The Green Lady: Appenzeller

This weekend was a combination of relaxing at home, biking, and a walk in Appenzellerland.

On Saturday while Sally relaxed at home, I went exploring the Hongeberg woods near our house on my mountain bike. I found a lot of nice singletrack trails in the woods, some even quite steep and one with a jump built on it. I tracked it all on my GPS, so the next step is to find a route that combines all of the trails into a nice flowing whole. Besides a good afternoon riding and exploring, the best thing I saw was two deer springing across the path right in front of me. I love deer, so this was an amazing experience for me!

(the biking picture is actually from a ride on Tuesday on Zuriberg)

On Sunday we got up early and took the train to Urnäsch and then a postbus to Passhöhe/Schwägalp

to do a nice, relatively easy walk through some of the Appenzeller country.

We walked up through lovely European fairy tale woods, over very rooty ground,

and then up into pastures and to a restaurant at the top of the hike. It was a somewhat cold day so we enjoyed a nice bowl of soup and bread in the restaurant, then continued back down the hill.

Both the ascent and descent were much milder than when we went on the Greine walk, so it was a lot more pleasant.

Sally also bought fresh Appenzeller cheese direct from a farmer near the top of the hike. The farmer took her into the barn where they had stacks of baby cheeses, and she got to choose one to get a slice of.

Baby cheeses

All throughout the day it threatened to rain, but never actually did, so the rain gear we brought along was just extra baggage.

The highlight of this trip was that we ran across 8 different animals (well, mammals): cows, goats, ponies, cats, sheep, dogs, a deer, and something else (can't remember what though).