For each of our trips the planning takes almost 3-4 months trying to decide places to visit, accommodation, prioritizing the places to visit around etc. After reaching our holiday destination, one more time the refinement of plan takes place after collecting brochures from regional tourist offices. Whole through the stay we keep passing same places/regions multiple times and at those times the name of the places seem to be registered in the mind. But after returning, after few months if I try to recollect the names, I find it difficult to remember. I always felt photos are sufficient to keep the memory intact. So had never thought about keeping a journal.

I don’t remember the exact moment which inspired me to start with this travelogue. I just remember that Dhruv asked me to do so after seeing my Norway pics & hearing some stories about them. In spite of my arguments about not having enough time, not knowing how to write with my Germanized English etc, as usual he convinced me for taking up this task. After starting with the blog realized that what I remember is very less compared to what has been washed away from memory. Of 38 trips across 13 countries, writing about 4-5 trips via blog posts made me feel, that’s all I remember.  At times had to use google maps again to recollect the exact place names. I have also realized that the excitement level is  normally 40% during the planning phase, 10-20% during the actual travel and rest 40% is after few months while recollecting the memories seeing photos or talking about things happened during a trip. Few places and photos in my collection really makes me feel those were just dreams. And as I try to take nature pictures mostly without people, in most of them we don’t even see ourselves which makes it feel much more like a dream. (one of the habits I am trying to change and learning to include people in my photos). One of my uncles who is retired now said me once “after 8pm, I go on world tour in youtube”. I asked what that is. He explained, as he can not travel, he visits places via videos taken by others. So, I decided to recollect as much as possible from my old trips and record down so that when I reach a stage where I can not travel or walk as much as I wish, I can at least go through these pages to console and convince myself that I have lived my life and dreams enough.

For Easter Holidays 2016 we had booked our holiday home in Herisau, near St. Gallan in  the easten part of Switzerland.
We drove via Blackforest region of Germany and visiting the famous Reinefalls in Schaffhausen.The holiday home was on a hill “Ufem Berg”.  The home was located almost at the end of the road to Ufem Berg. The animal shed was located around 400 meters from the house separated by a large grassland providing a panoramic view of Herisau region. Other side of the hill provided the view of Appenzeller region and mountain Säntis. The owners Monika & Walter were very friendly and kind. Holiday home was small & cozy with 2 bed rooms and a kitchen. Children’s room had a bunker bed. We stayed whole 2 weeks in their Holiday home which was in the 2nd floor of their own house.

Seealpsee(Schwende):

After reading about Seealpsee which is located in the Schwende region in Appenzeller land, we decided to try out our luck for hiking to Seealpsee. It was known that the road could be full of snow and it may not be possible to walk up till Seealpsee. But we wanted to try.   We drove via Hundwil, Appenzell, Schwende, Rüte, Weissbad to Wasserauen. Parked our car at Wasserauen and started walking towards Hotel Alpenrose. All the hotels in the region were mostly closed due to Easter holidays and also being offseason.

Walking further along the stream Schwendibach we reached a place where the hiking path to Seealpsee starts. The road was covered with snow and ice. I started reading the infoboard while other 3 marched little further just to show that they are trying sincerely to make my dream to visit Seealpsee true. I knew the reality that all 3 were trying to find good reasons and proofs to show me that returning to holiday home would be a better choice. Of course as expected they returned after walking 20-30 steps stating road ahead is much more steep and slippery. I was not ready to give up without inspecting myself and hence started walking up the road while they waited for me near the info board. For my luck or their bad luck, I saw a person(one with blue jacket in the below pic) walking down and asked him if the road is walkable. He said, yes. We decided to leave the small buggy which we had carried for our 4 year little one on the road side and make her walk with us. I have to thank the person with Blue Jacket for making this trip happen. 

As we walked further, the road became steeper and steeper. I got nice curses from all 3 of them “you never get better ideas, we are tired, cant walk more, how far do we need to walk further”. My answer was simple, “I am coming here for the first time too. If you want, you may sit and wait for me”.  On the way we met a lady with a dog and a jeep passed by giving us more confidence to go further. After crossing around 75% of the distance, we did not want to give up even though it seemed very very difficult with kids. One thing I could observe though, that the rest 3 complained less compared to our hikes at South Tyrol previous October. May be it was clear to them that their complaints will not be entertained, rather having a positive mindset and pushing their limits would be a better option. Also during such hikes pushing ones own physical and mental limits seems so difficult, will be left with no energy to motivate people around. Infact motivating people around takes more effort than pushing oneself beyond limits. And I should not complain about the other 3 either. They have always been very supportive and push themselves beyond their limits. But I end up setting the expectation little more than what they prepare themselves for. For kids, a sentence worked like magic. “you will get ipad for 15 minutes after reaching home”.At times, really felt we are going to give up. But giving up was not worth the effort already put.

