Summer is here and this week I finally managed to go on my first hike in the Swiss Alps including the experience of the deep pleasure it brings.
Since the solstice last week, the weather has definitely turned to summer. The days are sunny and warm, the nights are reduced to a minor matter. I often go to sleep when it’s still light, only to be woken by the light of the early dawn. Forgotten are the weeks with unstable weather that caused many planned hikes to fail. The balcony becomes a favorite spot. Under the parasol during the day to work or read. And then without, when the sun is lower, to eat and watch the sunset.
Carefree summer sky
Books for the daily time-outs
I’ve stocked up on literature for the summer. I love browsing through bookshops and discovering something that appeals to me. Then coming home with a few books and looking forward to diving into them and forgetting the world for a while. On my balcony, on a bench by the river, under a parasol in a café. Or simply end the day by reading a page or two when I’m lying in bed. And then drift off to sleep with thoughts of what I’ve just read.
Books for the upcoming summer weeks
Back in the hiking boots
As mentioned at the beginning, some hikes fell victim to the bad weather this year. However, we canceled the one planned for last weekend due to the heat. But this week, on Friday, the conditions were finally right to tackle our first alpine hike. Alarm clock at 4 a.m., get up with the first faint light of dawn on the northern horizon. Sitting on the train on the way to the mountains at sunrise. It’s always an experience when you arrive in a different world after a 2-3 hour journey. Away from the confines of the city, the stress, the heat. And then you just start walking, one foot in front of the other. Even if it is uphill and often tiring at the beginning, every step is rewarded. The variety of plants, the flowers, the stones, the countless insects that lie in front of you on the path. The constantly changing perspective from which you can view the landscape around you and then the experience when you reach a hilltop and a new valley and many new mountains open up behind it. Clouds that appear out of nowhere, nestle around the peaks of the mountains and then dissolve again. The smell of herbs, earth and fresh air. Cowbells in the distance, the whistling of jackdaws on the peaks and the wind carrying the sound of a waterfall. Hiking is something you experience with all your senses and it always reminds me how beautiful the world actually is. You can’t put it into words, you have to experience it. And how full of positive energy you feel when you get out of your hiking boots at home in the evening, tired and sweaty, to get into the shower.
The peaks and the clouds
Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can’t take it and my heart is just going to cave in.
Ricky Fitts in American Beauty
Alpine valleys
A little bit of nightlife
The hike up the Gällihorn near Kandersteg and along the Üschinengrat to Schwarzgrätli was definitely the highlight of the week. The weekend got hot and the physical activities were reduced to an all-night dance on Saturday night. I don’t do this often, but going through a warm summer night and coming home with the rising sun to wind down on the balcony with a cup of coffee before going to bed just feels good. Welcome summer in Switzerland!
