Tamara in Switzerland: Ebenalp

On Wednesday we had surprisingly pleasant weather. Urs had been wanting to go to Ebenalp so we took the opportunity and off we went. Now I have been there before in the winter when snow was still on the ground and posted about it earlier. But of course things always look different when they're green, and this time we hiked all the way down, so there was more to see. We took the train to Wasserauen and proceeded to take the cablecar up. Then we started on the trail down the mountain. First there is some nice scenery at the top and then it starts winding its way along the side. There is one section where you walk through some prehistoric caves and leads onto a trail basically on the edge of a cliff where there is a cool little chapel and a restaurant/hotel. We stopped at the restaurant that is basically clinging to the side of the mountain and had some cider and cheese that was really good. I decided to take the opportunity to use the restroom to find that one "wall" was literally the mountain. So after that we made our way down and came to a part that leveled out. There was a little farm where you could buy cheese and have something to drink so we stopped and bought a wheel of cheese! Granted it's small, but it's still a wheel. Then we had some insanely fresh milk to drink. And because I'd had like a pint of cider and then a glass of milk, I decided it was wise to use the restroom again, and this time there was no real plumbing and was like one of those toilet seats over a hole type things. Well you gotta do what you gotta do I guess. So then we headed off again and a little while later the trail went into the forest and turn really rocky and steep. It seemed to go on forever and I wondered if it would ever end. Sometimes going down is just as hard as going up. By the end my legs hurt and a muscle near my groin was killing me (and I'm still sore today). We did pass by this one really large rock where people were rock climbing, which apparantly is really popular. Urs even told me that one place near the restaurant his father had climbed (and he apparantly scaled some mountains no one else had before and those were the days when you basically just had a rope and no fancy safety tools). But we finally made it down and almost had to run to catch the train. I'm still tired today and so was Ryan and since we were both grouchy we battled it out a couple times today. He didn't want to use toothpaste on his toothbrush and wouldn't take it out of his mouth so I basically told him no toothpaste, then no naptime stories, and that made him willingly put toothpaste on his toothbrush, so needless to say I won that battle. So tomorrow I'm off to Lausanne for the weekend and I'm hoping to visit CERN in Geneva and see some other cool things if the weather holds out. Off to pack now.