Laure and Quarup

With the Alps in our backyard, I'm surprised we didn't go out hiking more often during our first year in Switzerland. We made  it out five times for day hikes:

• Zürich's Üetliberg
• Five Lakes Classic Trek
• Hike around Lauterbrunnen Valley
• Liechtensteins Drei Schwestern Trail
• Hike to Äscher Mountain Hut 

Afternoon hiking excursions from Zürich.

Zürich's Üetliberg

We had a month between landing in Switzerland and departing to Peru to squeeze in a couple last minute training hikes. Üetliberg is the local mountain that overlooks Zürich. It is a popular spot for locals catch some fresh mountain air.

Even those not interested in hiking come up here for a nice view of the city on a clear day.

Our GPS track shown on Strava. See higher resolution in Swiss Topo.

We started our hike at the edge of a neighborhood and headed straight upward. Once along the ridge, we walked several kilometers gradually moving up and down through forests and farmlands. Along the way we passed several huts serving warm meals, a small castle ruins, and a look-out fort. We got a bit carried away with the mellow terrain and we ended up heading home after dark.

Not exactly the type of hiking we're used to.

Remains of a small castle.

Last stop before turning back was the Look-Out Fort.

Our reward before catching a bus back home.

Five Lakes Classic Trek

This was our second hike in preparation for the Inca Trail. With the help of MySwitzerland, we found this alpine trail.
Much of the elevation is gained by riding a gondola and chairlift up. This worked well for us since we were working on getting our bodies more comfortable with thin air.

Crystal clear alpine lakes.

Our GPS track shown through Strava. Higher resolution in Swiss Topo.

From the trailhead, one must head in the opposite direction from the rest of the trail to visit the first of five lakes. Since we got a late start and were now racing to catch the chair lift before closing time, so we skipped this first lake. Much of the terrain was gray and rocky with patches of greenery peaking through. As we headed further up in elevation, there were remains of last winter's snow... or maybe they from this fall.

Getting a jump start to our hike with a gondola ride up.

Packed random heavy stuff into my pack to better train for our trek.

Clear enough to see Germany.

We saw four of the five lakes.

Hike around Lauterbrunnen Valley

We were familiar with this area from a prior snowboarding trip and heard this region is especially beautiful for hiking in the spring and summer. Even on a wet autumn afternoon, the views were very colorful.

Fog lifted just long enough to catch the view of some of the 72 waterfalls in the valley.

Our GPS track shown through Strava. Higher resolution in Swiss Topo.

There are numerous ways one can hike around Lauterbrunnen Valley. The route we chose started with a tram ride to the Grütschalp Station. From there we walked along the cliff wall to the village of Gimmelwald, down to the valley floor, passed waterfalls, through farms with grazing cows, and back into the town of Lauterbrunnen. If one arrives early enough, Trümmelbach Falls is another site along the way to Lauterbrunnen. Once back in town, there are numerous restaurants to choose from to replenish all the lost calories. We chose to treate  ourselves to fondue and Glühwein.

Starting and ending point: the town of Lauterbrunnen.

Between the villages of Murren and Gimalwald

Weather turned on us.

Moving through the valley farms.

Liechtensteins Drei Schwestern Trail - Liechtenstein's Three Sisters Trail

I have a dirty secret: I wanted to hike in Lichtenstein because I wanted to add another country to my count. Yes, I'm a country collector. Lichtenstein is very similar to Switzerland. The similarities include currency, language and its dramatic mountain scenery.

We allotted five hours to do this hike, which is the suggested time according to some websites. Unfortunately, Q mistakenly loaded the GPS tracks of a longer version of the hike, which forced us to turn back early. With looming thunder storm clouds in the distance, we wouldn't dare to extend our pre-determined turn back time. Despite not making it to our predesignated turn around point, taking the long cut on the way to our destination made the hike more interesting with its high meadow of wild flowers. I would encourage others to add a couple hours onto the hike and take the long cut on the way up. I hope to finish the trek in the future. The landscape was breathtaking, especially with the spring flowers in full bloom along the long scenic trail. Here is where one can find the original trail Tourisum.li.

Views of Austria, German, and Switzerland from the mountains of Liechtenstein.

Our GPS tracks shown through Strava. Better resolution through Swiss Topo.

