Swiss roads, Swiss chocolate, Swiss Alps

Our cute little car for traveling from Munich to Venice and
whatever else in between. So glad it was a small car. 

Our trip to Switzerland came at just the right time for us. We drove from Memmingen, Germany, through Austria, a brief stop at the Lichtenstein border, through Interlaken, Switzerland, to Stechelberg where we had to park our car. I have to say, I was really nervous about renting a car and driving it in a foreign country. It worked out wonderfully, though. The car wasn't too big, gas wasn't too expensive, and I didn't break too many road laws. I'm pretty sure. There were a couple of toll roads that I had no clue as to how to operate. I was supposed to go into one lane but went into another or something like that. I think we missed a couple of payments. But no tickets. After driving through all of these countries, I wonder why people always say, "You have to drive the Autobahn in Germany!" Firstly, "autobahn" is just "freeway." Secondly, the driving laws are the same in all of these countries. I reach a certain point on the road and I can go however fast I want. I really just stuck around 75 to 80 most of the way. I got a little over a hundred for a while just so I can say I did so.

A small view of a Swiss road. 

Once we got into Switzerland, driving got a bit more scary. All of the signs and rules were the same. It's the roads that were different. Switzerland is pretty much all Alpine Mountains. That means that all of the roads are either going around or through a mountain. I was either twisting around the roads or spending 10 plus minutes in a tunnel. My arms were beginning to lose circulation because I was keeping them and 10 and 2 the whole way, leaning forward a bit, staying as focused as I could be as I navigated roads that swerved around 350 degrees and tried to make sure the car behind me didn't hit me because its driver wanted to go twice as fast as what I deemed a safe speed for those roads. Eventually we finally made it to Stechelberg which is where we were to leave our car for three days while we took the cable car up to Gimmelwald and stayed in the beautiful Mountain Hostel.

The stunning view from our
hostel in the Alps.

I think that what we enjoyed the most about staying in the Swiss Alps was that we were away from the city, only had one site to set out and enjoy, and everyone else was there for the same reason. It was wonderfully relaxing. The hostel has four rooms. The girls room, boys room, family room, and the lovers room. We were housed in the lovers room. It was a bunch of row of bunk beds, but what made them cool was that they were in sets of two, so we could actually lay next to each other even though we were in a shared room. There were a lot of other people there our age and we had a great time hanging out and visiting, talking about travels and life plans. Pretty much everyone there was en-route to somewhere else and a common question to be hear was "So where's your next stop?"

One of the many cows we walked by
on our hike. Ain't she beautiful?

We had one full day in Gimmelwald. We used that day to go on a hike. We thought about going to the very top of the mountain, but we were told by seasoned travelers that it wasn't really worth it and that another hike was better. So we went on that other hike and regret nothing. The trail is called the North Face Trail. It pretty much follows the north face of the mountain. Get it? It was fantastic. We hiked for about three hours (with stops) and saw so many wonderful parts of the mountain. The view was amazing. The trail took us through farmlands, herds of cows, fields, electrified fencing, over a river, and along cliff-sides. We had to set aside all of our lifelong training of what trespassing means and go through a whole bunch of gates, walking through people's yards and by farmers working in their fields. The gates were attached to electrified fencing where the herds of cows are kept with their noisy bells, poo piles, and flies. We struck it lucky in that our one full day was the one clear day of the week. It was foggy before we got there and foggy again when we left. So we were treated to all kinds of awesome mountain views. We were also treated to a lot of hot sun. I got a lovely sunburn that I'm still babying today.

Probably the best meal we
had in Switzerland. For real.

Food in the Alps is terribly expensive. Check that. Restaurants in the Alps are terribly expensive. We at at a restaurant before we went on our hike but then after that we bought a bunch of food at the market and brought it back to our hostel. The hostel has a kitchen with a bunch of baskets and space for people to keep food there. They also had a couple of "free" baskets where they put things that people leave behind. So along with our market food and whatever we could scrounge from the "free" basket, we made ourselves an awesome dinner of tortellini and and salad and a delicious breakfast scramble that everyone was so jealous of. It felt great because, not only did we save an amazing amount of money, but a few of our new friends complimented us on how well we worked together to make some great food!

Two things about Gimmelwald that I didn't witness myself, but heard from other guests of the Mountain Hostel:
1 - Gimmelwald is home to Europe's first ever Honesty Shop. This is a store that doesn't have any staff manning a till. It's simply a room with a lot of stuff in it. You go in, find what you need - general supplies, souvenirs, clothes - leave the money in the designated location, and leave with your goods. Awesome idea for such a small town.
2 - One guest said that there was a cheese shop on our road that isn't advertised except for a little tiny sign outside of a house. He went up and knocked on the door and an old woman poked her head out of an upstairs window and called down, "Hallo?" He said, "I would like to buy some cheese?" She responded with an "Oh!" shut the window, ran downstairs, and opened the door he was standing at. She welcomed him into a little room that had three big things of cheese along with other knick-knacks and she sold him some cheese right there.

So that's Switzerland for you! Scary roads, cool mountains, great hikes, nasty sunburns, AHmazing chocolate. Really, we got some super cheap Swiss-made milk chocolate and it's the best I've ever had. I'm sad to leave that behind. We're about to finish up Venice, Italy, and I'm pretty sure our place in Rome has a decent computer so that blog will be coming soon! So, until next time, my friends!