At the beginning of the next week, my host mother and I left early Monday morning in the car for Gstadd, where we left the car, and took the bus up into the mountains. Taking the bus from the small town of Gstadd to the hiking trails, was quite a swiss experience. Firstly, the bus was going so fast, on windy roads one lane wide-but meant for two lanes of traffic, that we were whipping around corners and I was afraid of falling off the edge of the mountains were were circling! "The Post" bus is a bright yellow bus run by the post office here (go figure) and it is known for a) running all through the countryside, and b) It's horn. For example, on the sharp turns where it is impossible to see cars coming from the other direction, the bus toots it's obnoxiously out of tune arpeggio of a horn. DADADA-DADADA. Ahhh the peace and queit of the mountains ...then...DADADA.
Secondly, we were stopped in a couple "traffic jams" in the tiny mountain villages. But not like you'd think. During the summer, the cows live up in the alps and wear big bells so they don't get lost behind a mountain or anything. Every Fall, the farmers have to bring them down from the alps and in some towns they have a big parade for this event. But heading into the mountains on the bus, the tiny village streets were filled with little children, no more than 8 or 10 years old, leading herds of cows through the streets on their way to the farm! I was amazed that the kids could handle herding that many cows, and that they were allowed/ given that responsibility! It was very picturesque having little bond haired kids running through the streets herding a group of bell wearing cows. It definitely showed me a more traditional side of Swiss life!
Once we got up in the mountains and started hiking, we reached a pretty little lake nestled between the mountains where we stopped for a picnic and then continued hiking for another couple hours until we got to Gstadd. Gtadd is located in the famous ‘Berner Oberland’, an area where the government enforces laws demanding that all buildings have to be made out of wood, and in the traditional style. This makes for beautiful scenery, and I felt like I was walking in an earlier time! On our way to my host grandmother’s cottage, we stopped to pick up some groceries for our stay. My host mother said, “Do you like lamb?”. Although I was adverse to the thought of eating a cute little lamb while back in Canada, I am trying to be open and try new foods here, so I replied, “I have never had it, but I’d be willing to try!”. I was quite surprised when she told me, “Yes you have. We had it for supper a couple of weeks ago. I guess that means you’re okay with it!”. It makes me question a lot of what I have been eating and not asking about for the past couple months!
With no clocks, and a body exhausted from hours of hiking, I thought I was making a good effort to stay up until an acceptable 10:00pm, but it turns out I’m not so good at judging the time by sun/stars and went to bed at 8:00 the night before. So the next day, I woke up in the mountains, comfortably wrapped in layers of blankets (it’s a lot colder in the mountains) and very well rested. That day, my host mother and I took the train through the alps to Montreux- a largish city in the French part of Switzerland. From there, we took a boat (not unlike the Halifax ferry) to a castle called “Chateau Chillon”. This was the second part my host family’s gift to me! They knew I had never been to a castle before, so they took me to one of the most well known ones in the country! We rented headsets (one in German, one in English) and set off on our tour of the castle.
Sections of the castle are thousands of years old, and have been built, and rebuilt, abandoned, and stolen by kings and lords of different time periods and different nationalities. The water that surrounds the castle looked so bright and almost tropical! From the castle’s tower we had an amazing view of the lake, and the French alps on the other side! All in all, I had an absolutely amazing “first castle” experience, and it was so nice of my host family to take me!
On our third day in Gstadd, my host mother and I took a ski lift up onto a mountain, and did some serious hiking. Despite my sore bum from Monday’s hike, I was keen and ready for another day in the alps. We climbed (not hiked-climbed. It was steep) up a nearby hill and I tried to capture the beautiful view on my camera (as always, it’s never quite the same) and then continued on our way. From here on out, we were walking mostly downhill. How hard could it be?! … a lot harder than I thought! We took one of the more advanced trails, but even so, by the end of the day, the back of my legs felt like jelly, and I decided to walk behind my host mother so that she wouldn’t see me holding my legs as we walked. I thought I was in decent shape, but I have never done anything like mountain hiking before! I have so much more respect for all the retired Swiss people who hike on a regular basis! After we stopped to stock up on “Alp Cheese” and other alp specialties, we left Gstadd and drove back home. My legs were happy to have the rest, but I was just a little bit sad to be leaving Gstadd, which really was paradise in the mountains, and it was a nice escape from the busy city life.
