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...