Hiking to the Glaciers

This morning I coaxed Mariella into another hiking day. The day started out a little rough, with a conflict. The conflict arose out of marital communication challenges. Can anyone relate? The day started out bumpy, but God redeemed it as he always does. I will start off by saying Mariella was a climbing champ today. The plan today was a hike to the two nearby glaciers. We started by walking ten minutes from the hostel to a gondola, which was a five minute ride to Pfingstegg trail head. We started hiking toward Lower Grindelwald Glacier. A quarter of the way into the hike we came to a sign that read something like, “Trail Closed Avalanche Danger.” This is what we deciphered from the Swiss writing. We turned in the other direction and decided to hike around the mountain to the Upper Grindelwald Glacier. After an hour and a half of hiking, we came to a steep part of the mountain that had ladder like steps weaving up the cliffside. After getting to the base of the mountain we read another sign that said closed. We noticed that about ninety-eight percent of the railing was disassembled. So…we interpreted the closed sign and missing railing as the trail being closed for those too scared to hike up ladders and steep steps without railing or cables. I knew if my friend Wes was with me he would not hesitate at attempting the somewhat calculated risk. I was surprised that Mariella was the one first up the latter trying to get a better view above the trees. We were grateful to find that we were the only ones at the top of the mountain side looking one way to the valley and the other way to part of the Upper Grindelwald Glacier. Stunning! We slowly made are way down the stairs and ladders and made it back to Grindelwald safely and even before dark. Great day! Waking up early tomorrow and catching a train back down to Italy. We are heading to the Cinque Terra coastline (north of Pisa) and hope to walk from fishing town to fishing town along the coast. I believe the Italians call the walk to the towns along the ocean Via dell'Amore (Path of Love) hopefully that means we will start our day a little differently and without conflict. 