 
The hike started off passing through a farm (near some intimidating looking steers), through wildflower filled high meadows, along cliff edges, down loose rock paths, along knife ridges, and back down slim paths hugging the rock cliff wall. Some points of the terrain require a bit more care. The loose rock paths made the trek more difficult as we were in constant fear of losing our footing and taking the fast way down - on our butts. Other portions were along cliff edges that would make one's head spin from looking down.

The hills are alive with the sound of music.

It was late spring and the wildflowers were in full bloom.

Before turning back we were in dramatic mountainous terrain with steep unguarded cliffs.

The way back was in grey rock terrain, which at moments was not for the faint of heart.

Hike to Äscher Mountain Hut 

Photos of this Hut inspired me to get out and explore Switzerland. I was thrilled to end our first year in Switzerland by visiting it.

The Äscher Mountain Hut is tucked into the rock face high above the valley.

Our GPS tracks shown through Strava. Better resolution through Swiss Topo.

This 9.3 kilometer trek to Äscher Mountain Hut takes one through alpine farms, by crystal clear lakes, up forested hillsides, by mountain huts, past a cave church, through a cave, and finishes off with views during the tram ride down back to the valley floor. Even though much of the trek is uphill, according to MySwitzerland, this is the least technical direction. Äscher Mountain Hut is shortly before one reaches the tram, providing a nice opportunity to reward one's self with a long lunch of Swiss Rösti topped with egg and alp cheese accompanied by wine or beer all while enjoying the valley view far below.

Moving up to the high valley farmland.

Even a walk through the valley is great for leisurely afternoon.

Q opted for Rösti with a saucy meat side dish.

Actual church in the side of the cliff wall - and you can attend their regularly scheduled services.

Our friends Nick and Yili visited Europe this past summer, so Laure and I decided to join them for part of their trip. Since they know how to have a good time on beach vacations, we joined them in Malta. Conveniently, it was place that Laure wanted to visit since her great-grandfather was Maltese.

We went under the boot!

We found an awesome AirBnB apartment in St. Julian's Bay.

With a great view.

Our favorite thing: enjoying the company of good friend and atmosphere over a glass of wine.

We read that it can be challenging to get around Malta by public transportation, so we rented a car and were able to see a lot more places. Thankfully my wife is an awesome driver and felt comfortable driving manual transmission on the left side of the road. Nick quickly filled the job as our navigation expert. Sadly, Google Maps was grossly wrong many times. I should probably go back more often to perform some ground truthing, as they say.

Our awesome driver.

Malta highlights.

Malta is undoubtedly most famous for its beautiful beaches, so we checked out a few of them. First up was the Blue Lagoon, which is reachable by boat from the main island. It is a beautiful beach, but due to its popularity, it can feel a bit crowded. On the other hand, it is fun to watch the crowds on speed boats going inner tubing with loud music and lots of booze.

On our way to the Blue Lagoon

Rug and Mochi joined us.

Juicy sweet watermelons.

Google+ made this Blue Lagoon photo look like a postcard.

We also visited another "beach" named St. Peter's Pool, which turned out to be very memorable in a unique way. It is hard to describe it as a beach because it is not sandy and its calm water is surrounded by a stony shore. So it is more appropriately named a "pool" instead of "beach". And since Laure hates dealing with the sand of normal beaches, this one worked perfectly for her.

A short walk to St Peter's Pool.

St Peter's Pool and its cliffy shore.

Someone gave Yili a sunblock mustache.

Who could it have been?

A popular activity at St Peter's Pool is to cliff jump into the water.

Nick decided to jump in a yoga pose.

Hiya!

Before visiting Malta, I did not know that it was once under Arab rule. You can see traces of this in their architecture especially in the older cities -- most prominently in their old capital, Mdina.

Mdina is charmingly old and very well preserved.

Maybe they cleaned it up to shoot Game of Thrones.

At times Mdina feels like a movie.

Valletta is nice for exploring by foot.

Valletta's old charming architecture.

The city felt like a mix of Spain, Morocco, and Egypt.

Q booked bus transportation to the second half of my Mystery Birthday Weekend. Q had hoped I would board the bus without knowing where we were headed - but I just couldn't do that. After some desperate pleading to learn our destination before setting foot on the bus, Q finally conceded and informed me that we're heading to Riga.

