Walking Through the Giant's Forest

The weather today was gorgeous, so we decided to do something more outdoorsy and save the chocolate factory tour for another time. The kids and I left on our own from Malorie's house at about 10:30 am, and didn't return until about 8:00 pm - a long and full and tiring and amazing day! Today's adventure was inspired by this blog, and having it loaded on my phone screen before we left and I lost phone service was so helpful.

We had an 11:09 train to Schwanden to catch, and we made it just on time. The train ride was about 45 minutes long, and we started to see some more mountainous views.

When we arrived in Schwanden we had about half an hour to wait for our bus to Sportbahnen Elm, so we popped into a nearby convenience store for some sandwiches. The kids noticed Kinder Surprise eggs (they learned about these from watching other kids open them on YouTube), which are illegal in the US, so they each got one. They are chocolate eggs that have a little toy inside. They were so excited!

Katie picked out this little box of candies instead. However, she was sad she didn't get a toy with hers, so we bought her a Kinder Surprise egg of her own on the way home. Unfortunately I didn't take photos of the toys, but they are super cute. Mary got a little shark, and when you push down on the fin the jaws open and close. Joey got a little truck with a launcher to make it shoot across the floor. Lily got a little set of mama and baby skunk figurines. Katie got a little butterfly stamp, and I bought one to eat too and it had a little finger skateboard in it. 

We boarded the bus and rode for about 30 minutes to Sportbahnen Elm. Here we really started to see some great mountain views! We also passed lots of farms with cows and sheep and goats and lots of lovely little Swiss homes with geraniums in all the windows. At one point, Joey exclaimed, "We're right next to a mountain, this is the best thing ever!"

The cable cars up the mountain are right at the bus stop, so it was easy to get our tickets and board. Mary was nervous about this - she was afraid the cable would break and we would fall to our deaths. But we made it up the mountain. I took this video and this video while we were going up. 

At the top there was lots to do! There was a big sandbox with lots of toys, a fleet of ride-on toys, two different playground areas, trampolines, and amazing mountain views! Everything was free too! We only had to pay for the train/bus/cable car to get up there.

They have something similar to this at Green Meadows, but I liked how this one had pedal-free spots for Katie to ride on while the older kids made it go round and round!

The trampolines were super fun! Amazing backdrop! I turned the phone over to the kids and they took these pictures and several videos of themselves doing stunts. The bells you here in the background are cowbells! There is a farm nearby and every cow has a bell around their neck.

Here's some more pictures and videos from the playground area.

Where the cable cars come up

Tree house!

Inside the tree house

After playing for awhile, we started off to find the Reisenwald ("Giant Forest") trail. We had a little trouble locating where to start. There were signs pointing the way, but they led to a blocked off path. It was quite hot outside, and we looked everywhere for an entrance to the trail. I tried asking inside the restaurant, but the person I found couldn't speak English. He pointed the way when I showed him a picture of the trail in a brochure. We had already looked that way, but we went again, and this time the path was no longer roped off. There had been what looked like a few school groups going through, so maybe they had it blocked off for them? Anyway, we began our trip through the giant's forest!

"Giant-Welcome"

The trail had lots of carved wooden animals along the way. Katie loved them all!

Lily found one last wild Alpine strawberry! We also found lots of wild raspberries along the trail.

The trail had several stations along the way, all with a giant theme. First was an obstacle course, where apparently I didn't take any photos, but I did film this video.

Next up was a house which the "giant" apparently threw upside down. There was a free telescope on the top to get a better look at the surrounding mountains, I took this video to show you a panoramic view.

Next was another neat tower to climb.

Most of the trail was in the woods, where it was nice and cool and the fresh scent of pine trees was amazing!

But there were also lots of places where the path opened up into amazing mountain views! If you look close, you can see  a small wooden building and a bunch of cows up on this mountain.

This station was the giant school, complete with giant chalkboard.

Drawing by Lily

Mary's fiery meteor

Lots of cool rocks to climb!

I wasn't watching my step and walked right into the middle of this large, fresh cow pie! Yuck!

There was a really nice giant xylophone with song book. The kids all wanted a video of them playing a song.

We stumbled upon this cow pie "garden" which some previous travelers left behind, haha!

There were lots of different flowers in bloom.

This station was called the "giant's hammock."

More hiking, more mountain views.

If you look close, you can see a hole in the mountain that the local town is famous for.

Twice a year, the sun shines through this hole and its rays fall on the village church. Here is an illustration from a sign, and a photo of the church.

We had saved the gold mining attraction for last. I had planned on splurging to let the kids do this since we were on vacation, but it turned out that there was no charge! You just had to ask at the register, and they gave each child a metal pan with holes in the bottom, and a plastic bowl. You dipped the pan into the bottom of the troughs and pulled up a load of fine sand, and then you had to swirl it around so that the water and sand fell through the holes, leaving behind the lucky "gold." It looked like gold colored rocks. You could do this as long as you wanted, and then bring your haul inside to be weighed, and depending on how much you collected you could earn different candy treats.

It was lucky that the nearby restaurant had free WiFi, because we didn't understand the sign with the gold mine instructions on it so we called Malorie for a quick translation. Also, I used the WiFi to find which train to take home. My phone said to take the cable car down at 5:00pm to catch the bus at 5:55pm. However, I knew the cable car ride down took less than 15 minutes, so I let the kids mine for gold until 5:00, when the restaurant started closing. They exchanged their gold for candy treats and we headed for the cable car, and it was about 5:10 pm when we got there. Much to our dismay, we discovered that the cable car had been shut down for the day! Oh no! We were stranded on the mountain! However, there were still lots of other people around jumping on trampolines and playing on the playground, so I figured there must be another way down the mountain. Panicked, I asked the next woman who passed by if she spoke English. She did! However, she said the only way down the mountain without a car was a footpath, and that it would be at least an hour to walk back down to the village. Oh no! We would miss the bus, and our train home! However, she pointed out that there were still people inside the cable car station and that maybe we could try talking to them.

We rushed inside and unfortunately the two men there did not speak English. However I think they understood our worried expression and gestures down the mountain. One of them pointed to a sign that said the cable car closed at 4:45pm. I had not noticed this sign earlier! I didn't know what to do. Then he asked "Ticket?" Yes! We had bought a ticket. I showed him the ticket and he motioned for us to get in the cable car. They turned the cable car back on to give us a ride down the mountain! Thank goodness!

Waiting at the bus stop with this view.

We saw lots of houses with geraniums in all the windows - very Swiss!

The kids thought it was pretty funny that our train stopped in Wart.

Chronicling their adventures in their travel diaries on the train ride home.

We were so glad to reach Malorie's house - close call with the cable car! We decided to order pizza for a late dinner for the kids, and Malorie made me another amazing salad bowl. I need to learn how she does it! Delicious! We also opened a bottle of wine - today was worth celebrating!