Alas in Appanzellerland - Sunday July 4, 2010

Alas in Appanzellerland - Sunday July 4, 2010

We were up just after 6 this am so decided to make one last attempt to bike to the little town of Klais - all the trail signs point to it about 35 min. away but we were back through field and forest for an hour but never did find it. We think someone switched the signs on us again - d'ya think they would do it twice to us?? Back at the Heiss farm we said good-bye to Barbara and were on our way by 9 am.
Arrived in Appenzell about 1:30 p.m. a few hours ahead of schedule so we drove around to our Farm Stay with the Rempfler family just outside the town 3 km. It is a totally different terrain than last week - gently rolling high hills with snow capped mountains in the background.
It will definitely not be possible to bike around our Zimmer except to go in circles around the barn - well maybe 2 barns. We are down at the bottom of a valley with at least 4 layers of roads winding around the hills to get up out of here. it is really quite unique. The pictures are of the farm here as well as a few surrounding it. The first one with the farm/house in the centre of the picture is the one we are in. They raise Alpacas and Lamas as well as milk at least 9 cows we counted.
We will probably just leave the bikes on the car and drive into town or find a flat enough stretch to bike a while. There are a number of attractions in the area so stay tuned.

More pics from Eng

Eng - The End Of The Road. - Saturday, July 3, 2010

Eng - The End Of The Road. - Saturday, July 3, 2010

We had started to walk back a gorge to a falls at Garmish-Partenkirchen (the site of the Olympics in 1938) in “02 but it was further than we thought and it was getting dark so we never did get to the falls. That is what we had planned today until we found out that there is a MAJOR motorcycle rally advertised today for Garmisch-Partenkirchen. There are 2 passes close by and we have to cross over the one in order to get to Garmish. You do not want to be on a pass when there is a motorcycle rally - they time the bikers from one side of the pass to the other we have heard and they just scream by you even on the sharp hairpin curves up and over the pass.
So we instead picked a spot on the map - a town called Eng - about 40 km away with a dead end road and a small town at the end - figured it might be a neat place to spend our last day here in Bavaria. Wow did it turn out to be a gem. For most of the way we followed a wide rocky river bed that twisted and turned as it meandered down from the Alpine glaciers high above. We figured there must be something back there since lots of bicycklers and a few cars were headed up there as well. As we neared the town the terrain changed to a flat grassy area with trees and we began to see cows off in the distance - many cows. Most of the farms we have seen here are small - 10 - 20 cows maximum. Here there were hundreds it seemed. We could see up ahead high mountain peaks with snow capped peaks. It was indeed the end of the road - the flat meadow was locked in by the mountains and the oly way out was to retrace our path. The village of ENG is really a hotel but beyond that the field opened up and we could see people walking back up toward the glacier toward a number of buildings with cattle high above and behind. So we decided to check it out. Back there were at least 8 barns about ½ the size of our barn back home. They turned out to be milking barns with Zimmer living quarters in the front of some of them. I counted milking stalls for 212 cows about 30 in each barn. Each barn had its own glass milking pipeline that emptied into about a 1000 litre (250 gal.) tank mounted on a motorized walk behind cart. The tanks are “driven” to a completely self contained cheese making barn in the middle of the cluster and there the Alpine milk is made into cheese - saw a pig pen and suppose the pigs get the leftovers. Most barn fronts are rentable as Zimmers for a night or more to visitors who wish to become part of the process. Some living quarters for the help as well. IOf you look closely you may be able to see more cows above the buildings just below the treeline and the snow.
There was no sign of hay storage so this must have been a high alpine dairy we have heard about and seen from a distance but have never been able to experience it so close up. Of coarse they had a store where we sampled several types of cheeses they make. Lunch was under a shade a tree in the pasture field with the cows. We drove back down to the valley floor knowing we had experienced a gem.

D'ya think we like the barns??

It’s In The bag - Friday July 2, 2010

It’s In The bag - Friday July 2, 2010

Last night after supper, we headed west from the Heiss farm on the bikes. The ragweg we wanted to take proved too steep for this grey-haired duo so we came back to the farm and headed north . It was a very relaxing ride except that we had to climb a hill - steps up and switch back - carried the bikes up there but some great views from the top. All along we saw little log barns mostly with tile roofs. At a cross roads we sat and soaked in the countryside views - farmers cutting hay - some raking hay - some cutting wood - some seemingly just driving the back road trails. Ended up in Wallgau, 2 km north at a new grocery store - the little town of Krun has 2 new grocery stores - they must be figuring on expansion in the housing market. Maybe that’s why we can not find the trail with the little log barns where we walked in ’02 - seems it has become a row of new homes we figure.

