Attinghausen, Switzerland Thursday, August 16, 2012

Leaving Vitznau

It rained hard all last night and is still raining when we get up. We have a nice breakfast of cheese, meats, and hard boiled eggs. They have a nice spread of about 7 different cheeses that you can slice off the wedge yourself. Yes, there is Swiss cheese, although it is all Swiss cheese even the Gouda. At 150 SF for the room, we take a few rolls and hunks of cheese with us. We check out and hike 2 minutes to the boat dock. Our ship arrives on time 0909 and leaves 2 minutes later.

Swiss Alps View

The rain stops shortly after we get on board but it is quite cool and my cold blooded wife needs to sit indoors, so that is what we do. I get up and walk around outside throughout the journey to take some pictures and because I am still not much good at just sitting still. I am getting a little better on this trip of just relaxing and sitting once in a while, but this is not one of those times. The clouds over the hills and mountains makes for a beautiful ride and after about an hour, we even see some blue skies.

After our two hour ride, we depart the boat in the town of Fleulen, where we can wait for a train or bus to take us to the town of Altdorf. We decide to get some conditioning in and walk the 3 miles or so to Altdorf and then from there to Attinghausen where we will take a cable car up to Brusti. We do not have directions for this but find our way to Altdorf and using my magnificent sense of direction, we find the Altdorf train station where our vague directions start. They say to go left from the station and then make a right under the tracks and a highway. Only problem is if you go left and then right, you go away from the train and highway. We figure they mean left while you are facing the train station. Who would write directions that way? There is a road sign that points left and says Attinghausen which puts us back to the original issue of it doesn’t make sense to go left and then right. I ask a nice girl for help and she confirms to go right until the underpass about 20 minutes away.

Attinghausen Below

We now find our way to Attinghausen and the Brusti cable car where there is a phone that says call and they will tell you to get in the cable car and turn it on for your journey. No one answers after several tries. The alternative is a grueling 3 hour walk 3000 feet straight up the hill. We saw in Altdorf that the ticket office at the station was closed for lunch from 1200 to 1400, so wonder if that is the case here. It is 1250 and we ponder what to do as there are no hours or anything posted. I see a man at his house up the corner and ask in German if he speaks English. He shakes his head no so I point to the cable car and in my best charades say does it run, is it open today. He looks puzzled but then says “at one”.

Cable Car Stage One

So we wait until a few minutes after one and someone answers the phone and tells us to get in the small cable car and we are on our way. Halfway up you pay and switch to a different cable car for the rest of the ride. We share this car with a nice Swiss couple visiting friends near where we are staying and hiking the same trail tomorrow as us. We learn a little about William Tell, the local hero, and the place where Switzerland was born. We had passed this place called Rutli on the boat trip and also passed a chapel dedicated to William Tell.

Where Are the Alps

Near the top of the lift we go into the clouds and get out at the station in the fog. There are about a hundred wheels of cheese, as we step off, that the local cheese maker will load on the car to bring down to town. Pretty cool. We walk a short distance on a very steep inclined trail to our guesthouse for the night. We have just walked our first steps on the Via Alpina, the long distance trail that we will be following.
Checking in, we relax, catch up on some sleep and then as some of the fog has lifted take a short walk around the area before dinner.

Dinner at Brusti

The people managing the place are out on the deck and we chat for a while before going inside to eat. We are the only ones here tonight, but the next two nights are full. We like that. The manager is from Germany but spent 8 years living in St Louis. She had her daughters there and they are both U.S. and Swiss citizens. She says the one daughter may give up her U.S. status as she has to pay both taxes in both Switzerland and the U.S. Dinner is really good, a salad and a bread dish baked with cheese and vegetables. We have a Swiss beer to wash it all down with. They had the same thing as us at a separate table.
We set up breakfast for 0730 as we want to get a decent start for our first long day so we can get the lay of the land and the average hiking time on the trail without worrying about being late for dinner at our next stop. Good night.
CNC
“Two paths diverged in the woods, and I, I took the one less traveled by” -Robert Frost

Expenses
21SF- Cable car to Brusti
13SF- 2 beers
160SF- Berggasthaus Z’Graggen with half board