Meiringen, Switzerland Saturday, August 18, 2012

Where We Stayed

Breakfast starts at 0800 and we are right on time as we have another long day ahead. Breakfast is the typical cold cuts, cheese, bread, fresh yoghurt, and hard boiled( in this case soft boiled egg). Time to go but here is an update.
Last night we both had our first Swissters. My word for a Swiss blister. Carol has several and I just have a small one on my right heel. Some needle popping surgery last night to release the fluid and bandages today to protect them hopefully will make hiking bearable. Both of our legs are pretty stiff and tight. My calves are tight from the uphill and my thighs above my knees are sore from the downhill. No pain, no gain they say although I am not sure just what they think we will be gaining.

View From the Cable Car

We start out and walk back to the Titlis cable car where we catch a ride up to Truebsee, a lake on a plateau high above our hotel. From there we walk around the lake and take a lift up to the Jochpass. This gives us a fighting chance of making our destination of Meiringen. We descend from the Jochpass to another alpine lake called Engstlesee and Engstlenap which consists of a hotel and a few homes. Our legs are hurting and we have to choose whether to go on or take a bus from here.

Back Uphill

We decide to continue and start a climb up to Tannenalp. I have a few conflicting route choices. The official Via Alpina goes up to Tannalp and beyond. It looks like it climbs a ridge and then levels to another point where I see a cable car on the map to Meiringen. Another site has us going on a lower route above the valley to a lower cable car to Meiringen. Even though we do not have any information on the cable car on the high route, we decide to go that way for the views and experience, figuring we should be able to bail there if we need to. If it is not open, there is a descent which looks unpleasant to the lower cable car described on the other route.

Carol in Front

As we climb to Tannalp, feeling better going up then on the descent to Engstlenap, we catch up to an older Swiss lady, who is resting or waiting for someone. As soon as we reach her, she starts talking away to us in Swiss. I tell her in German, I don’t speak German and I don’t speak Swiss. She continues to rattle on so I say it again. She looks at me funny and I say Amerikaner. She smiles and says ah San Francisco und Denver, apparently telling us where she has been. Then she goes back to talking to us and finally gestures for us to go ahead of her. We do but it is not long before she is tailgating our boots. I motion for her to please go ahead and she soon leaves us in the dust. I think the Swiss are feeding some sort of steroids to their older generation. This lady had muscles in her thick legs that you would not believe.

Chapel at Tannalp

We finally make it to the small cluster of buildings including a chapel, that makes up Tannalp. There is super cold water from a spring and a shady spot on the porch of the chapel for us to sit and eat. Carol also attends to her blistered feet as they are bothering her. I am pretty beat and hurting but do not tell her, although I do offer to turn around and catch the bus.
All I can say is that my wife doesn’t have a lot of quit in her and wants to go on.

Tannalpsee

So, onward we go, around a lake just pass Tannalp and then immediately start another climb which eventually goes to Balmeregghorn the top of a ridge which the Swiss signpost says is 1 hour and 30 minutes. We toil our way up the hill and are glad to make the top and see a ridge that appears to be only slightly uphill. This turns out to be a trap as when we reach the high point of this ridge, there is a steep uphill to another. We now encounter logs as steps put in the trail to hold it together and prevent erosion or to torture hikers by making them step higher than a normal step over and over again. This just plain tests my already sore muscles.

On the Ridge

On the bright side we reach a knife edge ridge with views down to the valley below on one side and a lake and small ski village on the other. We can also view a large glacier across the valley as we hike. Finally, over two hours later we reach the Balmeregghorn where the map had shown it fairly level to Planplatten. We stop here for a snack and water and looking in front of us we can see another point. The problem is we have to descend and climb back up to it. Carol is really hurting on the descent but makes it and then we start our climb back up. Soon we are hiking on a cliff edge maybe 3 foot wide with a 4000-5000 foot drop. As we round a bend, two mountain bikers are riding the other way. We give them room to pass which they do on foot but I just think they are plain crazy. The trail is not smooth and if they fall, there won’t be much left of bike or rider at the bottom.

