Destination: Kugelweg, Hasliberg (Switzerland)

Travel Diary:

It was a sunny morning, and as often happens on such mornings, we started to feel a sudden urge to go somewhere. Somehow it always happens… like somebody lighted a fire under our butts! This morning the better half of our little family was dreaming of mountains… and the other half, well, they were not exactly resisting. Quick search on the internet, and I was pretty sure we should go to Hasliberg. We found a ball path hiking route (Kugelweg Hasliberg) planned for families and it was a done deal. Little Princess was jumping up and down because of the excitement and Prince Charming only had to hear a word ball and he was literally running out of the door.

Hasliberg it was. We packed a picnic to take with and off we went. We drove to Reuti, Hasliberg and bought gondola tickets to all of us and wooden nice colored balls to the little ones. The weather was bright and sunny. Magical, majestic and simply stunning mountains were surrounding us everywhere within the reach of an eye. I could not get my eyes off the view. So beautiful… I couldn’t help but wonder Gods creativity and imagination while forming this beautiful scenery. Little people where in a hurry, so my thoughts were rudely interrupted and brought back to reality…

Up we went with the gondola, and landed some 10-15 minutes later to Bidmi Mountain station. Smartly enough, the first ball path was placed right next to Bidmi, and the kids were occupied for a moment. Happy screams of joy filled the air while they were running back and forth, watching their colorful wooden balls traveling down the ball path. Quick look around revealed that there were some picnic tables located nearby, on a shore of a tiny mountain lake. Even thought it was lunch time, we were quite not that hungry yet and decided to save the lunch for later and hit the hiking path instead. Down the hill we went, following well-marked but at times relatively steep route.

Second ball path was located close enough. Even the smallest member of our family, little Prince Charming didn’t lose the interest in between! Some more funny moments, and some escaping wooden little balls rolling down the slope of a mountain. I was pretty sure at least one of the kids was going to break a leg (or neck!), so carelessly (or so it seemed!) where they sprinting after their balls on a steep slope. Little did I know, as I am a child of a flat ground. My kids grew up on a side of a hill. I keep on forgetting that…

After some more mountain trails and ball paths we were starving and decided to enjoy our lunch right there on a wooden bench we happened to find. After some hassle everybody was finally seated nicely and was eating sandwiches, cheese, snack tomatoes etc. I had a quiet moment with my sandwich, and got lost in thought second time during the same day. I was marveling the mountain scenery and got reminded of the words of Jesus, the ones that are written in the Bible: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you (Matthew 17 verse 20). Yup, I thought, I don’t even have faith size of a mustard seed. I can barely move my backpack, let alone some mountains… But then again, I don’t know anyone else either who could… or have you ever heard of someone who actually moved a real mountain???

There was I, snaffling pieces of my sandwich and being totally in awe of God’s work, just like so many times before. Do I ever get used to this, the feeling of smallness in front of our awesome creator, I wondered. How small are we, with our little faith. And how big is He, forming mountains with His might. At this point our little Prince Charming dropped a sandwich, butter side down, naturally, and started crying like the end of the world had just happened. I was shifted back to reality in no time and dried his tears, gave him a half of my sandwich and the sun was shining again.

Time to move on. After about 4 kilometers of walking and some more exciting ball paths we finally reached Reuti again. Our little Princess had been running down the mountain like some chamois, but little Prince Charming was drained. He couldn’t really walk a straight line anymore, but was refusing from being carried. We were amazed, my dear husband and me, what a tough little partisan he is. After all, he just turned three years old. He didn’t have a pace counter attached but I am sure he outwalked the whole crew going up and down the ball paths million times and still succeeded to walk the whole route with his own little feet. And right there the realization hit me. Maybe I don’t have faith to move any mountains… but this little guy definitely just moved his mountain! We have so much to learn from kids, I thought.

On the way home we got seriously stuck in traffic just outside of Lucerne. Oh my, don’t we ever learn? This was not the first time and probably not the last either. If you are ever moving around with a car in Switzerland, remember this: Lucerne is not a place to be during traffic hour. Little mountain mover had fallen asleep on the backseat. The rest of us decided to turn the radio on in hopes of hearing a voice of our friend on the airwaves. This time we were lucky. Our guy was on air and just hosting a wish concert. And so it just happened that we got to wish for a song and send some greetings to others stuck in traffic!

The sun had set behind the horizon and the wish concert was over a long time before we finally wheeled the car back to our parking lot. Tired but happy. The day would have been perfect without this little traffic grand finale, but we didn’t let it ruin our happy mood. We can’t always choose the circumstances but what we can choose is the attitude. But no, I am still not able to move mountains. Otherwise I would have jump-buttoned us from the traffic directly to our house in a matter of seconds… Let’s leave the serious mountain-moving-business to all the little Prince Charmings out there.

Traveler’s Daily Verse: