Blog #10: Closer to Heaven… the Swiss Alps

Blog #10: Gimmelwald, Switzerland. (6/11/2005 to 6/13/2005)

I was headed to the little town of Gimmelwald (population about 150) and I knew I was in for a treat. Other than being high in the Swiss Alps, it comes highly recommended by my onetime travel partner Dana, as well as her hero and travel guide, Rick Steves. Two trains, a bus and a quick ascent on a lift deposited me on the doorstep of… something close to heaven. I actually gave into my tourist urge and bought a T-shirt that says, “If heaven isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, send me back to Gimmelwald.”

I arrived in the afternoon, ditched my backpack and started stomping around the Alps. A quick hike up to the larger town of Mürren provided me with a hiking map. Now I was set. They pointed me in the right direction and I was off. I took the North Face Trail, a loop around one mountain that provides some great views of some of the highest mountains in the Alps: Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. If you have seen the popular winter-wear brand North Face, this is where they got the name. It is worth a line of clothing and then some. There are more pictures of flowers and cows and mountains than I care to wade through, but I pared it down to the essentials. Interestingly, the mountains are named The Ogre, The Monk and the Young Woman. I think the monk is supposed to be keeping the ogre away, so there is probably some interesting Swiss mythology behind that.

When I stumbled back down the hill a few hours later, slightly more sun burnt than when I went up, I checked in to my hostel. The Mountain Hostel is where Dana spent nearly two weeks soaking in the glow of the Swiss Alps… and the hot tub. I was unable to indulge in the hot tub because in the evenings it was almost always overrun by drunken Canadians. Those drunk Canadians, however, have provided an ample supply of Canadian T-shirts to Petra, Mountain Hostel’s owner, manager and resident smart ass. I cannot figure her out, though, because I heard stories from Dana and people I met there about her making fun of everyone, but she simply did not waste the effort on me. I have two theories: she did not like me and did not want deem me worth the effort, or she felt sorry for me for having spent two weeks with Dana. I am still recovering my self esteem.

At the hostel I met a crowd of Americans traveling in Europe. The group that I ended up spending a lot of time with was the UVA crew. There was a group of seven, six of whom had just graduated from University of Virginia and decided to treat themselves to three weeks backpacking in Europe. One of their group left town and went his own way, and two of them (Benton and Martha) went paragliding, but I spent the second day with the rest of the group.

Jack, Will, Elizabeth, Megan and I went up to the top of this lifts to Schilthorn. This is where they filmed one of the 007 movies, back in 1968 or 1969. What was a home in the movie is now a revolving restaurant with a 360° view. If you happen to make it up there, splurge on the 22 CHF (about $18) James Bond breakfast. They do not tell you this, but eat as much as you want because it is all-you-can-eat. It should be for as much as it costs to get up there. The trip up yielded a great view and I have posted a few of the pictures, including one of the UVA crew.

After the trip to the top of the mountain by lift, we decided we needed some exercise. There was a medium-difficulty hike up to a waterfall called Sprutz. This was a fun hike and well worth it. There is a rock shelf under the fall where the trail winds behind the fall. I also hiked downstream a little, slipping and sliding on rocks the whole way, to snap a few pictures. We were all a bit winded, but we came to the conclusion that it was the thin air and could not be blamed on our poor physical conditions.

We hiked further up this valley and made a picnic. Two of our group were nursing ankles and knees, so they stayed behind with three of us hiked up this small mountain. About halfway up we ran into this nice couple from Tennessee who warned us that we would have to go off-trail to make it to the top because the trail went away from the peak. He told us for this steep grassy area where would could go on all-fours almost to the top. He, however, did not scale the 15-foot cliff face to the actual top. This crazy-steep grass slope is where my hiking boots came in handy. Jack’s and Elizabeth’s street shoes did not like the rocks and slippery grass, but we all made it. We almost gave up a couple times, but we kept on and succeeded.

After having made it so far, Jack determined that he would make it to the top. I did not want to be air-lifted off the mountain, so we let him go it alone. A few minutes later we hear, “Hey guys, you are not going to like this.” I was afraid of that. I was certain there would be some old couple or a cow up there chewing his cud, wondering why we came the hard way. Well there was a path, thank you very much. Picking our way around the cliff face, we made it to the path and the top. There is a really great picture posted of the three of us at the top of this 2025 meter mountain. We signed a little book they keep in a box for people who make it. It took us probably over two hours, albeit lazy ones, to reach the summit from the town, but that did not match some Aussie who managed it in 54 minutes. Those crazy Aussies.

Needless to say, we were tired that night and lazed about the hostel that night. The next morning I headed down the mountain with the UVA crew. It was nice to have some travel buddies for the couple days I was in Gimmelwald. After lunch I was off to Zurich and they were headed to Florence and Rome.

Check out the pictures from Gimmelwald, Switzerland: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2124938273&code=16784023&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite