Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Wasserauen-Ebenalp and the Seealpsee: our Saturday hike.

I've heard rumors that the Swiss hiking times and classifications are exaggerated, usually against you. Despite knowing that, I've been wanting to try out hike #2 for awhile. The summary said easy, and although it said steep in some portions I figured we (read: Brian) could just carry Marion for those portions.

We totally underestimated this hike. While it is easy for adults, not so much with kids. And "steep in portions" is actually about 50% steep.

Despite that, we went with some friends, completed the hike, and had a lovely day. The weather was perfect, the kids helped each other along, and it was a perfect way to spend a Saturday.

We began our day with a cable car ride up (take your half fare card if you have one, they accept it).
Once at the top we admired the view, tried to count how many people were going to paraglide (a ton), and started on our way down to the Wildkirchli cave.



The cave wasn't far from Ebenalp. Marion LOVED the cave but was sad that her friend, the big hungry bear, wasn't there.



After the cave there has a little hut and church followed by Ascher, a small guesthouse and restaurant.



We stopped there for a short snack and then continued down towards the Seealpsee where we planned to have lunch.



This was the steep part. Doable with kids, but proceed with caution!

Towards the end of the steep portion of our hike, we came upon a turnstile. In the middle of the woods.

I got nothing. If you know why this is sitting in the middle of a hiking path, please share!

My favorite part of this portion of our hike was when Marion's fear of ants (came out of nowhere) sent her into hysterical fits that made it impossible for her to walk. We took turns to try to console her, reason with her, move her along, but this girl was so over the edge nothing really worked. Finally the ants subsided and she was back to her old self. Finding a flower patch helped.

Eventually we made our way to the Seealpsee Gasthaus, settled in with drinks, and let the kids play on the playset.



Happy kids with ice cream!


Have I mentioned how gorgeous it was? I can see why the Swiss spend all of their time outside when the weather is nice.


We left the Seealpsee and continued down to the cable station. On our way, we realized that there were a TON of paragliders above us.

Yes, those aren't birds. Those are all paragliders! Insane.

We were not 10 minutes down from where we had lunch when Marion announced that she had to go pee. Brian helped her out and I just couldn't help but to document the process.

Sometimes it sucks being a girl. And poor Brian, Betti's on his head and Marion's taking her sweet time!

Betti finally passed out on the way down.

And then Marion decided she didn't want to walk. So Brian carried her on top of our sleeping baby.

What a man :)

The cherry on top of our day were the cows we ran in to at the end of our hike.

The one on the left checked out Brian's bum.

I'm not even lying.

It was a full day and the kids were pooped once we got back to our cars. So we left pretty quickly to get them home to bed. Great, great day. I hope for more of these in our future, if only the weather would cooperate!

11 comments:

rachaelgking said...

Paragliding off of that looks like it'd be AMAZING. So pretty!

grammie said...

What a great outing. Love seeing Marion using the hiking poles.

Wonderful pics Megs, as usual :)
esp the paragliding...they really are so close to each other.

Nadine and her fam also look great.

Love to all,
Mom

Hoppy said...

Great post!!! Loved everything about it! What a great experience for you guys. Love to all.

ToadMama said...

I'm with Hoppy. Great post! I laughed out loud at the potty picture! What an amazing setting (in general, not for pottying). The one with the guesthouse on the side of the mountain was cool. I LOVED the cow pics. But how funny is it that Marion goes into hysterics over ants, but seems perfectly comfortable standing in the street with a herd of big ole cows coming at her.

Mike said...

I have no idea why that turnstile is there but I can tell you this -
If that turnstile was located here, some knucklehead from Annapolis would build a toll booth next to it and charge you $2 to go through it!

Romy said...

Gorgeous-looking hike! Will have to add that one to my list for the summer! :)

H. Pierre Schlomo Presley said...

I love the shot of Marion on top of sleeping Betti! That's quite a hike.

Anonymous said...

The turnstile is used to prevent animals such as cow to pass through. Only human being knows how to pass thru', right?

Jacky Lau said...

The turnstile is used to prevent wild animals to pass thru'.

Tiffany said...

I discovered your blog while planning our upcoming trip to Switzerland in May. Could you tell me more about this hike? We will be staying in Thun near Bern. Is this hike nearby?

mrsmac said...

Tiffany- unfortunately no, this is not close to Thun. However, you will be close to Trummelbach Falls, Interlaken, and Grindelwald and there are many hikes in that area!