A Week in the Country-Part 1

We have just emerged from a week in the Bernese Oberland.  Heaven!  Or, as close as we can get! 

Snowcapped mountains in the distance, with lush green fields dotted with cows and goats and wooden houses with lots of flowers out front.  (They say they keep the flies away.  Maybe it's true.) That was the postcard-like venue we had the good fortune to visit.

We were staying in the house of an aunt of Mark's colleague and friend.  Many thanks!  This is a picture of the house in Hasliberg Reuti and the view from our front window.

As it was an action packed week, I can't go into detail about all the places and things we saw and did.  Take it from me.  There we no rest days.  So rather than go day by day, I'll cover some interesting (to me, anyway) themes.

Theme #1:  Walking:  The country was made for walking.

We did more walking this week than in the past 10 years combined. 

At home, our kids have been known to complain about walking from our driveway to the front door.  These are not kids who are used to doing a lot of walking. 

Not so this last week.  We put some serious miles on our shoes.  We walked on beautiful mountain trails with switchbacks and steep grades, and in valleys with grassy fields and gurgling streams, past cows shrouded in haze, up paths to the top of waterfalls, and in the pouring rain.

Our longest walk was a 3 hour 50 minute journey from the top of Alpen Tower down to Bidmi. 

At the end of this journey, when Mark and I had completely run out of gas, we still had to walk another 10 minutes uphill from the cable car station to the house.  At this point Christopher and Matthew RAN all the way up the hill.  They have some deep reservoir of energy that I wish I could tap!

Speaking of shoes made for walking: unfortunately, we just brought our sneakers, which are not really trail gear.  In Switzerland, even the children have specialty trail shoes.  And for good reason! We figured this out when Mark busted a hole in the toe of his shoe towards the end of one particularly long, rocky downhill hike.  Almost 4 hours of walking downhill puts a lot of pressure on the toes.

Still, when it comes to walking, do not let anyone tell you otherwise:  down is much easier than up!