Ding Dong Merrily on High

We have moved on from Austria but sadly the weather has not come with us.  The weather has cracked up and dented our glorious record (Fran you can start reading again) but we have still managed to entertain and exhaust ourselves.   

I achieved a lifelong dream (limited horizons have I) of going to Liechtenstein.  It is the sixth smallest country in the world and only gave women the vote in 1984!  Really it is a tiny (6km by 12km) add onto Switzerland.  We had an hour there and ate a traditional meal at a Kebab place!  Then off we went to Appenzell.

Appenzell is in north eastern Switzerland and full of green hills and cows hence the title for this blog.  The farms don't have fences so they put bells on the cows to know where they are.  We heard these bells from the early morning and all day long.  To take advantage of the brief spot of good weather we caught the cable car to the top of a mountain and enjoyed the view.  Unfortunately the clouds came rapidly in and it started raining so down we went.

The next day the weather had improved dramatically so up another mountain in the cable car. Then we walked down for 3 hours.  Magnificent views, lots of cows and sore legs.  Several places we have been have these nifty tourist deals which supply you with a card that covers a lot of the activities you want to do.  Ours included one run on a luge track (like Corin Forest) which we did with child like pleasure.

We decided to complete the day with a pleasant walk up to a pretty little lake.  The girl at the tourist bureau said that this was an easy walk.  Having done the walk we consider that the girl at the Tourist Bureau has never done it.  It was a very steep climb which just went on and on.  The lake at the top was pretty but not really worth the severe climb (according to Keith!) which was so steep it was hard work coming down.  After a nice drink and a visit to the womens loo (who knew Damens meant women - this is Keith writing) we went to the supermarket for dinner.  This may sound odd but we had been the night before and had a great feed at very reasonable prices.

The next day was very wet and overcast.  We went up a very steep cable car.  While there were nice views on the way up, at the top it was hard to see the person standing next to you.  So we thought we would visit the local big smoke St Gallen.  It is the neatest place you have ever seen but had a very nice surprise in a massive and extravagantly decorated cathederal.  On the way we had visited a cheese factory in Stein (and thought about Les).  We finished the day with a visit to a cultural museum described in the guidebook as 'the cutest museum in Switzerland'.  It was interesting - they have some bizarre rituals round here - but we thought it quaint rather than cute.

We have now headed down to the glitzy St Moritz but the weather is still ordinary.  We are praying for a return to blue skies and warm days.