Haslital

Today was a busy day in the beautiful Hasital region of Switzerland. Unfortunately it was overcast and rainy on and off all day, but my host lent me a jacket so I was set to go. No need for any of the shorts, skirts or singlet tops I’ve been wearing in the South of France... from 32 to 5 degrees overnight takes a bit of getting used to!!

We visited the Rosenlaui Chlucht (Rosenlaui Gorge) and walked up the inside. The rain has one good outcome, the waterfalls are amazing! There was a huge amount of water flowing through the gorge, and it gives you a great understanding of the power of the water to find the weak points, and wear away the rock forming the gorge in the first place. The noise of the water has to be heard to be believed, there were times when we couldn’t hear ourselves think! Let alone speak!

From there we headed down to a beautiful old hotel where I was introduced to two Swiss delicacies - Ovalmaltine (a hot milk drink, malty flavour) and the local Haslital hazlenut tarte. yummo!! The electricity for this hotel is produced in the back garden with hydro power from the creek... its fantastic, ocassionally the power flickers the lights as it fluctuates.

Today we also visited the waterfall “Reichenbach Falls”. This is famous because, apart from being a beautiful backdrop to Meiringen town, it is the waterfall that features in the penultimate Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in which Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis Professor Moriarty fall to their deaths. Once again the rain made for an incredible display of the force of nature.

We caught a little cable car up to the viewing platform where it was impossible to stand at the edge without getting saturated!! Great fun, but FREEZING!!

On this day we also visited Grimsel Hospiz which is on a huge dam wall. There are lakes all over this region of Switzerland which are used for the production of electricity. One of the local power companies KWO has a display here which talks about lots of sustainable energy options.

We had dinner that night with my friend’s family, delicious provencale style dinner of baked home grown courgette filled with minced beef and vegies and served with roast potatoes.