills, pastures, cows grazing with their bells donging, and small waterfalls. We sat on a log bench and picnicked beside a brook above the lake. We watched the chairlift near us and saw a frightened, crying large dog on a chairlift seat with its master. Then we began our hike, which was mostly uphill. We hiked about six kilometers altogether (about 3½ miles) ending at Melchsee. First we hiked from Engstlensee lake to Engstlenalp where we took a break, got a bottle of water and M climbed on an upside down tree planted that way as a playground gym to climb all over. From there, we took an uphill path to Tannensee (lake) watching loads of cows grazing and meandering on our pathway. We hiked through the grassy green pasture up to a ridge where we got a good view again of mountains.At Tannenalp we stopped for a break at a self-serve café and ate apple strudel pie outside and coffee (M got an ice cream bar and a Fanta). Although our Untours guidebook recommended getting vanilla sauce with the apple strudel there, they said they don’t have vanilla sauce. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant stop out in the countryside.
From the restaurant at Tannenalp, we hiked along the Wanderweg of Tannensee (lake) which had a small dam. The water here was more brownish. There were watery areas and wetlands around with cotton grass growing (its flower looks like cotton). We had to avoid a lot of cow patties as we walked down to Melchsee (lake). We walked halfway around this lake and noticed the town emptying out. We realized the cable cars might stop (it was about 5:15 pm), so we hurried to Frutt and caught a cable car down to Stockalp. The bus schedule we saw at the cable car station showed we’d missed the last bus of 5:29 pm (It was 5:35 pm by the time we got down). Bruce went to a Guesthouse/hotel and had them call us a taxi. Then an American woman (previously on Untours other years) nearby who had overheard us showed me another bus schedule showing another bus in 40 minutes! Bruce tried to cancel the taxi, but was told he’s already on the way, so we’re committed to it. About 20 min! utes later the taxi showed up having come all the way from Alpnachstadt, so we took the taxi to Sarnen to catch the last train. The taxi cost 51 Swiss Francs plus a 9-Franc tip, but our driver was very friendly, conversing in German to Bruce and pointing out things along the way. We passed the town of St. Nicholas where the "Saint" of that name was born (yes, there really was a Santa Claus!). The driver pointed to the hillside in front of us in the distance of Alpnach where he is from and his family has lived for generations.
We got to the train station at Sarnen and were surprised to see there a young Korean man we had met earlier today on the train to Engelberg. He had taken our advice and done a similar hike to ours. He said the chairlift had stopped when he got to Frutt, so the worker there had driven him down to the train station! His name is Shin-Yoon Chul. He’s an engineering student in Korea and is travelling now, because once he starts his career when he graduates he won’t get more than one week of vacation time per year. He took a liking to M (age 10), and when he came back from the grocery store where he went while waiting for the train, he brought M a sipping box of chocolate milk. We got on the train and all sat together and chatted all the way to Brünig (our stop) – Shin was going all the way to Interlaken.
We got his name, but when Bruce was getting out something for him to write on, some papers fell out of the backpack pocket, probably our Swiss Rail Pass. Bruce thought he picked everything up off the floor, but when we got home and he emptied the backpack he realized the Rail Pass was missing! We all felt miserable about the Rail Pass being lost. Our sense of freedom slipped away with the Pass. Now, suddenly we’ll have to weigh every trips’ value with its cost.
Saturday, July 26
Bruce called Marianne Rosa with Untours, and she said she would file a missing Rail Pass report with the train station and see if they’ve recovered it. It is not replaceable. We relaxed at home awhile. I went to the grocery store and bakery here. We ate lunch at home (bratwurst), and then bought a bus ticket (we have to pay now that we have no Rail Pass), and we went to Wasserwendi Dorf in Hasliberg. We hiked from there about 25 minutes (with sit-down breaks on benches to admire the mountain view), uphill to the mini-golf up there that M loves so much. We enjoyed the game and gorgeous scenery of mountains in the distance and flower gardens where we were. We came home and Frau Rosa called. She had filed the report going into the train network, but no one has turned in our rail pass, so it may have been thrown away as garbage from the floor of the train last night. She said that she might be able to drive us to the Untours party in Sarnen on Monday night! She’ll call us back with the time if it’s possible. Otherwise, we’ll have to buy our train tickets round-trip to get there. (About 80 Swiss francs round trip for our family!)I cooked supper—ham cutlets and Spätzle and we shared a very small bottle of wine (costs less than soda here). M liked the apple strudel from the grocery store (she drank orange juice, not wine).
