Hiking in Switzerland!

This past weekend, I got to see the beautiful landscape of Switzerland by going on a hike with one of my teammates. In Portugal, Sabine had asked me if I wanted to go hiking with her and her family and of course I jumped on the chance! We started off the trip with taking an hour and a half bus ride just to get where the trail began. Although it was pretty long, it was cool passing through all the little towns and seeing the lake get smaller and smaller from climbing up into the foothills. We finally made it and I was ready to hike!

Sorry its not one of the greatest pictures... but its still pretty!

At first we started hiking up the side of the road and then quickly went into an open pasture. I thought to myself, where are we going? I had a picture in my head that we would be hiking in woods with a little trail to follow, not hiking through pastures. Then I heard some bells and was still pretty confused until I turned the corner- we were hiking right through cow pastures! Sabine soon let me know that hiking through cow pastures is very normal when it comes to hiking in Switzerland! There were some times in the hike that we had to walk right through the middle of the herd to continue on our path. I think I asked Sabine five times are we really hiking through cow pastures with cows?? It was something that was so unexpected but it definitely put a smile on my face!

A picture from the side of the road... I just had no idea we would get so close to them! I also love how everything is so colorful!

Getting ready to hike past some cows!

Just a few of the cows we hiked past!

Of course being the animal lover that I am, I just had to get a picture by the cows! Most of them were pretty skittish but some were curious and would follow us around! I was able to get about five feet away from this cow. I think its great that he's looking right at the camera!

Right after we got through the cow herd, we walked past a huge dirt pile... or what I thought was a dirt pile. When I looked closer it was actually a huge ant hill! Sabine told me that they are called forest ants and are protected in Switzerland. I guess they are good for the forest and help the eco-system.

I don't think I've ever seen an ant hill so big! The darker brown color are all the ants!

Here are some pretty pictures from the beginning of our hike.

After we hiked for a bit through some more pastures we made it to our lunch destination- a small lake. It was pretty steep climb down to get to the lake. Although its nearly not as big as Lake Neuchatel it was still a beautiful place to have lunch. They even had a little picnic area that we could sit down and eat at.

This cute cow is trying to cool off in the lake.

This picture is for my sisters Jess and Karen! I can't wait for you guys to come over so you can see Switzerland from horse back!

After we had a relaxing and cool lunch by the lake we decided to get hiking again. It was another steep climb to get back up to our original trail.

Here are some more views from the top our trail looking over the lake. What a beautiful day!

Of course we passed some more cows as we continued on our hike. This time I was able to get a really good close up of the big bells that they wore. I asked Sabine why they wear the bells and she told me that they wear them so the owners have an easier time finding them. Sometimes during our hike it would be completely silent, just us and nature and then sooner or later we would start hearing the bells. At times it was a relief because we knew that we were getting closer to towns and hopefully heading in the right direction.

Right after we passed some more cows (they were seriously everywhere) I noticed a really beautiful flower. The flower looks like a sunflower but instead of the petals being yellow they were silver. It was especially beautiful because the sun was shining right on it. Again I asked Sabine, my great trail guide, what it was and she said that it was Silver Thistle. I've heard of thistle before back in the states but it definitely doesn't look anything like this!

It was back again to our hike and we came up to a sign.. we had three hours and fifteen minutes left!!! We started our hike at 10 in the morning and didn't finish hiking until around 5. It was a very long day!! Here are some final pictures from our hike. I had a great time hiking with Sabine and her family. They were great company and had no problem answering all of my questions. Hopefully I'll be able to go hiking again soon!

We were headed to Les Verrieres!