Note: This is leg six of a six part journey to Switzerland.

At long last, we are coming to the end of my Switzerland story. After two weeks wandering all over Switzerland, I had crossed the border to Liechtenstein and explored that tiny country. Now I was returning to Switzerland for one last adventure before flying home. On July 5th, I left my hotel in Liechtenstein and took the bus back across the border to the Swiss town of Sargans. From there, I took a train west, changed trains in a town whose name I’ve forgotten, and arrived in one of the most quintessentially Swiss towns that exist: Appenzell.

A TOWN OF TRADITIONS

Appenzell is both the name of the town as well as the canton it’s part of. Well, actually it’s a bit more complicated than that. Readers with exceptional memories may recall that I mentioned in my initial introduction to Switzerland that the canton of Appenzell had an unresolvable dispute over which religion to embrace during the Protestant Reformation. Unable to agree, they decided to split the canton in half. Appenzell Ausserrhoden (the outer countryside) would become Protestant, and the more conservative Appenzell Innerrhoden (the town of Appenzell and the surrounding area) would remain Catholic. This compromise helped the Appenzellers avoid more bloodshed and be able to live in peace with their heretical (to their minds) neighbors without having to leave the Swiss Confederation. To be clear, Appenzell didn’t become two cantons. They are very specifically two half-cantons with separate local governments that together make up one full canton. This matters in terms of national representation in the Swiss federal government. Imagine if when West Virginia broke off from Virginia at the outset of the American Civil War it didn’t become a new state but rather half a state, so that after the war, Virginia would have only one senator and West Virginia would also have one senator. It’s sort of like that. Maybe. In today’s modern Swiss democracy, the distinction between the two half-cantons doesn’t really make that much of a difference. They work together closely and as a visitor you probably wouldn’t notice the distinction at all if you hadn’t read about it like I did. But it’s one of those little quirks that makes this very traditional part of Switzerland unique.

The town of Appenzell is small but bursting with color from the richly decorated buildings that line its streets. Tradition is very important here and there are cultural festivities held at various times throughout the year, often featuring traditional dress, music, and food from the region. In the fall, the herders bring their cows down from the mountains and parade them through the streets of Appenzell wearing wreaths of flowers around their necks (the cows’ necks, not the people). The citizens of Appenzell also continue to practice a unique form of direct democracy known as the Landsgemeinden. Similar to the althing of medieval Iceland, the Landsgemeinden is a citizen assembly where important matters of government are discussed and voted on.

When I arrived in Appenzell, it was raining, so I quickly walked to my hotel and ate lunch in the hotel restaurant while I waited for my room to be ready. I ordered the spätzli, hoping for something close to the delicious pizokel I ate the night before in Liechtenstein. The pasta dumplings were cut thin and served in a cheese sauce. It was good, but not as good as that pizokel. After lunch, I went out to explore the town. By now the rain had died down to an occasional sprinkle and soon it stopped altogether.

It doesn’t take long to walk the length and breadth of the town center, but there is a lot to see in this compact space. Most of Appenzell’s notable sights are located on or near the Hauptgasse (Main Street), and my hotel was right at the center of the Hauptgasse, making it an ideal base to explore the town. Among the buildings that stood out were four churches.

The first one I visited was the church of Kapuzinerkloster Mariä  Lichtmess, which is actually a Capuchin Monastery. It’s a fairly small and simple church punctuated by three large and ornate altarpieces.

Next was the tiny Kreuzkapelle (Holy Cross Chapel). There has been a church on that spot since the early Middle Ages. The original version was destroyed during a raid in 1291. It was rebuilt in the Romanesque style, then burned down around 1400 and was rebuilt again in the Gothic style. It caught fire a second time but this time the masonry was saved and the church was repaired in 1561. That’s the one that’s still there today. The effort it took to keep rebuilding this tiny chapel that’s about the size of a living room is a testament to the importance of tradition in Appenzell. I later learned that there is a round trip self-guided walking tour starting here called the Appenzeller Kapellenweg (Chapel Way) where you can 11 chapels in 4 hours. Every trail and curated walking route in Switzerland has a number to make it convenient to look up and track. This one is route 990 for anyone interested in trying it.

The third church I visited in Appenzell was the church of Kloster Maria der Engel. This medieval monastery complex also includes a small castle that has fallen into disrepair (Schloss Appenzell), gardens, a small shop, and a guesthouse. The monastic community that used to live here disbanded in 2008 and the monastery has been run as a pilgrimage site and retreat ever since.

