Interlaken Day 2

Saturday morning Caitlin and I woke up to the natural sunlight shining in on us from the skylight above our beds.  We felt so much better after a good nights sleep under our belt, and the excitement of the day before us.  We got up, dressed, and walked downstairs to get breakfast in the hostel.

Shortly after we walked to the shop next door where we each picked out snow pants to rent for the day.  We then walked across the street and got a hot chocolate to start the day off right.

Enjoying my hot chocolate in a cozy sled at Balmers

After enjoying our drinks we stuffed all of our essentials into the pockets of the snow pants, and headed back to the shop where we met up with the rest of the group.  We were fitted for snow shoe boots, which are extremely heavy, and then piled into the van to head off for the mountains.

We drove up the mountain a significant portion, then got out, grabbed our snow shoes and headed up even further in a gondola.

Gondola Ride

Well worth the effort to get to the starting point, because the path began already in one of the most beautiful spots I have ever seen, and we were only going higher. 

Starting point

My snowshoes 

We put our snow shoes on and were off! The path started out on a flat surface, in a relatively packed down area of snow.  Then we turned the corner, and the real workout began. 

Fresh snow for us to hike up, definitely harder than following someone else's path

Me trying really hard to get up this hill

About halfway up we stopped to take a breath, get some water, and our tour guide handed out chocolate treats.  He gave us all Toblerone candies, the shape of which he showed us was modeled after one of the mountains right in front of us!  

Caitlin and Me at the mid-point stop

Me at the peak of our hike

As you can see I am not wearing a coat, and thank goodness I did not bring it because it was hot! Not only was the sun beating down on us, but snow shoeing is a hard workout and we were all sweating at this point. I could definitely begin to like snow if it was like this all the time.

Admiring the view

 The other side of the high point held a view of Interlaken's town. Interlaken is special because it is located in a valley flanked on either side by two lakes, and all of this is wedged between two mountain ranges.  We were at the top of one and you could see down upon the city.  Beyond that is the other mountain that holds the site of Sunday's activity. 

Interlaken

After getting to the highest point of the hike we all looked to our guide in curiosity as to how we would get back down the mountain.  Well, instead of reversing our long trek up, he told us that we would essentially be running down the backside of the mountain.  With snowshoeing you have to go with the momentum, and if you try and slow down or stop you will fall.  So we started downwards and I am not lying when I say that we ran down the entire mountain.  It was very scary to start moving but once you get going it was actually a lot of fun!

 Our path down the mountain

After the hike we headed back down the gondola, and the tour guide drove us back to the shop to drop off all of our gear.  We were famished by this point, and so Caitlin and I went across the street and picked up sandwiches for lunch, and the most delicious brownies we have ever had for dessert. After lunch we felt rejuvenated and decided to make the walk to one of the two lakes that surrounds Interlaken. 

Walk along the river

Lake Brienz 

Panoramic View, You can see Caitlin in the bottom right hand corner 

This is a very long post but every photo was so great it needed to be on here.  Everything about this day was incredible; one of my favorite days from this whole year.