Nadine

It’s complicated.

There were many unknowns in the plan for today including both our lodging and even our destination. We have done three consecutive days of significant climbs and I had had about enough. Mark’s knee was also stiff from a minor strain and little sleep last night.

So we decided to skip today’s climb and take a train over (or rather under) the mountain and start the day a few towns back to give us equivalent kms albeit at a lower altitude. In the end we walked about 13.4 miles to the campsite where we are now staying. 

It wasn’t a great option; it meant a lot of walking on paths that followed the train tracks and went beside busy highways .    But I think we were all a little body weary from the climbing. 

While waiting at the train station we stopped in a little shop and struck up a conversation with Maria form Portugal. She was so kind and had a heart to know God. She stated she found God during walks and felt him there. But I also think she is still looking for that personal savior that we know. She received an arrow. I hope she will walk Camino some day and find that “missing” piece that we know.

As we walked today  along a somewhat boring stretch I found myself wanting to find the beauty in all of it.

Mark

Here is where my sister has an advantage. Being open and honest I hated today’s walk. We had traded this:

for this:

I struggled to find any joy in the flat, straight gravel paths and paved highways. The walking was easy and fast but monotonous. There were zero Ohh and Ah moments. It was just head down and plow through the kms hoping for the day to end. I was depressed.

Nadine

The true beauty of the whole trip has been that God has been with us and has even seen this day before it came into existence.  We are truly held in all of our days.

Allison here

Today was a challenge to plan. We did end up taking a train for the first time this trip to skip some of the Alpine extreme ascents and descents. It was the right thing to do but tough to make the final decision.

Our walking day did not begin until about 10 am. We walked along a valley as the mountains began to shrink.

We ate lunch along the river trail. Finding shade to eat was challenging as the day was very warm compared to our higher elevation walking. Mark found the perfect spot to relax for a few minutes.

One of the fun sights we stumbled upon were some goats. These goats had a special playground to entertain themselves. It made us all smile.

Entering our campground for the night, we noticed that we have officially entered the French speaking part of Switzerland.

Gone are the Hallo’s and Danke’s. They are replaced by Bonjour and Merci. It was amazing how fast it happened.

The climate also changed. The hills are more bare and the land arid. The apple trees are gone but are replaced with vineyards. The change is striking.