Swiss Cheese is from Switzerland?

Our time in Switzerland can be summed up pretty easily--we stayed in a hostel called "Mountain Hostel" in a town called Gimmelwald which is almost 5,000 up in the mountains. When we arrived, we were dead tired and the weather involved a lot of clouds and scattered showers, so for our days in the Alps we were able to take it easy and hike around on the trails that left from the town we stayed in. We also got to experience some mountain life by hiking to get groceries! There was a town nearby with a coop that supplied us with food for the week, and an adorable woman down the road who sold us cheese and wine freshly made in the mountains.

Our best hike came recommended by the guy working at our hostel who we became friends with. Nigel sent us to a waterfall and we packed a lunch to come with us. The waterfall was so cool, especially with the rain it was gushing with water. We walked down some slippery steps to get under it and sat with a beautiful view of the mountains with our bread and cheese ("bread and cheese" can sum up a lot of our trip!). Our hikes were a nice breath of fresh air after going from London to Paris and then to Vienna--so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Grace and I on our first hike to get groceries from a co-op

My favorite red flowers that are everywhere on the trails!

The little cottage that sold fresh mountain cheese, eggs and milk

Grace at the waterfall we hiked to

Great dinner after a long day of hiking: the famous Swiss Raclette
aka cheese, potatoes, little onions and pickles

The clouds cleared for our last morning, and this is the view from the
deck of our hostel 

The mountains were breathtaking and waking up with the views our our window was like nothing I can describe, but the most meaningful part of our week in Switzerland was the people that we met at Mountain Hostel. A family from Wisconsin with a daughter who just graduated from the U of M was staying in the family room while touring Switzerland to visit extended family. They had a daughter Grace's age named Leah and another my age named Jenna. The McNeills had such a cool trip going on and we just clicked as we chatted in the common area of our cabin-like hostel. It felt very much at home playing cards and chatting into the night--like a night at the Ott Cabin, but with mountains out the window.

There wasn't much nightlife in Gimmelwald, but us Midwesterners at Mountain Hostel knew how to have a good time thanks to our new friend Nigel--the Canadian who stayed at Mountain Hostel while traveling and just couldn't leave! He introduced us to a card came called "Frank's Zoo" that is designed for kids age 7 and up. Well us adults had so much fun pairing up our elephants and mosquitoes to try to beat the mice and whales--I can't remember the exact combos right now but I have already found Frank's Zoo on Amazon and I plan on ordering it when I get home!

Card games combined with the kindness of the McNeill family made it difficult to leave our little niche of Mountain Hostel. The night before we left, Mrs. McNeill treated us to chocolate fondue and sent us off with some bars of Swiss Chocolate before our first night train to Austria.