Hiking at Leysin

Today (yes, it's a rare day that I actually blog something on the same day) I went for a hike at Leysin.

I wanted to really hike up a mountain and my little hikes up La Dole near where we live didn't quite fit the bill, so I found a walk from Leysin village (1200m) up to the shiny modern restaurant at La Berneuse (2048m).

I didn't start my climb until midday since Leysin is about an hour and a half from Nyon, and by then the sun was really hot and it was really humid from some recent rain so not long after setting off I was already hot and sweating. It was a really steep climb to the top and even though I felt like I was pacing myself I got to the top in only about an hour.

Once there I was quite exhausted and I grabbed a drink and some chips in the restaurant (standard stuff inside despite the shiny exterior) and followed this up with some "trail mix" while sitting on a rocky outcrop looking over the valley.

Feeling replenished I started the downward hike, stopping to take photos of some of the mountain bike riders following the downhill course.

I walked down to Lac d'Ai and took some more photos of the little cabins and the lake before continuing to Lac d'Mayen where I felt compelled to have a coffee at the refuge there to support the local economy.

After setting off again I quickly realised I'd taken a wrong turn but, considering how quickly my walk was going, decided to continue on for a longer hike.

I'm really pleased to have done this as it was actually a really interesting hike over the Brion area where there was some amazing rocky formations.

At some point, however, the clouds that had building during the afternoon started to make ominous noises and the wind started to pick up. I rushed to put my camera in my bag and put on my rain jacket. I then quickly hiked down the hill to Les Fers and sheltered under the eves of the restaurant there while the rain poured down.

Eventually I got bored of waiting and finished up hiking down the road to Leysin village where I was glad I had left the car parked underground allowing  me take off my wet jacket and shoes and socks before getting in the car to drive home.

I'd love to go back to Leysin and do some more hiking, although next time I might catch the lift up and do more hiking around the various peaks you can reach from there.

Berlin

Last week I met up with Linda in Berlin where she was at a conference for work.

Even though I was only there with Linda for a few days, and it was anyway quite busy during that time, we managed to see quite a large part of Berlin although I'm sure its the sort of city where you could live for years and still be discovering new things.

We saw most of the major sites starting, of course, by walking up Unter den Linden towards the Brandenburg gate.

Then we walked along the line of the old Berlin Wall towards the parliamentary area where we went onto the roof and into the dome of the Reichstag.

The dome is really impressive on the inside and puts an interestingly modern cap on the historic Reichstag building.

We also made sure to sample the local cuisine, such as the currywurst (not terribly impressive) as well as the famous Berliner jam-filled donut (which I was unable to find an optimal sample of). Aside from this the food was actually very good and surprisingly cheap. Even the coffee was unexpectedly good, and the large Turkish community meant we had a delicious Turkish dinner one night.

In Berlin you can't escape the history of WWII, and we did visit the Holocaust memorial which was as sobering as you expect, and we also visited the checkpoint charlie museum which was meant to have uplifting escape stories but again just made us quite depressed.

We didn't to go Berlin to be reminded of these difficult times, however, and we spent most of our time visiting more uplifting sights and museums.

We visited the ultra-modern Potsdamerplatz area, where large glass-fronted buildings and open squares have been constructed over what was a void between East and West Berlin.

 

We also went to the "museum island", where we visited the Pergamonmuseum and Neues Museum and saw some amazing antiquities from Egypt and Babylon.

And we went to the DDR museum, which is a more lighthearted look at life in Eastern Germany, including a Trabant, and a replica apartment from the time. This was actually quite interesting and fun, and even managed to illustrate some of the positive aspects of living in a socialist country that we don't often hear about.

We went up the TV tower to see the view (not that amazing and a pricey to go up), and went to the zoo where Linda happily watched the Bonobos for quite some time, as well as the big (and not so big) cats, and we were impressed by the nocternal display where bush babies bounced around the rooms.

We also tried to see the famous Knut but apparently he's been misbehaving lately.

While in Berlin we managed to share a beer in "the oldest beer garden in Berlin" with Stefan, a friend of Linda's from University.

And finally visited the flee markets at Tiergarten.

We had a really good time in Berlin. As usual we were surprised how much we enjoy countries in ways that we don't expect and I think we found Berlin a more relaxed and friendly city than we previously imagined (and of course being there during the Football World Cup while Germany is performing well probably didn't hurt!).

Hiking to the top of La Dole

This weekend I woke up on Sunday with hope that it would be a nice clear day after several days of cold and rain. I walked out the door in shorts and a t-shirt but quickly put on a fleece by the time I was on the train and my rain jacket once I got to La Givrine, which is just past Saint Cergue and the start of my hike.

I had an espresso and croisant at the restaurant there (it's a mistake to let me go too long without coffee) and then headed off.

I soon began to wonder if I'd underestimated the conditions, since it was by now quite cold and rainy - I seemed to be the only one out walking and even the cows were looking at me like I was crazy.

Regardless, I continued towards Cuvaloup but got a bit lost when I missed the turn-off which would have taken me up the mountain, and I spent a bit of time in the 'wilderness' under the ski lifts before getting back on track.

Then, as I was puffing my way up towards the peak, a woman actually ran past me up the mountain, and a bit further on a guy ran past me going down! I saw more people running up the mountain during my hike, as well as a group of unhappy cyclists carrying their mountain bikes up on their shoulders.

It was really cold and windy at the top and I swear there was flecks of ice amongst the rain.

On the way back down the rain and clouds cleared a bit and I stopped at a mountain restaurant for an assiette de viande seche and to warm up before continuing my hike down the mountain.

As usual when hiking, I took far less photos on the way down. I did take a lot of photos of cows but the clouds meant I couldn't take any panoramic pictures of the mountains.

I did, however, take a few movies with my camera. This was quite fun but the work involved in turning it into something I can put on the web means I probably won't do it too often. It's too big to embed on the blog, but you can find it here.

Tomorrow I plan to have another go at hiking in the Jura and I bought myself some Komperdell hiking sticks today so I can blend in with the Swiss, with whom they seem to be mandatory!