Switzerland

Half a week in Handegg

/ Ryan / Leave a comment

We spent a few days at Hotel and Naturresort Handeck in Handegg. It was a great little trip. We were up in the mountain a little bit, right next to the Gelmerbahn. The Gelmerbahn is an old funicular they used when they were building the dam at Gelmersee. It is the steepest funicular in Europe. (every funicular is the something-est) It was super steep though it’s hard to tell form the pictures. (I forgot my camera this trip!)

We did two different power plant tours in the region. There is an extensive underground network of pipes that connects water from dams and lakes in the mountains to a couple of power plants and other lower elevation lakes. They even sometimes pump water back up to the higher elevation lakes when they needs to bleed power off the grid. The first tour was of the oldest power station with vertical generators. The second used horizontal generators and also showcased a 14 meter cave of quartz crystals. The second tour actually put us in a van and we drove to different location in the underground power plant. It’s insane how big these stations are, all underground. There is 160 km of underground piping/tunnels for water flow to and from the dams. Probably what I found the most interesting is that they build their generators by hand on site. During the tour we happened to walk past a couple workers mixing ceramic for the insulator caps. There’s also a tiny battery powered train they can use to reach the higher station during winter when the roads are snowed out.

There were also some nice hikes from our hotel. Both that we did were fairly short but after sitting at home for a year during the pandemic, I think we were all a bit out of shape and wouldn’t have wanted to hike much longer than we did!

We had a great time and I would definitely consider going back. We had really excellent food at the hotel and we barely touched on the great amenities. They have a small heated pool, a hot tub, sauna and they even let you use their electric car for the day.

A week in Grindelwald

/ Ryan / Leave a comment

Mid August we spent a week in Grindelwald. It’s a lovely little town with cable cars that go to the nearby mountains of Männlichen, Pfingstegg, and First. We had a nice Airbnb not far from the Terminal station. Though the hill the Airbnb was on was brutal- by the third day, Walnut would do his business in the driveway, not wanting to traverse the hill to the garbage can.

From the patio of our Airbnb

Naturally, we visited Gletcherschlucht. This is river of glacier water running from the Eiger. We’ve visited a number of these in Switzerland. It’s very cool so it’s a wonderful visit on a hot day. This one was unique in that it had a number of activities including a giant swing and a net you could walk on over the river.

We took the cable car up to Männlichen and hiked the Panoramaweg to Kleine Scheidegg. Though we’ve done this hike before, it’s one of Jenn’s favorites. It’s a great hike with awesome views and a wide path. Of course, there’s always the chance to meet livestock and a cow wanted to figure out what Walnut was.

We also visited First and hiked to Bachalpsee. This was supposed to be an easy hike but by the time we actually went up here, we were a little wore out from the other hiking we had done this week. The hills on the way to Bachalpsee were a little rough on us.

On our last day we went back to Pfingstegg to ride the Rodelbahn and the Luftseilbahn. if you go to the area, definitely do this! I would recommend buying the 3 hour package ticket. The ticket includes the cable car and as much Rodelbahn and Luftseilbahn you can do in 3 hours. At the time, it was 96chf and we bought a 6 ride Rodelbahn and 2 rides Luftseilbahn with the cable car (with our halbtax card!) for 84chf. We’d never experienced the Luftseilbahn and it was awesome. It’s a bit like a zip line but you sit in the harness and it hangs from a monorail system they’ve suspended from the trees. As we came to the Luftseilbahn, I asked the people on their way out if it was everything they’d hoped and they replied, “Yes, it’s like you’re a little elf flying through the forest.”
I thought it was a pretty good description. I definitely could have done that a few more times. It made for an excellent last day of our trip.

St. Gallen, Unterterzen and a little bit of Liechtenstein

/ Ryan / Leave a comment

We spent a week in St. Gallen- half in Unterterzen near Flumserberg, and the second half in St. Gallen proper. Flumserberg was fantastic. I feel like I run out of words to use to describe the natural beauty in Switzerland. In my daily life, I just say it’s very Swiss. We go to these lovely mountains with amazing views, brilliant flowers, burbling waterfalls and great trails all over Switzerland and it becomes hard to describe one in a different way than another. So far, every one we’ve been to has been incredible. And I’ve probably said that before.

While in Unterterzen, we stayed in the Marina hotel. The room was a touch small (also known as normal for Switzerland) but we had a great rooftop patio. The hotel restaurant was practically the only one in town- thankfully the food was pretty good. We did some hiking in Flumserberg. There was a an alpine floral trail and a seismic trail highlighting the Glarus Thrust. The hotel was right on the lake, and had we more time (and warmer weather) we would have been swimming.

