We made a quick pit stop in Mürren. The sun was just starting to come over the peaks.

Looking down on the awakening town of Lauterbrunen. 

Haze

Flowers

Unique buildings and B&B's.

The sun just peaking over

These are the Mürren tennis courts. If you hit a ball out, it goes straight down into the valley below. You're not getting it back!

Breakfast: coffee and a berliner (jam doughnut)

Stomachs filled, jolted awake with caffeine, and on our way up to the Schilthorn!

At one point we were so high in altitude that we went through the clouds. It was slightly creepy to look ahead to where the cable car was going and to see the cables just disappear!

First sighting

I apologize in advance for the multiple pictures, but the view from here was just astounding.  

Parasailing into the clouds

What a view to take in. 

As he slowly disappears. 

The Schilthorn. Inside is a revolving restaurant. 

Don't ask. I don't have any explanation really. :)

We spent a good two hours just taking the views in, and then it was time to head back into the precarious clouds down to Mürren.

Once on solid ground safe from the mind's tendency to think about the cable car's cable's snapping, we decided on a hike our Switzerland book suggested. Bryndli peak. The book said that the hike would only take about an hour to reach the peak and so we headed off. 

These guys were everywhere

We were headed in the direction of Rostockhütte.

Ski lifts for the winter season

What the book failed to mention about this trail is that it is practically straight up. There were what seemed millions of little tiny switch backs that immediately caused your body to shout at the top of it's lungs how out of shape you are. But when I stopped for a breath (which was a lot) I was able to capture shots like this one. :)

Behind this bench is the last leg of trail to Bryndli peak. I have to be honest when I say that this leg scared me witless. The gradient was at least 98%. Literally almost straight up with NOTHING to hold onto but the grass. And believe me. I was holding, crawling, shaking, and in desperate need of a couple of shots of whisky to calm my nerves which were running havoc in my body! There aren't any pictures as I had to hand off the camera just to not mess with my equilibrium. 

At the top of Bryndli peak there is a metal cross and a book in a box that everyone who climbs there signs. The views are by far impressive. It's a bummer that I was shaking so bad, that I didn't really get to take it in. 

On the side of the mountains there were houses just like this one, just sitting there. No pathways or cars. The only way to get to them is hiking!

Notice the trees in the bottom right hand corner of this picture? The bench I mentioned is behind them. The hill slopes so much that once false move and you'd go sliding right over. 

But we made it! And here's proof!

The book to sign

One of the couples that we met staying at our hostel had passed us on our way up to Bryndli and said they were just coming from there. Will had asked Karen to marry him up there! How awesome is that!?

We headed back down to the bench to have some lunch of good cheese, bread, apples, and water. 

So from there, the book mentioned we could either make our way down the millions of switch backs and kill our knees to return to Murren or to take the easier path. 

That easier path was this. Walking on the ridges of the mountain with nothing once again to hold on to. We discovered this fact as we were halfway there. My body at this point was refusing to move a step. We were in tennis shoes, no hiking poles, the wind was blowing, and one wrong move would send you flying over the side. It was just to much. 

In the end we traced our steps back and gave our knees a run for their money as we went down the switch backs back to Murren. It was an amazing experience even though my nerves were through the roof. We have some amazing stories and pictures. 

This is the sunset back at our hostel in Gimmelwald that night.