Part 4. The Niesen.
Friday, July 24th
Breakfast at 8 a.m. then preparations for the Niesen. We got our
twotoe coverers and paid 1/2 franc for getting the studs put in. We
had a nice little drive over part of the ground we covered yesterday, to a
village called Zimmen, just at the foot of the Niesen. Here we got out and made
preparations for walking. Our guide stowed away the lunch in his knapsack, a
funny affair made of skin with the fur still on, and he offered to take all the
cloaks that we would give him. We did not like to burden the poor man in this
way, and slung them round our waists. We sent the lunch basket back in the
machine and then proceeded on our way. It was extremely hot and very soon Mr
Lister & Mr Allen had to discard their coats. These our sturdy little guide
offered to carry, but the other gentlemen would not hear of it. The first part
of the way was pretty easy, and we had breath enough to try our very bad German
on our guide. He was exceedingly good natured and spoke very distinctly, but
only in German. When we asked him if he spoke French, he shook his head
decidedly and said: Nein, nein, ich bin nicht Französisch. By
& by we came to some very stiff climbing and my breath quite deserted me.
Mr Lister and T gave me a pull up but oh! I nearly bust. I felt
myself a bit of a nuisance, but I really could not help stopping frequently to
get a little breath. The scenery all the time was so beautiful that description
of it is not easy. Although we climbed the shady side of the mountain, the heat
was extreme. We should really have started much earlier, so as to have had our
hardest work over before the heat of the day. Thirst soon assailed the party in
general and me in particular, so we stopped at a chalet and had a drink of
water. We passed many chalets on our way, which were shut up for the summer,
both people and cattle having gone further up the mountain. By and bye, we came
to huts with cattle inside. We could hear the jingle of their bells, so peeped
in. The cows are kept inside during the heat of the day and allowed out in the
evening. Far up the mountain side we came to a chalet, where the people were
stirring milk in a large copper vessel over a fire. We came to the conclusion
that they were making Swiss milk. There was a good supply of water all the way,
and we took advantage of it. The troughs are tree trunks hollowed out, and the
water is very good and icy cold. Once we stopped at a stream. It seemed to
originate in a huge pile of snow, lying in a hollow of the hill, and the water
was extremely cold. We put our arms into the water right up to the elbow, but I
for one, could not keep them there for more than a second. The guide himself
calmly stepped into the burn, and allowed the water to run over his boots. Then
he put his arms into the water and held them up, thus letting the water run
right into his armpits. The wild flowers were very plentiful, and our guide was
never weary in getting them for us and telling us their names. One time he made
a sudden dart downwards and soon reappeared with a plant that looked not unlike
a plantain. This he told us with a broad grin was made into
Schnapps Whisky. Whether our exceeding droothiness made him think
we should be interested, I cant say. He seemed to think it a joke at any
rate.
Once we stopped and had a pear. How delicious it was. By that
time I was exceedingly tired, and could only go a few steps without stopping.
The road seemed interminable always up, up, up. Several times we met
people coming down. How I envied them! When we were getting near the top we met
a party of people, and endeavoured to ask them how long it would take us to
reach the end of our long spiel. They told us half an hour. We were
indeed thankful to hear it. At the long last we (he) reached the height of our
ambition, and found a hotel there. I lay down on a wooden seat, while the rest
explored and arranged about milk or coffee. I was disturbed by a peculiar
noise, which I found to be falling stones, They had been loosened by the Niesen
Railway makers, and were rattling down the precipices with a great clatter. We
passed some awesome precipices on the way up, and on some sides of the summit
there are others. We unpacked our lunch and ate it with some goats milk
(50c) as our liquid food. I was only able to eat ½ sandwich as I was
feeling rather sick. I enjoyed the milk, though the flavour was peculiar
like tinned Swiss milk. I returned to my seat and had another little rest. A
nice big St Bernards dog made friends with the ladies of the party, but it
evidently had objections to make to Mr Allan. After spending about an hour on
Niesen Kulm we began the descent deciding to go to Reichenbach,
rather than Frutigen. And now began a scramble down a steep and very rough
slope, which we found very trying on our ankles. Sometimes we sent showers of
stones down, which was rather dangerous for those in front. On this slope were
a great number and variety of wild flowers butter balls, michaelmass
daisies &c. I was not so spry as I might have been as I felt very sick. The
guide was very good to me, and took my hand at the bad bits. After a sair
warstle we got on to the track. We took a glance at the slope, we
had come down, and wondered how we had ever done it. Shortly afterwards we came
to some chalets. We were just in time to see the cattle being let free for the
evening. The tinkling of their bells was delightful and quite new to us. There
was a very large number of them, so it was a case of the more the
merrier. As we came gradually downwards we had many enchanting views. We
could see the whole valley of the Kander along which we had driven yesterday,
lying practically at our feet. I gradually began to feel spryer, but Mr Lister
twisted his foot and was rather lame for a time. This we felt to be rather
serious as our labours were by no means over, nor the road like the Kings
highway. We all rather envied a youth who came out of a chalet carrying a milk
can. He passed us, and we gave him no further thought, till we saw our
guides merry face wreathed in smiles, and his finger pointing in the
direction the aforementioned youth had taken. With one accord we gazed as
directed, and there was the child tearing along that rough, stony
road at the rate of sixty good English miles an hour. Truly, the human frame is
a marvellous creation! I think Swiss ankles must be made of no ordinary stuff,
to run and not be weary, aye, or broken, on such a
track. We gazed open mouthed at this surprising, but by no means elegant,
performance. At the next chalet we made friends with a nice little collie puppy
whose trademark (i.e. pawmark) we carried away on our skirts. And now the way
led us through the pine woods and a rough and stony way it was. It
twisted and twined and wriggled, always going down, down, down. Our legs were
tired resisting the force of gravity, and we felt as if we had descended
millions, yes millions, of stairs. A woman with a pannier on her back,
accompanied by a little girl, were [sic] trudging down the road in front of us.
