In June and a little bit of July, we spent about 2 weeks in Switzerland and Austria, with a jump to Scotland, but that’s a different story.
This was a beautiful trip, but make no mistake, the cost of everything melted our faces off, espeically coming from Vietnam.
We did a lot of hiking in East Switzerland with some urban trekking in Zurich.
We watched a lot of roller derby in Innsbruck for the World Cup.
Switzerland
Appenzell
Maps of the restaurants, mountain inns, and more.
Hike from Appenzell to Meglisalp
We like to walk, so we decided to walk to the mountain guesthouse from Apenzell instead of taking the train. We had a lovely walk along the river in town. As followed the trail to the outskirts, we encountered two giant men smoking cigarettes and holding halberds, aka pole weapons, aka the long axe things the guards have in movies when they are preventing the hero from passing through. We paused at the ticket table for the olde-timey faire and said, “Hi, we are tourists, Please let us pass. We are on a quest to Meglisalp. Can we walk there from here?“
The woman with a bonnet and cotton corset dress slapped the arm of the main next to her and said in German something like, “Hey, you need to speak English to these lost foreigners.” The man told us we should take a train or bus to the end of the line, then walk from there. I said, but can we walk there from here? And he concurred that we technically could if we wanted, just keep following the river, and the men smoking cigarettes with halberds will let us pass.
We entered a time vortex in the park, going back 500 years as women with wild hair tried to sell us animal pelts, magic stones, and young men rested under canvas and log tents where one could pay to show war prowess or hunting skills with archery. We emerged from the park unscathed and had a lovely walk along the river.
I thought the walk would be 3 hours total, but when we got to the town where the train terminates, at the base of the mountains, it was an additional 3 hour hike with about 1,500 meters/5,000 feet gain in elevation. Though, I still didn’t really know this yet. The map we got at our hotel whad numbers on it, but it was also an artists interpretation of the terrain, so it didn’t look too hard in the picture. As we ate our first Swiss meal of soup, salad, and sausage at the traditional guesthouse at the trailhead, we had to move inside as raindrops started to fall from the heavy dark sky. We hoped the clouds would pass as the internet promised.
As we paid the enormous lunch bill, the sun came out again, and we began our ascent, which came swiftly and severely. The good news is we would climb elevation quickly, the bad news was that it was a very steep hill. That morning, the hotel clark had advised us to take the longer of the two possible routes because it had more shade and more beauty. That beauty came at the cost of climbing the slope immediately and then walking along the side of the mountain rather than a steady incline through the valley.
Once we emerged from the top of the dense forest, the trail opened to wide grassy pasture with a concert of cow bells. We shielded our sweaty eyes to peer at the yellow direction sign letting us know we still had two hours to go.
At some point, the trail did kind of level off for a while. We walked high above a refreshing- looking lake. A life flight helicopter swooped in and landed by the lodge there and we found out later that because it cut the motor and stayed for a while, it’s very possible they went in to enjoy a cup of coffee or just check in.
After an hour- and-a- half, but what felt like forever going up up up, we spied a large white house perfectly framed by snow splotched jagged peaks. Did we dare to hope that was our mountain guesthouse? It looked close, but it was another 30 minute walk to reach the front porch after being greeted by a small herd of goats. Once we reached the house, we immediately grabbed some cold tea from the large ice chest and ordered a $20 ice cream sundae. I was so happy. In the last 30 minutes of walking, my mind told me tales about maybe making a mistake on the dates and that we had missed our reservation and there would be no where for us to sleep. But, aha, they DID have a reservation for me, I just had to wait for the room to be ready.
Meglisalp
They asked us to put our shoes in the shoe room in the basement and wear plastic slippers throughout the guesthouse. Now, I know the Swiss are serious about their trekking shoes, and we were definitely advised to wear hiking boots, but, hiking boots take up A LOT of space in carry-on luggage and it costs a lot to check a bag these days. So, we carefully placed our Chaco sandals in the shoe room.
After a hot shower lasting 2 minutes exactly, I had one of the most blissful naps of my life, as fog swiftly rolled past and cold rain pelted the windows of our simple room with chainsaw log hearts clustered tastefully near the acrylic floor rug.
Our dinner that night was well-earned, but also delicious, with creamy asparagus soup, fresh salad, and mashed potatoes with vegetables and pork.
The Hike…Down?
At 4:30am, we were awoken to the sounds of the farm as the sheepdogs barked to clear the way for the farmer to make his way to milking the cows who softly nodded in agreement with singing bells.
A couple hours later, we made our way down to a proper Swiss breakfast of many kilos of Brie and locall Appenzeller cheese, homemade yogurt, with jam and fresh baked bread. They had assigned seating in the dining room and had placed an American next to us, but in true American form, he wanted to move to an empty table to spread out and have more room. But, after some small talk with Josh, the American changed his mind and decided to sit with us. The server was confused because she was working on getting him a new table, but he said she wanted to sit with us after all. “That’s because of this big mouth,” Josh said pointing at his face. Apparently, earlier, Josh had asked her for a spoon, and she told him the small coffee spoons were to be used for yogurt and things, but that she could get him a big spoon for his big mouth. this is a woman who claimed before that she “would try to speak English.”
After filing our bellies with as much dairy products as possible, we set off on a small trail that went up the mountain and disappeared in the fog. Up, up, up, we went, alone in the mist, grass, and tiny wildflowers. the greenery gave way to millions of sharp rocks with a narrow plath moving across the side of a mountain.