We visited a couple castles in Liechtenstein, including the Prince’s castle. We couldn’t enter any. We also went to the abbey in St. Gallen and saw their amazing library. No pictures allowed, but it was fantastic. I’m told it’s in the top ten most beautiful libraries in the world. Cause I guess that’s a real list somewhere.

Plaffeien Alpabzug

/ Ryan / Leave a comment

This past weekend we went to Plaffeien for the Alpabzug. It’s a festival celebrating bringing the cows down from the mountains for winter. Plaffeien is a small town not far from Geneva. I was surprised how many people showed up for the festival!

The cows are given floral hats and decorations to wear (and of course they have their deafening bells!) The hats seem to be made of small pine trees or branches with a floral arrangement.

After the festival, we stayed at an airbnb about a mile out of town so we had to do a bit of hiking to get there. We’d hoped there would be some nice hiking trails near the airbnb but the trails we hiked were not our favorites. Maybe it just wasn’t our weekend for hiking.

All told, the festival was interesting and Jenn is planning for us to see it in another town next year!

Weekend trip to Lauterbrunnen

/ Ryan / Leave a comment

This past weekend we went to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.  It was great!  The weather forecast was rain, so we were concerned we wouldn’t get to do the hiking we wanted but we were lucky and it rained very, very little.

We took the train from Basel to Lauterbrunnen and only had to change trains once.  It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there.  Once there, we climbed up the hill through town following the directions from our rented apartment (booking.com this time)  It was a hilly trek and we had to cross the cog train tracks but we found it, dropped off our stuff and headed back to town for some lunch, groceries, and a stop at the tourist information booth.

We hiked the Panoramaweg from our apartment (I’m guessing it was 1.5-2 miles) that evening while it was still nice out (expecting rain).  It was a lovely trail through the valley and along the Weisse Lutschine river.  The stony cliffs, green trees and grass, white river, and blue sky were quite a sight.  There is just something exhilarating about hiking in Switzerland.

Saturday, we hiked most of the Panoramaweg again on the way to Trummelbachfalle, picking up the Wasserweg trail which led to the  falls.  Trummelbachfalle cuts it’s way through the mountain, and they’ve dug caves into the mountain so you can see the falls at different elevations.  It’s amazing to see the shapes and paths the water has cut into the stone.  It’s really impressive and definitely worth a visit.  Afterward, we had lunch there at Trummelbach before hiking back to the apartment.  All told, we did about 7 miles and 700 feet on that hike .  Walnut loves hiking in Switzerland because he has a thing for large animals like horses and cows.  At one point, a half dozen cows walked over to the little ribbon of a fence to check out Walnut.  The animals are all vying to get a sniff of one another and Walnut sneezes.  The nearest cow, which had to be at least 700 pounds, jumped in the air in surprise.  He did most of the hike under his own power, maybe 6 miles before he needed a ride in the backpack.  Sadly, the pack wasn’t very cool so it was only rest for his legs at first.  Later, I filled a poo bag with near-freezing water from the Lutschine and plopped that into the bag with him.

We rested a bit back at the apartment and hit the trail again after dinner.  This time, we walked the opposite direction and hiked the Alpweg, which climbed up an opposing butte.  This trail was more forested than our previous hike.  This time we got a little rain but it was short lived.  This trail crossed a mountain bike trail several times and we glanced down those paths- they are quite steep!  From the elevation we climbed to, we had a birds eye view over Lauterbrunnen- beautiful green grasses interrupted here and there by the brown swiss houses or chalets.  Further down the way, we found a newly built reservoir just before the trail led us back into town.  This trail was about 5.5 miles and 800 feet.

We loved it.  It was great hiking with some elevation.  Beautiful scenery and fortunately great weather.  I look forward to going back to Lauterbrunnen, though I’m sure we will visit the surrounding towns on the next trip to that region.

Happy to be home again!

Basler Fasnacht

/ Ryan / Leave a comment

Fasnacht is Switzerland’s answer to Carnival.  It is an event that is very special in Basel.  It all begins at 4 am on the Monday following Ash Wednesday.

Jenn and I got up and went to Marktplatz to see the parade.  All the lights in town are switched off for the event.  (Though it IS 4 am so not many are on in the first place)  The Fastnachtler dress up in costumes with crazy masks.  They craft lighted floats and play instruments and they walk the streets.  It’s pretty wild.

Most Fastnachtler wear a lantern on their mask.  The art on most floats is outstanding.  Tons of confetti is thrown around- and I do mean tons.

After the initial parade, there are follow up parades as well as concerts.  We’ll have to arrive earlier next year!