Day 8: September 1, 1999
Hike near Wengen, Switzerland

We woke up fairly early, 7:30, and went down to breakfast. They have a nice little buffet with cereal, rolls, cheese, meat, and eggs. Again, they were very nice and friendly, and it was a good amount of food. Walendo asked a woman from another table about her hiking the other day (he'd overheard something), and she said they'd gone to the top of the Schilthorn but it had been clouded over. We decided to walk up from Wengen on the road out of town up to Kleine Scheidegg, which is the town at the top of the tram and the place where another tram goes up to near the top of the Jungfraujoch.

Once again, it was a gorgeous day, maybe even nicer than the day before because the sky was so clear with just a few nice clouds for color. We stopped in town before we started the walk to pick up some food for a picnic.

View of Murren from trail near Wengeralp

At the Coop we got some cheese and fruit and water. At the cashier, we discovered we were supposed to weigh and price the fruit ourselves, so we ended up holding up the whole line while the cashier went to do it herself (easier than explaining to us, I suppose). Dumb tourists. We got a round of bread at the local bakery and off we went. Our trail turned out to be gorgeous. It was pretty steep most of the way, with didn't thrill Walendo, but once we got up a bit, you could get some great views of the town that just kept getting more panoramic as you got higher. At first Walendo complained a bunch, but then he admitted he enjoyed the views and was having a good time. We just went slowly and stopped when he needed to. I was really enjoying the exercise and the views and taking lots of pictures.

Cows in the hills above Wengen

At one point, we started hearing a loud clambering of bells just over the hill. I thought it was the cows, but it was so loud, Walendo wondered if it was some kind of set of bells. It turned out it really was cows, lots of them, scattered picturesquely through the hills. We got some shots of them in the foreground and the hills and the town below.

Walendo and Ellen at picnic site

As we got close to the first landmark, a town below the top called Wengeralp, we saw a beautiful spot for our picnic lunch, so we stopped and looked out over the town far below and the mountains all around. Still the sky was gorgeous, though a few clouds were forming. After that, it was a fairly short walk to Wengeralp and then another half hour to Kleine Scheidegg, which had three big buildings, some restaurants and souvenir shops. It was a bit on the touristy side, with lots of people, most of whom had taken the train up.

View from Kleine Scheidegg

Walendo was pretty well ready to collapse by then, so I wandered a bit and took a nice picture out the other side of the mountain, again with cows and a town and the mountains, this one vertical. I liked the shot. We bought some ridiculously expensive drinks ($3 each for a coke and an iced tea) and then I had a double-scoop chocolate cone that was pretty good.

We sat down near the railroad to eat and relax. A little calf was walking around among the people, and he came over to us. Walendo pulled out one of the apples we'd bought and held it out for the calf. It walked right over and started eating it from his hand. It was so cute. I got a few quick shots of it. After that, it hung around as Walendo pet it (probably putting up with the petting while it waited for more).

Walendo feeds a goat

Finally, we decided to give her the other apple, this time I did it. Walendo managed to get off one shot before she finished eating. Again she waited around and even licked Walendo's hand, but then when we started leaving, she stopped trying. Instead, she walked over to this other group of 3 people who were sitting a little below and just stuck her head down among their heads, as if saying "So? What are we talking about?" Walendo got an especially big kick out of this. As we walked away, Walendo turned back and saw that some man was dragging the calf away by its collar. I guess it's not supposed to beg from tourists.

Walendo was tempted to take the tram down, but he geared up and we walked down. It goes a lot faster going down.

Swiss Roof Goats

While we were still near the station, we saw some calves on top of one of the railroad buildings, it was very amusing. We passed a man taking a picture of a woman and Walendo offered to take both of their pictures, which they accepted. He's such a good guy. At Wengeralp we decided to take a different path that was marked as being a little slower than the way we went up, just so it would be different. We wound up walking down a ski slope right near the lift. It was good we didn't go up that way, since it was so steep. This time we were facing the town and the hills so we took more pictures and continued to enjoy the view. It was starting to cloud up by then, but still it was mostly sunny. As we've been walking around, Walendo's been saying hello to everyone we pass, and everyone always gives a nice response, but never the same one. We've started to wonder whether there is no "hello" in German, but instead everyone chooses their own personal greeting that only they get to use.

Wild Flowers at Eiger

Eventually we got back to town, taking a few more shots of the town and the buildings with flower pots. We'll wind up with a lot of those. We stopped at the train station to find out about taking a boat to Thun tomorrow. I noticed that when I asked the guy if he spoke English he said, "a little," which is a common response even when the person seems to speak it just fine. Anyway, we got a schedule and headed back to the room, where we relaxed for a while. We realized that the boat is pretty slow, since it criss crosses the lake, so we're going to take a train to Thun and then take the boat back. Thun has a big castle plus some good shopping, so that should be a good spot for us. There are some other castles on town along the lake and we both liked the idea of the boat, so we may check out some others depending on how the day goes.

We had dinner at the hotel, which was kind of homey. They had weinerschnitz(w: e?)l, sliced potatoes and peas, and we ordered a salad and creamed veggie soup as well, the latter of which was especially good. Again the meal was pretty expensive, 71 CHF for dinner, 82 after tip, about $52. Still, it was a pretty cheap day all around. We had been talking earlier about creating a web site of this trip, similar to the one we saw that helped us decided where to go on ours, and we talked about what we'd put on it. After dinner we decided against going out for dessert up at the town and hung out at the room. Walendo is now lying in bed reading The Charm School while I type away.

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