Global Gauthier's: Missed Connections

So at this point, we were pretty proud we hadn't really had too hard of a time with trains and buses. Than it took us 6 hours to travel the roughly 100 km's from Innsbruck to Fussen. Not entirely our own fault, as our route contained 3-4 transfers and no direct lines existed, but still. One train changed platforms and so we missed that one, causing us to miss the next couple.

Eventually after 5-6 hours on stinking trains, we found Fussen. Where at midnight, we were going to walk to our hostel. Luckily, when we asked a nice family which street was _(insert long Werman word)_, they discussed it, found directions online, discussed it some more (in German), before looking at us and saying "how about you just get in and we'll drive you!" They must not have had much confidence in us :) Anyways our hostel was a cute old house with a let-yourself-in and then find your room policy after hours, that was rather convenient.

The next morning we walked for an hour towards to the [Schloss] Neuschwannstein Castle and the [Schloss] Hohenschwangau Castle. The Neuschwannstein Castle in the castle that Walt Disney was inspired by for the design of the one at Disney. It is also the castle Milessa grew up wanting to see after seeing pictures around her house growing up since it was one of Darla's favourites! Both were set beautifully in the mountains overlooking a valley and stream.

From Fussen, we had to make our way about 100 km's to Rorschash along the coast of Lake Constance. Though nothing very touristy was here, we had arranged for Couchsurfing with a young couple there, Ona and Andy. Our arrival was supposed to be about 7, but it was 1030 by the time we showed up. This time, we got on the 1st train fine, then on the ensuing connection, we got on the right train, wrong half. Apparently sometimes the back and front of trains go different places after a few stops. We thought something was funny we came to a stop travelling one direction, stopped for 10 minutes, than began travelling the opposite direction.

We decided to ignore it. Bad choice.

Somewhere along the way we asked a conductor to help us get to our destination and he set up a route with another 4 connections. Unfortunately, one of our trains was late, causing us to miss our last train, and arrive even later, where our gracious host Andy was waiting at the station patiently. Ona had made a delicious meal of rice, chicken, and chili peppers (she was Thai) so we enjoyed an amazing meal on arrival! After a good long visit, we went to the sleep on the air mattress and floor of their balcony apartment. In the morning we visited again with Ona before heading on a train to Vaduz, Lichtenstein, a tiny little country beside Switzerland you can drive through in 10 minutes.

With Rosemarie!

There we got some groceries and needed to use internet to get in touch with another Couchsurfing host, Rosemarie! But to use internet, we needed to buy a drink in this café. Seeing how fancy it was, we prepared ourselves for some $$very$$good$$ coffee. My cappuchino and Milessa's sparkling apple juice came to 11 Swiss Francs. Wow. Anyways we met up with Rosemarie, who lived in a loft-style open-concept single room apartment. It had great views of the mountains! She was a great host and was so excited to hear about our travels and also to tell us all about her little country of Lichtenstein!

The next day we said goodbye before doing a small hike up the Lichtenstein Castle, where the royal family still lived and was still head of the country. We also walked around the city centre and enjoyed being in such a tiny country before walking over a bridge and standing on the border of Lichtenstein and Switzerland and heading on a train to Interlakken, Switzerland.

Oh this was also my birthday. What an amazing way to spend my birthday, between 2 beautiful countries! I was also treated to some nice coffee thanks to Mil :) Getting to Interlakken took some time. On the way we met an Aussie guy, with Swiss roots now living in Switzerland, who spoke 14 languages/dialects. He was a university and private language professor, go figure. From Interlakken we hopped on an incredibly scenic train to Lauterbrunnen.

On the final connection, an American lady was on-board and as the train closed the doors and we drove off, she realized her husband wasn't with her and he had no tickets or bags or anything at 930 at night! She was pretty in shock and it was absolutely hilarious to hear her go off (in a laughing way) about what a hectic day they'd had and how it figures her husband would miss a train because he wanted water. As the conductor came by for tickets, she explained it all to him (in a frenzy) and asked what to do. He merely said don't worry, get off the train, go have a drink, your husband will show up. He reminded us of Ryan Husband if that helps you picture his chill and somewhat sarcastic demeanour. We got off the train, helping her with bags, and suddenly her husband shows up thanking us for helping his wife! The conductor just smirked. Apparently to get up this leg of the journey, you could take a 5 Franc train, or a 60 Franc taxi. When he missed the train he grabbed and taxi and got up before we did, silently telling us the price, smiling, and telling his wife it was only 6 Francs! They were hilarious to watch!