The fourth and largest church I visited was St. Mauritius Parish Church. This impressive Gothic church sits on an elevated stone plaza overlooking the Hauptgasse. Like the Kreuzkapelle, it was rebuilt several times due to fires and other calamities. The oldest version dates back to 1069 but the current building is a blend of constructions from the 15th through 19th centuries. From the outside, the stone bell tower commands your attention with its painted frescoes and its decorative clock. On the inside, the most impressive feature of this richly decorated church, at least in my opinion, is the detailed paintings on the ceiling.

Next door to St. Mauritius’ is the Appenzell Museum. This museum contains a lot of interesting local artifacts, focusing on crafts. There’s also an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus that was apparently one of several coffins given to Switzerland by the Egyptian Khadive in 1893. I don’t know much about this, but Egypt was under the control of the British Empire at the time, so I’m skeptical about the ethics behind this “gift”. I saw another one of these sarcophagi earlier at the Rhaetian Museum in Chur.

Beyond the church and the museum is a bridge that crosses the Sitter River. From here, Appenzell quickly transitions from a medieval town to a bucolic village. I wandered around the town for a while, checking out some interesting artisan shops and picking up some delicious locally made chocolate. Then I ate some equally delicious Tom Yum (a traditional vegan noodle soup) at a Vietnamese restaurant called CHANH, near my hotel. They didn’t have the creamy Thai Iced Tea I’m used to seeing at Southeast Asian restaurants but instead they had a different type of iced tea made with lime and cilantro, and it was very good.

HIKING ON EBENALP

As much as Appenzell is known for culture, the greater Appenzell region is also known for its stunning natural beauty and its excellent hiking trails. On my last full day in Switzerland, I took a very quick (10-15 minutes) train ride to Wasserauen, where a cable car took me up to a popular mountain called Ebenalp. The cable car dropped me off inside a small building near the summit. From there, I had to take a steep uphill trail the rest of the way to the top.

At about 5,381 feet, Ebenalp is slightly taller than Mt. Marcy, the highest mountain in the Adirondacks. While it does not rise to the level of alpine giants like the Matterhorn, it still afforded me a commanding view of the region. In front of me was a wide canyon flanked on the other side by a wall of mountains and rocky cliffs. A thin veil of fog was emanating from below but it did not seriously obscure the view. After exploring the mountaintop for a while, I walked back down towards the cable car station by a different trail than the one I had come up. It switched back downhill, and I could see lower hills and valleys below. I could hear someone from inside a barn yelling at a group of cows as they slowly walked out of the narrow doorway single-file.

Once I reached the cable car station, I walked down a long steep set of steps that transitioned to a regular (but still steep) downhill trail leading to a prehistoric cave on the edge of a sheer cliff. I went through the cave (actually three inter-linked caves, I later found out) and emerged on the other side, which was also on the edge of a cliff. There was a small wooden building outside the caves with some artifacts and information about the caves. There is archeological evidence that these caves were inhabited by Neanderthals in the Paleolithic era at least 40,000 years ago. The cave network is called Wildkirchli (Wild Chapel) because an Appenzell priest named Paulus Ulmann created a chapel in the lower cave in 1658 and established a hermitage in the upper cave. A series of hermits lived in the cave until 1851 and pilgrims would hike through the mountains to visit the chapel. The chapel is still there today.

Continuing along the cliff edge past the caves and the church, I proceeded across two small covered wooden bridges and my eyes rested on the most photographed spot in the whole Appenzell region: Aescher Guesthouse. What makes this wooden inn so remarkable to look at is that from a distance it seems like it’s built into the side of the cliff itself. This is actually an optical illusion, but a very photogenic one. The “guesthouse” is no longer housing guests anymore but it’s still a full service restaurant and I enjoyed eating some quiche as I relaxed on the edge of a cliff overlooking one of the most beautiful areas in eastern Switzerland. I refilled my water bottle and bought a magnet and a poster at the guesthouse’s tiny giftshop. Near the giftshop, some goats rested on the edge of the cliff.

Now I had a decision to make. When I set out from Appenzell that morning, I knew that I definitely wanted to see the things I had just seen: the summit of Ebenalp, Wildkirchli, and Aescher guesthouse. From there, I could hike back up to the cable car station or I could continue hiking down the mountain to a scenic lake called Seealpsee, and then onwards to the bottom of the mountain. I knew that the Seealpsee route would be a lot longer and I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be. I was also concerned about predictions of possible rain or scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. But this was my last day in Switzerland and also I had just seen how steep it was to get down to where I was. If there was a scenic route that let me see new things and not have to hike back up a steep hill, that option seemed like a winner to me.

From the beginning, though, I could see that this trail would be more difficult than the other trails I had hiked in Switzerland. At the trailhead there is a sign warning you in German and English that “Alpine hiking is not a stroll”, with a series of pictographs showing risky behaviors to avoid. I hadn’t seen a sign like this at any other trail I hiked in Switzerland and it felt a little ominous. In truth, if I had fully realized how hard the trail would be for me I probably would have turned back in that moment, but I’m glad I didn’t, because in the end, I made it through unscathed and it gave me the opportunity to see amazing places I could not have seen any other way.