As we passed, the youngster smiled sweetly and presented T with a
posy of wild flowers, which she had been gathering . T entered into
conversation with them, but, as they spoke German, she did not understand very
well all that the woman said. She was evidently surprised that we had been at
the top of the Niesen. All things come to an end, and we really did come to the
end of that pine wood, though we sometimes felt as if it had no end to come to.
Shortly afterwards we found ourselves on the road to Kanderstegg, not far from
our destination, Reichenbach.
We had to decent ourselves, as a greater collection
of beauties it would have been hard to find. Nans collar was crying,
Hurrah! in the breeze ours were decorating our pockets. Our blouses were
all open at the neck, as worn in the back woods of America, and as for our
sleeves, they were rolled up to our elbows, as if we had been having a good
days charring. Our skirts were, to put it mildly, well kilted, our
hats were mostly at a very rakish angle, and the hair beneath, well, a trifle
tousy. We did our best to adjust these little matters before
exposing ourselves to the gaze of the public. At Reichenbach station we had to
wait for three quarters of an hour. We amused ourselves with a bonny wee girl,
who was playing about and she amused herself with us. By and bye she was joined
by another, and neither of them seemed to be at all shy. They were very pretty
children. Going home in the train, we had a splendid view of the
Blûmlisalp, lit up by the setting sun a lovely rose pink.
We were all very tired, but determined to put our best foot
forward. And make believe that we were not in the least overcome.
We trudged down the road from the station very gaily, and shortly appeared at
dinner looking sunburnt, but according to our own ideas, fairly spry. I took a
much better dinner than I thought I should, when at the top of the Niesen. The
folks at the Hotel knew we had reached the top of the mountain, as they
telephoned while we were there, to see if the wanderers had arrived. I forgot
to mention this earlier. The guide told us about it, while we were having
lunch. Before going to bed, we took a short walk on the verandah. Mr Morgan was
enjoying a puff at his pipe, and hailed us with, Well
Scotties. Phys said: I dont think you are nice. He
said: Why, I thought that was the greatest compliment I could pay
you. We admitted that it most assuredly was. Mr Morgan smiled, and said:
Ah! if you want to get at a Scotchman, say something about his
country. We all laughed, and did not contradict the truth of that
statement. Phys had evidently some bee in her bonnet about tomorrows
proceedings. She did not want to miss Beatenberg our programme for
tomorrow nor did she wish to forego Interlaken. She assailed Mr Morgan
with questions about the relative merits of the shops, in Interlaken
Grindelwald and Luzern a nice corner to put a man in. The truth was, she
was taken with the shops in Interlaken, and wanted to buy things
there, but if she went to Beatenberg, she would not have an opportunity of
doing so. If the Grindelwald & Luzern shops were as good as those of
Interlaken, then her ladyship would go to Beatenberg with a light heart and a
full purse, but how was a mere man to understand all this. The victim in
question had a notion that she wanted to do the impossible, so he said:
My dear young lady, you cant do Switzerland in five minutes.
Phys declared she did not want to, and endeavoured to explain what she did
want. I think, that eventually, he was enlightened, and she re-assured. After
all this baz-faz, he said, he thought he would like to say something nice to
us, before we retired, and asked us if we could suggest something suitable. We
told him we did not want parrot compliments, and, that we had always given him
credit for being more original. He then said: Oh, very well. You are all
exceedingly nice girls, whereupon, we spread out our skirts and bowed to
the ground, in acknowledgement of this well deserved? Compliment. After that,
there was nothing left for us to do, but retire gracefully (as well as we
could). We paid Nan & Phys a visit & T punched their quilts
as usual. Then to bed.
Next Part
Notes / Glossary:
Droothiness - Lowland Scots for thirstiness.
Sair Sore/painful
Worstle Wrestle
Tousy - Tousled; tangled; rough; shaggy.
The construction of the Niesenbahn funicular railway was
completed in 1910.