Sunday, July 27
This morning we received a telephone call from the Meiringen train station. They recovered our lost Rail Passes! We can pick them up today. Yay!!! We got our freedom back to travel!!!The weather is clear, so we went to the Planplatten Alpine Tower brunch via cable cars up. The brunch was nearly free with our round trip cable car ticket as part of a package they offer from the cable car station. We had a lovely ride up over the hills and pastures and over the bell-clanging grazing cows to reach the ridge of Planplatten. The restaurant there has a spectacular view of the mountains and Gental Valley on the other side of the ridge, as well as a view of the alpine hills that we had ridden over in the cable cars. We ate a buffet type breakfast of rolls/croissants and cheeses from the region, different kinds of ham, eggs, Rösti (hash browns), and bacon with hot chocolate, coffee, and juice, and fruit salad. We went downstairs and saw their eagle statue made from smoky quartz crystals – very impressive. However, of course, the real draw was the truly awesome mountains beside us. I really wished we could take the hike there again on the Horizon Way, but we were anxious to get to the Meiringen train station to get our rail pass back before they close for lunchtime.
We took the cable car down. M got a souvenir cowbell at the shop at Mägisalp, which she had wanted throughout this trip.
When we got to the big gondola cable car connecting Reuti (Hasliberg) to Meiringen, it waited 20 – 30 minutes until it started, so it was after 12:00 by the time we got down to Meiringen. No longer in a hurry, we let M enjoy playing in a fabulous and lovely playground at the Meiringen gondola station. It had a "zip-line" like a mini-chairlift and M rode it over and over. The playground was in a wooded area adjacent to a brook. Bruce and I went onto the bridge there and saw the brook rippling past stones surrounded by trees on either side of the brook. You could hear the babbling of the brook from the playground. Bruce noticed that just past there the brook went into a deep, straight channel.
We walked through the town of Meiringen, past the old church where the congregants were just getting out. We passed the closed shops, including a Metzgerei (meat deli), and walked to the train station on the hope that it didn’t close for lunch. Sure enough, it was open, and we got our Swiss Rail Pass back! The Swiss, once again, lived up to their reputation of honesty.
Feeling much relieved, we went to the Konditorei that has the big sculpture of a meringue out front and got pastry and ice creams with whipped cream and meringues. Bruce got a very good cake made with Kirsch liqueur and nuts. I tried another Coupe Denmark (vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream), with a meringue. I was not that impressed. M got chocolate meringues with ice cream – but she wasn’t very impressed either.
With the shops closed on Sunday, we took the train and went to Lungern’s Bahnhof (Station) Restaurant since we’d heard many recommendations of it. Our meal was truly one of the best on this trip. Mine was the best. I had veal in a mustard-herbed cream sauce and about four different vegetables in separate groups. We sat in a more formal dining area since the casual one was full. It was pouring rain with a blowing storm and lightening, so there was no other view this evening. I got caffeine-free coffee so I could enjoy their cream that comes in a chocolate cup to put into the coffee. M got a chocolate cup plain by itself. That chocolate was very good. Her French fries (pommes frites) were the best she’s had anywhere. The storm stopped by the time our train came and we rode back to Brünig (just one stop), and took the bus back to Hohfluh.
