Excursion to the mountains

Hiking day dawned bright and hot. We made it to the trail head for our hike and began! It was really a great day: my only complaint is that it was too hot and too humid. Because we were in the prealps (the hills leading up to the real mountains south of here)we were not at a high enough elevation to really get the cool mountain air.

I think in all we walked about 20 kilometers, which is quite a lot, about 12 miles. For taking a bunch of foreigners, I thought this quite ambitious. Although there was not much climbing (change in elevation) it was a lot of walking. I heard several times over the course of the day the phrase "Je suis mort." I am dead (of fatigue). Of course, an exaggeration, but it was definitely more of a challenge for those who are 'sportif' than those who are not.

I would also like to point out that the twelve mile walk we took yesterday was classified as "la marche" not "la randonnée." Translated into English, marche = walk and randonée= hike. I personally would classify a 12 mile jaunt through the Swiss prealps as a hike, but no, the word hike in Swiss is reserved for crossing the Alps on foot, or something equally difficult, at least two days in duration.

C'est drôle, la Suisse.