Riga? Where the hell is Riga? Ugh, I'm embarrassed of my limited knowledge of Eastern Europe. Thankfully the bus had free WiFi, allowing to learn a little bit about where we were headed during the three hour journey.

Taking a three hour ride south to Riga, Latvia

Riga is the capital of Latvia and the largest city in the Baltic States. It is famous for holding the highest concentration of German Art Nouveau architecture in the world. Just like Tallinn, Riga is another up and coming European destination. Much of Riga was bombed in WW2 but since its independence from the Soviet Unions the city has been rebuilt and restored. Today it has one of the most complete town centers in Europe. Similar to Estonia, it joined the EU in 2004 and joined the Euro Zone earlier this year. Darn - I was hoping to add a new currency to my collection jar.

Our bus stopped a short walk to the old town center, where our modest 15th century hotel was located. Our stay in Riga was short but Q had a packed 48 hours lined up.

Main Tourist Attractions

City Center Walking Tour
We started off our time in Riga with a free walking tour provided by Old Riga Free Tour through the old town. The guide was excellent. He was engaging, very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about sharing his city with the tour group. The tour lasted one and a half hours, hitting the highlights of the old town. I would definitely recommend this tour for someone's first visit to the city.

One of the better free walking tour we have taken.

At Līvu Square

Food Scene
Just like Tallinn, we were pleasantly surprised with the food in Riga -good quality at an affordable price. We were also easily able to find good eats outside of the city center. A short walk outside the city center is the food market, where venders spilled outside the large hall and onto the streets with fresh fruits, flowers, and other basic goods. Compared to Tallinn, we found that the food scene wasn't as varied in cuisines but I could imagine this changing as tourism grows.

Trying out Riga Black Balsam - a traditional Latvian herbal liqueur made with many different natural ingredients mixed in pure vodka

Conveniently some of the best Italian food was right next to our hotel at Domini Canes.

Soaking in the dusk sunlight during a late night dinner at Domini Canes

We satisfied our sweet teeth with a large variety of small pastries outside the city center at Kanela Konditoreja.

We're not the only tourists infiltrating the food market...

Art Nouveau Architecture and Museum
With a few free hours to spare we were able to explore the Art Nouveau buildings located just outside the city center. Many of the well preserved buildings are focused around Albert Street. Both of us enjoyed walking around the streets in search for the most impressive building. Right off Albert Street is the Art Nouveau Museum, which is more like a well preserved apartment fully furnished from the turn of the century, than a traditional museum. The museum is self guided with information sheets explaining each room. In our opinion, the museum is worth the visit if you're already in the area.

Elizabetes 10a & 10b, one of the most photographed buildings in the city.

Looking upward at the spiraling staircase before one enters the museum.

Transported back to the turn of the century inside the Art Nouveau Museum.

Getting Off the Main Tourist Path

Neighborhood Bike Tour
After learning about the history of the city center, it was time to learn about the rest of Riga via a bike tour. We took a three hour guided tour with the newly established company Riga Tour riding through Moscow district, Central Riga, past wooden traditional houses, the former Jewish ghetto, and past old cemeteries. The tour was a nice opportunity to increase our heart rate. But since we were on bikes much of the time, asking questions outside of the stops was difficult. Even still, it was a great excuse to get us comfortable with roaming around outside of the city center.

Biking through the Great Cemetery that been destroyed during the Soviet Era.

Caught sight of some interesting art promoting Latvia's culture.

Night Kayak Ride
After dinner we went on a night kayak tour from the main river to the former moat around the old town with Riga At Night Kayak Tour. We were the only ones scheduled for the evening so it ended up being a private tour. The tour began at 10 at night, which was still fairly bright outside in the summer. By the time we paddled toward the city center the sky was dark enough to enjoy the beautiful illuminated buildings and bridges. A bonus to our evening was spotting four river beavers along the river bed. According to our guide, we would have considered ourselves lucky to see three river beavers. As the tour ended shortly after midnight, it was a memorable way to enter my birthday as the highlight of our time in Riga.

Moving through the former city moat.

Just past midnight and officially one year older.

My overall impression of Riga was positive. I felt the city was safe, its people were polite, and getting around as independent travelers was simple in part because almost everyone spoke excellent English. The tourist industry seemed young and up-and-coming with enough established tours and sights to keep us busy for the weekend.

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present. Q did a great job and really set a high bar. Now it's my turn to start planning his birthday.