The Hikers

It never occurred to me before, but our world is surprisingly flat. When we encounter a hill there tends to be an elevator, escalator,or, car involved. The Swiss pretty much live in hilly terrain, are much better at walking and are as a result a really a hardy group. On our hikes while we were here some of the most often encountered hikers are the Grandma/Grandpa types. Folks in their seventies, eighties and even nineties plowing along on remote paths, usually with walking poles, knit hats and backpacks, always faster than their age would indicate with fierce determination showing through their weathered faces. On one hike along the path that followed the train rail down the valley we were taking lots of pictures but had two relentless grannies dogging our trail for about an hour and a half. I was haunted by the tortoise and the hare story. I was determined to beat the grannies to the train station at the bottom of the trail. We did and I was oddly proud getting on the train for the ride back up the hill, they waved to us and turned around to hike back uphill to town