You are my Everest!(minus the Thanksgiving Pants)

Hardcore hikers Tiffany and I are not. I dare to say we're both pretty thin people, but hiking an elevation difference of 800 meters (a bit over 2,600 feet), much of it steep switchbacking steps, got the best of both of us. It was an amazing experience all around. We started on the trail about 9:00ish, hiked up a bit until we hit Lake Seealpsee (see above). On the way we met many cows, one of which was extremely friendly, and took a particular liking to my feet-No doubt drawn by the lovely smell of my feet (and by lovely I of course mean rank - we're getting some bleach on those puppies A.S.A.P.-the shoes not the feet).

A note about the Swiss cows: We had just missed the yearly ritual/festival of taking the cows up the mountain to graze. We're a bit sad about that, but we enjoyed having them greet us on our hike up.

After our brief rest at the lake we continued up, at many points not able to look down without coming to a stop, otherwise becoming dizzy, and fearing we might fall off the side of the mountain. We made it to Gasthaus Aescher-Wildkirchli about 1:00 and both concurred a brief nap was in order before continuing up to the summit.

A quick moment to talk about the Gasthaus. This is a house that uses the mountain as its back wall. We got a mattress and access to a toilet and that was it. It was great!

After the nap we finished the climb up, over a scary little bridge, through a small cave, past a little church with pews and past where the cable car lets you out (which we didn't use either way). All in all we decided the view for Aescher was best so we hiked back down the 200 meter elevation and spent the rest of the evening looking at the alps from a seat on the side of an alp.

The day after we hiked up, we hiked back down to our hosts' house. Nadja and her husband Simon and their daughter Anna were great. Nadja, who in an interesting story got her face on the local train, works at a winery near by. We explored the town during the day, saw a very nice contemporary art museum and drank some of the best water out of a fountain we've ever tasted. That night we grilled out and got to meet Nadja's father. I put the meal in my top three of the trip so far.

Best part of Appenzell: Amazing Scenery / Worst Part: The Flies (supposedly Basil will keep them at bay?)