Then today we decided to drive to Oberammergau but this time to ride our bikes out into the countryside. Our destination was Unterammergau about 4 km away. First we had to stop at Information for a map of the town. Throughout the town, crowds were beginning to gather even at 9:30 a.m. as we rode along the cobbled streets. At the north end of town the road forks into 4 directions. The first one we took looked like the road most traveled - one lane but paved. Soon it turned onto a gravel road and again we had to decide which of 2 farm trails to take. One led slightly uphill but ended at a building construction site - looked like a new home foundation. The other trail - 2 tracks with grass between led slightly downhill and ended up at a small horse barn. Just before the barn we had nodded to a gentleman who was walking toward us with a fork over his shoulder - a common sight. At the barn we turned around but first noticed a little girl still with a soother in mouth come out of the barn. Seeing no trail beyond we began to retrace out steps when we saw dad was coming back toward the barn with a fork full of loose hay. We stopped and talked a bit - his English was better than our German. He explained that in order to get to Unterammergau we would have to go back into the town of Oberammergau and cross the bridge over the Ammer River and take the other side path. But before we said good-bye I asked him about the little log barns all over the countryside. He explained that 50 years ago farmers would store the hay from the fields locally in the little barns where the hay was made then in the winter they would take it into the town house/barn combinations by horse and I presume sleigh. Many town barns have small horse sleighs hanging under their wide overhangs as they do other antiques. So that explained the little log barns that tourists flock to the area to see.
When we finally did find the town of Unterammergau, we found a very pleasant peaceful village - many zimmers, barns and homes existing side by side - manure pile beside zimmer and tractors coming and going with various equipment disappearing up into them there hills. We stopped at the town square and ate lunch beside the water trough.
On our way home we stopped in at Ettal a buzzing town mostly attracting busloads of tourists to the Kloisterkirche (Kloister church) famous for its wine and spirits production. No sign of the monks or the nuns who make it but it was a walled medieval type building with lots of people coming and going from the central courtyard. We chose instead to go next door to the Schaukaserei Ettal where the Kloister still produces the famous Ettal Alpen cheese. On the way in the driveway we commented about the clever placement of a large herd of Brown Swiss cows congregated at the fence gate just across the road. So we went in and since they were finished making cheese for the day, they showed us a video of the process and of coarse we had to sample their cheese cake and a coffee. On the way out we were treated to a parade of 30 some Brown Swiss cows - udders loaded - eagerly heading up the driveway past the cheese factory on their way to the barn for milking.

More pics for Thursday, July1, 2010

Around The Lake - Thursday July 1, 2010

Around The Lake - Thursday July 1, 2010


It looked like a perfect day today for the “Tour de Walchensee”. No Phyllis it was not another major sporting event. In fact it was just the opposite - very peaceful and quiet. The lake is located about 7 km north of us. We parked the Twingo, unloaded the bikes and headed in a clockwise direction from the village of Einsiedl. In places the path was paved and wound along the lake with benches to rest at many turns usually at a great vista point. Sometimes the path narrowed down to a 2 foot wide gravel path, sometimes through little willages and large. Many camera spots with the coral blue/green water and snow capped peaks in the background. At one point the path narrowed , became very rough and rocky but we peddled on, only to find from 3 ladies walking that we were on a walking only path. 'Twould be nice to be able to read more signs - so many and so different. Always though we were along the lakeshore within sight of the lake. At times we had to “look the other way” - lots of sunbathers and a few picnic-ers. By noon time there were getting to be many bikers, walkers and a few cars on the paths closer to the towns. At another spot the pavement became gravel and up ahead we noticed a swinging gate across the path. Had we not seen other bikers open the gate and continue after closing the gate behind them, we might have been tempted to turn around and go back. Just up ahead then we saw 2 cows - bells clanging, contented with the peaceful pastures - coarse we had to stop for a few photo-ops. Then a little further another fence and we were back on paved road again. So we saw it all - a very pleasant morning. We had taken our coffee mugs (full of coffee of coarse) in the mug racks we had purchased so we stopped at several shaded spots to take a break and take in the scenery. A family we met just before the cow scene, were from northern Germany on their vacation. They noticed our coffee mugs right away and that was the first comment as we met at a signpost to check on directions. Not much need for directions though since we simply followed the lake. It was 28 km around and we finished in about 4 hours with many stops along the way.