Appenzall Hike and Dinner in Austria

Most of my classmates arrived last night in St. Gallen. To acclimitize us with the weather and help with jetlag, our hosts had arranged for a hike in the beautiful Appenzall mountains. After a power breakfast, we set out by bus #5 to the trainstation, and it was then to Trojen, a town only accessible by narrow gauge trains. Murali and Priya were also able to join us on the hike, which made it even more enjoyable. It was almost 40 of us, including our university hosts. Travelling in a big group helped for conversations with anyone walking at your pace.....

The train climbed the hills dotted with small villages, with houses lining the tracks, offering vistas of Lake Constance in the far horizon, with the green countryside in the foreground. At Trojen, we set off on our hour long hike (two for huffing & puffing me..) to Gabris, through more of the rolling countryside dotted with cows, farms, and a single observatory! The reward at the top of the trailhead was lunch at a German restaurant, "Gasthaus", which served us macaroni with local Appenzeller cheese. Priya loved it!

The Appenzall region is quite different from the Alps we saw at Adelboden, or Murren or Gimmelwald. This is mostly rolling hill country, with none of the jagged peaks in the immediate vicinity. But it was lush, and peaceful.

The hike down was to a different town, Gais, and back by train / bus to St. Gallen.

Since Murali and Priya will be here for only one more day, we drove the short 15 mins into Austria, to have dinner at Cafe Konditorei, in the border town of Hochst. We have now been to four countries! The leek quiche (Lauch Quiche) was fantastic, and the locally produced Boutelle Weiss white wine was a good complement to the dinner.

Seeing a couple taking pictures of each other, Priya walked up to them and offered to take a picture of both of them. They were thrilled! We chatted a bit with them, and learnt about ways to explore the Lake Constance shoreline. People are very helpful, and take their time to explain their answers in great detail. It is a welcome treat!

Interlaken, Murren, Gimmelwald

Oh! what a day! Up in the Swiss Alps, taking cable cars, trains, buses, we traversed a very picturesque region of rolling green hills, towering peaks, busy farms to get a glimpse of Swiss mountain life.

But first, we walked through Interlaken, a small town between Lakes Thun and Brienze, with the River Aare flowing through it. Arun picked up his first camouflage Swiss Army knife, with his name engraved on it..We got up to the 18th floor of the Hotel Metropole and took pictures of the whole town from various angles, while sipping a cold Fanta and watching hang gliders land in a large field down below.

A short ride to the Lauterbrunnen cable car station, and we were on our way to Murren! Just as described in Rick Steve's tour book, Murren is indeed a magical place - a one street town, with no automobile traffic, milk carts that do home delivery, and set right in the middle of the hardy alpine farm community. By the time we got to Murren, it was after 3pm; the streets were deserted and made for even more leisurely ambling through town. A small side street branches off towards Gimmelwald, a few hundred meters below. We decided to take it.

To Adelboden, through Geneva

It was time to do laundry, pack up and leave for Switzerland! We planned a stop at Geneva for a walking tour of the city, thanks to Rick Steves' and Frommers' book on Switzerland. Geneva appears to be a busy city, with multiple trams, trains, buses on the roadways. We spotted the first Starbucks in a week, and parked close by. Many of the famous Swiss watch companies had huge offices around the water front.











The Rick Steve guided walk started at the landmark Jet d'Eau, a fountain that sends water to a height of almost 453ft. We then passed by a park honoring Rousseau, and wound our way through old town Geneva, The Grand theatre, Opera House, and the Reformation Monument, representing Clavin, Knox, Beze, and Farel, the four Genevese reformers. The walk gave us a good sense of history, and a first glimpse at a big city in Switzerland. In the park there were many people playing chess and checkers moving the huge pieces with their feet!

We drove through Lausanne, Bern, Frutigen to our vacation rental home in Adelboden, a world famous ski run during the winter time. Our chalet turned out to be a 2 bedroom apartment on a steep hill, accessible only by a flight of 109 stairs! The apartment itself was very well furnished, but the climb everyday was a good workout. Priya was thrilled to have a bunkbed to share with Arun and the IKEA furniture in the chalet was tastefully selected. We settled down for a comfortable night in Switzerland, after a dinner of warmed up frozen pizza and fresh Oberlander milk (2.5%)

Old Town Annecy, Thones, Lake Annecy

We decided to spend the last day of our visit to France locally - first, a visit to La Bolee Creperie for an authentic buckwheat crepe, done in Brittany style. Located on Rue Carnot, this place opens only at 11:30am, but is open until 11pm. Arun chose a Gourmandien, with Nutella, Bananas and whipped cream, Priya had the Chocolate Chantilly, and we tried the Spinach with cheese. It was fast, and presented elegantly. The kids loved it and vowed to go again for dinner..

We explored the many winding streets of Old Town, picking up souvenirs, and browsing the stores - hats, metal works, gourmet food shops, candy stores. Old Town gets very crowded - it is better to go early in the day.

