Switzerland

"Ooh--all the men in the midst of a table d'hote heard: Sit ze zuu bah zo zee oh. Men drinking jacks with the foam afloat heard: Zee be be bo see se aye."

--The Lonely Goatherd (as performed by Harry Connick Jr.)



For those of you who have already been to Gimmelwald, there's not much I can tell you that will add to what you already know. As far as I can tell, the place hasn't changed at all since it was discovered by America. For those of you that have never been, it's probably impossible for me to describe in words what this place is like. The best I can do is tell you that it is Europe's version of the XZ.

For instance, any great hidden gem (XZ being no exception) has to be all but inaccessible. Otherwise it would quickly be overrun with tourists. If you thought the 16 hour car ride from Minneapolis was brutal, get a load of what you have to do to make it up to Gimmelwald. My starting point was Oxford, England. So right off the bat I had the advantage of being across the ocean when I got in my car to drive to the park and ride. After fighting traffic and waiting about an hour for a bus, I finally made it to Gatwick within about 2.5 hours. After waiting for another 2 hours in the security line, I boarded my flight and arrived in Geneva within another hour and a half. By this time, it was so late on Friday that I met up with Sam at the hostel in Geneva in order to get a night's sleep before venturing out early the next morning. From Geneva we caught a train up to Interlaken. This took about four hours of switching multiple different trains. Finally, we switched on to the Interlaken Ost-Lauterbrunnen train and enjoyed the breath-taking views of the Swiss alps. From Lauterbrunnen, there's a bus that you have to take up to Stechelberg. After you arrive in that small village, there's only two ways to reach Gimmelwald: a four hour hike or a gondola. We opted for the latter and arrived in time to enjoy a beautiful hike up towards the Schilthorn (site of the 007 film "In Her Majesty's Secret Service).

Upon returning to the Mountain Hostel after our hike, we were greeted by about 30-40 people between the ages of 18 and 30, predominantly from the Pacific Northwest. After establishing how many people we could fit in the hot tub, we sat down for some cards and I enjoyed getting my butt kicked in a game of hearts. The following morning we were disappointed to wake up to a torrential downpour. Fortunately, the hostel was equipped with an upright piano and a handful of the girls staying there knew the words to Edelweiss and the music of Les Mis, so we managed to keep ourselves entertained until the weather cleared. We then ventured out through the misty mountains to Trummelbach Falls, where we climbed through several caves which contained the 5,200 gallons of water that pours out from the falls every second.