What is most annoying, is I catch them and throw them, and like magnets, they are back on me like the like a bad case of the flu. It was a war zone in the heat today!!!
Have time for a little story? If not, scroll down to part one.
My day did not start out as well as I would have liked. Last evening, I accidently broke the wire to my car GPS. Here in Switzerland, I am a fish out of water without it, but working hard at learning. So, this morning I had to hack the wire just so that I could use it. As a backup, I printed the directions, but we know how well that works.
Then, I am getting to a point in the highway where the road splits. My side is a parking lot. It took about 25 minutes to get to where the problem was, a single car accident on the other side of the highway. (it seemed everyone was fine thankfully).
As I was getting through the traffic, I saw the Aarburg Castle on the left, as I have many, many times. So, I decided to take the Rothrist exit to see it. So far, so good. I took the exit and could see the castle, but no place to park. So, I turned around, go to the roundabout, and went to the right. Yep, a one way on to the highway headed back home, and through that same traffic on the other side of the highway.
Did I mention it was raining almost the entire time?
Well, I finally got a quick picture after I completed the hike and was headed home. Having learned my lesson I just parked the car at the roundabout and walked. It isn't a great photo, but I was extremely tired and wanted at least one, for now. One day I will go back and photograph it properly.
Part I: On to hiking
Today's hike was though some small villages in Bern, but started and ended in the beautiful town of Melchnau. I love so much to see such classic beauty everywhere I turn, and this town is full of it.
I chose the town Melchnau because it had castle ruins which I planned on visiting as the last leg of my hike. Unfortunately, like most of my hikes, I got lost and missed the turn, then ended up off track. Afterwards, I was exhausted, but really wanted to see them, so I tried to drive to them, but there wasn't any access. This gives me a good reason to go back. Maybe it will be part of my bonus materials.
Before we get to the pictures, here are some statistics of the hike. It wasn't all that difficult, though I did have one long steep climb and a couple of other not so hard ones.
The total distance of the hike was 9.9 kilometers and took just under three hours. I sometimes wonder why it is taking me so long to cover these distances. I do not sit though I stop for water breaks. I also do take a not so aggressive steady pace to ensure I hold it for long periods of time, but it does seem, this should have been more like 2 hours 40 minutes... If anyone has similar stories I would be interested in hearing about them, please leave a message.
The lowest point of the hike was 531 meters (1742 feet) and the highest point was 781 meters (2562 feet). So, it is clear there wasn't a lot of altitude gain, but you can see that long climb I mentioned.
I parked in the bus parking lot and right there was a beautiful clock tower. I am fascinated by these, no matter where I am. I love that all towns have them and they are all unique in one way or another.
Here are a couple of typical houses (suppose they are houses) in town. For the most part, this is how it looked for this entire section of the town. I was not in town long, but for the part I was, it was just like this.
As I started up the first climb out of town, which was long, but not so steep, here was a small home that I passed, I loved the architecture, the views from and of the house, and the foliage.
As I reached the halfway point of this climb, I took a quick look back and have a nice view of the entire town. I love where I live, I do, but, I could get used to living in a place like that very easily. Ironically, every little town I have visited during this project has been just like this.
Something I have neglected to talk about, but, should be mentioned, are the number of hawks I see every day when I am out. I see them all over the place, they are quite an abundance, which I really enjoy. Yesterday, I could hear two of them calling to each other and talking for a good 10 minutes. It was a great experience. So, I took a picture of one flying above. I didn't have my super zoom, but, for the 18-270 I was still able to capture his presence.
Now, I know I where I am, my friend wanderweg signs are here... certainly I cannot get lost ..... ummmmm!!!
I could not believe it, but I saw my first wild deer in Switzerland. Where I come from you almost see them more than household pets, but never have I seen a wild one here. I had to take the picture quick as he heard me and ran and was very far.
Ok, let's hit the brakes for a minute. While you all have come to learn by now, I love cows. In fact, today, while walking I had one come up to me, so I fed him a bit, and gave him a nice pet. I really miss the cows at my parents house. But, I have also come to really love the snails here.
I was in the woods on my second climb when I came across one. Normal, sure. But this one was bright orangish red. I have never seen one like this before, and it was huge. I am guessing 6 inches long. I am guessing he could have been the Mystery Snail (Ampullariidae) but cannot be sure. Please let me know if you have any more information about him.
This next picture I took of some cows just before I fed the next set that were right next to the road in their field. I should point out I was also lost at this point and a bit aggravated. I passed this amazing plum tree and it was loaded with ripe plums, but, I did what was right and kept on going.
And the last picture I took while hiking. I saw this framed out before I picked up my camera. I just found the view beautiful and really loved the rolling hills and colours as they played with each other against the sky.
Part II: About the Canton Bern
Bern is a very large canton and has many options for hiking. One of my favorite views is going south headed to Bern and over the big mountain side. This is when you get your first glimpse of the Alps far away.
Initially, I thought about doing some of the city of Bern as part of my hike, but I wanted to really be out in a place people do not often travel. As mentioned before, it would be a great pleasure to know that someone decided to hike in one of these remote regions based on reading this blog.
Bern joined the Federation in 1353. The highest point in Bern is Finsteraarhorn 4,274 m (14,022 feet).
The population of Bern is 979,802. One of my favorite, but not often found statistics, is the number of single people. As of 2000, there were 397,095 registered single men and women. And my other favorite statistic is the ratio of men to women: 47.5% male and 52.5% female.
Bern is also a bilingual Canton, with German and French as formal languages. If you are looking to try for citizenship and do not think you will do well with German and you know French, then you may want to move here right after you get your C permit.
Here is the canton legend to date with the places I have hiked
And a couple of notes about Melchnau
Below is an interesting graph I wanted to share with you courtesy of wikipedia. It shows the growth of the population in Melchnau. It is interesting to me because the population has almost not grown at all shortly after it was collected in 1764. Just another reason to love this town.
In the year 2000, Melchnau celebrated it's 900th year.
Lastly, the size of Melchnau is 10.3 km² (3.98 sq mi). My hike went out and around the town, which gave me those great views of it.
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