Hiking in the Swiss Mountains

About three weeks ago I got a last minute place on a 'Link Au Pair' weekend trip to a Switzerland national park called Interlaken, with Chelsea and Alison too!  Alison and I slept over at Chelsea's on the Friday night so we could have the early morning 30 minute drive together, to join the 50 or so other Au Pairs at our meeting point in Nyon.  Everyone got in their places on the coach ready for a 2 hour drive of reading, sleeping and non-stop excited talking as the sun burned bright in the sky.  The plan for the next 2 days was rather relaxed.  Saturday was for us to do with what we wished.  You could do any number of adventures sports, explore the town, get some extra hiking in or anything else that you could think of.  On Sunday Becky and Paul (who are the wonderful organisers of all our 'Link' trips) had planned a hike for us in the mountains of Oberland, going through a village called Gimmelwald on the mountainside.  After our hike on Sunday we would all gather up again on the coach to be driven back to Nyon, where we could find our own ways home again.

Everyone gathered in the hostel..........

It has to be said that this is the poshest hostel I have seen (complete with Swiss St.Bernard dog that we named Master B...Bates....the name just kept evolving).......

Chelsea, Alison and myself decided to explore the town of Interlaken, and find the lake while we take in the sun as.  We did want to try and find some cannoning or kayaking to do, but we never found somewhere to sign up for it the end.  That didn't matter though as we had a really nice afternoon walking and chatting in the sun.  I even got burnt, through my top!  Silly English Skin!  We ended the day with pizza in the gardens of the hostel and winding down in our room listen to music and just being a bit weird!

Chelsea, Alison wounder into the heart of the town......

The field of landing paraglider's.........

The girls have to have their coffee stop.........

Someplace a little pretty...............

 Chelsea getting a breeze from the river............

Walk by the river to find the lake............

The lake.......................

Shout out to the amazing Maester Chester Miester Ferrari backpack......

 

Dinner on the deck.........

Sunday morning we all got ready for our hike in the mountains.  About 20 people went on a extreme caving trip for the day, while the rest of us gathered in the coach which would take us further into the base of the mountain area.  We did cheat the hike a bit by first taking a cable car up the mountain to give ourselves a head start on the big up hill part, hahaha!  We walked up and down paths that wound around the edge of the mountain we were on.  We walked through a couple of villages, that by law have been kept the exactly the same for the last 200 years.  Our route took us in a U shape around from one mountain face to another as we started to descend into the valley below us, which we walked through back into the town at the end of valley that had our couch waiting for us at the end of the day.  This is possibly one of the best days that I have spent in Switzerland.  It was great to be in the beautiful outdoors, walking amongst these huge gorgeous mountains topped in snow, with waterfalls running down their sides.

Welcome to the beauty of of our hike.......

 

Little wooden houses on the mountainside...............

The best view from a hostel?  I think so.....

Our picnic lunch stop........

A couple of the many cows we passed..........

Mooooooooooooooooo...........

Flowers, wooden houses and waterfalls.........

 Fast flowing rivers...................

The valley below.......................

I can't get enough of the views here........

A paddock of cows....................

I now have a book full of Swiss wild flowers.........

 The mountain map...........

The valley..............................

I wanted to take these wildflower meadows home.......

Waterfalls................................

Group photo at the end of the day with Paul and Becky up front......

The silent journey home of the exhausted........

My favorite part of the hike was walking through this huge valley full of the most gorgeous Swiss wild flower meadows, with little huts dotted here and there in the middle of them.  The sounds of the valley were amazing to hear!  A breeze coming off the mountains whistled past you as waterfalls splashed against the rocky surface of the mountains that surrounded the valley, while bells tied around herds of cows necks rang throughout.  If there is one place to witness in Switzerland, this has to be it!

Lebewohl