Closing in on Cable Car

Continuing along the ridge we round another bend and see Planplatten and that the cable car is running. It is still a bit away and it is now 3:30. I am afraid that based on another lift which closed early at the top that this was only open to 4 or 4:15.
This makes me pick up the pace and when I get close to the lift, there is an extremely steep hill to the top. I start to push to get there and right at 4:00 the lift stops. I am thinking no way we miss this by 2 minutes when all of a sudden it starts up again.

Made It

I reach a booth and ask the guy about tickets and he says you buy them here. I am sweating profusely from my mad dash, dripping all over and show him our Swiss pass which he says is no good for this lift. It is 76 SF for the two of us and 4 different rides to get to town but oh so worth it. 5000 foot of descent would surely have done us in and definitely would have been 3 more hours of walking.
We are glad to finally reach Meiringen and stop at a bench by a water fountain, drink cool refreshing water, and try to figure out how to get to our room.

Simons Heberge Room

We find Simons Herberge and when I ask what time dinner is, as we had reserved a half board, she says, no dinner. I say I reserved a half board, room with dinner and she says no dinner for only two person. Her English was as good as my Swiss so when she said pizza place down street, I left it at that, figuring I was not going to get dinner here regardless of what my reservation said. I did confirm a cheaper price with no dinner. We get two pizzas to go since the beer at the hostel was 1/2 the price at the restaurant. Two 8-10 inch pizzas for the bargain price of 33.50 SF.
When we return, there are three young men sitting outside, drinking beer at a table. Carol says hello and before long we are talking to them for 15 minutes or so. One of them, went to college last year in Colorado Springs. I get a couple of beers and we ask if they mind if we sit with them. Two hours of fun conversation later, they go to get pizza. While they are gone, two girls come over and ask if we mind if they sit there. They are playing Yatzay, which is the same as our Yahtzee. We talk to them and find out they live in Basel on the Swiss Border. One is a school teacher and has the summer off. Some more great conversation turns into talk about food, specifically chocolate, which they say Swiss is better than Belgian, and cheesecake which in Germany and Switzerland is nothing like American. Katherine had been to San Francisco and eaten at the Cheesecake Factory. We exchange e mails to send them our cheesecake recipe and get a German banana toffee cake recipe from them.

Kai, Daniel, and Elias

At this time, the boys from Hamburg return from their pizza excursion and sit down with us again. We have a great time discussing politicians, fears about culture, why countries can’t get along, German toilet paper, Swiss grandmas on steroids, hiking, and whatever else comes up. A guy from Bern Switzerland joins in and talks about the different cantons and their idiosyncrasies. It was just a fun evening spent with these fine young men from Hamburg. Ladies, get these men now while you still can! Daniel, Kai, and Elias, thank you for a memorable evening. We hope you are enjoying the rest of your hike and hope to keep in touch. If you find a way to the U.S. , we will take you on some nice day hikes and show you around. On our journey, we have met several special people along the way and you three definitely made our night, especially after our rough day of hiking. There is definitely hope for the world with understanding young people like yourselves. Carol says save money and drip dry next time!
CNC
Two thoughts I have from today: Meet People and Learn from Them – from our evening
It’s always taller than it looks, it’s always harder than it looks, it’s always farther than it looks, it’s always steeper than it looks, and the Swiss hiking times on their signs are always shorter than what the average human can do. – from my hiking experience today

Expenses
15SF- Titlis cable car from Gerschnialp to Truebsee
12SF- cable car to Jochpass
76SF- 4 stage cable car from Panplatten to Meiringen
33.50 SF- 2 pizzas
18 SF- 4 beers
80SF- Simons Herberge without half board

Miles Walked – 11.4 Miles
2.1 mph moving average, 1.6 mph overall average