Upon arrival in Lauterbrunnen, the views of the valley were spectacular! Sheer cliffs 800m up, waterfalls off the side. A great birthday present. However on arrival at hostel, we found out something went wrong with the reservation and the only room in the town which was less then 50$ per person was booked out. The friendly staff lady made many phone calls and somehow found us a double room for much cheaper in a hostel we previously thought was full. Don't know how that worked, but we were very lucky.

Arriving in Lauterburnnen was such an amazing birthday gift! If I thought the view at night was good, the view in the morning was a million times better! We could the whole valley, the 3500+ meter mountain to our left, and the Cliffside and waterfalls even better. There was also the constant sound of dozens of BASE jumpers opening their parachutes after careening on the top of the cliff. The hostel was filled with adrenaline junkies from around the world who had come to this valley to BASE jump on a daily basis.

After breakfast and making some reservations for lodges for our coming 4 day hike up the Schiltorn, we headed off. We hiked over an hour along the valley floor before heading up a steep slope that would take us 800m to the top of the cliff (from 500m valley floor to 1300m Gimmelwald elevation). After a couple hours, we made it to Gimmelwald and found our beds at The Mountain Hostel and amazing views of the valley and mountains across it. That night we did some much needed laundry before playing pool for a good while. At night we met a whole bunch of other travellers from the USA, mostly California and the west coast. One girl was from Calgary and all 6 of us had a great time visiting that night.

The less scary cable bridge over the falls!

The next day was supposed to be a relaxing day, but we ended up doing a Via Farrata track from Murren to Gimmelwald. If you've never googled images before, do it now. I don't know how Milessa forced herself to complete this climb. Via Ferrata is like a more controlled, safer version of rock-climbing. Instead of climbing right on the rock face (though some do that) you mainly hike close to cliffs with some extremely exposed sections climbing along a cliff-face on rebar that has been pounded into the rock. The whole time you wear a harness and are clipped in to a cable that runs the length of the 'track' unless you don't want to clip in, but that's stupid. Anyways at one point, we scaled along a cliff for about 30m and when we looked down, our feet were on rungs of rebar and straight down 800m of nothing! It was terrifying and somehow Milessa forced herself to do it only because the thought of me doing it myself scared her more! It was my birthday present from her ;) We have a couple pictures, but google 'Murren to Gimmelwald Via Ferrata.' Another section took us along a suspension bridge 3 feet wide, with railings for only a small chunk in th middle, 100m long, and about 1500 feet straight down to the bottom of the crevice.

Terrifying suspension bridge

Can you believe she climbed along there? She´s definitely
faking that smile- can you see the tears?

Upon arrival back in Gimmelwald, we hugged it out and bought some homemade Swiss milk, cheese, and sausage from an honesty shop in the back of this guys house. Open his fridge, take your food, leave the money. So yummy! We relaxed and played pool the rest of the day while Mil tried to lower her adrenaline levels back to something more manageable. The next day we packed up and left on our hike to the Rotstuckhutte, which sat at about 1900m elevation and at the base of the Schiltorn. We hiked through Murren, bought food and water for the next couple days, and made our way through farmers fields, forests, raspberry patches, over streams and next to stunning mountain views towards Rotstuckhutte.

On the way, a specific little mountain caught my attention so I left Mil to rest at the bottom while I ran up to the top for great views and nice little box where people left something important to them and wrote a note. I left my bracelet from Laos before running to the other peak on paths only 2 feet wide and cliffs on either side. During my little gallivant, Milessa waited and had many people stop and talk to her, obviously. One guy was just walking carrying a deer like animal on his back which he'd shot in the mountains and was carrying down like the manliest thing you've ever seen.

After we met up an hour later we continued hiking for an hour with only light rain to Rotstuckhutte and set up there for the night. Generally, this place only lets people stay if they purchase their set meals and it costs about 75 Francs per person, but somehow they allowed us to eat our own food and only pay 25 pp! We were getting very lucky with hostels here in Switzerland! We ate dinner visiting with a couple guys from Geneva (1 from America, 1 from Sweden) and had a great visit with them, telling them our plans to hike to the top tomorrow. They decided they'd join, though they may have regretted the decision by the end of the hike the next day!