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ZURICH, Switzerland: I have a new favourite word: Wanderweg.
It represents freedom, a departure, clean, fresh air. It brings to mind the clang of cowbells and the hearty crunch of gravel underfoot.
It’s German for “trail” — as in a hiking trail — and it is dotted all about the Swiss countryside.
A hiking holiday to Switzerland is like a massive exercise in connect-the-dots. You start at Point A (likely a lovely little hamlet with a river running through it), and wend your way from one wanderweg signpost to another until eventually, perhaps when the sun is just about to disappear from the sky, you set foot in Point B, every bit as lovely as Point A.
But it is not the destination that matters, of course, but the getting there.
Because this is Switzerland, home of the Alps, where the only thing clearer than the lakes is the endless sky, and where the grass really is greener — a shade deeper than what we’re used to in our parts.
YOU TAKE THE HIGH ROAD
So, here is how the wanderweg works. It is 9am and I am setting out from Wengen (1,274m, picture perfect and set against a steep incline — but aren’t they all, here) and I have a place booked in Grindelwald (1,034m). I am told that en route I will pass by Kleine Scheidegg (2,061m, not even a town, just a restaurant where hikers can take a breather).
That is all I know as I leave my hotel.
At the edge of Wengen, where the tarmac gives way to mud trail, stands a signpost with a bright yellow arrow declaring wanderweg. Below that there is another arrow pointing to my left saying, “Kleine Scheidegg — 2.5 hours”.Then, a curveball: Another arrow pointing right. “Kleine Scheidegg — 4 hours”.
Same destination, different approaches. It is not about taking the route of least resistance but the one that holds the most promise.
I have 10 hours before I’m due in the next hotel. If I get there early, I’m left twiddling my thumbs — the villages are very sleepy.
I like to maximise my holidays. I go right.
WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT
And right, it turns out, was the right choice. Because two hours in, I find I am walking in the shadows of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, a dominating triumvirate of mountains strung out across the heart of Switzerland.
They form a wall I think I can almost touch if I just reach out a little. I am near enough that I can hear, somewhere, the crack and rumble of a tiny avalanche on the mountains.
I was actually on the Jungfrau a few days before, snowboarding, under four layers of sub-arctic clothing. But where I’m walking now, it is all green meadows and bright sunshine. Shirtsleeves country. It’s part of the appeal of Switzerland — not very big at all but so satisfyingly varied.
They tell me it’s the No 2 destination globally for extreme sports (I saw a skydiver bring his parachuted mass down not 5m from a cow in a field), but its primary tourist crowd seems to be retirees who come for the fresh air.
Something for everyone, then.
ONE LAST STRETCH
I have just stepped out of a lovely, Enchanted Woods-style, deciduous forest and into the most magnificent view of the sprawling town of Grindelwald, some 500m below me, at the foot of the Eiger.
I am taking it all in, to the soundtrack of clanging cowbells and the trundle of some distant train, when I meet my old friend, the wanderweg signpost. Left to Grindelwald, 30 minutes, fahrroute — that is, on tarmac — or right also to Grindelwald, 1 hour 15 minutes.
It is 7pm and here in the sparkling European summertime, the sun only sets after 9pm.
I’ve got time. I go right. - TODAY/sh
This trip was arranged by Singapore Airlines, which has two daily flights to Zurich – once in the afternoon and once at night.
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