Hiking In The Alps

We started off the day with a fine German breakfast. Our cottage is located by two bakeries, and so our mornings here have begun with coffee and a quick walk to get breakfast.

The bread on the left of the photo weighs what feels like 10 pounds.

Here is a close up of a slice.

Here is how I have been reliably informed Germans eat this kind of bread- topped with quark and jam. It is delicious! Though dense, the bread is very moist and the crust is not very crunchy. 

Then we drove to take a cable car to the top of a mountain. We were packed in with a bunch of parachute jumpers and hang gliders, and their gear. It is a special group of people who are willing to trust their lives to some thin rope, lightweight fabric, and ever changing up drafts and down drafts. These are people who if you asked them what they did today could answer, "Jumped off a cliff."

We looked around a bit once we were at the top, watched some of the parachute jumpers take off (one was not successful and eventually gave up), and began our descent to level ground again. 

None of the pictures I took can adequately express how steep the hike down was. 

Three hours later we reached the bottom of the mountain, and the boys went on a steel luge track with sleds. We got them each six ride passes, and they definitely enjoyed that more than the hike. 

Me too. Less chance of death or dismemberment.

Hiking steep mountains with children, yours or someone else's, is terrifying. I think we will stay on level ground or in the car for a while now.