Europe – Page 4 – Globitrotter

Autumn hike in Switzerland

This past Saturday we did the Four Lake Hike (Vier Seen Wanderung) between Melchsee Frutt and Engelberg. The SBB (Swiss Railway) has a special ticket for this hike which includes train, bus and cable cars on both ends which makes it quite worth its price. Otherwise the trains and cable cars in Switzerland are very pricey.

In the valleys the fog was thick the entire day but above 1500 meters or so the sky was blue and the sun was shining. The perfect day for an autumn hike on high altitude.

Hiking along the rigde from Bonistock towards Tannensee. Below us on the right side there is a climbing wall with more than 130 routes in all ranges. Actually we came back on Sunday to do some climbing there.

Tannensee.

Having lunch at Engstlensee. This was the lowest point on the hike and after this we had to climb about 400 meters to Jochpass and then down again to reach the cable car on the other side. On Jochpass we did get a well deserved beer before we walked down the last bit. The hike took about 4 hours. With breaks we spent about 6 hours on the track.

All pictures were taken by Michael Wicki who brought us on this hike. Thanks for a great day, Quicky!

Autumn finally

One morning this week as I was heading off to the subway as usual I saw something unusual. I have been living here for almost 10 years and I can not remember seeing anything like it. It looked like the building was radiating.

A man who passed me as I was taking the picture had not noticed the light phenomenom but when he saw me looking up he had to stop and take a better look at it. How many people this morning missed out on this because they were only looking down at their feet?

It is now a lovely autumn, cold fresh air and sunshine. The sun is getting lower which means that the sunrise is now coinciding with my travel to work. The light this time of year is magic in the morning. The combination with the colours on the leaves makes this my favourite season in Stockholm. Not even the complete stop in the subway which added 30 min to my trip could spoil my mood after seeing this view.

Good things about hiking in the Alps

There are several reasons why I like hiking in the Alps. I like rock so the dramatic exposed peaks in the Alps suites me just perfectly. Other good things are that the season is a bit longer (than in Sweden at least) and there are no mosquitoes. Also if you don’t have a lot of time or don’t feel like hiking through the forest on low altitude or have problems with your knees you can in many places take the cable car. This way you can do cool hiking on high altitude even if you just want to do a day hike. But my favourite is that after a steep hike up to a hut somewhere you can always get something cold to drink.

Here, at the Weissmies Hütte in Saastal, we found a sofa where we spent the afternoon with a beer until the guy who worked in the hut came and told us that dinner was served. What a great place!

Via Ferrata (klettersteig) on Jegihorn

The weather made it! It was a beautiful day when we went out to climb the Via Ferrata on Jegihorn in Saastal. We had spent the night in Weissmies Hütte about 1 hour from the start of the Via Ferrata.

The first part of the the route was easy climbing with a few ladders. After an hour or so we reached the ridge. Once on the ridge we had to climb down a little to reach the rope bridge we had to cross to get to the top of Jegihorn.

It was a fairly long rope bridge where you definately had time to think about what could happen if you slipped…

The small dots in the center of the photo are our shadows when we are on the rope bridge.

Immediately after the rope bridge we had to climb up this thing.

After the rope ladder there was a fairly vertical wall we had to climb before reaching the top. They had added some grips to make it easier. This was my favourite part, very exposed and with a fantastic view. Nice!

After about 2 hours on the Via Ferrata we reach the top of Jegihorn on 3206 m. We were hanging around the top for more than an hour talking to other climbers before we headed down to the Weissmies Hütte again for some lunch and a beer. For those who like Via Ferratas I can definately recommend this one, I was climbing it with a smile on my face.

The Royal Wedding

I guess many of you know that this weekend there was The Royal Wedding in Stockholm. An event that attracted an amazing amount of people, including some friends of mine and myself… Our plan was to drink something bubbly, enjoy ourselves and look at the spectacle.

We found a what we thought was a good spot to see the happy couple when they would go by in their carriage. Naturally we ended up seeing basically nothing (see picture above) because at the last minute loads of people who had been standing in front of the castle now came our way to see the crown princess again. And on top of that the glasses for the bubbly were stuck in the crowd somewhere else. Bummer. However we managed to take care of that in a bar close by, where they also had big screen tv’s. That’s where we should have been all along, of course…

The night ended well though with rooftop bar hopping and many glasses of champagne. This is the view from Hotel Anglais’s champagne bar.

Nice

At the end of April I went to Nice with my friend Helena. The plan was to get away for a weekend, hopefully sit in the sun, eat good food and drink some wine. We managed with all of it, no problem. The weather was perfect, between 20 and 25 degrees and sunny the entire weekend.

We stayed at a hotel at the water front in the old town. It was the perfect location, very close to everything. Just a few minutes away was a square where they had a market during the day and outdoor restaurants at night.

We walked all over town, here we are on our way up the Chateau Hill which has a stunning view of the city and the coast line.

From the top of Chateau Hill you could also see the snow covered mountains in the north. Beautiful!

The old town had lots of winding streets with small shops and restaurants. The colours in Nice are amazing, the houses have the warm yellow and red tones, the blue water and all the flowers with many different colours. I remember thinking the same the first time I was at the French Riviera a number of years ago and it was as striking as back then. I still love the colours.

The small boats in the harbour were also colourful where they were squeezed in between the huge yachts.

A champagne picnic on the beach was an absolute must. Lovely! Could have stayed there for a long time.

Thanks for a great weekend, Helena!