Trains, trams, and trails

We started our day in Lucerne. With jet lag still a thing, Mike and I were up early and took a morning walk as Carrie and Dave were getting ready and having their coffee. We made our way to the train station and grabbed breakfast at the Coop - protein shakes, yogurt, and pastries. I saved my pastry for a later “emergency” and was glad I did. After debating which train to take, we ultimately chose correctly - a train with panorama windows and four seats together. I took a little cat nap on our train to Interlaken - a strong decision. We then continued our journey on a train to Lauterbrunnen. At this point it was lunch time and we debated eating there but instead hopped on the gondola (cue emergency pastry) to Grutschalp and train to Murren. We walked up to our hotel and enjoyed the spectacular views from the balconies outside our rooms.

We wandered town a bit, stopping in souvenir shops (cue Dave’s first hat purchase) and eating delicious sandwiches and pastries at Cafe Liv. After a stop back at our hotel, we were on our way for today’s hike. While our Mac’s Adventure recommended hikes don’t start til tomorrow, we wanted to get a head start with an “easy” hike. We chose the North Face trail with an extra stop in Sprutz Falls. It began with a paved up hill…about 500 ft up in elevation over roughly 1.5 miles plus one puff of my inhaler later and we were at our peak elevation. Cue the cows - and the rain. We stopped briefly for intense staring contest with one particular cow and then found ourselves at an electrical fence, the first of many, but don’t worry there was a gate to get through and none of were electrocuted at this gate or any subsequent gate! The rain become more intense and we paused at a bench under an awning to make friends with Pierre, a man who is doing an impressive trek across Switzerland, probably 20 years or so older than us, in way better shape, and definitely very successful based on the fact he’s spoken at MIT when he was there to meet with investors in Boston. We parted ways when the rain stopped and continue on our route to the waterfall. We trekked down - way down - to the waterfall and were able to walk under it which was cool (both awesome and a nice temperature there). Thankfully, we went back a different way - still up but not nearly as much as we’d gone down to get to the waterfall.

Racing to make it back before the thunderstorms, we made it to our hotel just in time. After a little chill time in the hotel including watching and listening to the intense thunderstorms, we headed to dinner at Alpina where we saw two beautiful post thunderstorm rainbows. We shared our first fondu experience here (yum) and each got a cheeseburger and drinks. After brownie and apple strudel for dessert, we debated playing cards on our way back to the hotel. Dave was the rationale one, for once, and suggested we go to sleep since it’s already 10pm. Feels like the adult thing to do rather than stay up when we’re very tired. A great first day of the hiking portion of our trip!

Step count: 20,291
Miles: 8.9Lue lisää