After crossing hilly areas we reached the plateau on the mountain where restaurants and small houses started appearing.

Whole lake was covered with snow and it was not possible to distinguish where the boundaries of the lake is. We did not dare to walk beyond the stones as the snow was still fresh and did not want to sink into the lake. We stopped there for a while taking pictures and playing with snow. Once again as it always happens with 4 of us, we were alone in that whole region. It was so peaceful and serene. The snow covered mountains all around, we were imagining how beautiful it would have been if lake had water and if the reflection of mountains was there in the lake.After wishing to come back during summer, we decided to walk down to Wasserauen. Decent was bit more difficult and at times we had to walk in funny poses with legs turned towards inside to avoid slipping.

After reaching Wasserauen it was time to have hot ready to eat pasta sitting in the car trying to avoid cold. All 4 of us felt feverish at night due to exhaustion. We decided to rest the next day being at the holiday home. Some more hikes were awaiting us in the next coming days.Säntis: Even after being in Europe over 9 years, we never went on a skiing trip. Nor a winter hike. But this time region near Mountain Säntis gave an opportunity to do a small snow hiking tour from Schwagalp Säntis Bergbahn station. We were well equipped with warm jackets, shoes and gloves and tried to hike towards Kronberg. Of course we knew that we are not going to go far, rather enjoy being in snow. It was our first experience hiking on the snow and though we did not feel any exhaustion during the hike, later in the evening each muscle in the body said, “I am alive” and the pain was unbearable. Kids did try to taste the snow. On the way back, we witnessed a small snow avalanche. I was trying to take a video in one hand while shouting and informing other 3 to be careful as they were bit ahead of me. Though we tell kids not to eat snow, even I feel tempted to eat the fresh snow. Though we did not cover long distance, just walking around 3.5-4km made it feel like a long distance. Came to know that walking on snow is much different compared to walking on normal road.

Üfemberg: Each evening, during the time Monika or Walter would go to Cow shed, we would go with them and kids will play with the goats outside the shed. They will pluck grass and feed the goats. Goats were welcoming us with their 2 feet stand holding on to the fence. We did not miss this precious time not even a single day. We got fresh milk from their own produce for consumption. For the first time, I felt that the smell of the grass they feed to Cows was so fresh and fragrant, I felt like tasting them myself, though I did not. Walter and Monika told us about their work, their lifestyle and about the animals they had. Kids liked them both and used to run behind them as soon as they would start off to Cow shed. Learnt from Monika about how they store grass for Cows in big container in front of the shed and how it changes the  smells and taste of the grass compared to the fresh/dry grass. Both Monica and Walter seemed to work whole day doing something or the other in their land, sometimes cutting wood for heating in winter, or picking up the fallen tree branches and sticks to avoid damage to the grass land or caring for their animals.

One day we did visit St.Gallan city and had ice cream walking through the town. We drove a lot in the surrounding areas around Mountain Säntis crossing many small cities and villages. Gams, Nesslau, wildhaus, Sennwald, Urnäsch are few to name. We also visited Thur waterfalls near Toggenberg. We parked our car at a place by name “Unterwasser” and walked around 1km to reach the waterfalls. .We also visited Seeranbachfälle waterfalls which is located near the lake Walensee. After visiting Amden, from the place “Weesen” we took a diversion to Betliserstrasse, parked our car at restaurant Paradiesli and walked our way upto the waterfalls. The walking path to the waterfalls diverges at a point and we took the path which goes through the forest. The forest was full of plant which smells like garlic. There was a small bridge, the viewing platform for the waterfalls. While coming back, there was a board which pointed to another viewpoint. But the path leading up was very steep and I decided to go up alone. Asked others to wait at that place. Walking up for around 15-20 minutes reached the road which lead directly to the view point. The same road joined the diversion point where we took the path thro the forest. So, instead of walking down the path, I decided to take the other one to reach the other 3. As they had not imagined it would take so long for me to come back, they were really afraid and had started walking up the path which I had taken. Luckily, I could reach them before they were away from sight. Driving on Betliserstrasse was an experience on its own as the driving time for each direction is regulated as the road is so narrow and only one way traffic could be accommodated. Vehicles from one direction have to start at a particular time so that they can reach the other end. Same rule for vehicles from other direction.

Though we had been to Switzerland many times, this trip was different. We had not even heard names of the places we visited nor read much about those. But only came to know these jewels of nature after going to those regions and trying to explore more. We did not spend any money for cable cars or as an entrance fee for any tourist attractions rather enjoyed the Nature for free. Overall trip was so beautiful and overwhelming, we would like to go there again and see the same nature during different seasons of the year. Monica and Walter took a group photo of ours in their holiday home and for 2016 Christmas sent us a greeting card with a long letter about how each one of them is doing, which made us wish more to visit them again.