La Diligence Crans-Montana

I am only stayin the night just to see the Matterhorn. The sun is out and I took a hike up nearby hill. It was about an hour and a half uphill walk with regular short stops to catch my breath. I think I have had enough of hiking now, I did 4 hours of it at Montreux as well, I must have the best **** at the moment. Spectacular view of the mountain at the hilltop though. It's less of a mountain and more of a giant pinnacle of rock. It looks menacing, to prove it there is a nearby graveyard full ...

I decided to change hostels because I really didn't like this one. I am not fond of the international hostels. They're like hospitals, although the buffet breakfast was nice and I liked their cat. I was woken up by screaming, unruly kids. Some parents aren't parents. I was happy to change. The sun had also come out and so I snuck on the train from Montreux Tilletet to Veyvey which is only 5 minutes away. The place is much nicer and has free food and a kitchen. I actually got an entire 6 ...

Not too much to say. I arrived in the afternoon to a rainy day but with a lovely view of the mountains over the river. I also saw the beautiful Chateau de Chillon which is a castle only a 5 minute walk from the hostel.
My large and sterile hostel did not open til five. Since I had used my eurrail pass that day | decided to take a look at Lausanne which my guidbook says is beautiful. What a crock! It is just another city. I was surprised that I encountered more of the scamming ...

... from the mountain to Murren. One path stated it was for only experienced hikers. That's a very subjective description. I figured you would need proper shoes and equipment. I took a look at the path and it is treacherous. You cross bridges of ice where the mountains just fall away on either side. I didn't mind that but it was quite steep and covered in snow- too slippery for my shoes. It looked spectacular though. Just standing at the precipice on the mountain and away from ...

... next township called Zweilutschinen. It was beautiful to see the peaks and the blue sky. I then hiked back.
People are nice around here, they wave to mean through their windows. The hostel owners are also very, very nice. I also sat with some Koreans and we shared meals (there's being much better than mine). When I returned from my hike the two Americans offered me some of their Mexican dinner. It was very yummy. All in all not a bad day.

... drop full of avalanche protection fences for a much less gradual descent. These would also come in handy if either of us lost our footing… luckily not necessary.

In the next two days I did a couple more hikes, much easier. I took a walk down to the end of the valley, hiked up a bit of a hill, but nothing as strenuous as the first day. Got some more good views and considered that day ...

... bits in it. Yummy. Apparently in the past, classes used to all walk their kids into town to the bakery for pain au chocolat as a treat on the last day of class and as a result, by lunchtime the kids were all sick and exhausted from 4 trips into town for sweets. So now they bring them to us 4th hour.
After classes and lunch, Ed and I did some planning for our trip to France. We booked the rental car and our hotels. Then I blogged a little bit until I ...

... Virgin) looked spectacular with the sun bathing the peaks and I'm pretty sure we had the best view in the whole Valley. Matt had been up the Jungfrau many times with groups, but even he was gobsmacked by how fabulous the views were from this side of the Valley. Most of the locals, armed with their walking poles, disembarked at Winteregg station, but we continued on to Murren to start the slightly shorter walk back down to Lauterbrunnen. The trail is very ...

... really pretty though. We are sharing our cabin with another couple and the four of us have spent all morning lying in bed and have just now ventured out for coffee and to have a look at the internet. Oh yeah, for lunch we tried another Swiss traditional food .... Fondue. They charge over 20 francs for this in the restaurants so we went cheapo and got the special fondue cheese and bread, carrot sticks and nachos and cooked them in our cabin over our gas cooker. We ...

... Ice Palace is a warren of tunnels carved into a living glacier and filled with whimsical ice sculptures. We also went to the plateau where we got out in our summer shorts and walked in the snow. It was windy and really cold. We encouraged our kids to ski but they said it feels weird to be skiing in the summer. The kids really looked forward to get to Switzerland so that they can watch their favorite show in English only to find out that all the TV stations are in ...