Dinner, conversation, and wine

All four of us were beat and took naps. Even though all the books say not to sleep when you arrive, we had to get a little rest. Then we got up and headed for dinner. So far we eat, sleep, and eat some more. None too shabby, if you ask me.
Dinner was good, no photos, sorry mom. We started with leek soup, then rice with veggies and a mushroom sauce over some veal. I don't eat veal as a rule, but I believe in eating what is served when you are a guest, so no nasty remarks please.
What was fun was chatting with the others at the table. One couple was from MN, just east of Fargo. They are with their adult son. He works in Zurich. The other family was from Redondo Beach CA. The we're with their young daughter. Then there were two young guys from TN and a German Family with a young son.




We ended up hanging out with the two guys from TN and making sure all the wine bottles on the table were empty :-) it was a yummy table Merlot that matched up well with the dark chocolates we brought down after dinner. The real excitement was hunting flies. According to Tim (our host at Walter's), there are a lot of flies, because there is a lot of cow shit. There are a lot of flies, so I'll trust him. Walter's has a "tennis racket/bug zapper" that really packs a punch. Yes Henry and Bruce, I touched it! Note: there is an inverse correlation between the accuracy and speed of swinging the bug zapper and the amount of wine consumed.

Lunch!

Our first stop was at the Mountain Hostel for lunch. It's pretty amazing to be sitting up here looking down in to the valley when 24 hours ago we were driving to the airport.

Lunch was great. Bean and pepper soup, and veggie quiche for Jo, JJ, and Charm. I had the Backpacker's Special. It was pasta, ground beef, sausage, veggies, and a tomato sauce. Great spices and flavor. In addition to the great food and view, they had Eric Clapton playing on the stereo, not a bad first day. After lunch, it was time to head to Walter's. This was an up hill trek that had all of us a little tired, but we made it. Time for showers and some rest.

On the way to Gimmelwald

We really did take three trains, a bus, and a cable car. The mass transit




system here is something to be respected. Things run on time, they are clean and so far they are understandable. I've included a few photos of the journey. There are Jo, JJ, and Charmelle heading to another train.




The first two trains were about an hour each. Then we had a short trip of about 20 minutes. After that we packed into a bus for 15 minutes to the cable car. The cable car was pretty empty. One passenger mentioned that it is cheek-to-cheek during ski season. We enjoyed a nice quiet ride up.




We are sitting about 4,000 ft above sea level here. As you can see from the photos, it's a little cloudy today, but still quite amazing.

Location:Gimmelwald, Switzerland

I used my broken German, and it worked :-)

While we were heading to the train station, I stopped and got a European SIM for my iPhone. I was able to ask for help, confirm he spoke English, and get the card. While it's not much, I've never been good with languages and it's a victory for me.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Zurich, Switzerland

Traveling lite

We made it to Zurich and will bid the ease of pushing Charmelle around




farewell. All four of us made the trip with only a carry-on. We look like North Face reps with all our bags.
From here we have 3 different trains, a bus, and a gondola! I'm hoping for a bicycle or rickshaw, but I'll settle for the current plan.

Location:Zurich, Switzerland