First, I'll tell you about the "Old Boutique Hotel By the Glacier and Post Office". Despite its relative cheapness (around 90 francs), it turned out to be quite interesting. For instance, the room smelled just like my grandma's old stone house. The interior matched perfectly: bathtub curtains with a mechanical handle to lock them in place, like on a train, and two chubby faucets with twisty knobs, like back in the USSR. The floor creaks, the furniture is baroque style. A nightlight with a yellow incandescent-style bulb and a brightness dial. Another interesting thing was that there was a sink right in the room: the next hotel had one too. Apparently, it's some traditional thing so a person can get ready and freshen up while their husband or wife is in the bathroom/toilet. As a welcome, cookies and candies were waiting for me on the table. At the bar, they gave me a reusable glass water bottle with a swing-top lid, like the ones they sell in Depo for homemade wine. In the morning, I ran into a hotel worker in retro pants and a blazer, and I was so taken with her look that I even gave her a compliment.
Breakfast was quite decent. The by-now traditional muesli (4 kinds!) with yogurt (on ice!), croissants. Plus 3 kinds of bread, boiled eggs, pickles, cold cuts of meat, cheese, salmon!, and even nuts with dried fruit, which was surprising. A huge retro-futuristic toaster. There was no hot food. Human labor must be too expensive. There were hardly any guests: maybe 6-9 people in total. You had to ask for coffee at the bar, there was no coffee machine in the dining room. But when they brought my latte, the mug was truly steampunk: metallic and gleaming with polished copper.
When I was already done eating and getting ready to leave, I ran into yesterday's Americans and got to talking with them. Their names were Beth and Bobby. They had a tragic backstory: they met over the shared experience of losing their children. As a result, they even started a support group for loss survivors to help others. I got so carried away that I spent the two hours meant for an early mountain ascent talking and listening (actually, mostly the latter). We exchanged contacts for the future, just in case they ever come to Latvia, or I go to Colorado.
In the end, I only met up with the guys around 11 o'clock, and we all started out together. Our plan was the Aletsch Glacier, the largest in the Alps.
Whether we made it there, you'll find out in the next part.
And so the hike began
