12 Aug 2008 - Seealpsee, Jacobsbad and Urnash
Our last day in the mountains before returning to civilisation. A little background on Appenzellerland. It is situated in the eastern part of Switzerland and is known for its gently rolling green hills, flowery meadows and rugged mountains. It is made up of 2 cantons. We were staying at the southern, or the alpstein region, which assumes the hilly, wooded landscape.
After breakfast, we untied the one of the 2 boats and rowed round the lake. The interesting thing here was that the inn never charged anyone for using the boat, even non-residents. Anyone could have a go. As it rained the night before, it was a little chilly out but the air was FRESH! The boat ride also gave us a different view of the entire place.
The happy boat-rower.
The happy boat-rowee.
The farmhouse on the left was where we had some fresh milkshake (no ice-cream though, just fresh milk and some coffee powder) and the one on the right was where we had our whey bath. Although these farmhouses shared the same lake as the inn, it took 10 to 15 minutes to walk there. After the boat ride, we packed up and relunctantly said goodbye to the lovely waitress who tried her best to communicate to us for the last 2 days and checked out of the beautiful mountain inn.
More feet soaking in a small stream before we exit the mountain region to take a train to urnash. The water was icy cold. After a minute or so our feet felt numb, so we lifted our feet, ate some chocolates then dip some more. I also picked some smooth cool stones to bring back home as momentoes.
An unexpected find enroute to urnash. While approaching Jacobsbad station, we saw a rugged amusement park with a roller-coaster that looked different, more like a slide. We made a rash decision there and then to alight and check it out, barely made it out before the train door shut. The roller-coaster slide cost SF9 for the 2 of us. Finally found something cheaper than s'pore. It appeared mild as it started slow, which was ok by me cos I was just happy to enjoy the scenery and cold wind on my skin. 'Looks are deceiving' would be an appropriate phrase to use on this thingy. The slow rickety start turned into a series of sharp twist and turns and ups and downs. My hubby had wanted to take a video of lush tranquil scenery but ended up capturing the dizzy movement of the car and the wild screams of his crazy wife. It was another pleasant surprise and the reason why we never liked package tour. Only when you travel on your own will you have the pleasure to live like the locals and discover new things.
Some hotels in urnash. Seemed like most urban houses looked like that. We wanted to check out a restaurant called Sonne which reportedly had some very nice veal ravoili but we couldn't find it and the town was like a ghost town. We couldn't see more than 5 people within a span of 10 minutes in this town and more than 99% of them spoke no english. A little too quiet and spooky. So we ended up eating in a small little cafe with only 1 table of old folks and another table of young people and yap, we ate sausage and swein (pork) snitchzel and potatoes again but we came prepared. We brought along macdonald's garlic chilli sauce to eat with these bland-looking stuff. The chilli sauce woke up my tongue and gave the meal a different edge. If the chef knew what we did to his food, he would have chased us out with his swiss victorinox chef knife. After we finished, we decided to be kind to the chef and hid the chilli sauce packets in the paper napkins and made a quick exit.
Although swiss food was generally not as diverse and kick-ass or kick-tongue as s'pore food, the views were always great.
We stopped by a shop that sold appenzell products and bought some cookies, flauder sparkling mineral water and a bottle of beer for ah kin and uncle tan. When we reached ah kin's house, we were happy to know that she had prepared our dinner. We bathed, did some laundry and sat down to a scrumptious meal. Both ah kin and uncle tan must think that we were very hungry cos we gobbled up all the food on the table. Somehow, people don't get tired of asian food as easily as ang moh food. Maybe because asian food is generally more varied and flavourful and less jerlat.
Later in the evening, my hubby did a show-and-tell of our appenzell stay and we ate some sprungli chocolate cake that I bought from the main train station. We also tried the appenzell cheese which ah kin found too strong. This was also the night that I made a great discovery - ah kin reminded me of the cows in appenzell, who ate all day, from the time we woke up at about 7am to our sleeptime at 11pm, we could hear the cow bells, signifying that the cows were still grazing. Ah kin nearly fell off her couch laughing when I told her my observation. Well, some people are just lucky - eat all day and still no ounce of fat on them. Tsk tsk...
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