Switzerland Alps - Interlaken to Faulhorn

After a great visit in Iceland, we headed for Switzerland.   After an early flight into Zurich, we got our Rail Pass stamped and headed for Interlaken.  Here's how beautiful Switzerland is straight from the train.

On Friday morning we woke up to a familiar Seattle noise... cars driving on wet pavement.  It was raining... and not so good for hiking.  A little tough when you're ready to start an 8 night hut-to-hut trip.  We were able to take advantage of the great transit system (a mountain train and gondola in this case) to shorten our day to 3 maybe 4 rainy miles.

The first thing we noticed about hiking in the Alps was the COWS.  It seems almost too stereotypical to be true, but there are cows all OVER the mountains with bells clanging away all the time.  When you're high above a valley you can here the cows below... and also all around you.  Here's Shannon with some bovine friends... this photo also represents the happy reaction she had to rain.

Eventually, we worked our way up to our destination for the day, the Faulhorn summit and adjacent Faulhorn Berghaus (Berghaus literally translates to Mountain House).

 This beautiful hut is a little rugged from a hotel point of view (no showers) but a perfect place for those used to backpacking (full meal service, beer, beds, shelter, etc, etc.)  We ate a great Swiss dinner and then enjoyed the fading light on the summit to finish our first Swiss hut day.