Katherine Goes Places: Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg

We ended up with another day of great weather today (weather.com is so wrong about Switzerland!), so after seeing all the paragliders floating over us yesterday, Peter decided it was something he needed to experience. My budget made this an automatic nein for me, which I can't say I was too sorry about. As awesome as it looked, I'm not sure I'd want to be dangling thousands of feet in the air with only some yardage of nylon keeping me aloft. Instead, I opted to follow a route suggested by my neighbor at home (thanks, Jerry!), who has traveled with his wife in this region a few times himself.

I hopped the train over to the next stop, then took the gondola up to Männlichen, which is about 7,600 feet up and the starting point for a number of hikes. It took a solid half hour to go up the mountain via gondola.

There were so many lush and scenic meadows/fields along the way, I was tempted several times to pry the doors open and jump out. It's so rare to see such beautiful, open stretches of land without any other person in sight, so I had this irrational urge to run across them or roll around or frolic or something. I'm sure that would have been very entertaining for everyone else riding the gondolas, not to mention the cows (although they probably would have found it alarming), but I managed to restrain the impulse. Speaking of cows, these Swiss cows have got to be the happiest cows I've ever seen. It's common to see them lying on their side, basking in the sunshine like giant cats. The first time I saw this, I thought maybe the cow was sick or dead until its tail swished lazily through the air. Nope. Not sick or dead--just blissed out.

When I reached Männlichen, I was pleasantly surprised by how few people were around. Unlike First yesterday, Männlichen was very quiet, which I appreciated as I took in views like this:

(can you make out the tiny village at the bottom where I started?)

Another thing I appreciated were these little grassy tufts everywhere that functioned nicely as a natural ottoman to sit on:

My first attempt at a selfie with the mountains (no brother to snap photos this time around) got me and a bunch of grass. And some folks having a picnic.

Angle is important, as it turns out. So turning to stare directly into the sun and going the vertical route, I managed to get this (much better, although I can't help feeling that it looks like I'm standing in front of a fake backdrop--it's just so perfect):

We heard from someone local that winter lasted much longer than usual this year, which was evident in the large blocks of snow everywhere. Apparently, they're usually gone by now. It made things a little tricky in a few spots on the path, but I managed even though I wasn't tricked out in professional hiking gear like everyone else on the path.

(this stream soaked one of my feet as I went across. I forgave it since it's so pretty)

The walk took a good hour and thirty minutes, and about 45 minutes in, I realized I'd left the protein bar I'd planned to eat in my other bag. Fortunately, I had a small package of that nutrient rich food known as the gummy bear, which sustained me until I reached civilization. Once at Kleine Scheidegg, I got some real food, then caught the train going back down the mountain.