Gimmelwald, Switzerland

"If heaven’s not everything it’s cracked up to be, send me back to Gimmelwald."

I’m currently in what may be the most beautiful place in the world – Gimmelwald, Switzerland. Nestled high in the Swiss Alps (right around 4500 feet), I had to take two local trains, a bus, and a cable car to get to this location. It is inaccessible by automobile, and a cable car up the side of a mountain is the only way to get here. The nearest grocery store is 40 minutes away. I know that I’ve described many of the sites I’ve visited with a great amount of awe and wonder, but nothing I’ve ever seen is even on the same playing field as Gimmelwald. Sitting here on my hostel balcony, I see nothing but the snow-tipped Swiss Alps above, and the Lauterbrunnen Valley below. I can even see glaciers that are slowly creeping their way down the sides of the mountains. All I can hear is a waterfall that plunges about 200 meters down the mountain face to my left. For the first hour after I got here, I just stood out in front of the hostel and looked around – people that have been here for days were doing the same thing. Tomorrow, I’m going on a 9-hour hike that will take me past glaciers, snow-tipped peaks, and a sapphire glacial lake, while ascending nearly 1000 meters vertically in the process. I actually think that this may be the most awe-inspiring place I’ll ever visit in my life. Hopefully it won’t be, but it certainly is right now. To see pictures of the exact hostel I’m staying at, check out:

http://www.gimmelwald.com/hostel.html

When I first saw those pictures, I was skeptical as to whether Gimmelwald would actually be as nice as they show. Now that I’m here, I can tell you that those pictures don’t even do it justice. I’ll be here for four nights, and I’m going to savor every last minute of it.