Effie's Trinkets: Cliiimb every mountaaaaaain

Okay, so I know it's been awhile since I last posted, and I have a TON to post, but I'm going to go one adventure at a time. And, since I think this is something that absolutely can't wait, this particular post is going to be about a place called Flüelen (at least, I think that's how it's spelled?).

So on Saturday, a bunch of us left early in the morning and took a train to the city of Flüelen. The train ride was, once again, indescribably gorgeous. I tried to take a video through the window, but that didn't really turn out, so I'll just let you imagine all of the mountains ringing the lakes, framed by the bright blue sky and a few fluffy white clouds floating in the background. I was facing the wrong way for most of the ride, so I kept having to crane my neck around to see the mountains...once, this little old woman sitting across from me tapped me to get my attention and point out the most breathtaking view.

Anyways, we arrived at last and got off the train to find this:

And it only gets better from there.

We walked a few minutes to the Seilbahn (gondola) at the base of the mountain, bought our tickets, and squished in to the tiny car.

The ride up was only a few minutes, but as we rode, we could feel the change in pressure almost instantly. The mountainside was green at first, but once we got about halfway up, a dusting of snow started to appear on all the trees, outlining each finger of the pine branches, and making them look like piles of Christmas cookies. Then, we came over a ridge and it transformed instantly into the perfect picture of winter.

Finally, we reached the top, and were met with several inches of powdery snow, packed on top of a much deeper layer. Most of us didn't have boots, so we all stopped to put plastic bags over our socks inside our sneakers, and then we were on our way. (Yes, I realize that this one of those times where I was woefully unprepared, with the possibility of disastrous consequences, but don't worry - it was warm enough that we were never really in danger of frostbite...when the sun was shining, it was pretty warm, and we made sure to stop and warm up before our feet fell off ^^)

We trekked for awhile through the snow, stopping every few minutes to take more pictures of the unbelievable sights surrounding us, and tried to follow a trail that would lead us over the highest point of the mountain, past a restaurant, and to the Seilbahn on the other side. All in all, the hike was supposed to take around two and a half hours, but we kept getting lost at the beginning, and had to stop practically every other person who passed to ask for directions, so in total it took us at least four hours.

But it was totally worth it. Everywhere I turned my head, there was a view that was just breathtaking. I took about two hundred pictures, which of course don't even come close to capturing what I was seeing, but there were a few times when I just had to stop looking and stare at what was in front of me.

After a couple hours of wandering through the snow, we finally made it to the Spitze - the highest point on our mountain. That's where it literally was breathtaking.

I hate the phrase "words cannot describe how [adjective] [noun] was..." because I'm a firm believer that there are and always will be enough words in the English language, not to mention the hundreds of other languages at our command, to effectively describe anything in need of description. But, standing in the middle of all of those mountains, I was honestly left speechless. "Beautiful" or "breathtaking" or even "wunderschön" can't come close to aptly describing what I was looking at.

If you're reading this, you may know what I'm talking about and be able to describe it better than I can, because my words really are failing me. I had expected to feel small and insignificant in comparison to the huge forms around me that dwarfed my tiny human existence...but I didn't. Instead of being diminished, I felt almost bigger, because it was as though I was being extended beyond myself, expanding to fill the vast space in front of me.

A badly-done panorama that sort of shows what I was looking at...more photos to come!

My favorite picture from the Spitze

Anyways, we stood there for awhile, and I don't know about everyone else, but that's when I started to lose feeling in my toes. We talked to some really outgoing Swiss people, one of whom yelled at us for not being properly dressed to hike in the snow, while his companions handed us a plate of snacks. Then, in a race against freezing, we ran down the slope in the direction of the restaurant we had planned to stop at.

Moral of the story: don't 'snowshoe' in canvas sneakers

Just a few minutes later, though, we came to a tiny shack that looked almost like a private cabin. We had no idea exactly what it was, but it was warm inside and we were cold outside, so we clambered in and sat down around a table.

Inside, there were two tables with benches around them, and a separate room for the kitchen. We ordered hot chocolate, and then after we had some time to warm up a bit, some people ordered lunch. I shared some of an Alpenkäseteller (plate of Alp-cheese), which was delicious and turned out to be made by the owner himself! Another family and a pair of older women shared the tables with us, and they were all really friendly and really talkative. We spoke for awhile about our home countries and about Switzerland or the weather, until finally we were warm and full enough to venture back out into the snow.

On this side of the mountain, the snow was much deeper and we kept sinking in, sometimes up past the knee. But the sun was shining, and we could see our destination, so we marched onward.

All too soon, we came to the next Seilbahn and it was time to go down. We all squeezed in, and rode through what could have been a scene from a movie. Shortly after the snow-green line, the line ended and we had to transfer. This car could only hold four people, so half the group went ahead, while the rest of us stayed behind to take more pictures of the postcard-like view, and to buy some Alpkäse.

Homemade by a woman who lives at the top of the mountain!
(and for the record, it's delicious)

At last, we were all on the ground and started on the bittersweet journey back to Zürich. As we passed through Altdorf (on the way back to Flüelen), though, there was a band playing "Call Me Al" at the foot of a William Tell statue, that made for a celebratory end to the day. [Sidenote - after some Googling, it turns out the legend of William Tell is really important to Switzerland, because he started a rebellion in the 14th century. He wasn't from Altdorf, but the entire town is filled with William Tell memorials because it was the site where Schiller's play William Tell was first performed.]

Sorry for the bad quality, I took this one through the back window of the bus

There should be a slideshow down below of the rest of my pictures that I didn't want to include here...there will probably be a few duplicates, because I made it before writing this post. Can someone let me know in the comments if it's not working?