Interlaken, Switzerland

FRIDAY: So... went to Switzerland again. This time it was Interlaken, for some serious hiking in the Alps. This was by far the best weekend I've had here so far. The weather was perfect, the hiking was unbelievable (18 hours over 2 days), and we stayed at my favourite Hostel in Europe, Mountain Hostel. We left Wuerzburg around 3pm on Friday afternoon, because we wanted to beat the Autobahn traffic. We had some awesome driving through high mountain passes, including a 5km long tunnel through a mountain, until we got into Interlaken around dusk, at about 11pm. We were pretty tired, so we checked into our first hostel in the Lauterbrunnen valley and basically went straight to sleep.

SATURDAY: Next day we were up bright and early. We drove 5 minutes up the valley to Stechelberg, where we parked our car (an Opel Astra this time - couldn't break 170 on the Autobahn. A little dissapointing after the Audi, to say the least). Next was a cable car up to our hostel high on the cliff. This is Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald, the coolest hostel I've ever been to. It's in a tiny Swiss villiage surrounded by Alps on all sides. I was there 2 years ago when I was backpacking, and it's just as good as I remember.

So, we ditched our big bags in the Hostel and took off for the Schiltorn, a 2950m peak that involved 1.6 vertical kilometres of climbing. All in all it took us 10 hours including breaks to sit in the sun. I think that that is the highest I have ever hiked, and it was definitely worth it! The views were jaw-dropping. We all made it up to the top, where the Swiss had constructed a rotating restaurant. This was where they filmed James Bond - On Her Majestey's Secret Service. Next was the hike down over some cool rocky ridges, then down into green pastures and back to the hostel.

SUNDAY: Next day was only an 8 hour hike. We started at Mountain Hostel again, and headed up the opposite side of the valley. We were headed for the Oberhornsee. Again, awesome scenery and perfect weather. We didn't make it all the way to the lake, because we had to drive back to Wuerzburg that night, and had limited time, but we got to a smaller lake just below it. It was really hot out in the sun, so we went for 2 swims in the water, which was COLD. I had to get out right away. But then the sun was hot so it was refreshing. The pictures of the hike really speak for themselves. When we got back to the Hostel at 6pm, we found out that it was Swiss National Day. So we hung around for some delicious Swiss food and live music, and then reluctantly took the cable car back down to our car. Then it was just the drive back home to Wuerzburg, although we did stop in Zurich for 30 minutes to watch the fireworks for Swiss National Day. Being a Swiss-Canadian who loves hiking, this was probably the best weekend I could ever hope for!