Gorges de l'Areuse - Neuchâtel

Amy has arrived! In an attempt to stave off her jetlag, we promptly jumped on a train to the Swiss Canton of Neuchâtel to hike a mountain (or rather a gorge).

Upon arrival at the train station, we proceeded to ask the "train" information desk where we could hike. After a bit of sardonic laughter, the nice "train attendant" walked us to a ticket kiosk and sent us on our way to board another train that was set to depart in roughly 4 minutes. As we scurried off to the platform, it started to sprinkle and clouds rolled in at a daunting speed. We boarded the train, looked at each other quizzically and wondered "umm, are we being dumb? Are we going to climb a mountain in a thunder storm?"

Mind you there was the Canton's annual wine festival taking place that day. Err, we could have just sipped some wine and eaten some fondue. On the same page about this alternative, attemped to exit stage left and make a break for it - "screw this hike, let's consume this country's finest vino." As we lunged for the door, it slammed shut in Amy's face. On with the treacherous hike we go.

Good thing we did - look at this!

And this!


















The hike was gorgeous. We weaved in and out of the gorge itself and made our way through forests and small villages. It was a tad bit chilly, but all seemed right in the world now that Amy was getting some of the good Swiss air in her lungs and drinking in the yummy mountain water (really, you can drink the water from streams).

It was a succesful day - Amy seemed particularly pleased.

PS. Thanks for the hiking poles, Maurice!

Grindelwald - A little slice of heaven...

Alpine trek No. 3 - I woke up at the wee hours this morning to board a 3 hour train (well 3 trains, spanning 3 hours) to hike some more Alps. My Swiss friend Marianne and I met up in the Eiger village of Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland, to board a gondola up to First--ski resort by winter, hiking wonderland by summer. We are squeezing in some serious hiking before it becomes blustery here.

The views were immediately breathtaking. Jutting snow-capped mountains, glaciers galore, cow bells a ringing (I know, what's new, its Switzerland), etc. I was channeling Buzz Gher and getting the shakes when I realized that I did not have a wide angle lens. WHAT WAS I THINKING? I talked myself off the proverbial (well, and literal) ledge and we proceeded forward. Marianne tells me we were at around 7000 feet or more. I am not exactly what altitude we were at, but we can go with that figure. My breath was not coming as easily - that means we were high. I was snapping away old school-style and Marianne went macro - she photoed every flower on that mountain, a couple mushrooms too. She also provided a lovely commentary about our surroundings, that can be viewed here:

The weather was perfect! There was as brisk breeze, but the sun was certainly a shinin'. Hikers peppered themselves all over the mountainside for picnics and all was right in the world. Marianne and I, however, were dead set on finding THE perfect lunch spot. I almost gave in a few times to the hunger pangs, but she insisted that we hold out to ensure that we were strategically placed on a cliff, where no other humans daned too linger - our own little slice of Alpine heaven. I give it to her - we had one AMAZING view. I had to promptly run to the edge and do a gymnastics move in honor of it.
Marianne did a few yoga poses too. Perhaps we get along because we are equally crazy and quirky. Whatevs, its working out :-).

After our fitness session and a fabu lunch, we started heading down the mountain. It was a truly truly truly glorious hike. Cannot wait to drag Ames up this mountain. I am going to make her do a headstand somewhere. She'll love it!


PS-thought dad would like this shot. He hearts birds, in fact, he may be a bird.

Mont Pèlerin

My Swiss alpine adventures continued as my friend Marianne and I mounted the summit of Mont Pèlerin, just outside of Vevey. The trip began with a ride on a cog wheel train - which gave us a bit of a head start.
From there we traveled through a few small villages, Marianne sampled some berries, we trotted through a small forest and traversed the mountainside, chatting along the way.











One thing I love about hiking in Switzerland are the cows. SERIOUSLY cute with their bells and all. This one cow we came across was moooooing something fierce. We trotted by him real quick - not sure if he was looking for a mate. Hmmm, his markings were quite dapper.








All in all, the day was AMAZING - Swiss hiking is AMAZING! The sky was crystal blue, the clouds were whispy, the air was crisp and the sun was shining. What more could a girl ask for?

Bonjour!

Bonjour from Geneva!

I guess its time to dust off my formerly languishing blog to document my most recent adventure - a brief jaunt to Geneva, Switzerland to work with the World Health Organization. One Ms. Amy Krista will be joining me on this trip, so now we can both be coined "slightly crazy!"

I flew in over the Swiss Alps on August 31 - it was a breathtaking sight!

Since that time, I finished up my last few days with CRR (pause - moment of silence) and moved in temporarily with an adorable Portuguese couple and their two month old - FUN!

I went on my first Swiss Alpine adventure this morning. I ascended the summit of Mont Saleve, all 1380 meters of it. Yup - bottom to top of that bad boy. I was feeling pretty confident at the beginning, but then I soon realized that I would be walking straight up on loose gravel, without sign posts, the entire hike. Good times! I was also put to shame by a silver-haired granny who dusted me mid-mountain. There was not even a moment for a proper "Bonjour" greeting.

I had a few epiphanes during this mountaineering exercise: 1) a compass would be nice; 2) a camel back filled with ice cold water would be nice; and 3) some French language skills would be nice. Needless to say, I will move forward with begging Amy to bring said items in her overstuffed suitcase and I will hit up some language classes.

Huffing and puffing, I lost what little breath I had left when I saw the insane view! WOWEEEE!!! No wonder everyone leisurely took the Gondola up this steep crevace to picnic on the side of the sunny mountain. I proceeded to whip out my leatherman and reach back to my 21-year-old cheapy self to manufacture a slightly soggy bread-cheese-tomato sandy for lunch. I stared at the sky and watched hangliders float above me. The Swiss got it going on.


As a bribe to get myself to not whimp out and take the gondola back down the mountain, I headed toward the snack shack for some Toblerone - (PS YUMMY). Little did I know, I had crossed over into France and I needed a different currency. They happily obliged by giving me a crappy exchange rate for my Swiss Francs and I paid 6$ for the candy bar. Ummmm...

A few hours later, I found myself back at the bus stop, complete with jelly legs and thankful to the Almighty that I survived the trek down. It was not pretty folks.

Cest la vie! Until next time...

PS - I think I will take the Todds up this route.