Five hours after stepping off the plane at Zürich Airport, we’re arriving for lunch at Switzerland’s most iconic and historic restaurant, 1500m above sea level and accessible only via a soggy hike past grazing cows and through a sequence of prehistoric caves inhabited for centuries by hermit monks. If this weathered gasthaus standing precipitously underneath the towering cliff looks familiar to you, you’ve probably seen it on the cover of National Geographic’s Destinations of a Lifetime.
The Aescher Gasthaus is just one of the unique charms at this far-flung region of northeast Switzerland known as Appenzellerland, two sparsely populated cantons renowned for their distinctive festivals and ultra-traditional customs. This would be the start of our 16-day circle route to appreciate Switzerland’s cultural diversity, starting with possibly its most old-fashioned corner.
Outside Switzerland, Appenzell is best known as a quaint specimen of Swiss direct democracy for its annual Landsgemeinde, a 600-year-old tradition where citizens congregate at the town square to vote on cantonal governance issues by a public show of hands. And up until 1991 women had no right to vote in the Landsgemeinde, which shows just how culturally conservative this corner of Switzerland has been.
Among the Swiss themselves though, Appenzell is appreciated for its hard, spicy Appenzeller cheese featured on premium cheese platters across the nation, as well as the excellent Appenzeller Bier -- especially the unfiltered Quöllfrisch variety -- available at most supermarkets. Just 90 minutes from Zürich Airport via one of the world’s best train networks, we plunged right into the heartland of Swiss traditions on our first morning.
Our first interaction with the locals was at Appenzell Station where a gracious staff member agreed to safeguard our heavy backpacks for the day ... for free. Within minutes we unpacked our hiking poles and took the next train to nearby Wasserauen followed by a cable car up the local peak of Ebenalp, where a light 30 minute hike would lead us to Aescher Gasthaus for a late Sunday brunch.
Even before the establishment of Aescher Gasthaus in the late 1800s, mysterious Ebenalp had attracted centuries of pilgrims to its cave chapel and hermitage that provided food and lodging to the faithfuls. En route to the gasthaus, today’s hikers must still pass through a subterranean cavern once inhabited by Neanderthals and cave bears in the ice age, and by little hobbit-like people according to legends.
It was another busy Sunday in Aescher’s short operating season, lasting only from late May until mid-October, 130 plus years running. Until a couple years ago hikers could overnight at its detached mountain lodge next to the cave church before coming in for breakfast, though the nearest bathtub would be the local lake of Seealpsee in the valley below.
Just about every table washed down their obligatory charcuterie platter with shots of a local herb tonic known as Alpenbitter, or with the house’s full-strength apple cider. The smoked and thinly sliced Mostbröckli and sharp Appenzeller cheese were appealing, but the real star -- and both my wife and I agreed -- was a simple Schwartenmagen head cheese that might have been our favourite charcuterie item of the entire trip.
We fuelled up further with a house made cheese pie that came with a sauce I had never dreamed of, an earthy pesto of wild nettle -- yes, the same stinging nettle for treating allergy symptoms -- that perfectly toned down the oiliness of the melted cheese and elevated the homey fare into gastronomic sophistication. One has to be impressed with the chef’s resourcefulness demonstrated by the originality of menu items, considering that fresh supplies only get towed in twice weekly by farm tractors.
Meal for Two Persons
| Cold Platter | CHF 26 |
| Cheese Pie with Nettle Sauce | CHF 12 |
| Bottle of Flauder 0.5 L | CHF 5.5 |
| Apple Cider 0.5 L | CHF 6.5 |
| TOTAL | CHF50 (CAD$69) |
Back in Appenzell after our lunch and hike, we finally reached the town’s historic quarters among a surprising number of multi-national tourists arriving on tour buses for the Sunday afternoon. Fortunately few would remain after sundown, as we would soon learn over two nights in town.
Noiseless and vacant as Landsgemeindeplatz appeared on this day, this is the venue for the annual cantonal assembly in April when any citizen can rise to the podium to propose changes for the other 4,000 to approve or vote down by a show of hands. While the women bring their voter cards, most men still carry their personal ceremonial sword which also qualifies as voter ID from a tradition dating back to the 1400s.
