After what feels like an eternity we decided to do something spontaneous on Saturday and spent a day in the mountains. We still spend most of our time on the renovation project which is slowly coming to an end. We should be moving in at the end of February - not that you asked though, and recently we realized that we are missing what we call 'our old life', so this was the motivation of doing something different from what is on our schedule.
We had to wake up at 6 AM to make sure that we would make it back on time for our evening commitment. It wasn't difficult as we were really excited. We drove to a skiing region called Hoch Ybrig which is in the canton Schwyz, only about 1 hour 30 minutes drive from our place. The mountains there are not so big, but there are some great hiking trails and stunning views of the Alps surrounding the region.
We parked the car and took a chairlift to the first station. I ended up with a T-shirt, a jumper, a jacket and another jacket which my husband luckily brought as it was freezing. I didn't pack many things because it was supposed to be a hot day, but I didn't realize that the morning would be so cold. My husband loves chairlifts and he was taking videos all the time while I was praying that it was finally over, so that I could go somewhere away from the wind.
When we finally got there we went to a restaurant to get some tea. It was getting warmer, so we decided to continue to another chairlift which was supposed to be about 40 minutes away. I was impressed by the hilly landscape which surprised me as I usually prefer mountains, but it was so peaceful and beautiful that I really enjoyed it. Then it was time to take the chairlift to get to Sternen from where we planned to hike to Spirstock.
As soon as we got to Sternen we noticed the Zurich lake opening up in the back - we will get much closer to it. The plan was hike to back, then down the valley and up to Spirstock. It's supposed to be an hour hike...
Of course it took us little longer as we had to stop many times to take photos and selfies. It's going to be my husband's birthday soon and I'm working on his birthday present which involves some cool selfies from our travel around Switzerland, and this place deserved to be included in the selection.
The sun was still low which was a nightmare for taking photos, but it was lovely to look at. The light was strong and bright, and made the grass almost sparkle.
Would you hike up to the viewpoint? It's funny to see how easy it looks on the photos. It actually takes some time, so we passed because we were planning to enjoy a lunch at Spirstock instead. Priorities, right?
And now we are magically on the other side of the viewpoint 😊
Usually we would go hiking in the Glarus Alps, but this time we enjoyed looking at them instead...
Those two rocky mountains are The Kleiner und Grosser Mythen, and they are towering above Schwyz, the capital city of the canton Schwyz. I will take you once to Schwyz, so that you can see it from a different perspective. They look gigantic from the city.
In Switzerland, it is popular to live high in the mountains. You can see a few houses scattered around here. On one hand, I find it really cool, but on the other hand I wonder what happens when you have an emergency or need to buy something because you forgot an ingredient for your cooking. Good luck then, I guess.
Do you remember I was complaining about the cold? Let me change the tune and start complaining about the heat! It got so hot very quickly and there were no trees at all. I used sun screen at home which I reapplied later too, but guess what? I got sunburnt anyway...
Let's start descending - poor knees...
Do you see that tiny house? We need to go there, and from that point it will be up the hill again. It sounds like I keep complaining, but I truly enjoyed every single moment. It was so nice to be back in the mountains after such a long time. I only realized up there how much I've been missing it. The colours, the peace and quiet, fellow hikers, stunning views and no worries in the world, just put one leg ahead of the other, switch and repeat.
From here it's going to be up only...
You can see me taking the photo, and my husband adjusting his cap which he was turning around every few minutes to protect his neck and left cheek. From this point the sun would be only from the back which will take care of a lovely red colour on my neck. I think I need to change my sunscreen brand.
Stairway to heaven or rather to hell - I would have preferred a longer trail around the mountain to this as I knew that my hip would thank me, but I had no choice. In the end, it wasn't that bad. I didn't count the stairs, but I can imagine there were around 150 of them.
Just before we reached the summit there was a flatter part which allowed us to catch a breath...
I normally wouldn't drink beer, but I couldn't resist this local alcohol free Einsiedler. I must admit that I enjoyed it. It was light and not bitter. It did me good after that crazy stairway.
We wanted to take a chairlift back down to the valley, but they had a lunch break - only in Switzerland the chairlifts don't work over lunch 😊
We didn't want to wait, so we decided to walk back to the car. It should take us about 2 hours this time. On the way we saw a small mountain chapel, and walked towards it first.
There was a sign with its name, but I didn't take a photo, and can't remember it anymore. It doesn't matter because I know exactly where it is, so if I happen to go there next time I will document it too.
It was so beautiful inside...
We spent a couple of minutes there, and then continued our hike as we had a long way ahead of us.
Bye bye beautiful chapel...
On the far left is a tiny house where our hike started, on the right is the chairlift that we were supposed to take back, and ahead of us are about 5 km of hiking back...
Every time, I go down the hill I realize how much better it is for my knees to go up...
Those who know me know that I'm scared of cows, so walking along so many of them takes a lot of courage. However, they totally ignored us and continued their lunch...
They were so many babies...
I would love to say that I have conquered my angst with this experience, but it would be a pure lie. I'll be just as scared next time.
After 3 hours of hiking, 20000 steps and many amazing views we reached the final spot - the chairlift that brought us to the car. This time I enjoyed it as it was warm and there was a nice breeze...
On the way back, we got stuck in the traffic jam, but we still made it on time for our commitment, and had a great evening with many interesting people. It was such a lovely day, and I can't wait for us to move in to our house and repeat such experiences more often.
See you next time...