Alpine High

 

Our plan in Switzerland was to get as high as we could once the sun came out. After a couple of cloudy days, clear skies returned and it was time to go up. We began our trip to a small town called Zermatt in southern Switzerland with a special car train ride through a twenty five kilometre tunnel. You had to drive your car onto a train car and then they drive you through the mountain while you sit in your car. That was different. Once we arrived in Zermatt, we took the gondola up to the Schwarzsee just below the Matterhorn and spent the day just wandering around the base of this gorgeous mountain taking way too many pictures of it from every angle possible. Some of the hikes left us short of breath for reasons other than just the incredible views. The next day we went even higher. We got up really early so we could take the train from Interlaken Ost to the top of the Jungfrau. As we slowly made our way up the mountain and then through the mountain tunnel, we were blown away by how steeply we were climbing. In the tunnel you make two stops so you can get out of the train and look out at the glaciers on the Eiger and Moench mountains from windows carved in the mountainside. At the Berghaus on the saddle between the Jungfrau and Moench peaks we found a ton of things to do. Usually mountain tops are for looking out at the view. I guess they were worried about people getting bored with that so there are hikes on the glacier, ziplining, snowboarding, and tubing to keep them busy. As Canadians we had to chuckle watching people from non-snowy countries shell out big bucks so they could try these things at almost 12,000 feet. There is an Ice Palace inside the mountain with phenomenal ice carvings in it. After hiking to the Moenchjochhuette (put that on your next spelling test) and taking one last panoramic look from the Sphinx, we headed down to where it was easier to breath again. Halfway down we ran into a bottleneck at the Kleine Scheidegg train station because the Interlaken Marathon finish line was there. It's hard to believe but four thousand runners from all over world start at Interlaken and run a complete marathon uphill 1823 metres (5960 feet) to Kleine Scheidegg which is in the shadow of the Jungfrau! Makes the flat Manitoba Marathon sound like a walk in the park. What really got us was the amount of beer that was flowing at the end of it all. You've run a marathon up a mountain, you're at altitude, you're drinking beer, and, as usual here in Europe, half of the people are smoking! They breed them tough out here. We finally got down and spent our last day in Switzerland picnicing halfway up the Grindelwald mountainside looking at the most awe-inspiring wall of mountains in the world being serenaded by, you guessed it, cowbells. Our time in Switzerland was truly memorable and I think we'll treasure our walks through the cowpastures every bit as much as the mountain top experiences. It would have been great to stay longer but Switzerland is one very expensive country (we saw a bowl of tomato soup priced at eleven dollars but it must have been the extra basil they added). By the way, we have really enjoyed driving a car through these mountains. It's a nice break from trains and the personal freedom has been great. We forgot to mention that our trip was planned with the invaluable help of Max Johnson of Great Canadian Travel. From the flights to the car rentals to the tons of advice, we couldn't be doing this trip without him. Thanks a million Max!