Hiking in the Alps

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My legs are sore/tired from hiking and my nose is pink from all the sun, but yesterday was a great day! Irena, Suzanne, and I spent the day in the Alps - well the smaller mountains of the Alps that are surrounded by the larger ones.

The gods of travel must have been on our side. Our plans for transportation, trains and buses, was very uncertain, but upon arriving in Thun (by train) we found the last bus up the mountains in our needed direction for the day. and it was leaving in 3 minutes! We rode higher and higher on seemingly impossibly narrow roads for our bus to handle. But we still made it to the end of the line all in one piece - the last stop was acutally a retirement center.

The start of the hike was straight up and I felt my heartbeat quicken and felt short of breath - more than I expected I would really. But it all leveled out for a while, with only a slight incline, though steeper things were still to come! we hiked through tall pine porests through which you could catch glimpses of the larger, snowcapped mountains to the south. We followed signs to Bleume, which we mistakened to be a town, but found only a tall, metal lookout/viewing tower. With a wonderful 360 degree view we gazed onto mountains and down onto Lake Thun, which is a beautiful icy blue color. The mountainside below was dotted with rooftops.

We stopped for lunch and afterwards began the descent down to the lake, in hopes of an afternoon swim. It was about 12:30 and the signs to Gunten (our destination town) said 2 and a half hours. Again we entered pine forests but eventually broke out into grassy meadows and bright sun. With the smell of cows in our nostrils and the sound of the bells clanging in our ears we skipped and jumped - literally frolicked - down the grassy hillside.

There was not a cloud in the sky, but an occasional cool breeze kept of from being too hot from the sun. Along our path we found some raspberry bushes, mostly premature, but by some luck we found some ripe, red, and ready for picking. I managed to pick a full handful.
We quickly learned that hiking downhill is as difficult as going up. There were moments when it was so steep it had to have been about 45 degrees. The further down we went, the more houses we passed, farmers fields we passed through - but we were on the trail! At one point an old senile dog ran out barking and snarling, baring his teeth and forced us (he made us all a little nervous, especially Suzanne) to cut across a meadow not on the trail.

The whole time as we wound down, the snowcapped mountains and blue water of Lake Thun remained in front of us. As we passed these houses I wondered what it would be like to wake up to this view every day. Would it ever lose its magic?

We finally made it down to Gunten and found a public swimming area. However, the water was so cold Irena and I only managed a ten second swim, while Suzanne was in for about 3. We discovered that right by our swimming area was a stream that was bringing fresh and cold water from the mountains.

We caught the bus back to Thun, feeling the effects of hiking and sun setting in. This time the bus stayed low, down by the lake. We passed a really cool area with castles and then driving through the town of Thun, it looked like a very nice place.

We didnt stop when we arrived back in Bern and at Irenas apartment - we made dinner and went out! With some of her friends, Irena took us to hear live music in the park. It was in Argentine tango group and they were very good! Suzanne and I had fun people watching. There was a mix of young and old, fashionable and casual, a very ecclectic group overall. We also got to see first hand some of the crazy and local drunks who were in the corner drinking and stumbling around. It reminded me a bit of Chicago, and I felt at home! (joking) But the whole time during the concert we could look out onto the mountains and we watched them turn pink and purple as the sunset reflected off of the snow. It was like being in a movie and the tango music was our soundtrack.

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