I was glad to meet an old friend again today. And I was even happier to realize that I still enjoy hanging out and being around her. Tonight, she wasn’t actually the only one I got to hang out with. In fact, there was a whole bunch of old acquaintances who’d invited us to join their picnic at a nearby like. And well, where friends, food and water are involved – how could we resist?
After realizing how sore we were from hiking, our day took on a rather traditionally German life. That is to say, a soon to become family member of mine rather insisted on us trying the famous Swabian “Maultaschen” dish (which literally means “muzzle pockets,” but more commonly referred to as Swabian pockets). If you talk to any Swabian (which that particular soon to become member of the family isn’t), they will insist that Swabian pockets are one of the best dishes the Swabian cuisine has to offer. I’m not sure whether all non-Swabians would agree, but in any case, we did have Maultaschen, and afterwards we moved on to Karlsruhe, where the Karlsruhe Palace was still awaiting our visit, together with some Dutch and American friends. Welcome to the world! Or at least: welcome to Karlsruhe!
Karlsruhe Palace
In front of the Blüemlisalp Glacier
Our hike continued today, and it continued with several encounters of the special kind: cows. Ever since our last trip to Switzerland, my friend and Canadian squirrel imitator had set his mind on wanting to milk a Swiss cow, of which you usually can find plenty in the Alps. (Prior to our tour he even researched on youtube how to do that!) And today, the opportunity finally presented itself. Twice, in fact.
The first time, however, my friend got sidetracked and went down exploring a riverbed, leaving me to watch our backpacks. So I used the opportunity to take some pictures.
Note what's sneaking up behind a clueless, very unsuspecting photographer ...
But when I turned around to get a snack from my backpack, I suddenly found myself face to face with big ol’ Miss cow-face.
‘No big deal,’ I thought, ‘as long as she keeps her snotty nose out of my stuff …’ But that wasn’t the intention of Miss snotty cow-face, because as soon as I started chewing on my cracker, she set her mind on chewing just the same – leaving me to surrender to her all the other crackers I still had in my hand.
Long story short, in the end, I – let me add: the one who’d never had any intentions of milking any cow – found myself literally surrounded by four very (wet-nosed) nosy cows, with rather large horns of the dangerous-looking sort of kind, and no squirrel imitator/snow monster at my side to rescue me.
Pop quiz: Who's enjoying whose attention here?
Second Attempt
Only a short time later, we came across this situation:
Again, my friend examined his targeted cow to see whether he could strike and get some milk from her. He’d prepared everything, and had already started petting her, when all of a sudden, another cow came to the aid of Mrs. Boss-Cow, pushing him aside in a rather non-lady-like manner. That’s when he decided to give up and the moral of the story: no all-natural Swiss alpine cow milk for poor Canadian squirrel imitators!
And here’s what happened the second day of our hike …
The Tour | Day 2: Gspaltenhornhütte to Kandersteg
After a rather rough night (sleeping dorm-style with lots of strangers in one room), we have a rather rustic breakfast, served by the hosts of our lodge.
Breakfast after a sleepless night
We still receive a couple of tips from some other Swiss mountaineers, and soon afterward, we set out on another 9 hour hike.
Crossing the gorge
We cross a rather deep gorge, and soon we reach lower terrain and alpine pastures again.
It’s another day full of highlights. Every turn offers another grand view of the Alps, another breathtaking panorama. Soon, however, our trail turns arduous. For more than two hours the trail leads straight up a steep mountain slope.
We’re tired and out of breath, and I’m glad that the trail is secured with ropes; and where it’s steepest, some stairs are anchored to the mountainside.
Ascent to the mountain lodge "Blüemlisalphütte"
At the top of the mountain, however, we are rewarded with another amazing panorama.
We’ve reached the highest point of our two-day hike, and here, at the foot of the final ascent to the mountain lodge Blüemlisalphütte, we take a good long break from our hike.
Mountain lodge, Blüemlisalphütte
But it’s cold and windy up here, so eventually we move on. The trail goes downhill from now on.
