Saturday June 12, 2021 -- After our four-hour hike from the very remote Zwischbergen Valley over a small mountain pass and down to the village of Gabi (those photos can be found HERE), we returned to the Simplon Pass with the 16:25 bus (a 20-minute ride), ready to check in at our accommodation for the night.
The Simplon Hospiz (the archaic term for a hostel, refuge, or inn) was commissioned by Napoleon in the early 1800's as the weather on the Simplon Pass was unpredictable, and he needed accommodation for his soldiers as they crossed the pass on their way from France to Italy. He appointed the priors of the St.Bernard order (who treated him well when he crossed the Grand St.Bernard Pass earlier) to run the hostel, which they still do to this day. The building is quite impressive, the largest such hostel in the Alps. For a reasonable price we had a simple room with old furniture and a modern bathroom (no TV!!), plus dinner and breakfast. It was quite a treat to stay in this historical building on a mountain pass, so quiet and there were only about a dozen people this night.
As dinner was going to be served at 7 p.m, we still had a couple of hours to discover the area behind the hotel, as we knew there was a lake there. This added another two kilometers of walking to the eight we had done earlier. Since I had already posted many photos from the hike earlier in the day, I decided to post these ones separately.
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| After checking into our room at 5 p.m. when we returned from the Italian border to the South, we took a little walk around the area of the Simplon Hospiz |
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| Across from the building is the stone eagle, the emblem of the Simplon Pass |
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| There is a small lake on the front side of the building, which we could see from our room. Behind me directly on the pass road is one of two or three other hotels: Monte Leone |
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| The snow-covered peaks look fantastic. There's a glacier there, although from this angle, I can't say for sure if it's the Rossboden Glacier which we had seen on our ride down the valley earlier (the one that caused such damage in 1901) |
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| Heading up behind the Hospiz to look for the lake |
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| There were lots of flowers here too, but different ones. These are high-alpine flowers, the first ones to emerge when the snow melts |
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| Heading to the lake up ahead |
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| Urs taking a photo of me from the little bridge |
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| High alpine landscape |
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| To the North on the other side of the pass are the mountains of the Rhone Valley |
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| A great place to relax and spend some time before returning to the hostel for dinner |
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| These were the flowers we found up here |
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| We decided to walk around the lake, but the crossing of the river here was a bit hard, because the water was high |
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| Another view of the Rhone Valley mountains to the North, behind the city of Brig. |
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| There are still some large areas of snow! |
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| Some of the first flowers to come out after the snow melts |
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| Looking North across the lake. You can see the stone eagle on the left. |
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| There is a road under this snow. Not passable yet! |
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| Another look at the eagle, with "tourists" taking photos! |
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| Near the pass road is a plaque commemorating Napoleon's commission to build the pass road |
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| Back at the Hostel after completing our loop |
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| Small 2-km walk before dinner at the Simplon Hospiz |
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| Our room is the one circled |
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| A very yummy home-cooked meal of soup, salad, Riz Casimir with lots of meat, and then a dessert! There were only eight of us being served this dinner in the dining room. |
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| Our lovely room for the night |
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| View out our window early the next morning |
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| I love the stone, the wide stone staircase |
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| This church inside the building was built long after Napoleon's original start of the building (which he apparently never did complete). He would not have wanted something this big! |
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| Interesting information about the building of the Simplon Hospice |
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