Blogs from Appenzell, North-East, Switzerland, Europe

The Alpstein is a mountain range of incredible beauty. It is located on the territory of the canton St. Gallen and Appenzell, in the North East of the country. Only 50 km away from Wil, Nenad considers this almost his home turf. Raw, wild nature of the Alpstein mountain range is presenting itself to the hiker upon arrival. Although not too high in altitude compared with some other areas of the Swiss Alps, the Alpstein impresses with steep hikes and challenging ascents and descents. Its highest mountain is Saentis, with 2502m altitude. To climb it we chose to start in Wasserauen, located at 860m. This meant to climb 1650m altitude in rough terrain, crossing ravines and snow fields. Nenad did this more than 35 years ago (outch). Nui is facing this challenge with her usual smile, ... read more

Yes we are still in Austria on the east bank of the Rhine River. Switzerland is only a 10 minute drive from where we are staying. It was a sun and rain day. We have always been impressed by the landscape of the Appenzell. Driving around the small roads you see lush green hills dotted with charming farms and Brown Swiss dairy cattle. What a wonderful life they have (the cows) Everything in Switzerland costs more than Germany and Austria. Fuel, food, clothing etc. Tomorrow we will do a driving tour of the Bregenzerwald. here in Austria. It will take us through the mountain valleys and should be quite interesting. All for now. A few images from today. Lowell... read more

I was so tired that I slept 12 hours Saturday night! I was ready for a long day of train travel from Italy into the northeast corner of Switzerland. Lori served yogurt and a local type of fruitcake for breakfast, and then she gave me a ride to the station (it was sprinkling a little). On my trip yesterday, I rode a panoramic train from Chur to Tirano, but as I returned I booked a regular Swiss train that runs on the same tracks. It was an overcast day, and many of the mountain tops were in the clouds. It gave a totally different look to the scenes I saw yesterday in the sunlight. The last six cars of the train were packed with tour groups who had reserved an entire car. I had the front ... read more