Ebenalp

Diane's Journal

We started our day with the church bells ringing. By the way, an update on those bells—they do ring every morning. We were just sleeping in before, and with the window closed we didn’t hear them.

We got up early and headed straight for the Ebenalp cable car. It was a short train ride and then a short cable car ride. This one had a steep elevation, and we were packed in like sardines going up—which was actually good, because I was in the middle and couldn’t really see how high and steep it was. I just caught glimpses of the cliff beside us. Going up is always harder for me because I get the feeling I might fall backwards.

The views at the top were magnificent. It was sunny, so we could see in every direction. We first did a loop hike around the top, then hiked down to the Äscher mountain guesthouse. To get there we had to walk through a cave up to  a church and then along the mountain to get to the hotel built right into the mountain.

As we were hiking I recognized so many flowers at the top—dandelions, buttercups, clover. It felt like being back in Washington.

We also got to watch paragliders launch off the mountain and glide down. It was amazing—they make it look so simple.

After finishing our time on the mountain, we went back to the hotel to grab our luggage and then began our journey to Chur. Because of rail construction and not wanting to go through Zurich, we ended up taking four trains. Some rides were as short as 10 minutes, others about half an hour, and the last one was 45 minutes. It took a bit of maneuvering, but we made it.

We’re now staying in the attic of a hotel built over 300 years ago. The ceiling is held by thick, old wooden beams. I find myself wondering about the hands that shaped them so many years ago.

For dinner, we ate at a local restaurant. Since this is venison season, we tried a salad topped with venison and mushrooms.Yum!!

Now we’re looking forward to our Bernina Express train ride tomorrow.

Marc's Journal

Coming