If you’re not a hiker, you might wonder what could be so difficult about a downhill trail. Apart from the toll it takes on your knees (and my back, as I had been suffering from some minor back pain since even before my trip to Switzerland began), there is another concern: You see, getting down is easy, but getting down in one piece (and preferably not a pancake-shaped piece) is a bit trickier. For most of the way to Seealpsee, the trail was very steep and treacherous (at least compared to the more moderate hiking trails I’m used to). It got even more treacherous when it started to rain, rendering everything slippery. Fortunately, there were only a few short bursts of rain and it was dry for most of the hike. There were gradations hewed into the mountain, and a coil railing to hold onto during the steepest parts, but I’m only 5’2″ tall, and my short stature meant that a big step for the average person is a perilous jump or a hands and knees rock scramble for me.

Case in point, about halfway down, when it had actually started to get a little easier, I saw a woman hiking with a man who might have been her husband. The man was several paces ahead of her when she stopped at a spot where it was too steep for her to step down. I had gotten past that point by sliding down on my butt while holding onto a tree with one hand and my trekking poles with my other hand. She didn’t seem to know what to do, so I asked her if she needed help. It was clear that she didn’t understand much English and I didn’t know how to say what I wanted to in German (which might not have even been her language) but she seemed to get the gist of what I was asking and just kind of sighed in frustration and kept calling to her husband or whoever he was. The man was totally oblivious. He kept walking ahead. Eventually, when he was almost out of sight of her, he finally stopped moving forward, but he didn’t turn back. I kept walking and eventually I caught up to him and tried to communicate to him that I thought she needed his help. I was pointing at her as she was standing in that same spot calling to him, so even if he didn’t understand a word I said, he should have figured out the problem, but he still stayed in place and I gave a bewildered gesture to the woman and started to proceed further down the trail. At that point the woman yelled at the man at the top of her lungs and he finally started to walk back to her. Later on, the two of them caught up to me and passed me by, so at least I know she made it.

At long last, I arrived in Seealpsee and was rewarded for my efforts by gorgeous views of the lake and the oddly shaped mountain that loomed over its mirror-like surface like a giant Hershey’s Kiss. A single rowboat was moored to the edge of the lake, and a handful of cows roamed nonchalantly around the shore. There’s a restaurant here and I ordered some fries and a local Appenzeller beer that had a picture of the exact Seealpsee scene in front of me on the label. I rested there for a long time before forcing my uncooperative legs to keep moving. Fortunately, the rest of the way down the mountain was much easier, and although the trail was still very steep, it was basically just a road now, and the only effort I had to make was to walk slowly enough down the hill that I didn’t trip over myself. I was very happy when I finally reached flat ground and the hiking trail turned into a walkway through a park. I passed a 24 hour coin-operated soft serve ice cream machine but I didn’t have any coins on me. I stopped at a picnic table by a small waterfall and sat there for a little bit, then continued on to the train station and back to my hotel. I would have plenty of time to rest my exhausted body on the flight home the next day.

The following morning, July 7th, I took a series of trains to the airport, said goodbye to Switzerland, and flew back to Dulles Airport where my sister picked me up. Along the way, I had to change planes in Lisbon, Portugal, which coincidentally is my next international destination since I found a cheap deal on a flight there for the weekend of my birthday in late October.

This entire trip has been an amazing experience, and I’m so lucky to have been able to have that experience! Please check out the rest of my photos in the Photo Collection and go back and read my other posts about Switzerland if you missed some of them. Also be sure to check out my older posts about Amsterdam, Belgium, and Paris, and my Top 5 Tips for Independent Travelers. School is starting up again soon (groan), so I probably won’t be posting anything for the next few weeks, but I plan to post once or twice a month in September and October–either some new travel tips or maybe a profile of another destination I visited before I had this blog. If you want to hear about something specific, let me know in the comments. Then, in early November I’ll post about my birthday trip to Portugal, and in January I’ll report back on my Winter Break journey to Morocco. To make sure you get notified when those posts are published, please subscribe to my email list by completing the quick signup form lower down on this page. I only email folks when a new post is up, and you can unsubscribe at at any time. Last but not least, please share my blog with others if you enjoy it. I have put a great deal of time, effort, and money into creating and maintaining Lone Wolf Journeys. It’s a labor of love but I can’t keep it up forever unless I know that enough people are reading it to make it worthwhile. Thanks to everyone who has already shared or commented! I appreciate you!

Until next time, take care and best of luck with your own journeys, wherever they might take you!