Swiss Alps Hiking: Surenen Pass

The Surenen Pass hike in the Swiss Alps can be a loooooong hike. If you do it end-to-end, Engelberg to Attinghausen/Altdorf or vice-versa, it's about 26 kilometers or 16 miles. Naturally, we shortened this a bit when we did it and only did 12 miles. It took us almost 7 hours! We stayed in a hotel in the town of Engelberg and took the "Titlis Taxi" to Attinghausen (~45 minute ride) where we began the hike back to Engelberg over the Surenen pass. We had planned to start the hike in Engelberg and then take the train from Attinghausen/Altdorf (the end of the hike) back to Engelberg, but that would have taken us almost 3 hours on the train! Luckily Martin discovered that there's a taxi service that specializes in driving people around between the start and end points of the hike, for a lower price than the trains would have cost (80 franks per ride regardless of # of people), so we decided to take it to Attinghausen and then hike comfortably back to Engelberg without worrying about when we finished the hike. I highly recommend this.

We started by taking a cable car from Attinghausen to Brüsti, where we started our hike at this signpost. Our goal was to hike to Fürenalp where we would take another cable car, and then a bus, back to Engelberg and our hotel. Just a side note, the Fürenalp cable car is one of the most terrifying cable cars! It goes straight up a rock face - or straight down if you're taking it down, which was more or less like riding a roller coaster.



Some lucky people have houses up here! Some of them sell drinks and cheese to passersby.



Some views from the beginning of the hike (leading up to the pass). It was supposed to storm but we ended up having a gorgeous day.



A brief view to Lake Lucerne:



Some views of the greenness of the area:



And there were a few snow fields near the pass. Thankfully nothing too extensive.



A few pictures of the neat mountains on one side of the pass.



We're finally at the pass! Eating a quick lunch so we can move out before any possible storms form (they didn't).



On the way down towards Engelberg. This side of the pass has a much gentler slope but you have to hike a much longer distance on this side to allow for that. You can choose which direction you hike up over the pass based on whether you need the gentler incline when going up or down, which is nice.



And here's your required picture of cows and mountains that you've come to expect from Switzerland! I took this photo while hiking the 200m uphill section at the very end of the hike - not the best part of the day for sure (not because of the cows but because of having to walk uphill at the very end)! The hike ended up having a solid 1,000m of uphill.

A(nother) Weekend of Hiking in the Swiss Alps

This past weekend we made a last-minute decision, based on good weather, to head to Switzerland for some hiking.  I'd been meaning to get to the Aescher Hut, in eastern Switzerland, for at least a few years now.  I didn't know it existed when I lived in Switzerland but I learned about it after moving to Germany and just had to get there.

This is why - it's famous!:

Anyway, we stayed at the Gade Lodge which is a friendly hotel located in Unterwasser (or, on the hill just above it). Below is the view from our room!

The hotel and adjoining restaurant are owned and run by two guys who basically had a great idea to live someplace beautiful and run a little B&B and restaurant. The restaurant (also called the Gade Lodge) was my ideal restaurant - they served käsespätzli, rösti, fondu! and we found this really amazing white wine, a Riesling-Silvaner, from Schaffhausen (in Switzerland) called Aagne. It was one of the best white wines I've ever had. Since we were going to be hiking all weekend, we splurged and ordered some comfort food. Below Martin is about to dig into his rösti with speck and overeasy egg and the dish that looks like mac and cheese is my käsespätzli. YUM. The picture of the table is our cozy little corner table. The restaurant is like an old converted barn and it's really atmospheric.

On Saturday, we drove to Wasserauen and hiked up to the Aescher hut from there, then continued on up to the top of the Ebenalp cable car and the hut just above it.  We covered almost 800 meters in 4 miles, then we had planned to take the cable car down but we still had energy so we walked all the way back down instead, which made for a long but good day.  Below is a picture of the view on the way up to the hut (once we got close to the hut and were high enough up for good views):

And here's the hut itself!  It was absolutely packed; everybody had the same idea to go to it apparently.  We managed to find some space at a table to enjoy a beer, which was nice.  I didn't do this hike just to take a picture of the hut and continue walking by!

We continued upward to the Ebenalp cable car station, then went a little higher than that before we sat and ate lunch.  There were a lot of paragliders taking off from up there, and circling high above us.  I was surprised none of them ran into each other.

Here I am at our lunch spot, with my fat and vigilant raven friend:

After lunch, we continued down past the Aescher hut and finally into Wasserauen.  The hike down was pretty steep at times, and the fourth picture below includes a crazy guy climbing some seriously vertical rocks!

On Sunday, we were a little tired from Saturday's hike, plus we had to drive 5 hours back to Germany in the late afternoon so we decided to simply wander around the alpine meadows above Unterwasser and the neighboring town of Wildhaus. We were able to start this hike from our hotel; we walked to the Oberdorf ski lift and rode that to the top (Gamsalp), then started on what we thought was an 8-mile all-downhill hike. Nope!  There was some uphill to get higher than the top of the lift, which was fine, but after that the hike kind of went up and down through overgrown, nearly-trail-less, rocky areas.  Gorgeous day though, so we enjoyed just being outdoors.  We ended up cutting the hike short and skipping the lake we had planned to get to because it was just too far away.  This hike was probably a little more than the advertised 8 miles.  The incomplete part we did was a little over 8 miles on its own.

Anyway, look at the views!  And the wildflowers!  Love the Swiss countryside.

For your viewing pleasure, a video with the sounds of hiking in Switzerland - cow bells!

Another German Wedding!

This past weekend we attended our third German wedding. It had some commonalities with the other German weddings we'd attended, and also a few new things. It took place in the town of Limburg an der Lahn, which is a bit north of Frankfurt. Below is a picture of Martin and myself walking up some stairs to get to the church and then a picture of the church from our hotel room window (taken the following day, when the sun was actually out).



It started with a church ceremony which was the same as any church wedding ceremony we've been to in any country. A few differences were that the bride and groom hung out in the church as guests arrived and greeted people, then the wedding started - exactly. on. time. Afterwards, we all wandered outside the church and drank some sparkling wine and ate some soft pretzels in true German style.



After we enjoyed our hors d'oeuvres, we walked a bit to the reception location, "The Little Kitchen". This was a catering company that had a reception hall with indoor and outdoor space. It was really nice. There we ate a nice dinner, enjoyed an open bar, and chatted with the other guests. We were sat at a table with other Americans (and one Brit, the photographer), which was fun. Below is a picture of the bride and groom giving a little speech. The father of the bride also gave a speech but that was it for speeches.



Our "American table", and Martin and I together.



One of the unique things about this wedding was that the bride and groom had to saw through a log of wood! We'd never seen that before, and it's apparently not a German tradition but just something fun the best man decided to put the bride and groom through. Germans, especially Bavarians, like to play games on the bride and groom on their wedding day and they're usually challenging or embarrassing in nature like this. But this looked like a lot of work.

Later on, some of the groom's friends performed a song that they had written about him. Germans really like to sing and entertain at weddings. And anything goes - singing, short skits, games, even ventriloquism.



At 10pm, the bride and groom cut their heart-shaped strawberry shortcake, then the second round of cocktails is started up, the DJ starts up, dancing gets going, etc. Then at midnight a second dinner is served. This is typical at European weddings, which go at least until 3am.



My friend Kara and I starting our second round of cocktails.



An extra special thing about this wedding was that the bride's father made a whole newspaper about the bride and groom! It was a solid 18 pages long, full color, and came with a quiz inside! Martin and I got the quiz correct but we were third place in finishing it. Not to bad for the Americans though, considering the whole paper was in German.