Today there were three things: use our free passes from the hotel up the Torrenthorn gondola for wonderful views, then another gondola to Gemmipass, and then some spa time.
We headed up on the uncrowded 9am gondola to Torrenthorn, and did the 4km up in about two hours for wonderful views. Hiking was easy, weather was cool and sunny, and there weren’t any other people at all. Really a pleasant day hike, especially without full backpacks.
What was really surprising was that once on top we could see all sorts of peaks, and the PeakFinder AR app really helped pick out what was what. We really didn’t expect to see the Eiger or the Jungfrau, but we did—as well as Mont Blanc and the entire length of our walk.
And of course the Matterhorn to the south. It’s a beacon.
After an enjoyable half an hour or so with the mountain to ourselves, we surrendered the solitude to the next hiker.
What a fantastic and unplanned adventure.
Next up was the gondola to the top of Gemmi Pass. This was a lot more crowded and touristy, ugh, but hey. We thought about walking around the lake, but with the powerlines running through the valley and the hordes of tourists we just decided “no” and had a bowl of veggie soup in the far-too-warm restauarnt and headed back down.
We walked a little bit around town, then went for a spa day at the big Leukerbad baths.
I liked these baths—especially the hot dirty 51C mineral bath in what we called “the rock room”, but there just wasn’t that almost-to-hot 38C water I like to soak in, oh well. The interior bath was fun though, so 1960s/70s, almost Soviet looking.
Nothing else to note; I just wrote a little, we all had dinner, and went to bed.