Previous
Tuesday July 1, 2014
Verbier, Chamonix, and Zermatt
Wednesday July 2, 2014
Zermatt, Leuk Stadt, and Leukerbad
Next
Thursday July 3, 2014
Leukerbad, Martigny, and Champex
Wednesday morning it was cloudy, and it was supposed to rain
eventually. Kent and I decided to recuperate in the hot
springs of Leukerbad.
We ate breakfast and eventually took the
train down to Visp and then over to Leuk (pronounced Loik). There
was almost nothing at the Leuk train station. We decided to hike
up to Leuk Stadt while we were waiting for the bus to Leukerbad.
Kent's pic
The hike up the hill turned out to be more than we had bargained for -
the hill was steep and our bags were heavy. I thought I found the
Leuk Stadt bus stop, but I had instead found a post office. The
postman, who didn't understand Engligh, drove through town directing us
to the bus stop - we arrived just in time to see the bus depart.
Kent wanted to see the town so we wandered back downhill where Kent
made an amazing discovery. He walked into the unlocked, unmarked
door under the church and about ten minutes later came back outside and
told me to check it out.
Kent had found the Leuk Charnel house. No one had any idea there
were bones beneath the church until 1981 when they remodelled the
church with plans to put a community center in the basement.
It started to sprinkle while we were waiting for the bus. By the
time we got to Leukerbad it was raining. The TI helped us find a
cheap hotel. Kent managed to buy that umbrella he's been looking
for since Sion. We then our hotel, which was about a 10 minute
walk
from the bus station.
Back of the Hotel Paradis in Luekerbad, Switzerland
We checked in and made our way to the main
public swimming pool Leukerbad Therme.
All the signs were in German so things were more than a little
confusing, but we managed to get changed and find the pools. We
spent nearly two heavenly hours getting massaged by a number of
different kinds of jets in a number of different pools. The best
massage jets were thick streams of water that dropped out of
nozzles a few feet above the pool - they were perfect for massaging
your neck, shoulders, back, and arms. The sauna was so hot I couldn't
even stay in the room nonetheless get in the water. Another
favorite was a set of lounge chair with lots of small bubbler
jets. The best part, of course, was the amazing view of the
canyon walls around us with waterfalls coming down cause it was raining.
Luekerbad has an amazing via ferrata which you can see on the map above
and in the picture above it
Once we got back to the room I Skyped Kathy and my parents - my dad's
health continued to improve after his staph infection.
We went to dinner at a place with a big menu, cheesy synthesizer
player, and lots of Swiss families. Kent got fendant and pizza
margerita, i got merlot and calzone. Our service was lightning fast, we
had our food in 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure we got the American
treatment- they knew we wanted to eat, not talk all night (maybe I'm
wrong, but I dont think anyone else's service was as fast as
ours). We attracted a fair amount of attention from our neighbors
since we were the only English speakers in the restaurant.
I'm very, very sunburned from the hike Monday...
Previous
Tuesday July 1, 2014
Verbier, Chamonix, and Zermatt
Wednesday July 2, 2014
Zermatt, Leuk Stadt, and Leukerbad
Next
Thursday July 3, 2014
Leukerbad, Martigny, and Champex
