At about 5:30 or 6 a.m., a woman rushed into the room and shouted “the sun is rising” (but she said this in German of course). Everyone (except Harold, who I had kept up most of the night with my own tossing and turning) bounded out of bed and raced outside. I had just fallen asleep and thought for a moment of staying in bed—but this vacation was about beautiful views, not rest, so I dragged myself back onto the peak of rock where, I was amazed to find, practically everyone staying at the inn was already there, some with large cameras, taking in the view. Once again the clouds had settled in, and there were the mountain peeks, and we saw everything gradually take form as the light appeared and the sun gradually moved across the mountains. What a special moment.

And here’s what I would suggest: eat a snack that you lugged up the mountain, and take off now for Schnigge Plate. The Falhorn breakfast was woefully inadequate for my smaller appetite let alone Harold’s larger appetite (2 or 3 pieces of bread and butter), and as I mentioned the trail gets pretty crowded quickly. There’s a little hut at Mandlenen (it offers dorm rooms as well) that has the BEST nut and pear pastries, and also tea, and also very expensive water (5 Francs for .5 liters). You could catch breakfast here, and do more of a hike without the crowds. We stopped here anyway for food and bottled water (they have no tap water), even after the Falhorn breakfast.

Today was to be an easy day, which was good, because I was tired, thirsty, and hungry after the hard day climbing before and not enough food or water at the Falhorn Inn. The scenery on the other side of the Falhorn to Schynige Platte changed dramatically—no more lush lakes, all dry rock, rather like what Mars is, and the color turned to stone. The trail footing was bit more difficult, especially when hungry and tired—more loose stone and unstable stepping.

Harold loved this landscape, I thought it looked a little desolate, and once we passed the Mandlenen hut, there were so many people, and it seemed doubly more exhausting to me today to have to keep stepping aside, saying hello, etc. It made me really miss the wildlife of the Canadian Rockies—I was starting to have enough of the crowds, and wanted to be amid the moose, birds, elk, etc. of the wilderness. Though I did enjoy not having any bug bites the entire trip (where have all the European Mosquitoes go?)

My favorite part of today was spotting our first sheep—at first, we saw them perched on a far off ridge, like little toys, and then suddenly we encountered a herd of them on the trail. A dog started chasing them towards us, so it was a sheep stampede—luckily they slowed down and one approached Harold and tried to eat his pants, and then wanted to lick my walking poles. Their faces seemed very human.

Schnigge Platte is a bit of a carnival—there’s a Teddy Bear Land somewhere nearby, and lots of people who just take railways up and the railways back down. But Harold and I enjoyed sitting down for the train ride, and then enjoying wandering around the town of Wilderswil as we waited for our train to Lauterbrunnen. It felt like luxury, to have all this running water around us for free.

Lauterbrunnen looked incredible beautiful on the internet, and it was pretty (huge waterfalls cascading down these very tall cliff faces)—but it’s also very touristy and slightly odd, like stepping back into the U.S. And a lot of construction was going on as well, and someone started mowing the lawn at 7 a.m. (just like in the U.S.!)—so lots of human noise. We stayed at Hotel Staubbach, which, like most of the hotels, is off the one main street, so the balcony, while pretty, is also kind of trafficy. The woman (the owner perhaps?) who checked us in was unbelievably nice and seemed fluent in countless numbers of languages, and she seemed knowledgeable about some hikes in the area. Breakfast was large and terrific too. This is the only place we really heard Americans. I wouldn’t wanted to have stay here for more than a night, but if you’re missing home, and want to be given free tapwater during dinner, this might be a good stopover.