Sunday, August 1, 2010

Triftbrücke—a bit of Nepal in Switzerland.

This, my friends, is called hiking in the Swiss Alps. It is what we did yesterday. Here we are at the beginning, fresh as daisies. DSCF6832It was the perfect day for hiking. It was soooo clear and beautiful. We ate a few raspberries and what I think are gooseberries along the way. DSCF6836

DSCF6835 DSCF6838 The wildlife was VERY friendly!DSCF6839 We got a little muddy at times (especially Hazel). DSCF6843 Amazing.DSCF6844 You can hardly tell what this picture is, but I tried to get above Jethro and Hazel as they were crossing one of the ‘streams’ we went through.DSCF6848 DSCF6849 And here we are at our destination—it’s called the Trift Bridge and “is one of the most spectacular pedestrian suspension bridges of the Alps. It is 100 meters high and 170 meters long, and is poised above the region of the Trift Glacier.”DSCF6851 DSCF6856Here is a shot from on the bridge looking down on one side. The other side is the lake. Which I failed to take a picture of.DSCF6852 You can see a bit of the glacial lake from this picture. Talmage was tired out. We stopped and had lunch and rested for a long while, and he slept the entire time. (We had him all shaded up, but I snapped this picture right before we got going again.)

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Since I don’t think my own pictures capture the bridge just as well as they could, here are some pictures from my friend the internet:imageimage imagePretty SAH-WEET eh? I thought so. When I saw the second picture in a magazine, I knew we had to go here. I like heights. And I like suspension bridges. It was awesome. It didn’t really swing, but it definitely bobbed. A lot. Kind of like being on a boat. And it was looooooong.

So, back to my own pictures. Which still don’t do the views justice. It was gorgeous.DSCF6858 Don’t mind Jethro. He’s an 8-year-old boy. Plus he’s related to my husband.DSCF6859

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DSCF6863Another fun little stream crossing.DSCF6864 Okay, it looks nice and all, but I have to admit that by the last bit I thought I was going to die. The first couple hours of the hike were beautiful and easy. Then we got to the part where the cable car gets to (but we walked from the bottom), and from there to the bridge it said it was another hour’s hike. But what they didn’t point out, was that that part of the hike was KILLER. Rocks and steep and HARD. Not treacherous rocks and steep—just your legs feel like jelly and the spot where your legs connect to your pelvis starts to feel very very abused (at least mine do). If I hadn’t had the bridge to get to, I honestly would have stopped and gone back. As it was, I just tried not to whimper too much. Then on the way back we were all hot and sore and the kids were tired (actually I shouldn’t say kids—Jethro and Hazel were serious troopers, but Ethne was tired (not that I was the one that carried her, Brett is the buff man and carried Talmage pretty much the entire way, and Ethne a significant portion of the way too (yeah, at the same time))). Anyhow, we got to the cable car place and happily waited for our turn to ride it down to the bottom.

See—therein was my salvation:DSCF6871 Brett thinks we probably hiked about 7 miles. It was gorgeous. It was fun. It was amazing. I may never hike again.

8 comments:

Rachael said...

excuse me while I go apply for a job, any job, in Switzerland.

Can it possibly be more beautiful?

Anonymous said...

Bells!!!!We are quite jealous and certainly miss you all! What a beautiful hike...We hope you're doing well, and wish we were with you:) ben and allison

Kristi said...

change of plans- I am bringing my whole family. and we are hiking. but I think I will not go on that bridge. I HATE suspension bridges. they scare me.

Lynn said...

Oh my gosh! I would of died on that suspension bridge with my vertigo. Those kind of fun filled days are gone for me. I am SO glad you went and were able to take pictures for me to see. You are a brave little mamma. I love the wonderful memories you are making together as a family. Way to go!

Megan said...

Beautiful!!!! Some of the those pics (especially the second one)looked like they were from Sound of Music. You kids did great if they walked 7 miles!! Amazing views. I have lots of raspberries - you could come pick some at my house!

Christine Merrill said...

Wow. That bridge looks seriously scary. I would love it, everyone else in my fam would HATE it :)

Remember when we were back in Utah with no kids, and a 7-mile hike was practically nothing? Just the thing to do on a pleasant Saturday afternoon? I feel like such a wimp now. We did a 7-mile walk around all the monuments by the Mall, and I about died (and that's without any uphill or downhill!) Now I know why people with teenagers always get into running marathons and stuff...

Tanya D said...

I can't believe you hiked from the bottom. We just hiked from the cable car up and back and we were dead tired! Good for you and your kids! Fun to see your blog. I'll have to browse through and see what other stuff you've done and get some ideas.

Tanya D said...

Kayli - it's funny we haven't bumped into each other yet. I'm LDS too and in the Zurich Altstetten ward. Maybe we'll see each other at the temple sometime. Happy hiking!

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