Our Excursion: 2021-10-01: Schwende Day 2
(Part of trip: )
Date of our excursion: 2021-10-01
Location: Santis, Switzerland
Our Planned Itinerary:
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Travelers on this Excursion: |
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We hit some cool places.
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Continents: Europe |
Some featured areas we visited: |
Some points of interest we hit: |
It’s Day 16 of our Switzerland trip and our second day in the Appenzell area! Today we are planning to ride two gondolas (or 3 for those making a return journey in a gondola). We will take the train to Jakobsbad, the gondola to Kronberg, hike to the Santis lift, take the Santis gondola up, and then either take the gondola back down or hike down the mountain after taking in the views.
First we enjoy a marvelous breakfast buffet. Yoghurts, musli, fruits, breads, meats and cheeses, hot chocolate, tea, coffee, and more!
Next, it’s off to the train station to catch the train to Jakobsbad. The toboggan run does not seem to be going yet. Maybe another time. We take the lift to Kronberg and climb up a small hill to view the panorama. It is gorgeous.
We hike from here to the bottom of the Santis lift. This is a really nice, relatively easy and flat hike with great views. We do encounter a bit of mud and some tree roots. We stop in a field of rocks to have some grapes, carrots, oranges, rice krispies, and chocolate. We then take the gondola up to Santis. The views are spectacular. You can see 6 countries: Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, Lichtenstein, and Italy.
The majority will take the gondola back down. We scope out the paths down for the crazy group. No way are we taking the one down the back cliff that looks fairly popular. There are 3 other main options. We decide not to hike the path we have taken before which is a bit precarious and does include some cliff walking and ladder climbing. Another option is to take the path on the right that includes two long cliff ladders in the beginning and the walks along a cliff for a while. This one looks very popular today. We decide to take the path in the middle which looks like it heads down from the summit then traverses through the valley to the lake. Perhaps this one won’t include terrifying cliff walking. We really can’t see much of this trail from our vantage points. This hike turned out to be a beautiful walk. It was hard but not technically difficult – no ropes or crampons required! We did have some walking along small cliffs but we never felt in danger of slipping to our doom. This hike was mostly downhill with some flats. There were steep huge steps and lots of rock walking. It was a bit hard on the knees, feet, and joints. Once we reached the valley floor, we took a short walk to Seealpsee and took a break on the rocks for some food and to rest our weary knees and feet. After the lake is the long and incredibly steep road back to Wasserauen.
The group that did not hike down took a bus from the bottom of the gondola back to the train station. The bus was hot and crowded. The group was sitting in the back section of a double bus, the second bus was attached to the first bus with a trailer hitch type contraption. The ride was vomit-inducing, although no one actually vomited. After that misery was over, the group headed to Appenzell to check out the town. An intricate church was viewed and shops were visited.
We all made it to dinner for another food adventure. The food was delicious and everyone’s hunger was satisfied.
Your hiking can now be considered an extreme sport. And, there are no areas of Switzerland left unseen.