Gimmelwald, Switzerland: "I'm so Proud of Myself that I Made it!"

July 8^th – 11^th

The Jungfrau: best view ever seen from a bathroom window

                It took six trains, two buses, twelve hours of traveling, and a gondola to get to Gimmelwald, a small village of 140 inhabitants in the Swiss Alps.  Despite not having any reservations (you don’t have too, with Eurail passes), we managed to get seats on each train—we even managed to sit in a private compartment without getting kicked out!  Our second-to-last train stopped early due to an accident, and so we were packed onto a very full bus, and shipped off to Interlaken Ost.  (Johanna adds: Anneliese was getting cranky from lack of hot food again, so we went looking for dinner, but it was after 19:00 on a Sunday, and almost everything was closed. 

Isabella's favorite: the cows

Eventually, we came upon the Bamboo Restaurant, where we bought a warm and somewhat spicy (we didn’t know about the spicy part beforehand), chicken-curry soup.  Chinese places are always open!  Back to Anneliese.)  Then we caught our last train to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, and from there we rode a Gondola up to Gimmelwald.  On the way up we got our first glimpse of the Jungfrau, a mountain peak across from the Schilthorn, the mountain Gimmelwald resides upon.  It was a cloudy day, so when suddenly the clouds cleared for a moment, it was quite awe-striking. 



Reaching Gimmelwald, we lugged all our bags (one hiking pack, two suitcases, one camera bag, one back pack, one school bag, and one purse, plus three jackets) up to the Mountain Hostel, and after checking in, hung out in the common room for a bit.  The next table played a boisterous game of Uno and drank beer cheerfully—we exhaustedly played a few games of solitaire, and then went up to bed in the girls dorm room.

                Things proven in Gimmelwald:

1. The Mountain Hostel is home to the super hikers of the world.

2. Johanna, Isabella, and I do not qualify as super hikers.  Zip, zero, nada, nope.

3. (Not really proven, but still deserves to be in here): we blame it on the altitude, but we can’t even climb 20 steps without having to stop for a breather.  Yup, it’s sad, we know.

                So anyway, on Monday (July 9^th) we climbed up to Mürren, which looks easy, but really you have to zigzag about for a whole hour before ever reaching the village you can easily see from the hostel.  (Let me add that the sign said it would take that long, so it wasn’t just us).  In Mürren we wandered about, admired the view, Johanna and I bought some apfelstrudel, and bought some essential foods: apples, bread, and butter.  (Food in Switzerland is super expensive!  Then we wandered back down to Gimmelwald (it is always easier to go downhill), and, exhausted by our expedition, spent the rest of the day relaxing in the Mountain Hostel.  That night, while Isabella ate cereal with rice milk, Johanna and I had a rather unique soup consisting of barley and fresh weeds, which to my delight, Johanna decided to pick outside the hostel (Johanna note: they were really dandelions, and I knew for sure that they were edible. A:  Yeah, sure.).  She fried garlic in butter, added the washed dandelions, then putting those aside, boiled water for barley, with herbs, and salt, and then mixed it all together!  Also, if you have smoked sausage from the local butter, cheese, and sausage seller, like we did when we remade this soup the next night, you can also add it.  It tasted good, but… bitter.  On the bright side, the only thing that we bought in the whole entire soup was the sausage!  We skyped the family, and at about 11:30 (just before quiet time!) Johanna struck up a conversation with this guy named Mike from New Zealand.  Unfortunately he was leaving the next day, as he seemed like an interesting person, and he had an afro that even rivaled FT’s at its best. 

Isabella and I giving Johanna the "we hate you" look

                Tuesday (July 10^th) we just barely made it out of the Hostel before the lock in at 9:30.  While eating breakfast of bars en route, we began our first hike of the day on a path that some fellow Mountain Hostellers told us about.  After traveling on this path for an hour, we decided return the Hostel for lunch, and then take an even longer hike.  While washing hands in the sink of the co-ed bathroom, a cool-looking guy (we later learned his name was Dylan) at the hostel asked where we’d been that day.  Johanna told him, and then asked if he knew the way to the waterfall we’d hiked to with our cousin Leslie in 2002.  Luckily, he knew what she was talking about, and was able to explain the way, so we ate lunch and began to hike our way up the mountain and through the fields, despite the threat of rain (not even to mention our issues with the altitude!).  After finally making it up to the top of the fields, we stopped for a chocolate break, before continuing on what seemed like an endless muddy “staircase” up through the woods.  Soon it began to rain, but though we all were questioning Johanna’s sanity, by this time we were all so determined to make it.  Besides, if we did it when we were kids, how hard could it be?  Eventually we heard the sound of the waterfall, and after taking a couple of wrong turns, we made it down to the waterfall, only to find our path washed out, wet, and very dangerous.  Deciding not to go further, we ate some more chocolate and watched a young man come our way up the path we’d just decided was too dangerous to cross, with the idea of running for help if he fell off the cliff.  However he did not fall, and so we ran off so that he would not think that we were watching him.  Once we finally made it back to the Hostel, we made soup again (dandelions!), and Johanna and a couple other girls went on a mad fly killer spree—Johanna’s swatter alone bringing down 53 of the unfortunate creatures.  Isabella caught much of it on video, including when Dylan opened the front door, only to be confronted by Johanna and flyswatter.  “Are you ok?” he asked with a rather puzzled look on his face, “you better not let any flies in.” Johanna replied glaring at him.  “Ok,” he said nervously as he shut the door.  After dinner we played Pit and Liar (the nicer term for B.S.; Isabella and I refrained from calling anyone B.S. just in case) with two Andrews and a girl named Cody, which was lots of fun. 

Wednesday (July 11^th) arrived, the day we must leave. So after a quick last hike up to Mürren for more Haribo, we left Gimmelwald, took the gondola down, and began the long journey up to Bühl, in the Baden-Baden region, where we would stay in Kloster Maria Hilf. More on that later!

     Tchuss!  Anneliese, Johanna, and Isabella