Summer Daze of Our Lives, Part II

[Cut to]

Anya and Alyssa rushing through the busy streets of Oxford, sweat is flying, pedestrians bowled over… a massacre.

ANYA: This almost counts as training for the Enduro!

ALYSSA: I knew we should have called a cab…

Luckily, our heroines reach the station with just enough time to buy round-trip tickets from Oxford to Luton Airport. Their Swiss friend Martin is there waiting with two suitcases, a garment bag, and a guitar – his life in Oxford over the past year. The sisters sheepishly show him their two backpacks and giant duffle bag for their week-long trip to Switzerland.

Hey, to be fair those bags contained tents, sleeping bags, climbing gear, running shoes, and a clean pair of underwear! In any case, the flight to Zurich otherwise went smoothly. Martin’s dad Fritz picked us up at the airport and brought us back to their very nice home where we got our first taste of Swiss bread, cheese, and chocolate. Joygasmic, my friends. I had frequent Homer Simpson moments.

The next morning we got up early and met a friend of Martin’s for a day of excellent climbing. The trip to the climbing area was a little long (two trains, a bus, and a gondola) but the views and routes were worth it! We finished the afternoon with a dip in the cold-but-but-not-as-cold-as-you’d-expect lake. On the way back we had a short layover in Lucerne, so we got a quick walking tour with our expert Swiss guide (Martin). Saw a viola player busking! Then, back in Zurich, we walked down the river and met some of Martin’s old friends. The river scene was really neat – hundreds of people swimming, picnicking, playing music…

The following day Anya and I left (after a BBQ and a watermelon eating contest between Martin and I) for the fairly randomly selected town of Walenstadt. We picked it because it was next to a lake, had a campsite (you’re not allowed to just go out and camp in the mountains), and was between Zurich and Innsbruck. This final point was important because our good friends Dan and Kathy were going to be flying into Zurich and driving to Italy via Innsbruck the very next day! Our plan was to meet with Dan and Kathy, maybe spend an extra day, and then move on; however, Walenstadt turned out to be a gold mine of exciting activities.

After an excellent lunch with our friends, Anya and I rented mountain bikes and set out. Walenstadt is located on a valley floor surrounded by quaint towns and towering mountains. Great for the view, rough on my very unpracticed legs. We managed to try to ride across a shooting/artillery range, and found a few fun trails, but much of our time was on tiny paved roads that switchbacked up into mountains that looked impossible to summit by foot, nonetheless bike (or car!) Although there were hundreds of little tracks leading to hundreds of little houses and meadows, we realized that if you followed the yellow-brick “Wanderweg” signs, you could always eventually get back home. We found some delicious wild raspberries and strawberries and “stumbled upon” some less-than-wild cherries. We returned the bikes satisfyingly mud coated. (Not to say we wouldn’t have washed them if we could!)

We returned to camp tired and hungry… We sat down in front of our maps… so many trails, so little time! Will our heroines find the perfect trail up those inspiring mountains, or will they be unceremoniously booted out of the country for making fun of all the “fahrt” signs? Werkeinfahrt, like a workin’ fahrt! Ausfahrt, you fahrt, we all fahrt together!

Find out next time, on “Summer Daze of Our Lives…”

Alyssa and Anya