We pass the Blüemlisalp Glacier, and soon we are greeted by alpine pastures, and livestock grazing everywhere. The signpost already indicates that it only takes 1 h and 45 min. from here to Kandersteg, when a couple minutes later, the scene opens to another breathtaking view:
Quietly, and in deep blue, Lake Öschinen (Öschinensee) presents itself before our eyes. We are fascinated by how blue the water is, even right close to the shore. We’re still pretty high above the lake, so for the next half hour, we need to climb down the steep rocky side of the mountain.
Once we reach the lake, the trail joins another road, and that’s when we realize – we’re back in civilization. The road takes us alongside the lake to its far end, and from here Kandersteg is just around the corner.
First glimpse of Kandersteg
Half an hour later, we reach the town’s boundaries, and within minutes we’re at the train station, where the train takes us first to Brienz, and then back to Interlaken.
Now, we are two very tired, but very happy mountaineers. Grüezi mitenand!
We hiked today. High into the mountain world of the Swiss alps. A long hike, with lots to discover. Like alpine flowers, ibexes, little pools of icy water, and snow, of course. Lots of snow.
Now, if you ask me what all of this has to do with alpine puddle drinks – I can tell you: Nothing, really!
Just my dear hiking buddy, the oversized Canadian squirrel (see this post here), tried to convince me that tasting alpine puddle drinks would work miracles in quenching my thirst. Ya, right!
Anyways, here’s a look at our tour:
Two day tour: Mürren - Kandersteg; staying overnight in the mountain cabin Gspaltenhornhütte
The Tour | Day 1:
We start out in Interlaken and take the train to Lauterbrunnen.
From Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp we take the cable car, and then another train up to Mürren. (By the way, trains and cable car are connected with each other, so that we don’t lose any time switching transportation or figuring out where to go.)
At the train station, Mürren
Within a few minutes’ walk from the train station, we are surrounded by alpine pastures.
We follow the trail for hours until we reach the slopes of the Sefinenfurgge.
Here the trail turns very steep, but once we reach the top, we are rewarded with the breath-taking panorama of the Berner Oberland.
Looking back: Eiger, Mönch & Jungfrau
Looking forward
We finally leave the amazing view of Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau behind, and soon the trail takes us downhill, across scree slopes and snowfields.
And then we reach lower terrain where meadows take over again.
Every turn a new surprise
We round another corner as the trail leads us up the slopes of another mountainside, and then finally, high up on a mountain slope, nestled between the rocks, our cabin, Gspaltenhornhütte, comes into sight.
One last ascent, and we finally reach today’s destination: the alpine cabin Gspaltenhornhütte.
Gspaltenhornhütte
Time to rest and relax.
PS. Today I realized that oversized Canadian squirrels can be very versatile. Within seconds they can adapt to their surroundings and turn into dangerous snow monsters. Need proof?
First snow
First snow ball
Ouch!!!
I made a discovery today. A new species of some sort. A strange looking creature, reminding me an awful lot of an over-sized squirrel of the Canadian kind, which was trying to escape from our balcony this afternoon. I didn’t even know that oversized Canadian squirrels like to eat unripe German plums, but eh – you never stop learning, right?
Today was a somewhat special day for me. I got to make lots of new friends. And those new friends helped me make even more friends.
What happened?
First, there was Hardy and a couple of guys who are friends with my sister. And soon after we had been introduced to each other, and after Hardy realized that we were quite eloquent English speakers (well, for my Canadian friend who’s been traveling with me that shouldn’t surprise very much), he had an idea. A spontaneous, wonderful, brilliant idea: “Would you like to meet Grace?”
Grace is from New Zealand, traveling the world, and after he met her last week, he had learned that while staying with friends in Germany, she had broken her arm the other day. Now Hardy wanted to visit her, to cheer her up a little, and since our English is quite proficient, he asked us if we would join. So, the five of us scrambled into a car to meet Grace, who didn’t really know anyone of us, but who in the end was very happy when four and a half strangers appeared at her door just to entertain her for the evening. And that’s what we did – entertain her, and feeling quite entertained ourselves.
It’s great meeting Grace!
School is over, and we have moved on. To Stuttgart, where we spent a fun day together with family and friends.
First stop today was the TV Tower in Stuttgart – a very windy affair.
Next, we visited the sepuchral chapel on Württemberg mountain.
And finally, we ended our day in downtown Stuttgart.
Castle Stuttgart in the background