We then drove to the town of Thones, to the Cheese Cooperative - a place where local farmers bring their homemade Reblochon cheese for sale. The cheese rounds are cured further in cellars at the cooperative. We watched many families make purchases of their favorite cheese in whole rounds or in fractions. The lady informed us we were late for the tour, but quickly drew the curtains in an adjoinging lecture hall, and ran the english version of a DVD showing how the cheese is produced......it was very informative. We bought a few small rounds to take back home.

We retraced our steps, rather miles, back to Annecy to spend some time on the lake. Renting a four person pedal boat, we spent the next hour and a half on the beautiful lake, swimming, treading water or just plain pedalling around, while enjoying ribbon murrukku and mysorepak! The water was clear and at a comfortable temperature, and on that day, it provided a great relief from the oppressive heat...

We finished off the day with a visit back to the ..... yes, the La Bolee Creperie, where Arun and Priya repeated their order, much to the delight of the wait staff.

Weekly Market at Annecy

If you want to see a slice of the region's produce and brisk business, you should visit the weekly market. Bread, Cheese, Fruits, Vegetables, Olive bars, Meat products, as well as clothes, leather goods, shoes, soaps, wood work, costume jewelry are piled into vans and setup in booths for quick sales. The produce look like they just came off the farms; so colorful, fresh and healthy. So many varieties of tomatoes, grapes and potatoes! The Cheese stand is a ritual in itself. Everyone has their favorite cheese maker - the locally produced Reblochon is soft, with a hint of salt and is great with a slice of whole grain bread. Gruyere comes in one foot diameter rounds...Freshly churned butter is delicious...

Some stands show the owners demonstrating the use of a grater or a special cleaner for cabinets, and draw curious onlookers and serious buyers,. The demonstrators are very vocal and engage the audience with their humoristic narration...

The market is the best place to load up on food. We came home with fresh beans, green chilis, bread, butter and black, plump grapes.

Day Trip to Chamonix-Mont Blanc & Aoste

Chamonix is slightly over an hour's drive from Annecy. It is a glacial valley, with Mont Blanc towering over it's treeline. Chamonix is the site of the first winter olympics held in 1924. Mont Blanc is the tallest mountain in Western Europe. This is a good family outing, with hikes, train rides, cable car trips anywhere from 3 - 8 hours.

A half hour ride on a Montenvers red train took us to the boarding point of the "telecabine" (a cable car), which took us down to the Mer de Glace glacier itself. Ice tunnels in the glacier are lit with LED lights and cast a wondrous glow inside the icy passages. Several ice sculptures can be seen, depicting rooms of a large house. The access to the ice tunnel is by climbing down 350 steps, relatively easy to do.

The refreshing cool alpine air, and the craggy peaks were a sight to behold and capture in one's memory. Priya filled her thermos with the cold glacial water which tasted fantastic!

On the way back, we wandered into the town of Chamonix with it's picturesque buildings, flower pots, and water fountains. It is a good walking town, with many short blocks of stores selling trinkets, wood work, and waffles smothered with nutella.

Another hour through 36 km of tunnels through the mountains led us to the Italian border town of Aoste, where we stopped at a trattoria for a sumptuous, simple italian dinner of spagetti with picante, spagetti without picante, cabbage, fromage (cheese), salad (the crisp lettuce and tangy home grown tomatoes were superb), and the locally produced red wine. Arun finished off with his much beloved tiramisu, again, the best in the world!

East meets West for dinner at Annecy home

We stopped at a grocery store and picked up pasta, tomato sauce and a few veggies and fruits, along with apricot pastries. Back home, we cooked a simple dinner of pasta with tomato sauce, and a couple of servings of Upma, courtesy of the pre-roasted rava with seasonings from Amma. We finished off with a dessert of grapes and white chocolate biscuits. After a long day of walking, a simple dinner at home was welcomed by all.

Old Town Annecy, France

Today we walked around "Old Town" Annecy, on cobbled streets and alleys winding through markets, shoe shops, and buildings more than 300 years old. The canals meander through the town, clean and fast, as it moves towards Lake Annecy.

We took a self-guided tour of a Medieval Castle, now the Chateau Musee. It's towers, stairways, lookouts gave a good sense of life in the 1600s. Priya got some new ideas for her bunk bed, after seeing some of the one used by the castle dwellers. The gardens have a good view of the city below.

The bells of Notre Dame Cathedral draw us back into the charm of Old Town - ringing on the hour, until 7pm - bold and melodic at the same time.

Old town is full of roadside restaurants that serve a variety of foods - pizzerias, creperies, bistros, candy shops (cest beau!), wineries, icecream parlors serving La Glace! Priya enjoyed the caramel, mint chocolate flavors.... We stopped at Le Petrin for lunch of salad with goatcheese, spagetti, tiramisu and an ice cold Orangina - Awesome! Arun claimed this was the best Tiramisu, ever!

There are plenty of fountains and wells with clean water - we tasted it! Water seems to be a part of life here in Annecy.