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Thursday August 23, 2012
Les Haudères to Cabane de Prafleuri
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Friday August 24, 2012
Cabane de Prafleuri to Bern
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Saturday August 25, 2012
Bern to Colmar
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Friday morning I woke up well before dawn and went downstairs. It
was quite dark; I lingered for an hour in the mud room by
flashlight. The common room locked since no one else was
awake, the bathroom was the only room with a light on. The sky
was quite gray. If we were to continue on
our hike, we would have had significant logistic problems meeting Mike.
Today's hike was supposed to be the longest yet, and somehow also had
to deal with 2 hours of bus and train rides to get to the next
hike. I made an executive decision to abandon the hike and head
to a city - any city, though I had my heart set on Thun.
Once the rest of the crew woke up, no one had a problem abondoning the
hike. We'd seen and done plenty, and getting back to
'civilization' wasn't too bad an idea.
We had breakfast at 6:30, eating at our designated tables. While
we were drinking coffee and discussing the days plans an ibex
approached the cabin. I'd been lugging my long lens all across
Switzerland, so I was going to get a good picture of an ibex if it
killed both of us. I managed to take a few dozen pictures from a
distance for about
7 minutes before the ibex decided I was too close and he moved
on. We named the Ibex 'Kev', after Kevin Reynolds, the author of
the Chamonix to Zermatt Cicerone guidebook.
Last breakfast was at 7am, and shortly after that the staff was chasing
us out of our rooms. We decided to hike down through the tunnel -
this gave us an excuse to use the headlamps we'd all brought.
This valley was quarried to make the dam, and then the rocks were
transported through the tunnel on a conveyer belt to the other side of
the mountain, where they were put in place to make the dam. Mike
had hiked up this trail yesterday.
The other end of the tunnel opened up above the dam. We hiked
down to the dam, then a few of us walked out onto it to take pictures.
The first gondola down to the base of the dame didn't leave until 9:15,
and the first bus from the base of the dam into Sion didn't leave until
10:30. We had plenty of time to kill at the top of the gondola
and in the hotel dining room.
The Hotel du Barrage is amazingly ugly, inside and out.
Fortunately they served juice and coffee.
The bus ride out of the Alps, looking
back into the Alps
No idea what those rock formations are in the bottom foreground
The bus trip into Sion took an hour. The bus missed the balconies
of the homes and business by inches as it barrelled down the
valley. I was quite impressed with the driver - clearly he'd done
this dozens or hundreds of times. On the way into Sion I noticed that
we passed
a few luxury car dealers. One doesn't expect to see a luxury car
dealer in a town of only 32,000. It occurred to me that being in
the heart of a country that has skimmed money off billions of financial
transactions for
hundreds of years has its advantages.
Kent had never seen Bern before, so we decided to head to Bern.
We had about 45 minutes before the next train, so we ate lunch at a
crowded Italian cafe, getting slices of pizza. I was convinced
we'd never get served in time to make the train, but we had our pizza
and beer and caught our train just in time.
The train station in Bern was enormous. This was the first time
I'd ever arrived in town without a place to stay. The TI found us
rooms at the Hotel Bern (which has since become the Best Western Hotel
Bern).
View from our room at the Hotel Bern
Hotel Bern
We settled in and decided to go for a swim in
the Aare River. The Aare is lined by Marzilibad - an endless,
huge park with soccer fields and swimming pools. It was a
gorgeous warm day, and it seemed half of Bern was at the park.
Aare River from the Terrace in back of
Bundeshaus, looking south
Marzilibad is partially hidden by the trees on the right bank
We ended up hiking farther than you can see the river
Marzilibad, with Bundeshaus in the
background
Kent, Ray, and Paul hiked most of mile upstream to the Altenbergsteg footbridge and jumped off it into the fast
rushing, glacier cold
Aare. After a few minutes they swam over to the side of the river
and exited on one of several strategically placed sets of
stairs. Anyone who fails to exit the Aare in time ends up quickly
at a dam in the heart of town, and each year a few tourists end up
dead, which is why I chose not to swim (that, and I don't like ice cold
water... or jumping off of bridges). Kent, Ray, and Paul
couldn't stop talking about how great the river swim was, so we all
hiked
back upstream, and this time Kent and I took video while Paul, Ray, and
Mike jumped into the river.
Dusty's video
Paul's video taken by Kent
We walked back to the hotel through the Bundeshaus.
After showers
we wandered around Bärenplatz looking for a good place for beer and
dinner. We were dying for a gourmet French meal but ended up
settling for typical Swiss faire at a typical Swiss restaurant on
Bärenplatz, primarily
because it served
beer and had an empty table inside. While we were dining the rain
came pouring down - a large tableful of diehard men continued their
beer in the rain. We were very glad we weren't hiking in the alps
in the rain
... again.
Paul's video
my video
Previous
Thursday August 23, 2012
Les Haudères to Cabane de Prafleuri
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Friday August 24, 2012
Cabane de Prafleuri to Bern
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Next
Saturday August 25, 2012
Bern to Colmar
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