Weissenstein -> Röti -> Oberdorf

The weather forecast called for sun today and that was a possibility we couldn't pass up. Andrea had done some research into winter hiking possibilities and identified a couple of relatively close possibilities that sounded good, so we chose one of those.

We took the train to Oberdorf and the chairlift up to Weissenstein. Then it was a tramp through the snow (along the Jurahohenweg) to Röti:

where we had an absolutely fabulous panorama view of the Jura:
and the Alps from Säntis to Mont Blanc.

There's a joke that God created the Jura so that we'd have a good place to view the Alps. I guess that's also proof of the fallibility of the divine, because while there's a beautiful view, it's to the South, so pictures are pretty much impossible. :-)

After tramping back to Weissenstein, we rented a sled and sledded back down to Oberdorf:
This was great, but it would have been even better if the last half of the ride down wasn't over very spotty snow.

To remember for the future: the two-day tour along the Jurahohenweg from Balsthal -> Weissenstein -> Grenchen is going to be a must do on some non-winter weekend when the Föhn is blowing.

Pratteln->Basel St. Jakob

It was a nice (well, nice for the season at least) day, so we did another little "do it yourself" tour of the area.

We took the train to Pratteln, then walked to Adlerhof, Schauenburg Bad, and Schoenmatt, past the Raengersmatt, around the Chlosterchoepfli to the Ruetihardbruecke (cool wooden bridge across the Birs). We then walked along the Birs, past the St. Jakob stadium and took the tram home.

Total trip time: a bit over three hours, including lunch. We did this fairly quickly and took no photos.

Noteworthy: there are a couple of nice-looking biking/rollerblading trails near the Birs.