Falling in Love with a Belgian....waffle: Switzerland, According to My Senses

The sights, the smells, the sounds. My senses were captured the moment we sat down on the train, winding us through the Swiss lands.

It was past midnight when we first set foot in Interlaken, Switzerland. The town was silent; the wind whistled past the old buildings. The streets lay cobbled beneath our feet. Our laughter echoed in the streets as we realized where we were and what was looming above our heads. The mountains. They encapsulated us in a valley, a bowl.

I'll skip the details of our night at Balmers. #Balmers, the hostile of mountaineers, cheapskate college kids, and of those who didn't even make it to college. We survived, and actually fairly easily at that.

Interlaken had a mountain in store for us. Harder Kulm, 1322 m up and 1322 m back down.

We hiked while listening to "The Climb" by the one and only, Miley Cyrus. While we hiked and sang, we saw wildflowers dotting the fields with purples of every hue and the blues and the yellows. The rocks jumped out of the ground and gave our feet something to dance around. The tree roots did the same.

We tasted the fruits of the Earth-blackberries. It brought back my memories of my cabin in Ellijay, GA where we would pick blackberries and eat them before they even made it into the pies and cobblers. It brought back memories of Papa's garden, where the blackberries were size XL. I ate the berries while the rest of the crew stared at me, scared of my impending death. I know my fruits, no worries, they were safe to eat. I dodged the ones with ants and mold and ate only those, sweet and fresh.

After resting in the fields on the way up the mountain, we made it. We shouted for joy when we looked out over the ledge. The Earth was below us, and the blue-turquoise waters glistened out in the distance.

So that was that. Hike one: complete- well after we made our descent.

We then took a train to Grindelwald, Switzerland. The town was homey and cute. It was another valley, but this time, the houses were few, and the elevations were even higher. Actually, they were a whole lot higher.

The houses were old, and they each had window boxes filled with brightly colored flowers. The houses were labeled by name, carved into the wood. Our house was 107 years old and looked over the valley and up the mountain. It was quaint, and there was an old German-speaking woman who lived downstairs. We tried to talk, but it was mostly smiles and hand motions, some made up German, and a wave goodbye.

Ok, now here come the hikes of my life. Cable car up, where the views got progressively more incredible. There were cows all over the place. (For Christy Hess we played the "My Cow" game all weekend-I should be winning that game by now, by the way.) Their bells rung out, and they mooed their little (large) hearts out. There was a kind of silence that overcame us, then the bells would chime, and the breeze would cast a cool across us as the sun warmed our backs, our hands, our hearts.

We screamed and leapt around when we got to the top. Hiking around was incredible, each view more and more beautiful with every turn. I ate Swiss chocolate and a crunchy peanut butter sandwich while looking over the mountains. The clouds crept across the mountains as we sat, and the sun peeked in and out.

There was also a marathon going on that day. It was 25 km in Interlaken, then 16 km up THE WHOLE ENTIRE MOUNTAIN. I'm telling you, those people were crazy, but my respect for them is high. Very very high. We watched many people cross the finish line as we hiked. There were marching bands and street vendors and a whole lot of runners. I love that kind of thing, so this was great!

I'm going to now briefly describe the descent back to Grindelwald. Steep. I have new muscles in my shins and glutes now. My favorite part was the stream of water we found though. It was glacier water, and it was clear, absolutely crystal clear. The water was irresistible. We had to dip our feet in. We cleaned our feet and enjoyed the icy cold it provided.

After resisting gravity on the way down the mountain, we rested when we finally found a pizza place at the bottom of the mountain. It tasted divine. As we sat on the porch balcony of the restaurant, the views were also divine. What a great day. September 13.