Switzerland 1: Three days in the mountains of Appenzell

With a small cold and sore muscles, we drove an hour away to our next destination, a hotel on top of the Ebenalp mountain area, part of the Appenzell Alps.  We parked our car at the cable car station and took the terrifying trip up to the top.  It was full of fog.  All I could see was the singular cow in front of me.  I dragged the luggage up the small hill to our hotel.  We would be staying for two nights.

The fog was very heavy for most of that first day.  I was tired, so I stayed in the room for a while.  Eventually, we took a two hour hike that brought us down the side, around, and back up to where we were staying.  It had unremarkable views until the end.  By then though, I was pretty exhausted and not feeling well.  I took some quick photos of the Aescher restaurant built on the side of the mountain.  Just past there was the Wildkirchli cave system that brought us into the mountain and then up a few flights of stairs until we reached a higher part of the mountain.



I declared the next day to be a day for myself to recover.  I needed rest.  The morning was incredibly foggy again, but toward mid afternoon it began to finally clear up.  I walked around outside twice.  The second time I noticed that paragliders were jumping off the mountain by the cable car station, so I walked on over.  I think the whole idea is nuts, but I appreciated their bravery.

Just a view from my first outing.

Near sunset, we took a forty minute walk, each way, toward the higher mountains.  The view from the other side must have been breathtaking, but I was still not feeling well, and some of the walk was steep according to Stephanie, which had taken the path the day before.

  As we were getting ready to turn back, a child, along with his mother and dog, were gathering their goats and bringing them home.  The boy, who had a curved cane similar to Little Bo Peep, my only point of reference, began milking one of the goats.  It was a very cool thing to see.  It is definitely a different life than I lead.



The sunset grew more and more beautiful as we returned to the hotel, so I walked five minutes below our hotel to what I assume was a nearby house and barn, and took pictures of the sunset colors.



The next day was sunny and perfect, just as we were leaving the hotel!  I pulled the luggage downhill and we took the cable car back down.  It was still scary, even with almost no one inside.  The next location was only a nine minute drive away, Brulisau.  We'd be staying at the bottom of the mountain, near a cable car station this time.  We dropped off our luggage and drove 20 minutes to the Kronberg mountain.

A little bobsled coaster was advertised here, and I wanted to check it out.  You were able to control the speed of the descent, which was neat, although a bit jerky.  Stephanie didn't participate because of her neck.  There was also a zipline area nearby that we didn't do.



We took the longest cable car ride I've ever been on, up the mountain.  It was long because it went quite a distance across the fields before we finally began our descent.  We then took a 2 hour walk along the riddge and then down and around until we were back to the station.   The walk was quite varied, from farmland to forests and the weather was perfect.




We stopped at a Coop on the way back to Brulisau and then took two hours to rest.  At 5:00, we walked two minutes to the cable car station and took one of the last trips up to Hoher Kasten mountain.  The views from the top were breathtaking.

View from a platform at the top.  Like usual, I had to inch forward, take a picture, run back, look at the picture, and then repeat the process.

We took a path that weaved in and out, then below us and then slowly down the mountain toward the lake in the distance.


I was nervous along the walk, but there was no reason to be.  It was a very reasonable trail, yet the height got to me a little bit near the beginning.

Eventually we came down and through fields.  It was all beautiful.  We passed many cows.  We ended up in sight of the lake, but then the path veered and by the time I realized it, I was just too tired to turn back.  We also saw a few donkeys next to a guesthouse.  The whole hike took three hours.