Alpina #1 National Trail Hike in Switzerland ~ Gift of a Lifetime

ALPINA #1 NATIONAL TRAIL HIKE IN SWITZERLAND WITH MY DAUGHTER ~ GIFT OF A LIFETIME

The hills are alive with the sound of music... 

Can you imagine my delight when my daughter said she would like to go on a hiking trip with me in the Swiss Alps? While I was absolutely thrilled by the prospect I was also somewhat daunted by the task at hand.  You may remember my blog a few years ago about a 3-day hike we did together in the State of Washington? On that trip I became dehydrated with vomiting, a headache and barely made it to the camp grounds for the first night with my heavy back pack. The 40-year difference in our age might have made a difference to my stamina plus the fact I had rarely hiked in 20 years, nor did I drink much water on the trip despite Anna’s urging. This time I vowed I would “train in advance”, drink adequate water and arrange to have our bags delivered to each place we were staying. Thus we would only carry small backpacks to hold our snacks, extra warm clothes and rain jackets, I-phone, my notebook, 1 ½ liters of water, poles and of course, my brush and my incredibly heavy Nikon camera!  

As I have a bad habit of bringing too much stuff, before leaving I asked Anna to check my bag to be sure I was bringing the “right things”. She laughed when she saw my stack of chocolate bars.  “Why you are taking chocolate to Switzerland, the most famous chocolate makers in the world?” Of course, this time she did not dare to take away my hair brush and while she encouraged me to take only my I-phone for taking pictures by giving me a wide angle lens to attach to the I-phone, I still stubbornly persisted in packing my heavy camera along with the I-phone lens. Actually I ended up packing two bags, one for my trip to Berlin where I was giving a professional
 presentation at the World Congress for Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology which included bringing a large 4-year old puppet which took up most of the bag. 

The second bag was for the hike which I swapped with my professional clothing puppet bag at the Zurich airport and picked up on the return trip (note the puppet did not come with us!)

Our web site search revealed the possibility of self-guided hiking trips 

https://www.distantjourneys.com/trips/self-guided-trips/ and we contacted an agency called Echo Trails run by Euro trip who would help arrange our inns and transfer our luggage to each night’s destination. For this proposed hiking trip I read in their information pamphlet that we must have a “reasonable level” of fitness and they suggested preparation of aerobic exercise three times a week for three months prior to the trip. While I did train, upon reflection post trip I wish I had done more stair climbing as I found the ascents most gruelling. 

Day #1: Arriving in Lucerne

Our hotel room view to the right

We met up happily at the airport and were transported to Lucerne by the Echo driver Rudy. We stayed at Les Balances Hotel which was a lovely hotel with a deck balcony from our room that had a spectacular view of the river and city. Little did we know then that all but one of our chosen inns would have spectacular balcony views and each one we would think was the best view yet. 

Our room was at the very top

View straight ahead

In Lucerne we started what became our nightly predinner balcony habit of cheese and wine on our deck, usually meaning we didn’t eat dinner until much later.  We enjoy dinner on the hotel deck and breakfast by the river in the morning. The first of “to die for breakfasts” including bircher muesli, yogurt, curd, cheese, brioche, eggs and pretzel rolls.  



On this relaxed day we did some shopping, bought a mountain trail map, checked out our train tickets for the next day, checked out the chocolate stores and finally cooled off from the heat wave by swimming in Lucerne Lake. While Switzerland may be landlocked many cities are located on lakes and for about 7 Swiss francs anyone can enter a Strandbad for a refreshing dip. It is not necessary to join a club to enter these places and this first one we tried also offered food, wine and beer.  Imagine swimming in a fresh lake the perfect temperature surrounded by mountain views! We commented how nice it would be to end a hot Seattle working day by a dip at a community place where you don't have to have a club membership.

Chocolate to die for

I was particularly impressed with the breathtaking covered, wooden bridges first built in the 13^thcentury which we are lucky enough to see from our hotel room deck. 

Spreuer Bridge

The Spreuer Bridge contains paintings in the interior triangular frames created from 1616 to 1637.  Of the original 67 paintings 45 are still in existence. I wished I could read the explanations written below the images but it was clear death was the dominant theme. 



After a wonderful day, sampling chocolate and more wine on our deck we had a late dinner by the river (sausage of course) viewing the lighted bridges. 



Anna introduced me to “aperol spritz", a traditional Italian pre-dinner sweet and bitter drink (think orange peel and rhubarb) made with Prosecco, Aperol and soda water which fast became one of our trip rituals and I suspect one I will adapt at home to drink on our deck. Okay the next morning we will start our hike well fuelled!