We hoped to hike to to Hoher Kasten, a high peak with a gondola down to the valley. The mountain hut staff and a Swiss guest there had confirmed it was doable, if one is conditioned. There were options to get to the valley along the way if we changed our minds. After about 3 hours of walking, we changed our mind. However, the route we took was probably the same exertion level, and we used our left to get down from the top of a mountain instead of a gondola.
We opted to go up one steep trail with thousands of wildflowers, reaching the top in about 45 minutes. Up there, we encountered a middle-aged woman and her daughter in full hiker regalia: sturdy boots, backpack with camelbak hydration system, layered clothes, and walking poles. She spoke to us in German, pointing in the direction of the trail going down the other side of the mountain. We think she was warning us the trail is not good. “English please” I said shyly. She nodded “no” and kept speaking in German, pointing her pole at our sandals and pointing at the trail and finally her daughter said, “Nein” to her and something else which we like to believe was, “They are already at the top of the mountain, there’s nothing they can do but go down now.”
After about 2.5 hours of descending down a trail that was pretty normal, we sat down at the restaurant where we had lunch the day before, and we gave our tired knees a rest. We then took a train rather than walk the 9 miles back to town.
Hoher Kasten
We had a restful sleep in a nice hotel in Apenzelle, we took the easy way to Hoher Kasten, we went by train, bus, gondola. A little hike around the peak, and it was just as if we had hiked there all along. Lunch was enjoyed in a rotating restaurant with tasty non-alcoholic beers, which are plentiful in variety at all the restaurants.
St. Gallen
This is a smaller city with a lot of charm. We took in a few museums and walked around the old city center.
In the art museum, the receptionist warned us about a specific installation in a show about empty spaces / voids that she described as “glass orbs on the floor” that people had stepped into. She said, “Just be mindful of the art, just know that when you see it, it is just there.” or something like that.
The next day, my friend Maya came to meet us and took us to a local swimming hole. Maya lives in Zurich now, but St. Gallen is her hometown. It was great to hang around the river rats of St. Gallen, because no matter how regal a city may seem, there are always some leathery people who go to the free swimming hole every day, smoke cigarettes, get nude to change into a swimsuit with a small towel wrapped around for modesty, and gossip.
After swimming, we took a bus to the outskirts of town to the outdoor concert venue to particpate in a yoga and EDM music event. Maya and I met in Hoi An, Vietnam doing a 200 hour yoga teacher training. We basically spent every waking hour together for a month. It was fun getting to do yoga with Maya again. The class was taught in German and the combination of that language in a microphone and being on stage with the DJ playing house or trance or EDM music made me feel like I was out of my mind.
Zurich
Maya, Josh and I walked all over Zurich the next day. We spent a lot of time walking along the river, seeing the young people taking a dip with a party atmosphere and further down, families cooling off. When we were almost home after walking for hours, we jumped in and let the current take us down a bit, to the last take out spot…just like the Boise River.
Other days we would take a snooze in a popular park, waking up the the sounds of hotties laugingly playing keepy-uppies with a soccer ball in string bikinis and swim trunks. One time we woke up to the sound of the pride parade coming through downtown so we jumped up to see and we got to dance with scantily-clad men and singing goth chicks.
Zurich has some grit if you look. We came upon a graffiti class in this area popular with artists. In no other city have we seen so much graffiti for the football club.
Innsbruck, Austria
After 10 days visiting Scotland, we came back to Schengen for the Roller Derby World Cup. Innsbruck, Austria was exactly like a Rick Steves PBS special. The buildings were the colors of cupcakes, old world and adorable, with people outdoors laughing, drinking prosecco, and licking ice cream cones. This town doesn’t have a care in the world.
The silent imposing alps, always watching, created dramatic effect, with improvised short rain storms followed by happy clouds and peeking sun. The city is surrounded by mountains, making it a popular spot for pilot training.
I have travelled a lot for roller derby, and this was by far the fanciest place I have ever been for a tournament. There was a carnival next to the olympic complex we spent most of our time at for the tournament.
We went to a roller disco one night in “hall” which I thought the guy said “hole” at first. But, it was a hole,…an abandoned factory of some kind. The room was very small and cement uneven.
Roller Derby Culture
A note about roller derby culture. This group is very progressive when it comes to gender identity. All the restrooms at the world cup were changed to “All Gender” restrooms and the urinals were closed off so everyone used the private stalls in any restroom near by. This was extremely efficient, and I never had to wait in a line. On the top floor of the venue, there were two facilities that I would categorize as the closest thing to men’s and women’s restrooms. I admit, I had some toilet humor in mind with the long list of possible gender identities on one and then just “Pissours” on the other one.
Also, team USA presented their flag up-side-down and did not do a national anthem in light of the terrorism of immigrants and LGBTQ in the US currently.
On a positive note, please check out the half time show for the final day of the tournament.
Schloss Ambras Innsbruck
This castle features Ferdinand II’s collection of cool stuff he thought was cool in the Renaissance era of the 1500’s. And you know what? It is cool stuff. Just to name a few things, we saw:
- Coat of armor for the giant he knew
- Coat of armors for small children
- Paintings and models of dude who got a lance through his skull and lived
- Portraits of family of hairy people in his court
- Sea coral portraits of the crucifixion
- Rad platform shoes
- 1000’s of other items
To the U.S. via Munich
We took a bus out of the alps to catch a flight in Munich, Germany. The bus went through gorgeous little villages that looked like a postcard. We passed many ski resorts and chalets with ornate trim like cake frosting, and then down into the flatlands of Munich which reminded me of any large midwest city surrounded by miles of green fields.
Casey Space 
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