Barns, Alps, mountain goats and kittens
I just returned today from Gimmelwald, a lovely mountain hamlet in the heart of the Swiss Alps. Jeff, my cousin and mountaineering partner, is now en route to Paris.

We had a real outdoor adventure together before parting ways this morning. Yesterday we did a challenging, five-hour hike up to Schilthorn, a 9,800 ft peak, and stayed the night in Esther's barn, sleeping in the straw with about a dozen other backpackers.

The barn was an "interesting" experience, as my cousin put it. My favorite part was the fluffy, orange, farm kittens. I got some good cuddle time in with them. The scenery was totally amazing. Gimmelwald is bascially a little farming village on the egde of a cliff. You have to take a gondola to get there, so there are no cars, just tractors. The view from just about any spot in town is glacier-covered Alps. As one of our barnmates noted, the view is so spectacular it almost looks fake.


The downside of the barn were the flies, cold shower and tight quarters. I didn't sleep well either night, but it was such a novelty, I'm glad we did it. I also enjoyed the camraderie of the other guests, who were eager to compare travel notes. The earthy scent of cows (now out to pasture) and hay was nice too. Apparently hundreds of barns across Switzerland open their doors to overnight guests in the summer.

The highlights of the hike were fields of wild flowers, gorgeous, vertigo-inducing mountain views, and a nice lunch at a moutain hut at our half-way point. We had a couple of moments of heart-pounding excitement too. Jeff help free a woman whose foot was pinned by a big rock in a minor landslide. I spied an Ibex, a kind of mountain goat with really impressive horns. It was close enough to make my heart leap, but disappeared before Jeff could see it.

A hailstorm swept in just as we reached the summit. Luckily there's a big tacky rotating restaurant up there. We waited out the storm eating chocolate cake and watching scenes from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," a 007 movie that was filmed up there. Then we took the gondola back to Gimmelwald.

Here are some more snaps from the trip...

Summer in full swing

My cousin Jeff is visiting us from Park City, Utah this week, so I get to play Swiss tour guide. It's great fun! So far we've been to Bern, Switzerland's capital and the Rheinfall, a great, big waterfall near the German border. Yesterday we spent the day in Lucerne, where we took a trip to the summit of Mt. Pilatus via steamboat, cogwheel train (the world's steepest!) and gondola. Chantal, a friend that's visiting for the summer, joined us for some of these adventures.

Mt. Pilatus was just a preview. Today Jeff and I leave for Gimmelwald, a tiny town (pop. 140) near Interlaken in the middle of the Alps. We picked Gimmelwald for its great hiking and its rustic accomodations. We plan to stay the night there in a barn where backpackers can stay in the summer when the cows are out to pasture. So we will be "hitting the hay" for real tonight. I'll have the full report later this week. In the meantime, here are some pics from our travels so far...

Our big Geneva weekend
Christoph and I spent last weekend in and around Geneva. There are lots of big things to see there, including Lake Geneva, the largest in Western Europe, Geneva's Jet d’Eau, the largest fountain in the world, and, just across the border in France, Mt. Blanc, the tallest peak in Europe.


We saw all these things and even made time for the Montreux Jazz Festival, one of the most famous music festivals in Europe (Deep Purple sang about it in "Smoke on the Water"). We caught Italian crooner Paolo Conte performing at the swank Casino Barriere. That show was definitely a highlight of the weekend as was Montreux and the nearby town of Vevey, the heart of the "Swiss Riviera."

Even by Swiss standards, this place has a lot of bling. Some of the locals looked like they walked right out of an old Bain de Soleil ad, all tan, thin and affluent. But, frankly, a few looked like they could use some SPF.


By the way, how did everyone in this country get so tan all of a sudden? Summer only just arrived and all these bronzed, rail thin people are running around everywhere already. I don't get it. Could these the same people that feast on chocolate and fondue all winter long in ankle-length coats?

In any case, the Montreux area is gorgeous. The lovely green-blue water, palm trees and lush flowers give it a tropical feel. But across the lake, mountains dramatically rise up out of the water, reminding you you aren't far from the Alps. Blanketing the gentler slopes of the North shore are miles of beautiful wines estates and vineyards. A local told us the grapes thrive on these likeside hills because they are bathed in the sun reflected on the water. All I know is the local white wine is amazing.

The other highlight of the weekend was our trip to Mt. Blanc with friends Jul, Scott and Sara. Sara lives in a little town outside Geneva and was our own little sherpa. We actually didn't do too much hiking since just walking around the lookout point where the gondola dropped us off at 12,605 feet made us all a little dizzy.


We spent that night at Sara's house and watched France beat Brazil in a major World Cup upset. Sara lives just across the border from Geneva in France and the little town went totally nutso. We walked to the main square and watched the procession of honking cars full of little kids and teenagers hanging precariously out of sun roofs, windows and open mini-van doors. What a riot.

Ich spreche Deutsch!
Big breakthrough on the language front. I actually gave directions in German today. A woman approached me on the street and asked me how to get to Globus. Globus is the Swiss equivalent of Nordstrom, so of course I know right where it is. I had those coordinates dialed in within my first week or two here.

I said: "Geradeaus. Es ist auf der rechten Seite. Es ist nicht weit." Which translates to: "Straight ahead and it's on the right side. It's not far." She understood perfectly and off she went.

Simple enough, I know, but it made my day! This was probably the most German I've spoken outside my German class that didn't end in confusion and embarassement, or English. Of course hand gestures probably helped the whole transaction, but still I felt pretty proud of myself.

I'm in my fourth month of German classes here, and, let me tell ya, this language is a bitch. The grammar is maddening. For instance, there are six different ways to say "green car" depending on where you put it in the sentence and whether you use a definite or indefinite article. Sometimes, when Marianne, my really sweet German teacher, is explaining a grammar rule, I find myself thinking: you've GOT to be kidding.

Besides, what kind of language calls nipples "brustwarzen" - breast warts!

So, I don't know if I'll ever really learn German, but just ask me for directions to Globus or any major department store in Zurich, and chances are I won't lead you astray.