We left on a night train to Interlaken on Thursday night at 9pm. Strangely enough, there was another group of people from our GCC group that planned the trip to Interlaken on the exact same weekend. Kind of cool, but I'm pretty sure they stole the idea from us... They stayed in hostels, so they're definitely not hardcore, like us. We arrived in Interlaken at around 1pm on Friday. We weren't sure yet what we were going to do, but we figured it out soon enough.
Friday: after arriving at the train station, we decide to buy tickets to Grindelwald, because we thought we would have the best chances of finding a camping site in that valley. At this time of year, it gets dark at about 5pm so it's important to set up camp before too late. We got off the train in Grindelwald and hiked our way across the valley towards the pass we would later climb. Eventually we found a sweet camping spot and set up. The site was 10-15ft above the road so it was nearly impossible for passing cars to see us, lest the feel the need to turn us in for 'illegal' camping. We had a small stream right next to us too, which is essential in setting up camp. The water from the Alps is simply amazing. You can not taste anything but water. We went to sleep around 730pm because it was dark, and we couldn't really do anything in the dark that wouldn't jeopardize our spot being found.
Saturday: We head for a pass, without too much in mind, but getting high for a view. After making our way to the pass, we find a restaurant to have an amazing breakfast. They brought us a bowl of coffee. It was huge, and delicious. Afterwards, we made our way to our peak, the Lauberhorn. See the view in a pic below. We were quite tired, but also wanted to have a couple hours of daylight at camp, so after we ate lunch up there, we headed back down. The weather the whole weekend was simply amazing. When we made it up to the top of the Lauberhorn, it felt like it was in the 70's, so a couple of the guys in our group even hiked shirtless. That night, we decided we needed to build a fire, even though risking someone outing our camping spot. So we climbed the steep bank which our camping ledge was a part of and went a few ledges up into the woods to a point where we could build a secluded fire. It was strange to see the firewood everywhere in the valley. There were piles all over the place. That came in handy for us :). This night we actually stayed up until 10pm or so, surprisingly enough.
Sunday: We decided we had seen a suitable amount of the Grindelwald valley, so we headed on the train back to Interlaken. We decided to just hike a ways outside of Interlaken and build camp somewhere close to one of the two lakes on either side of the city. So we hiked a couple hours into the woods and set up camp in a lean-to we found that had a fire pit in its corner. So we once again had a fire. It took a while to set up this camp, because we originally planned on not staying there and kept looking for a dry, flat spot in the woods, but they were no where to be found. It turned out to be a pretty good spot. After enjoying the fire for a while, we went to bed shortly after 10pm
Monday: On the last day Dan and I decided to get up early, 6am, and get one last hike in before we had to leave later that day at 1pm. I was real tired, but I definitely did not regret it. Once we reached the ridge, we were greeted with an amazing view of the valleys below covered in clouds. It was breathtaking. See the pic below. We then made the trek down to Interlaken and took the train back to Nantes, arriving after 11pm.
It was an amazing weekend full of not showering, drinking fresh, cold, refreshing, alp water, and growing a beard.
On top the Lauberhorn
View of Grindelwald from the Lauberhorn
Dan Huber and me after our final hike
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