Seerenbach Falls

Yesterday we did our first "official" day hike in Switzerland. The weather is turning nicer now, it's getting warmer, and we're more settled in now. So the time is right to start getting into the mountains. Now I know we've already done several quick hikes around our village. You've already seen several pictures on the blog. But this was the first "official" day hike that we've done that seemed more like a day trip.

We drove southeast to the Lake Walensee area, which is a gorgeous lake about 30 minutes from our house. Believe it or not the lake is also the official gateway to an area of Switzerland nicknamed "Heidiland." The Swiss author Johanna Spyri who wrote "HEIDI" set her story around the village of Maienfeld, which sits just east of Lake Walensee (hence the nickname.) Anyway, we drove to a small village called Betlis and then hiked to a beautiful waterfall called "Seerenbach Falls." It's the tallest free fall waterfall in Switzerland. The hike was fun. You get to see the waterfall in front of you during the entire hike (as well as hear it), and you get great views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. After we got up close to the falls we had a nice picnic nearby. Later on when we got back to the car we let the kids (and Glacier) play around in the lake, while Jenny and I just sat there and took in the scenery.

Anyway, the kids had a fun afternoon. It was fun to finally get up into the mountains.  Days like this one is why we decided to move here.  And now that it's warmer, and we're more settled in, hopefully there will more days like these.