We re-entered civilization in Bern, and I certainly was sad to see the mountains fade away (I still miss them!). It was too easy, to take the mountain tops and the glaciers and the unnamable mountain wild flowers for granted when we were hiking through them (and easy to curse the mountains for being so darn steep as we ascended and descended them!), but then, suddenly, we were on a train, the mountains were gone, and the landscape looked like it did here in Central New York – just the hills. Part of me wanted to turn around and do that last day’s hike from Grachen to Saas Fee, and then just keeping hiking until my body fell apart and we ran out of money. But….we were on the train to Bern, and we had to stop hiking at some point.

It was certainly was a shock at the Bern train station, where we debarked into a mass of people, and they weren’t wearing hiking clothes! The city seemed crowded, with lots of cars, and jostling, and attitude, and once again we felt weird and awkward lugging our backpacks through a crowded urban area. I really missed the mountains at that moment. But once we dropped our packs off at our hotel (Hotel Nydeck) , we blended in a little more, and enjoyed wandering around the old city and doing our souvenir (and window!) shopping. The Hotel Nydeck was an okay place to stay – the location was terrific, breakfast was more like a snack of French bread, the room was modern but rather expensive, compared to what we were paying in the mountains.

Then, finally, it was time to leave Switzerland and head towards Frankfurt, where we would be flying back to New York. Re-entering Germany, the evening before we flew out, we had the best falafel meal ever in Mainz.

Part of me wishes I could do this hike all over again, because I think I’d pay better attention to the scenery, and try not to take it for granted, or be so overwhelmed by being in another country and not knowing the language. The photographs of our trip are more beautiful than I remember the scenery to be – I think hiking takes up some of my observational energy or something. But I guess that’s what pictures, and this journal, are for– to be able to enjoy the trip again, without all the effort.