Monday, July 28
We went to the Untours party this evening in Sachseln at the Bahnhof Restaurant in a salmon-pink stucco German style guesthouse. We enjoyed visiting with the people we knew from the previous Untours party who had stayed on as we had. We also enjoyed sitting with Frau Marianne Rosa with the Untours staff. The accordions played and the yodeler sang beautifully. Johanna wanted to dance, but the elderly man she asked was afraid to dance, so Bruce volunteered and enjoyed himself on the dance floor with this very experienced traveler. She is healthy and in her 80’s and stays here 8 weeks every summer, hiking every day. Then the same thing happened with an elderly man from another table who is Swiss and the husband of an Untours person. When the elderly lady he first asked to dance wouldn’t accept, he asked around the table, and I accepted. We danced folksy style to the accordion folk music. He knows Johanna well. I don’t know why those two didn’t just dance with each other. Bruce and I had fun. M played outside in the playground beside the restaurant. There was a boy her age, and they played cards after playing awhile on the slide and swings.The yodeler played the Alpenhorn and then they had a contest for us travelers to play it. M did a good job making different notes, which was an improvement from her impressive performance at the last Untours party. When she didn’t win first place, she was upset and cried. (She got second place along with a couple of other children).
Our meal was all right, but the rösti was too salty to eat. M would only eat some bread.
We took the train home with the Untours staff waving at us from the station. That made us feel appreciated, and that we belonged here. As we walked to the chalet, we saw Frau Künzler, our landlady. She asked how we enjoyed the party and gave us going-away presents all wrapped up beautifully. She had just returned from her family’s ten-day vacation in France.
We let her know that we had to leave Tuesday for our Zürich hotel we’d already paid for.
Tuesday, July 29
It’s such a pretty and clear day we decided to spend the day in the Alps and only go to Zürich to spend the night and eat supper. We brought our luggage to the Meiringen train station and checked it all the way through to JFK New York (Fly-Gepäck). Then we went to Wasserwendi and took the cable car up to Käserstatt. We looked for the nature trail and family trail that show up on one of our maps, but it appears they’re still under construction. I went ahead and saw bridges of new wood, and then Bruce spotted a machine and three men building a new trail and patting in the dirt. I wanted to do a little hiking on a Hohenweg that goes toward Mägisalp, only up higher than the Murmeliweg which we had previously taken. M refused to hike – she’s tired of hiking. She just wanted to play on the playground there in Käserstatt, so Bruce stayed with her while I explored the Hohenweg for about ten minutes. I would have loved to hike a whole lot further. It was beautiful through pastures with cows and pigs, and the magnificent view of snow-capped mountains in the distance.I came back to the playground. M had enjoyed a really long tube-slide many times and was currently playing on a turntable where you sit on a bench and push around a wheel to make yourself go faster. Another girl joined her and giggled in delight.
Eventually, we rode the cable car back down to Wasserwendi and took the bus back to Hohfluh. M was anxious not to miss her favorite cartoon on TV for the last time (Oggy and the Kakerlaken [cockroaches]). Bruce and I packed up for Tuesday night, Wednesday morning and for the plane trip. We tidied up, stripped sheets and folded towels. Bruce cooked lunch—the packaged Berner-Rösti and other leftovers. Then we took our bags, cried goodbye to our beautiful chalet that we all loved, and hated to leave. We gave the keys to Frau Künzler, said goodbye, and ran to catch our bus to the train.
We took the train first to Luzern, looking lovingly at the gorgeous blue-green lakes and glowing green pastures in the mountains that we passed.
In Luzern, M got her fourth and last silver charm from Bucherer (for four weeks of good behavior – a cable-car charm).
Then we got the train to Zürich, then the train to Kloten, where we found our Hotel Allegra conveniently by the station. Our room was beautiful and modern. An electric button raises the blinds! It was decorated with rectangles of primary colors, Mondrian style. We went to a pizzeria a few blocks away for dinner. It was very good. Bruce and I got toasty calzones and M got a pizza. Loads of whipped-cream-topped ice cream desserts went by on waiters' trays. After we finished our meal, we got ice cream for dessert. I got one with whipped cream to enjoy for the last time.
Wednesday, June 30
We had breakfast downstairs in the hotel—our last Swiss breakfast of ham and cheese, croissants, hot chocolate and cappuccino. Then we took the van to Zürich Airport for our flight home which went as planned and smoothly. We got home to our house about 10 pm Houston time (5am Swiss time), visited with our two cats who anxiously awaited us at the front door, and then we went to bed at 10:30 pm.This was the most wonderful family vacation we’ve had in our life. We’ll always treasure these memories.