The Hills are Alive

Finally, after months of craziness and lots of planning we are starting our journey.  After an easy uneventful flight from Roanoke to Zurich and a train ride we arrived in the village of Lauterbrunnen in the Swiss Alps on Saturday, June 7.  As I sit in our room at the Hotel Staubbach (the same place Lauren and I stayed five years ago) I hear the soothing sounds of the rushing river and the bells of the church ringing on the quarter hour.  Fortunately the church bells quit ringing around 10PM.  Lauterbrunnen sits in a valley below the famous Eiger.  Cable cars and tiny trains whisk you to trails that allow you to walk the ridge lines and meadows.  Today we took a hike that started shortly after 9:00AM and ended a little after 5PM.  It was a steady day of hiking, taking a short break for coffee/tea after 90 minutes of walking, listening to the alpenhorns for 10 minutes or so and then a lunch of pizza and beer at 3PM at the hostel in Grindelwald.  Cable car back down into the valley and a 3 mile walk back along the river to our hotel.  We figure we did over 10 miles, including a steep downhill trail that took us behind a waterfall.  I will say that pizza and beer tasted amazing after all that walking!

The beauty of this area is amazing.  I love the big mountains and the beautiful wildflowers blooming in the high meadows. The tinkling of bells from the cows grazing in the high mountain meadows is an extra special treat.  At one point we came up the trail to this huge meadow and I felt like I need to start singing Climb Every Mountain from the Sound of Music.  (I know, wrong country)

View from our hotel window

You could purchase cheese from this house, but they were closed for the evening

We love all the signs to encourage people to clean up after their dogs

Cows grazing

Not sure what kind of flower this is, but it caught my eye

Rick listening to the alpenhorns

 We stumbled across some locals playing

 The North Face Trail

This is where I thought we should break out in song

Paraglider in front of the face of Eiger

Me hiking behind
Sprutz waterfall

I can't remember the name of these falls, but over 400 meters high

We found many place of fill our water bottles

And now the day is over and enjoying a beer on the deck at our hotel