Switzerland: Mountain Memories

 Fresh off the mountain high of the Kofel in Oberammergau, Germany, Tom and Jim were eager for more Alps. So they slung on their still-overpacked backpacks and headed south into Switzerland. Another snowstorm muffled the noise of the train as each of them pictured scenes straight out of their grade-school geography books: snow-capped peaks, clear mountain lakes, cheese wheels as big as Conestoga wheels, and, of course, men in trachten—traditional Swiss clothing—sending deep, mellow echoes across the mountains through their long wooden alphorns.

Zurich and Lucerne

The train pulled into Zurich’s Hauptbahnhof exactly on time—this was Switzerland, after all, and precision in all things was expected.  Stepping outside, the boys found themselves on Bahnhofstrasse—the Rodeo Drive of Switzerland. Stomping around in their heavy boots, well-worn jeans, and unwieldy backpacks, the boys felt more than a little out of place as they passed impeccably kept stores filled with jewelry, furs, expensive chocolates, and watches. Everything felt polished, efficient, and extremely prosperous—ultra wealth on full display. This was not the type of terrain the boys wanted to explore, and they made plans to leave the next morning.

Despite warnings from fellow backpackers that valuables had a way of disappearing in the city’s youth hostel, Tom and Jim booked two bunks. It turned out to be the largest hostel they had stayed in up to that point. But “large” did not translate into “comfortable,” and with size came many more “guests”—not all of whom concerned themselves with the rules.  When the lights went out, two Brits got into an argument about the right to smoke—prohibited in the hostel—and then into an even more heated exchange about a recent Time Magazine cover depicting an ape in a story about a recent discovery and evolution.

“The head is all out of proportion,” one of them said. “You can’t reconstruct an entire monkey from a jawbone.”

“It’s an ape, not a monkey.”

“And you’re a wanker.”

Fortunately, this deeply philosophical discussion did not come to blows. But Jim was tempted to leap from his bunk to confront an Aussie who was eating noisily while talking loudly to someone not responding and laughing uproariously at his frequent and thunderous flatulence.

The next morning, on one of the first trains out, Tom and Jim agreed to steer clear of hostels in big cities. Smaller hostels were less crowded, more comfortable, and tended to attract travelers more attentive to the written and unwritten rules of the road.

In Lucerne, they found a city closer to what they had imagined Switzerland would be. Set against the dramatic backdrop of Mt. Pilatus and the Swiss Alps, Lucerne’s pristine lake and the river Reuss, while alive with both commercial and pleasure craft, offered the hoped-for peace and quiet after a long night of guarding their backpacks and listening to inane arguments and scatological sound effects.

The weather was unseasonably warm, so they spent much of the day walking the city’s famed covered wooden bridges, including the famous Chapel Bridge, built in the 14^th century, and its paintings from 16^th century, depicting scenes from the bible, the city's history, its patron saints, and its sponsoring families' coat of arms. (In 1993, a fire damaged most of the 158 paintings. To date, only 30 of them have been restored.)

In his journal, Tom recorded that the town had a natural harmony: gulls squabbling over bread on the lakeshore, people moving at ease along the water and on the bridges, seemingly unaware of—or simply taking for granted—the beauty that surrounded them.

And those mountains.

“Here in Lucerne,” he wrote, “it’s the first time I felt the thrill of real mountains—a natural high, buzzing through me in a way I’d never known before.”

Interlaken and Grindelwald

From Lucerne, the boys pushed deeper into the Alps. They stopped briefly in Interlaken, where the weather, unlike Zurich, was pleasantly cold and snowy. Jim was more taken with the town than Tom was. Though a bit “touristy” (a four-letter word among “seasoned” backpackers), he enjoyed—for maybe the first and last time in his life—window shopping along the town’s clean, well-maintained streets. He wanted to linger by one of the lakes, but both he and Tom were eager to get to yet another must-see town, according to fellow backpackers

Grindelwald sat in a valley beneath the Eiger, the Mönch, and the Jungfrau mountain peaks. After checking in at the (smaller) hostel, they hiked together to get a better view of the Eiger. Then, they split up for the rest of the day to explore on their own, agreeing to meet at the hostel that evening.

Somewhere along the mountainous path that Tom took, he met Barb, a young woman from Durango, Colorado. As usual, Tom struck up a conversation and they spent the next several hours walking, talking, and sharing stories about their travels and their lives. It was another example of what Tom and Jim were experiencing more and more—the people they met were what made traveling so worthwhile.  

At the end of the day, he found Jim by a roaring fire outside the hostel, staring up at the sky, looking as relaxed as he’d ever seen him.

“Never seen so many stars,” Jim mumbled when Tom pulled a chair up. “Let’s splurge. How about a beer? Just one?”

As they drank more than one beer, Tom told Jim about Barb. Jim had also met a girl, Eve, during his wanderings, but their time together had been short. Eve was, in her words, “all cultured out with cities” and much preferred the countryside. Jim sensed some promise there—until her traveling companion showed up: a guy who didn’t speak English but needed no words to convey that third wheels were most unwelcome.

Tom and Jim finished their beers and headed into the hostel for the night, They were reluctant to leave Grindenwald—and maybe a chance to meet some more women who enjoyed mountains and fire pits—but they needed to keep moving before their Eurail passes expired. Next stop: Venice!

***

That was the "Then." Now for the Now. Click on the video below for the boys' reflections on their time in Switzerland.

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