Hiking, biking, and kayaking in where else but Switzerland

We got into Zurich at 9 am on June 1. Jeff spent about 6 Euros on bottled water because in the bathroom it had a sign saying that you couldn’t drink the water. Being the thriftier one I drank it anyways. I figured they put the sign there because they only had a finite reserve but the way my stomach felt a couple hours later made me think it wasn’t safe to drink. The plan was to go to Luzern and then to Interlocken but Jeff was still out of it so he headed straight to Interlocken. Luzern is supposed to be a nice city with great views, however it was somewhat cloudy when I was there so couldn’t get the full view of all the mountains when I was there.

Also another think that hindered my visit was my terrible stomach ache. I would be fine one second and then felt like I was being cut open the next. The only way I could get rid of it was by laying flat for about 5 or more minutes and it would slowly go away for about an hour or so. This stuck with me the entire day and when in Luzern it hit me as I was walking through town. After about 5 minutes I couldn’t even stand up straight and felt I might throw up from the amount of pain so I laid down on the sidewalk for a couple minutes and then it cleared up. I was happy it went away, but I also felt extremely awkward since I was lying on the sidewalk rolling side to side in pain and then casually got up and walked away.

After 3 hours in Luzern I was all set and headed out to Bern which is the capital of Switzerland. Most of the public buildings where closed for whatever reasons, so I just walked around town and checked out some of the sites.

Right next to where I took the above picture and one of the only signs they had in english. Are english speaking people the only ones throwing rocks off? and no please?

The bear den.

Bern also had a flower garden that gave a good panoramic of the city

It was also the hometown of Einstein from 1909-1919 if I remember correctly

After getting my fulfillment of pictures I headed out to Interlocken. When I got there Jeff was laying in bed reading. This hostel had a happy hour from 6-7 PM in the biergarten and 9-10PM in their bar. Making it in time for the second one I headed down with our roommates. One of the guys, Matt, said he wanted to go hiking tomorrow and since Jeff wasn’t going anywhere fast I told him I would go.

So the next morning we headed out on our hike on a day that was 60% chance of rain. The path was very unique in the fact that it went through peoples personal property and you would have to do undue barbwire to get through and then put it back up. Some gates were immobile and actually had to climb through.

It didn’t really start to rain on us until we got into the clouds

Once we got above the first layer of clouds it wasn’t as bad. When we got to the top it, it was enveloped in clouds and could only see a couple hundred feet out. There was a restaurant on top so we decided to eat and hope that it would clear up before we left which it did (somewhat).

After that we started on our way down which is my least favorite part. I always put too much pressure on my knees and after a while I could start to feel the pain in the knee I hurt in Berlin. When I got back Jeff and Dom (one of our other roommates) where getting ready to go kayaking and even though I was very hungry and in pain I cannot resist kayaking, especially in the Swiss Alps. Dom said he knew where the rental place was and was told to ask a hostel right in that area if we couldn’t find it. Well we ended up not being able to find it, but we did see the hostel they were talking about. When we walked in, it was a ghost town and no one working the desk. After standing there for about 5 minutes some guy emerged from behind the door to help us. He looked way out of it and where pretty sure he was stoned or we woke him up. After asking him where to rent kayaks he told us we just rent them from that hostel. Once the paper work was done he gave us our gear and helped push us off. After helping each one of us individually he would laugh for some reason. The kayaks he gave us where sit-on-tops meaning it was a lot easier to get wet and both Dom and I had a giant puddle of freezing glacial water in our kayaks.

Dom getting in his kayak

When we got back Jeff retired to his usually spot, the bed. Dom and I decided to go hit up happy hour after we saw loads of girls entering the bar. When we got there we found out it wasn’t an illusion and the girl to guy ratio was about 9:1. The downside however is at such a high ratio the guys get intimidated so the girls occupied the entire dance floor as all the guys hugged the bar. Dom and I decided to be one of the first to break the boundary by getting a table near the dance floor and natural a bubble of no girls formed around us as we moved through them lol. After a few beers and some scouting we hit the dance floor. After multiple failures and the pain reoccurring in my knee from Berlin we called it quits (by this time the ratio had reversed).

The next day we decided to do some biking. Interlocken is pretty much the lowest spot of land around so right from the get go we were already sweating from going uphill. 

We took a long lunch break after going about 300 meters up (which doesn’t seem like much but its up and down not just up) in Lauterbrunnen which had an amazing view, minus the fact the clouds blocked some of it.

After running into Matt we had a change of plans and decided to keep going south till we got to the next city and from there we took the lift up about 800 meters to a town called Muerren. Once there we watched some paragliders take off and after that we began our downhill ascent on our bikes.

After whizzing through the town the road only got steeper. I had my watch going and we went a good hour and half without pedaling. We stopped a few times after we could smell the burning rubber of the breaks on our bikes. You would think  the mountain bikes they would give you would have disc brakes but then again they probably don’t expect people to bring the bikes about 1000 meters above Interlocken. We made it back just in time to get the first happy hour and the grill was still open so got some burgers and beer. All of us where pretty whipped after our biking expedition so had an easy night and just relax at the bar before calling it a night.

The next day I was hell-bent on going hiking. After talking to one of the woman that worked at the hostel she pointed out a good trail that she said should be open. Jeff wasn’t too sure and decided he was going to just stay in bed so I headed out solo. I took a train up about 1300 meters and began my hike along the ridge of the mountains.

After climbing some more elevation clouds began to form around me and I began to come into contact with snow. Soon there was snow everywhere and the markers for the trail where covered. It was weird feeling because I was wearing shorts and a shirt as I am walking through snow and sweating like crazy.

After giving up on trying to find the trail (and the fact that my feet where now soaked) I turned back. Once I got into a clearing I took off my shoes and socks and let them sundry for about half an hour or more and just took in the view. One the way back I took a different way so I walked on the other side of the ridge and was able to get some good views of Interlocken.

By this time I have been on top for about 5 hours and was starting to feel the burn of the sun since I neglected to put on sun screen. By the time I got back to the train station I was already turning quite red. Missing the train by about 5 minutes I had to wait about an hour and a half until the next train so I just laid in the shade and relaxed. On the train ride down I was looking around the train and spotted Jeff about 5 rows back passed out leaning against the window (really weird chance I know). When we got back we grabbed our bags and checked into our new place. Since we didn’t have Friday night initially reserved we had to move to their other location called tent city in which you slept in a tent with 3 bunk beds. It was pretty much as bad as you would expect it to be. Not wanting to stay there Jeff and I headed back to the hostel for happy hour. Jeff still wasn’t feeling that well so didn’t drink and once again makes me look like the alcoholic. After chatting it up with a couple of people we headed back to tent city. When we got there our tent door was open and the light was on but when we went in no one was there. After deciding whether the people that moved in where just really that dumb or just ran out for a minute (it turned out to be the former) we turned off the light and went to bed. They showed up about half an hour after we laid down at around 1 am.

About an hour later we woke up to a loud uproar as the rest of the people showed up. The 3 people in our tent where part of a group from Texas and the whole tent next to us was also part of that group and as you imagine tents aren’t very sound proof. One of them came in our tent to find one of the people from their group and shined a light about 6 inches away from Jeff face in which he yelled “Jesus” lol. Luckily I was able to find my ear plugs and Jeff put on his iPod so we went back to sleep. Waking up in the morning we left tent city, stopped by the grocery store, and then got on the train to Brussels on Saturday June 5. I bought a giant loaf of bread with some beef sticks in which I would take a bite of each and enjoy the great merger of the two in my mouth and I slowly lost consciousness as we traveled through the terrible country of France.

B