I can hardly wait! We are so excited! One week from today Kate & I will be landing at the Zurich airport for our 10 day Swiss adventure! We'll spend a day visiting with my aunts, uncle & cousins and then we are off to
HIKE IN THE ALPS!
Unless you are really 'mountain climbing' (sleeping on cliffs, using ice picks etc.), hiking in
Switzerland is different than in the US. It's a small contry, and the mountains were long the
home of the people. High mountain meadows and the small places they lived during the summer,
were long used as summer stays for families as the herds foraged the meadows and
the farmers cut the hay to take back down to the villages dotting the mountains for winter food for the cows and goats. So . . . when you hike the alps in Switzerland, you hike through the moutains but there are villages and alp huts higher in the mountains. So, Kate and I have a trip planned where we will hike for five days across a region of the alps near Grindlewald. At the beginning of the day, we will drop our larger packs at the train station to be taken to the next village we will stay in, where the luggage will wait for us at the train station. Then, with our day packs and our lunch etc. we will hike through the mountains to our next destination. Two nights we'll spend where trains don't go at a alp hut specifically for hikers. There we will sleep in bunks for the night... they'll provide bedding and supper. Part of the motivation for this trip was to provide a framework for my 88 year old dad to return to Switzerland again. He and my mom had gone once or twice a year for quite some time since retirement but he's only been back twice since she died almost five years ago. He'll be there for 3 1/2 weeks (lucky guy) and he'll be waiting for us at our village stops and then go from that area with us to Guarda (my favorite village in the Engadine where I spent time as a child, and Katie..and Lindsey has been before as well). So we are all decked out with lightweight hiking clothes and hoping that we'll have lots of sunshine although we understand that rain is needed for a place to be so green & beautiful.
Unless you are really 'mountain climbing' (sleeping on cliffs, using ice picks etc.), hiking in
Switzerland is different than in the US. It's a small contry, and the mountains were long the
home of the people. High mountain meadows and the small places they lived during the summer,
were long used as summer stays for families as the herds foraged the meadows and
the farmers cut the hay to take back down to the villages dotting the mountains for winter food for the cows and goats. So . . . when you hike the alps in Switzerland, you hike through the moutains but there are villages and alp huts higher in the mountains. So, Kate and I have a trip planned where we will hike for five days across a region of the alps near Grindlewald. At the beginning of the day, we will drop our larger packs at the train station to be taken to the next village we will stay in, where the luggage will wait for us at the train station. Then, with our day packs and our lunch etc. we will hike through the mountains to our next destination. Two nights we'll spend where trains don't go at a alp hut specifically for hikers. There we will sleep in bunks for the night... they'll provide bedding and supper. Part of the motivation for this trip was to provide a framework for my 88 year old dad to return to Switzerland again. He and my mom had gone once or twice a year for quite some time since retirement but he's only been back twice since she died almost five years ago. He'll be there for 3 1/2 weeks (lucky guy) and he'll be waiting for us at our village stops and then go from that area with us to Guarda (my favorite village in the Engadine where I spent time as a child, and Katie..and Lindsey has been before as well). So we are all decked out with lightweight hiking clothes and hoping that we'll have lots of sunshine although we understand that rain is needed for a place to be so green & beautiful.
Wish I could take ALL of you along.
1 comment:
I'm so jealous, I don't know if I can talk about it. I mean what did I do to deserve to be left behind?? Haha, just kidding. It will be sooooo fun - I'm so glad you're going!!! I'll just have to dream about it.
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