Day 6

I’m up a little early today as I was awoken by the electrical scent of what I can only imagine was the train? It’s been fun to sleep with the window open apart from the noises (and, apparently, smells) that tend to wake me up. Yesterday we had a Long. Ass. Hike. Altogether, it was 9 miles, 150 floors, and 17,000 steps. Craziness! We began at First and thought we would get trapped in the gondola for a hot second when the movement stopped. Once on the ground, we checked out the cliff walk - which I detested because I’m a chicken - then began the way to Bechalpsee, Faulhorn, and finally Bussalp to get the buss. As we were racing the bus, we couldn’t stay too long in any one stop... all we had time for at each place was drinks, plus a “hot donut with cherry sauce” at Bussalp. Let me tell you, it was the best carnival style food I’ve ever had! The bus to get from Bussalp to Grindelwald was nearly 75 francs but we didn’t give a hoot - we were so tired!

After returning to town, we got some rolls and butter from the cheese shop, grabbed an apple and a knife from the reception desk, and broke out our cheese and salami stash. We had a lovely little picnic on the deck that probably should have been enough for dinner but we love the activity of eating so we had salads at Alte Post afterwards. We also managed to give two of our favorite staff members here (our waitress in the cafe that’s traveling to California in November and the most enthusiastic bartender we’ve ever met) some Madonna Inn socks and business cards. Our night cap was a little pool playing at the hotel and a quick listen to CNN. Today we are off to Zermatt!