Villars sur Ollon - Day 4

When I woke up this morning around 6:30 and looked out the window, it was a beautiful clear day. But throughout the next two hours, the view changed multiple times, with fog rolling in, then out, clouds appearing, and then sunshine again. I thought you could just sit on the deck for hours and watch the changing sky.

This morning we took a local bus to a shelter from where we began our hike to the village of Bretaye (5922 ft.).

Most of the fog cleared and we were able to get a solid hike in during the morning. We crossed more alpine meadows and followed trails through spruce and fir forests. Along the way we saw more wild flowers. Not certain of their names. Will have to look up later. Here are just some great scenes of the hike and representative flowers.

Above is an orchid.

We came to an area where there were a number of small cottages. Our guide told us that these cottages are on public land and were once used by people grazing their livestock. 

Residents are now allowed to rent them for about $300, but they are required to invest in keeping them up, even though they don’t own them. Some were quite lovely.

We also saw a display of cow bells used as decoration on one house. The bells are taken off when the cows are housed for the winter because they don’t need them and they are heavy. Our guide said sometimes tourists steal these bells off of cows, which, to me is very sad.

We stopped for awhile on a hillside while our guide gave us a talk on how cheese is made. One of the things I learned is that cheese can be made from “whey,” the liquid that remains from making cheese. Our guide had some for us to sample and it was quite good — and fat free! I will have to look for it at a cheese store.

Then we hiked a little longer and I got my first view of the peak that is often considered Mont Blanc — it is the tiny peak in the distance in the clouds. I’m sure I’ll see a lot more of it this week.

Our lunch stop was a special treat. We went to The Crazy Moose Restaurant where we had fondue. Our guide told us we should not drink water with it — only wine or other beverage. Apparently water has a bad reaction with the cheese in your stomach.

Afterwards we broke into two groups, ours doing a more strenuous route through the forest. We all ended up back on a little cog wheel train that took us back to Villars.

We bid farewell to our Swiss guide Mirielle, on right, pictured here with our RS guide Usirus.

Tonight we had another lovely dinner at the hotel. Then it was time to pack for our transfer tomorrow - to Italy!