Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Disclaimer: another picture-overload post.

Our journey to Switzerland tested our train transferring abilities to the fullest.  We first took a train from La Spezia, Italy - to Milan, Italy.  There we had a three hour gap before our next train, so we put our backpacks in the train stations luggage storage station, and headed off to see the "Duomo" church that is famous in Milan.  But first, before tackling Milan's subway system, we sat down and ate because as always - I was hungry.

My cute husband, and the most delicious pasta I ate the whole trip!  I seriously wish I could recreate that pasta.

We made it successfully to the Duomo via subway!

Milan's outdoor shopping mall.  It was SO hot.  I am pretty sure we went through like five water bottles in the three-hour layover.

 After our little excursion in Milan, it was back on the train.  This train took us from Milan to Spiez, Switzerland.  It was the most beautiful train ride ever.  Seriously.  Ki and I debated whether we could ever seriously move to Switzerland... but then I realized I would miss my family too much, and that I suck at learning foreign languages. :)  Bummer.  The train from Milan to Spiez was by far the best train we rode on the whole trip.  It had air-conditioning!  In fact, it was so air conditioned I had to wear my jacket, and my delta blanket.

Ki on the nice swiss train.

All bundled up.  It was a shock to the system to be somewhere with air-conditioning again :)

 The following two pictures I almost died trying to take haha.  As we got off the train in Spiez, the sun was setting and it was getting dark so fast, but I really wanted to get a couple pictures of the beautiful lakeside town.  So while Ki went to see what platform our next train left from, I ran across the street from the train station to the bridge to get a few pictures.  Only... I forgot to check and make sure that no cars were coming before I ran across the road... Ki about had a heart attack :)  The guy in the car that almost hit me was probably thinking "stupid American tourist".

The picture I almost killed myself trying to get.

picture #2 that I almost killed myself trying to get.

From Spiez is where the real train transfer fun began.  We took a train from Spiez to Interlaken; a train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen; a bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stetchelberg; and a cable-car up the mountain from Stetchelberg to Gimmelwald.  Wow I was a tiny bit stressed.  All the train rides were already only like 5 minutes apart, so I wasn't too surprised when we missed our bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg.  

This wouldn't have been so stressful if it weren't for the fact that it was 11pm, the next bus didn't come for another hour, and we HAD to check in before 11:45 at our hostel in Gimmelwald.  I was freaking out, truly I was.  Only I held it all in, and just sat on a bench at the bus station instead of freaking out visibly, cause I could tell Ki was already stressed too.  When Ki is stressed I have learned its better to just be quiet and let him come up with a plan otherwise my stress adds to his stress and it makes the situation much, much worse. :)  

So there I sat on my bench trying to stay calm when all of the sudden out of nowhere this one single car drives past us, then the driver pulled over, then reversed back to the bus station.  Hallelujah!  The man driving the car rolled down his window and asked if we knew that the next bus to Stechelberg didn't come for another hour.  We said yes, but that we really needed to get to Stechelberg because we had reservations at the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald.  He then proceeded to say that it was lucky he had been at a conference in a nearby city, that he worked at the cable car platform in Stechelberg, was actually on his way there now, and could take us with him.  OH MY MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!  We knew then and there that our families must have been praying for us while we were gone :)  Seriously.  How lucky is that?  He just happened to have a work meeting in a different city on this day of all days, was on his way back to the cable car station in Stechelberg for his night-shift, and could give us a ride.  This dear soul saved us.  A little dramatic?  Maybe.  But I could've kissed him.... ok not really.... but I really was SO grateful that he was nice enough to pull over and offer us a ride.  Total life-saver!

To make a long story somewhat shortened - we finally arrived in Gimmelwald at 11:42 - three minutes before the front desk closed.  We checked in, bought some pasta and pasta sauce from their little food shop, and sighed a deep sigh of relief!  We made our pasta in the guest kitchen, did our dishes, and then promptly went to bed.  We were thoroughly pooped.  We slept like rocks that night even with all the loud partyin going on downstairs where a lot of the other guests were playing games/at the bar drinking/being really loud.  (Also, random detail that I just want to remember is that the room we slept in was shared with 14 other people!  It was kinda weird, but a memorable experience for sure.) 

Because we had arrived so late at Gimmelwald we had no idea the beauty that we would wake up to.  Oh my gorgeousness.  I love Switzerland, SO SO much. We spent the day exploring Gimmelwald, and then doing lots of hiking of course!

The sun peeking over the Swiss Alps in the morning.

Another view: we took a gazillion pictures.  In fact we were so busy taking pictures that we missed breakfast, and ended up having to eat cookies that we bought at the little snack shop haha.

The cable car that is the only means of transportation up to Gimmelwald.

Ki at one with nature :) haha

Ki & me outside our hostel

Ki & me in front of the Mountain Hostel

We took a break from hiking/exploring to come grab some lunch :)

After lunch it was back to hiking!

Taking a break to catch our breath after walking all the way up the hill from Gimmelwald which you see below.

Me hiking to the waterfall

We made it!

Ki got pretty good at taking pictures of us :)

Taking a snack break at a little stream.

Ki wanted to bathe in the river - until he felt how cold it was.  Then he settled for being a mountain man and drinking straight out of the stream.  So far we haven't seen any negative side effects from the water :)

We kept hiking, up and up and up!  Look how far down Gimmelwald is!

Ki doesn't love to hike, but he was a good sport and let me go as far as I wanted.  I love him so much for this!

We bought a little package of swiss goat cheese from this lady.  She had so much cheese!

That night we had pizza back at the Hostel restaurant, played some card games, and laid out our plan of attack for the next day.  What a fun, beautiful, theraputic day in the Swiss Alps we had!  It would have been fun if we could've stayed an extra day, but there was still so much more we wanted to see on our trip so we decided to stick to our plan and leave the next morning.

The view from our train as we were leaving Lautrebrunnen, Switzerland.

As we left Switzerland - we successfully backtracked without missing any of the cable cars/ buses/ trains.  We even grabbed some food at a grocery store in Interlaken in our 30 min break between trains so we wouldn't starve on our way to the next destination.  Success.  Speaking of next destination, we were now headed to Salzburg, Austria!  Or so we thought...  this day turned out to be the longest, most miserable day of the trip.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  This is a post for another day.  I think I've hit my picture maximum for one blog post :)  Not to mention it is 7:30 on a Saturday night, and now that my mandatory blog post for the week is complete, I would really like to go hang out with my cute husband now.  Hope you all have a good weekend!