Two Best Friends... and a place called Europe: The Alps

We woke up bright and early (what a view to wake up to! Oh my..) to get ready for the second breakfast that was at 7:15am. The first breakfast was at 4:45am for the dedicated hikers of which our roommates (and our dinner friends) were. (We..cough..cough...were obviously not..) So we also woke up to an empty room and practically empty hut which was nice. We got dressed (no showers....well, ok...there was one, but it was outside on the hill and the water was cold...so that was a definite no for us) and headed downstairs for breakfast. We were slower getting ready, due to the fact that our legs were still recovering and our crispy, sun burnt bodies suddenly refused to function for some reason. We lathered on sunscreen (much more than yesterday now that we knew the sun was a scorcher), laced our hiking boots, and set out at 8:45am with our packs on our backs. The first obstacle was getting down from the hill that the hut was on - the side we needed to cross was extremely steep and full of loose rock. But we made it down safely and headed across a glacier (oh yes, a glacier) called the Glacier de Cheilon towards the final upward hike that we would take that day. After resting (and preparing our hearts) for the clime, we started. It took a while, many points we were on our hands and knees, and a few slippery steps, but we made it to the top and the view that awaited us made the hard climb worth it. We sat at the top of the mountain in this little alcove (called the Cole de Riedmatten) and behind us (where we came from) the landscape was all rocky and colorless due to the fact of the glacier was moving the rock all around as it made its way down the mountain. Then, in front of us, the landscape was the complete opposite - green grassy meadows, flowers, streams, blue mountains against the white clouds. It took away what breath we had left after the climb. We sat for a while just staring. After we were all recovered (well mostly), we headed down the small winding path to start the easier, but longer rest of the day. (We had been 2,928 meters - 9,606 ft - up in the air at the hut.) From that point on, it was just a slow downward walk to the town called Arolla where we would take our bus back to the train station. And my, what a walk it was! Sarah and I kept saying, "This reminds me of Lord of the Rings when they....This reminds me of Narnia when they.... This reminds me of Sound of Music when they..." The list went on and on - just think of any movie with gorgeous mountains and we had mentioned it that day.. :D The path snaked in between streams and meadows, past cows and glaciers. I don't think I have walked in any place as beautiful as I did that day... the scenery made you forget that you were actually walking miles and miles. (Unless of course we stopped to rest a bit and our bodies said, "Hey I like this resting bit...let's stop walking forever, ok?" Then we had a problem...) We ended up having to run the last 10 minutes to catch our bus in Arolla, but when we made it on the bus, we were grateful for that last run. It was such a weird feeling to be on the bus watching the Alps grow farther away and think, "Hey, I just hiked over those for miles and now I am here... who would have thought!" We made it to the trains station and boarded our train for Morges - home = a hot shower, a clean bed, nice smelling pillows ("I forgot that pillow didn't have to smell like feet!" - Gilmore Girls), and food. Oh glorious food! My uncle cooked up some Swiss type hamburgers (beef is so expensive here, so this was the first time we had it... Sarah and I were almost about to kill one of the cows on the trail..) and we happily ate our fill after that long day. Then, crispy, but clean, we all slumped/crawled/fell into bed and slept... Thus ended the last day in the Alps.

Some pictures from the last day (these are from my camera, but there were many good ones on everyone's camera...we just didn't have much time...):