Saturday - 18 April 2009 - Mt. Santis and St. Gallens
Mt Santis is the high point of the Proto-Alps, or "those other mountains near Appenzell that the public relations folks in Appenzell want foreigners to come to and ski and spend money in Appenzell, please". Nevertheless, the 8000+ foot high peak dominates the sky line of Appenzell--well you can see it from Appenzell if you know where to look--and is a short narrow gauge train ride and short Postal Bus ride away. The ride on the train through the local Swiss countryside is lovely, and the bus ascent to the 4000+ base station of the cable car is very, uh, alpine, uh, alpine (like).
As the first organized tour was this afternoon, a fellow tour guest and I made the train/bus trip to the cable car station this morning and observed that the summit was in the clouds. I breathed easier at the high elevation since I was able to gracefully not take the cable car and then descended via bus and narrow gauge train back to Appenzell. After a lavish lunch of the hotel room's fruit bowl and the very hard to find Swiss potato chips--they prefer baked goods, or at least prefer to sell baked goods since there is a pastry and bread shop every 20 meters BY LAW--the full group of 45 assembled for our first organized adventure. This included trying to find rail passes. One participant asked how difficult it would be if he were to lose his pass. Carl, our tour leader, answered that it would merely cost him over $500 but that wasn't very hard to do. We then proceeded over a different narrow gauge train line to the 4th largest (or so) city in Switzerland, St. Gallens. This medieval town is noted for being, uh, medieval. It has a large 12th Century cathedral and a pastry shop that sells the largest chocolate truffles in the world. See attached picture of me with my three big truffles. After missing the group of more intrepid tour participants (meaning those under 80 years old) who walked down from a high ridge at the end of a lovely (there are many lovely means of transportation) tram to a cog railway and the mainline train back to the narrow gauge to Appenzell, I instead joined the less intrepid (meaning over 80 crowd) for the shorter ride back to Appenzell but had a nice discussion with Carl of every bad event in American passenger railroads in the last 40 years. He did conclude there is some hope for the future, certainly a good conclusion for a guy who runs a passenger rail tour company. I then had the local draft beer and dinner with the retired theater professor and writer wife, reciting the lyrics to EVERY show and telling and learning new bad but old jokes.
Tomorrow is a full day--starting at 6 am breakfast--for a number of trains to connect to a boat ride on Lake Constance to Germany to go to "the best Swedish garden in Germany." Will report.
Mt Santis is the high point of the Proto-Alps, or "those other mountains near Appenzell that the public relations folks in Appenzell want foreigners to come to and ski and spend money in Appenzell, please". Nevertheless, the 8000+ foot high peak dominates the sky line of Appenzell--well you can see it from Appenzell if you know where to look--and is a short narrow gauge train ride and short Postal Bus ride away. The ride on the train through the local Swiss countryside is lovely, and the bus ascent to the 4000+ base station of the cable car is very, uh, alpine, uh, alpine (like).
As the first organized tour was this afternoon, a fellow tour guest and I made the train/bus trip to the cable car station this morning and observed that the summit was in the clouds. I breathed easier at the high elevation since I was able to gracefully not take the cable car and then descended via bus and narrow gauge train back to Appenzell. After a lavish lunch of the hotel room's fruit bowl and the very hard to find Swiss potato chips--they prefer baked goods, or at least prefer to sell baked goods since there is a pastry and bread shop every 20 meters BY LAW--the full group of 45 assembled for our first organized adventure. This included trying to find rail passes. One participant asked how difficult it would be if he were to lose his pass. Carl, our tour leader, answered that it would merely cost him over $500 but that wasn't very hard to do. We then proceeded over a different narrow gauge train line to the 4th largest (or so) city in Switzerland, St. Gallens. This medieval town is noted for being, uh, medieval. It has a large 12th Century cathedral and a pastry shop that sells the largest chocolate truffles in the world. See attached picture of me with my three big truffles. After missing the group of more intrepid tour participants (meaning those under 80 years old) who walked down from a high ridge at the end of a lovely (there are many lovely means of transportation) tram to a cog railway and the mainline train back to the narrow gauge to Appenzell, I instead joined the less intrepid (meaning over 80 crowd) for the shorter ride back to Appenzell but had a nice discussion with Carl of every bad event in American passenger railroads in the last 40 years. He did conclude there is some hope for the future, certainly a good conclusion for a guy who runs a passenger rail tour company. I then had the local draft beer and dinner with the retired theater professor and writer wife, reciting the lyrics to EVERY show and telling and learning new bad but old jokes.
Tomorrow is a full day--starting at 6 am breakfast--for a number of trains to connect to a boat ride on Lake Constance to Germany to go to "the best Swedish garden in Germany." Will report.
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