Bannalp, Switzerland

When we first conceived this move, the first thing that really convinced me that it was a good idea was reading about the Zwärgliweg. In Switzerland, where they love their hiking, they've built many theme trails.  I've already told you about the Planetenweg in Zürich; the Zwärliweg, or Dwarf trail, is similar, but completely whimsical.

The path is dotted with story boards that tell of a dwarf that hid a magic red crystal that only children can see.  Next to each board is an imaginative little play area--a little dwarf house that the kids can hid in, a zip line, musical instruments suspended from trees, buckets of golfballs that you can roll down looping ramps--all along the crest of an Alpine mountain.

Burning off excess energy at the
Hauptbahnhof before the train ride.

The walk is in Bannalp, a tiny resort town south of Luzern.  When we saw the weather forecast for the weekend (50s and sunny), Dennis gamely agreed that it would be a good day for a hike and plotted our route.

We were slightly worried when we were navigating the SBB website: to get to Bannalp we had to go Luzern, switch trains in the small town of Wolfenschiessen, and then catch a 2-minute transfer to the Post Bus to Bannalp.  That Post Bus ran twice in the morning, once at 10:00 and once around noon, and then there was a four-hour gap with no transport to Bannalp.  We contemplated arriving in Wolfenschiessen an hour early, just in case we missed our transfer, but then it occurred to us that the post bus would almost certainly wait until the arrival of the train.  So we we crossed our fingers and decided to cut it close.

The ride through the mountains was simply beautiful, and when we arrived in Wolfenschiessen, the Post Bus stop was just across from the tracks, and the bus was waiting patiently. We hopped on and rode a 15-minute switchback higher into the mountains.

Bannalp was tiny, with a single small guest house, a tiny school, and a smattering of perfect little wooden-shingled houses. But there were several cable cars going up into the crests of the Alps, and we found ours and crowded into our car with several heavily-dressed campers and skiiers.

Flying over the mountains in our cable car.

And that was our first clue that we'd made a big, big mistake today.

Because the mountains around Zürich have melted and the weather is warm, it never occurred to us that our path would be snowy.  And the article I'd read about the trail had appeared to be written in the spring.

(And now you're shaking your head, saying "Oh, Cheryl." I know, I know!)

So we were completely unprepared. We'd dressed our kids in sneakers, and I was wearing a sweatshirt and no coat.  But we and gone all the way to Bannalp, and we had four hours until the Post Bus that would take us home. We had to at least check out the trail.

Well, there were many skiiers and a busy ski lift, but was no trail, not today.  Across a snowy field we saw a little wooden cutout of a dwarf, beckoning us into the woods, but the field was impassable unless you had snowshoes.  We would have stayed up and played in the snow a little, at least, but it took Ella scarcely 30 seconds to get stuck in a snow drift and soak her shoes and pants entirely. (I have to say, even though her shoes and pants were wet for the rest of the day, she never complained.)

There was nothing else for it: we swallowed our disappointment and took the next cable car back down the mountain, and tried to figure out what there was to do for four hours in Bannalp.

We'd left our stroller at home because the trail was supposed to be bumpy, and Joey fell asleep in my arms on the walk from the cable car to town. We found a tiny playground in the center of town, and Joey and I snuggled while the kids ran around and then went on a walk with Dennis.

When they came back from that walk, Ella and Alex were over the moon: Mom, mom, you'll never guess what we found! Six flowers, three cool rocks, five BBs, and half of a green ball!

We really have to get those kids cigar boxes one of these days for their treasures. They made the best of our situation and played hide-the-BB and and ran through fields and made tiny snowmen.

So it wasn't the day that I wanted, but I think the kids had a pretty good time, still.  They spent most of the day playing in the fresh air, with the Alps in the background.

And, best of all, mom let them watch Garfield and Friends on the train ride home.