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Fall 2000 - Switzerland and Italy

Photos 2

Kandersteg, Blumlisalp. 10/00 A view of the Blumlisalp from the main street. This is the hike we did our second day - from the town up those hills to the Oeschinensee at the base of the big mountains.

Kandersteg. 10/00 This is a view looking down on Kandersteg from a hiking trail (the trail up to Oscheninsee). We have been to several different towns in Switzerland for hiking and we wanted to try someplace new, so we chose Kandersteg. It is a lovely town, in a beautiful location, with lots of good hiking. The town is full of visitors and hikers even at this time of year (it is a Swiss school holiday this week), but most of the visitors are German or Swiss. Very different from Interlaken, Grindelwald or Zermatt which can feel overrun with tourists. The people in Kandersteg are here to hike!

Kandersteg, Oeschinensee. 10/00 On our first day in Kandersteg, we did an easy walk down the valley to a little lake (Blusee), had lunch, then took the bus back. Our second day was warm with bright sunshine (so far the only warm and sunny day other than the day we arrived in Zurich), so we hiked from the town up the hills to Oeschinensee, a small lake surrounded by moutains and glaciers. Another excellent lunch. This photo shows the restaurant. You can get there only by hiking up (about 1 1/2 hours) or taking the chairlift and then walking for 20 minutes. Steve had fresh trout and I had a vegetable plate. Then we took the chairlift back down.

Kandersteg. 10/00 This is another view down on Kandersteg from the chair lift from Oeschinensee. It is later in the day and some fog is coming into the mountains.

The next day was cold again and the fog was coming down the mountains to the valley, but we did a great hike through the valley to the end and then up a mountain road to a hotel in the woods where we had Rosti mit Spieglei (potatoes and a fried egg) - one of our favorite Swiss dishes. The day was cold, but pleasant, and we ate in a very old building with a fire going to keep us all warm. The mountain road is one lane and goes to another town up in the mountains. You can drive up it, and we probably will, but you must pay about $5 (10CHF) and can only go up from the half hour to 10 to the hour. The part we walked was very narrow. There was a nice 4 foot wall along the edge of the road, but the edge was a sheer cliff down for hundreds of feet. The one person we saw driving looked terrified.

Hiking signs. 10/00 The hiking in Switzerland is wonderful. This is an example of the types of signs you find at intersections along the trail. The red and white markers on the point of the sign indicate a trail that is more difficult. The plain yellow point indicates an easy trail. Mountain or ice climbing trails are indicated by white and blue. On this sign you see that it is 1 hour (1 Std.) on an easy trail to Kandersteg where there is a train station.

Pauline's Trip Reports

Switzerland, Italy, 2000

Arrival in Zurich

Nine Nights in Kandersteg

Two Weeks in Italy

Photos 1

Photos 2

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