Sam and Miranda left for Paris 2 days ago leaving Sooz and me to rest our bones - they wore us out. It was a blast to see them for 5 days. They fly home to NYC Monday.
Tuesday the four of us took a train to the bizarre town of Oberwald. It was one of those travel days where nothing seems to go as planned or hoped, and the best thing to do is sit back and see where the day takes you. First, we wanted to take a train so everyone could enjoy the scenery without one of us driving. It was a fine thought, but after we boarded the train we found out that over half of the ride was going through a tunnel - no scenery, just black walls. Second, Overwald is one weird town. It is very small and there was nobody there - almost nobody. There were no other people walking around, most of the establishments were closed and several of the Swiss-style buildings looked burned out.
We stopped in at the tourist office and the lady working there pointed us to a park where we could eat the food we had packed with us. We were thinking it would be a nice park by a stream, but it turned out to be a bizarre series of connected tree platforms built by a group of Swiss adults whose mission it is to save natural lands. Very strange. We made it back to our apartment having survived the Twilight Zone trip and with another tale to tell.
Wednesday, Sam and Miranda wanted to go hiking so we went hiking. It turned out to feel like we were climbing the Matterhorn, all uphill with no end in sight. Just as Sooz and I sat on a bench to call it a day, Miranda walked just a little further and found a beautiful waterfall.
Thursday and Friday we layed low, doing laundry, buying groceries and planning where we will go when we leave Andermatt in 6 days. I can't believe our month in Andermatt is up in 6 days. But, 6 days is still a lot of time to enjoy.
Today Sooz and I took the bike out for a loop of only about 50 miles but we went over 3 mountain passes and saw some incredible sights. The 3 passes we crossed today were Furka, Nufenen and Gotthard. We had crossed Furka before a couple of times and it is a lot of fun. Traffic today was pretty thick. There were a lot of motorcycles out and a bicycle event going up to Furka so I was very focused for most of the ride.
We stopped in the town of Airolo for lunch and to pick up a few things at the pharmacy there. There is no pharmacy in Andermatt, you can't even buy Tylenol, you have to buy it at a pharmacy. Airolo is really an Italian town located in Switzerland. According to Wikipedia, most of the population (as of 2000) speaks Italian (85.6%), with German being second most common (3.6%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (3.3%). All of signs and menus are in Italian.
HERE is a video of the waterfall we (Miranda) found during our hike.
HERE is a short video of our ride to Furka Pass taken by Sooz from the back of the bike.
Sam and Miranda enjoying the dark train ride to Oberwald
Sooz making fun of me as I meditate in the dark tunnel
This is the tree platform structure in Oberwald the tourist lady told us about. We ate our picnic lunch there and then left quickly. If you want to learn more about Outdoor Tech, the group that built this, click HERE
A creepy looking church and graveyard in Oberwald.
Our epic hike on Wednesday
A wedding party in Andermatt we stumbled upon
This is the route we took today.
The remaining pictures below are from our ride today, most of them taken by Sooz. It was a glorious day to be in the Alps.
A great view of the switchbacks on the way to Nufenen Pass taken by Sooz
Me trying take pictures as good as Sooz, also with my riding gloves on.
