The Quinns: Alpine Adventure

We spent Monday night by Interlaken, and got up this morning to go to Trummelbach falls. It’s a waterfall that has carved itself through a mountain.

I had done research on it ahead of time, and knew that it could be a little dangerous. In fact, a child died there last year after climbing on the railings. It’s perfectly safe if you stay on the pathway, which is what I needed to get into my kids’ heads so that I didn’t stress about them the whole time. Especially Andrew, since he tends to be one who is either running ahead or dragging behind. Chloe was in my backpack so that I didn’t have worry about her.

Well...instilling fear definitely worked. But it worked too well. Once we got to the top of the mountain where we go into where the waterfalls are, Andrew REFUSED to go in. He wouldn’t move. Frozen to the spot. Chocolate bribe? No go. Nice Asian lady that passed him by and patted him reassuringly on the head? No go. Nice other foreign couple who tried to talk him into using a language he didn’t understand? Again, no go. He was sure he was going to die just like the kid I had told him about. Seriously, why did he finally choose now to listen to me? Do I have to mention death?

I tried to get him to go by saying that “the only way out is through”. But he was too smart and could see people coming back down the same stairs that he was refusing to go up. So he knew that he would not only have to go on the scary stairs once, but twice. The deafening noise from the waterfall didn’t help.

So in the end, I waited until my sister and the kids went came back out and then I went up (with Chloe on my back). I passed by the foreign couple that had tried to help me, and I’m sure they wondered whether I had left my terrified kid back at the entrance to the falls. It was pretty slippery with the water and the rock stairs, but I did pretty well. Except I think I kind of got a little cocky and started going down fast ("ooohh...look at me and how fast on my feet I am!") and ended up on my backside in front of the very people I was showing off my mad carrying-a-kid-in-a-backpack-and-hiking-waterfalls skills to. So, I continued on a little more humbled and slower, and luckily with my tailbone intact.

After that, we found the cheapest gondola we could take up the mountain to do a little alpine hiking. We took the “children's adventure trail”, and the only adventure seemed to be figuring out if the trail ever ended. Eventually we turned back and finished off the hike with a few last waterfalls, snowball fights, and a lot of pictures.

The funny thing is that Mason had been insisting we attempt to make it to the top of the mountain. Luckily that discussion ended after our measly attempt with the children's adventure trail.

It sounds weird, but one of my favorite parts was just breathing the air. It was cool, but not cold and dry and smelled like trees and snow. I don't know how to describe it well, but it was heavenly.

The only sad part is that I have to say goodbye to my sister tomorrow. It has been so fantastic having a visitor, and she was great with my kids. She brought toys, games, puzzles...all of the things I didn't pack. And she seemed to have the magic touch with the weather, since every day that was scheduled for rain somehow turned into blue sky. What can I say? That's just the kind of person she is.