The Aletsch Forest and Villa Cassel - Tues, Aug 7

First a lovely breakfast buffet at the hotel.  Fantastic breads, cheeses, meats, fruit, yogurt, cereal, boil your own egg, and lots of coffee.










The field trip this morning began with a walk to the neighboring village Riederalp and up to Villa Cassel, a stately home built by a German/English banker at the turn of the 20th century.   The way was mostly paved and there were a lot of other walkers.

That's Lucy - very informative as well as charming

The villa is now the property of the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature and the first Swiss ecological center for the study of the environment.  We had a lovely young tour guide Lucy who told us about the ecology and efforts to preserve the environment.



Continued the walk to the Aletschwald, Forest of all Forests, on to Blausee (Blue Lake) and Bettmer Lake back to the hotel.

the forest and the Aletsch Glacier

Yes, we used our walking poles

We had a picnic on the trail.  The strong hikers continued on, and the rest of us returned a shorter route back to the hotel, but three of us stopped for pastry and cappucino/tea.

View from the bakery - the pastry wasn't bad either

Here we are coming up the back slope to the Hotel Waldhaus.





Field lectures:  Villa Cassel and The Forest of All Forests.  Walking time:  4 hours