For those of us arriving outside of Appenzell’s various colourful festivals, its living traditions are always on display at Museum Appenzell inside a historic house next to the town hall. The historic quarter is full of fascinating vintage houses, one of which we would be renting for two nights.
Or at least the bottom floor of a traditional 4-storey Appenzeller house belonging to a winery proprietor, a 2 minute walk east of town centre and 7 minutes from the train station. Next door happened to be the local institution of Bäckerei Böhli, a 5th generation bakery apparently popular with the townsfolk judging by line-ups forming as early as 06:30.
To be completely honest, we chose this house as it was the cheapest accommodation available in the old town and within walking distance from the train station, at a one-third discount compared with the cheapest hotel. And in practical terms, a functional kitchen is simply indispensable for budget travelers in expensive Switzerland.
For two nights we cooked our own meals and sampled two regional favorites, the Appenzeller Siedwurst and the St Galler Kalbsbratwurst picked up from local supermarkets. The Appenzeller version pictured, with its silky texture and mild peppery spices, turned out to be my favourite out of all regional specialty sausages that we sampled across Switzerland.
As for picnics and hikes, we followed the local wisdom and purchased from Bäckerei Böhli these traditional form of energy bars: a gingerbread with almond filling known as the Appenzeller Biber (pictured left), and a bar of dried pears known as Birnweggen (right). Combined with a chicken leg from Migros and some packaged salad, these made for a cheap and filling lunch on the go.
As one of Switzerland’s greenest cantons where dairy farming remains a common career, Appenzell’s greatest appeal arguably lies in its picturesque countryside and small towns, conveniently connected by the private Appenzeller Bahnen with its half-hourly train service. Our original plan was to hike the Hundwiler Höhi from Gonten back to Appenzell, but we switched to visiting Urnäsch on a rainy day.
A small town even by the standard of Switzerland’s least populous cantons, charming Urnäsch looms large on tourism brochures with its 17th century town square and an outstanding museum, in fact my favourite in Switzerland over our 16-day journey.
Housed inside a 400-year-old half-timber building with low vaulted ceilings and crooked wooden floors, the Appenzeller Brauchtumsmuseum hosts the most comprehensive collection relating to Appenzell’s rural customs from the bi-annual livestock processions to hands-on practices with traditional musical instruments.
Most memorable were vivid exhibits of the canton’s Silvesterchläuse festivities on New Year’s Eve, a millennium-old pagan tradition in which a team of masked villages would dress in flamboyant costumes, wear 30 kg cow bells and yodel from house to house wishing everyone a prosperous new year.
Just 30 minute north of tiny Urnäsch, crossing cantonal boundaries and into a 21st century urban spread, is eastern Switzerland’s commerce and transportation hub of St. Gallen. Visitors arrive at a train station surrounded by a glass-and-concrete business district and filled with legions of daily commuters to Zürich, yet just a 10 minute walk from a medieval town centre crowned with a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Predating the birth of the Swiss nation by 500 years, the medieval Abbey of St. Gall began as a humble Benedictine monastery and blossomed into a powerful theocratic city-state reporting only to the Holy Roman Emperor. Today it is revered among Switzerland’s most important cultural heritage as evidenced by the masses of high school students on field trips.
Striking as the cathedral’s baroque ceiling may appear, it pales in comparison to the abbey’s magnificent library possessing one of the world’s greatest collections of medieval codices dating to the 8th century. If you’re interested in viewing the select thousand-year-old manuscripts on display, visit in person as no pictures are allowed.
Back in Appenzell we spent the rest of the drizzly afternoon in shops and supermarkets. In better weather I would have loved to hike the Hundwiler Höhi for its panoramic views, but we salvaged what we could by shuffling Gasthaus Aescher to our only dry half-day. This would not be the last time that we had to reschedule our hikes and excursions according to Meteo Swiss’s incredibly accurate forecasts.
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