Flumserberg - Jumping and Climbing on the Mountaintops!

We had been waiting for dad to join us so that we could hike the theme trail and do the ropes course at Flumserberg, and today was the day! I really love the moms:tots:zürich blog - it's been so helpful in planning fun adventures with the kids in Switzerland.

The weather forecast for today was a bit cooler, but we don't have very many days left in Switzerland, and there wasn't going to be any rain, so we bundled up and headed off for the mountains. It was a little bit of a journey to get there - two train rides of about 20 minutes each, and then a bus ride for about 30 minutes. But riding on trains and buses through the Swiss landscape really isn't all that bad...

When we got to the base of the mountain, I was glad I had packed these headwraps, but if I had known ahead of time how much the kids would end up wearing them instead of me, I would have ordered some cooler patterns.

They aren't super warm, but they are pretty good when it's just a little bit chilly. Also, I packed four of them, and they hardly take up any room in my backpack and are very light. Much lighter and less bulky than four winter hats.

First we took a cable car part of the way up the mountain. We've done this before, and the kids were much less freaked out this time. Then we had to take a chair lift up to the trail head. I'm glad we had already experienced cable car rides a few times before this, because the chair lift was much scarier - NO DOORS! We were all glad for jackets and headwraps, and for baby carriers to keep the little ones strapped in tight!

Malorie and Ceci joined us on today's adventure!

Headed for the top!

Once we got up to the top, the views were amazing! 

Then it was time to hike on the adventure theme trail, which would lead us down the mountain back to where the cable car station was. Downhill hiking is much easier than uphill hiking, especially for short little legs! All along the trail were little stations telling a story about Heidi and Peter and the "wilde Mannli" (wild man). These were only in German, so we were glad auntie Malorie was there to translate the story for us! Basically, the wild man used to live here and was messy and mean to everyone, including the animals, doing things like trampling the flowers and throwing snails in streams, and all kinds of other mischief. He was punished and banished from the area, but later had a change of heart and now is allowed to come back and make amends. Basically the story tries to help kids learn good manners in nature.

Peter and Heidi

Trail entrance

The kids were excited to climb these rocks "at the top of the world".

At this station you had to match the names with the mountain peaks, pushing buttons to see if you were correct.

More mountain views

We had packed a picnic lunch, and we found the perfect spot to eat it. Plenty of tables, excellent views all around us, and a fun activity for the kids to run around and do! Here's a video where I explain and show what it was. There was a whole crate of square logs with different shapes carved into the ends, and the whole picnic area had PVC pipes with matching shape cutouts spread all around. The kids had to run around and match the logs into the holes, and then put them all back when they were done.

I forget why Lily wasn't happy in this photo...

But it appears we worked it out and took a celebratory photo!

"Paprika" is a very popular flavor of potato chips and other salty snacks around here - we all like it!
Katie insisted on holding the bag, and can often be reluctant to share.  

Continuing on the hike - we had the whole trail to ourselves the entire day! 

Here you matched up animals with what they would eat in the wild

At this station you had to run a slalom course around the poles.

The kids each ran through it a few times while dad timed them with a stopwatch to see if they could beat their times

We were all excited to reach the end of the adventure trail, because we had promised to let the kids do the ropes course there. They've always wanted to do the one at the Milwaukee Public Zoo, but we never have because it's so expensive. This one was also quite expensive, but it was much larger than the zoo one, and also it was on the top of the mountain - so cool! So we decided to splurge on this adventure for dad and the kids. They had a mini-sized course that was just the right size for Lily. Mary was tall enough to do the bigger-sized course on her own, and Joey was tall enough to do the bigger-sized one with an adult. Malorie and Ceci and Katie and I watched from the ground. I took a bunch of photos.

After the ropes course, we headed over to the playground for awhile before heading down the mountain. They had a super cool (and free!) big inflated jumping bag! Joe and I even went and jumped on it for a little while.  

Katie fell asleep and took a little nap in the playground playhouse to shelter her from the wind. Good thing nobody else was there playing!

Also, here are some videos I took.

Then we caught a cable car back down the mountain, took the trains home, ate dinner, and snuggled up in bed.

Unfortunately, we did not sleep very well, as Lily was sick during the night and threw up in bed, so we had to clean that mess up. Apparently the virus that Ceci had earlier in the week WAS contagious, and Lily was the first unlucky victim from our family. Stomach bugs are THE WORST! We were really hoping nobody else would get it, but these sort of things almost always get passed around before going away.

We had all planned on visiting Braunwald the next day and doing another hike, but since there was sickness among us, the kids and I decided to stay home while Joe and Siraj did a hike of considerably greater difficulty requiring real mountain climbing gear. See the next post for details of their adventure!