Zinal to Gruben (Friday, August 30th)

We woke at 7am, had the typical breakfast, and spent some time trying to figure out a route from Zinal to Gruben without hiking. Well, we would be able to do it by taking: bus, bus, train, gondola, bus for about 80 CHF. We were actually okay with the multiple modes of transportation, however there were two issues that concerned us:

1. We wouldn't leave Zinal until 2pm and arrive Gruben until 5:15pm, and we wanted to get to Gruben earlier than that. Plus, Zinal is a pretty small town, so what to do until 2pm??
2. There was only one bus from the gondola to Gruben - if we missed it, then we were SOL. 

We could take a taxi for about 300 CHF. So Suzanne did what we call a "Richie" move (that's her father) - she asked the waiter if he knew anyone in town who would be willing to drive us to Gruben for 100 CHF. He looked over his shoulder to a guy having a coffee at the bar and started talking in French with him (oh, and Suzanne used her Google Translate app to ask the waiter as he spoke no English)....and that is how we met Killian! Killian was willing to drive us to Gruben and we met him at 10am at the bar and got in his car. (Suzanne took a picture of his license plate and emailed it to a couple friends in Portland with a note saying that they were getting a ride to Gruben and if they didn't hear from either of us within 24 hours, that this was whom they were last seen.😏) 

Killian was a super fun guy - very nice with an amazing sense of Swiss pride - he works for Rossignol as a boot fitter for the Swiss ski team and spoke excellent English. He pointed out every alp and mountain along the way. He knew every village and hamlet we went through - even knew the owner of the hotel where we were staying in Gruben (who happened to die in an avalanche the previous winter).  He chatted and answered questions and talked while we took pictures out his windows....

At one point he asked if we had time to go out of our way for "oh, 10 minutes or so" to get a cup of coffee at an out-of-the-way place he wanted to show us. Well, okay - we had nothing planned that day besides get to Gruben, so off we went.  Well,  it was way more than ten minutes....let's say about 30 minutes!  It was a very cute restaurant called MoosAlp.... where of course Killian ran into some people he knew as we were parking. (He's one of those guys that can make friends with anyone.)

 

We sat and had a coffee for a while and enjoyed the views.........

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This guy is making raclette - well, he is heating raclette (it's a Swiss cheese - no surprise there) by a wood fire....

Wish we thought to get a picture of Killian - he is across from Brad. He's chatting with a complete stranger in German. (He was probably talking about the crazy Americans who paid him 100CHF to drive them to Gruben!)

We got back in the car and continued our personalized tour with Killian, learning more about Switzerland and his life in Zinal - a place with a total population of 200 people.

We kept taking pictures out the windows.......

Eventually arriving at Hotel Schwartzhorn...and it took as long as it would have with the bus, bus, train, gondola, bus option: 3 hours and 15 minutes. But we had loads more fun and a great time with Killian.  When we got out of the car, Brad just looked at Suzanne and laughed saying, "What the hell just happened?! That was a blast!"

We let our friends know that we were still alive and that they didn't have to alert the authorities 😆

(Oh, we had made reservations here online a few months ago. Our fear was that they would not have private rooms and being the only hotel in Gruben, we would be stuck in the dormitory where the beds were lined up one after another - that was not going to happen!  We did have to share a bathroom, but had a sink in the room and our own space - fair enough!)

 

 

We had a room with a great balcony overlooking the hamlet.  We ate some of our bread, cheese, and sausage while we relaxed and enjoyed walking around the hamlet of Gruben.

 

This was the bed arrangement......

 

The view out our window.....

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This is the trail we took the next morning ...........

 
Photos of the cute hamlet of Gruben - only open in the summer due to the quantity of snow during the winter and the roads being closed.........

Another quaint water bisse........

Dinner was quite good - a creamed (of course) vegetable soup, salad, chicken with rice and veggies, and a caramel flan with whipped cream for dessert. This was the one place that did not take credit cards, so we paid cash for the stay and relaxed until it was time to go to sleep. 

Today's Word: Unexpected.