Hut Biel - Hiking in the Central Alps

We finally did some hiking! When Torrey and I were in Italy a few years ago we discovered alpine huts. Throughout the Alps you can hike for hours and come upon a little hut in the middle of nowhere. There you can get a hot meal and a beer (or hot coffee). One thing we want to do at least a few times before leaving Switzerland is a multi-day hut to hut hike.  We didn't do that this weekend but we did stay at a hut. The one we stayed at was really just a hotel in the mountains accessible by cable-car.  I got the impression it is much busier there in the winter for skiing. Nevertheless the hiking was very nice, weather great, and veiws spectacular. We went with a couple we met at church who are also from Seattle. They had a friend (also from Seattle) who is beginning a special joint MIT-University of Madrid program in global bioengineering who came over from Spain for the weekend. (We have met some very smart people here in Switzerland!)

Torrey, Shivang, and Chris in the cable car from Bürglen to Beil.

View of Bürglen from the cable car. 

Beginning our hike from just above the hut.

This is a very popular place for mountain bikers. However, a lot of the trails have loose rock, stairs, and or steep portions. We might come back with our bikes but stick to the flatter trails.  This guy was hiking up the hill at about the same speed as us while carrying his bike. 

At the top! 

These kids are racing down the hill and back during their lunch  stop. Dad was standing at the top with his stopwatch.  I'd guess the kids were out-hiking the parents and the parents are tiring them out.  

Some of the trail was along roads that joined small farm houses together. Some sold Alpine käse, but none seemed to be open when we passed. So far Alpine käse is our favourite kind of cheese. 

View from our room, we choose to have the luxury of a private room, but our friends were in the door. Fortunately for them they were the only ones in it.

Waiting for dinner. We paid for 1/2 board which includes dinner and breakfast. Dinner was quite good, broccoli soup,  stir-fry with pork and vegetables. Breakfast was bread, cheese, yoghurt and cereal, pulls some of the best coffee I've had so far in Switzerland.  

Torrey was out early in the morning before breakfast trying out my camera. There are water fountains everywhere in Switzerland, many of them potable. We were told we could drink all the water, even straight from the stream.  

On Sunday morning our friends headed down the cable car from Beil back the way we came and then on to Lucerne. We wanted to do a bit more hiking so hiked across the ridge to another cable car. 

At the top of the ridge. 

We caught up with our friends a few hours later in Lucerne. This is the 2nd time we have been to Lurcerne but this time we wandered around taking in some of the touristy sites. 

Shivang, Chris, and Stephanie in front of the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge).

View from the Wachturm (watchtower) of the Musegg battlements.