2 Days in Northern Switzerland!

A café built into a cliff high in the Swiss Alps, named “Most Beautiful Restaurant view” but National Geographic? SIGN ME THE HECK UP!

This was what attracted me to Switzerland! Besides the gorgeous terrain obviously. The restaurant is called Berggasthaus Aescher-Wildkirchli and I have had it on my life bucket list since college! Never thought I would get the chance to see it, and now here we are!

So, are you thinking about going to Switzerland? FREAKING DO IT! It is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. I love everything about it. And I only spent 2 days there with my hubs. So here is what we did!

Day 1:

Drove from Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany (post about that to come) down to Switzerland.

We specifically wanted to go to the café on the cliff first! It will say it’s located in Appenzell Switzerland but more specifically, it is located in Weissbad, Switzerland. Which is a very small farmers community outside of Appenzell with tons of cows wearing bells and the most AMAZING landscapes I have ever seen!

You must drive to the end of the road in Weissbad, Switzerland. Which sounds like “WTF is she talking about? What road”.

Well there is only one main road and it will take you all the way down to a dead end where the mountains become too intense to cross by car. There you will see a bright red lift that will take you up the mountain. OR you can climb the mountain but trust me, from experience…IT IS INTENSE!

So once you take the lift up the mountain, which is an amazing ride up, with views that will knock you to your knees, you will find a map which will guide you to the cliff side restaurant, Berggasthaus Aescher-Wildkirchli. This is the most amazing place I have ever been! If you expect fabulous food and a lavish menu, re-frame your mind. This is a place with traditional comfort foods and a limited menu which I love even more. You are here for the views and the atmosphere, not the food.

During your walk to the restaurant you will see views like this….

You will get to walk through this amazing cave…

And see a 300 year old church site…

We enjoyed a simple meal, chatting over wine and enjoying these heavenly views as the sun set into the Swiss mountains! It was so incredible and the trip would not have been the same without it!

As the sun went down, we soaked in as much of the view as possible before catching the last tram right back down the mountain.

Since I had not booked our hotel ahead of time for this leg of the trip, we were sort of in a rush to find a place before dark. So we drove into Appenzell where there is more of a town and a large selection of hotels. We stayed in a nice hotel downtown that had a great little bar and pool. I can’t remember the name because my hubs booked it! But if I could make any suggestions, I would say to find a simple guest house in the Mountains! Totally worth it, even if you have to hike!

Day 2:

Explored the Town of Appenzell and Hiked up a Mountain!

We decided that day two would be spent walking the town of Appenzell and enjoying the sites that the mountains had to offer.

We still had jet lag so we slept in until 9:30am. We decided to just grab coffee and wait to eat a meal at lunch. We drove to downtown Appenzell and walked the cobblestone streets. This town is so cute and had the best food ever!

We stopped at a little cheese shop on the corner of the square called "Chaslade" and enjoyed a tiny snack of assorted cheeses while we people watched in front of a fountain.

We walked through the shops for a few hours and then ate one of the best lunches I have ever had in my life. The restaurant was called “Bistro Appetito”. You must get the Greek salad, you must eat the bread and you must get a pizza! I literally could have eaten 5 baskets of the bread no lie. I have never had a better bread in my life! Everything was homemade and fresh!

We then had an ice cream, and after all of those calories we decided to go walk it off.

Here comes the best part!

Hubs told me “Kelcie, we can do anything, but after hiking the last 3 days, I refuse to hike up any more mountains”. I laughed and said, “me too hubs, lets not hike, instead let’s go check out this guest house I have been wanting to visit! It says its only a 10 minute walk and we will be there”. JOKES ON ME! 10 minutes my butt!

We began our journey to the guest house called Berggasthaus Forelle. It was a paved trail where no cars were allowed. Mind you, I was wearing yoga pants and a cute top, my hubs was wearing FLIP FLOPS and shorts and a button up fishing shirt! We did NOT have any water because, again we were expecting it to be a quick trip up and back down. We left everything in the car except our passports, phones and wallet.

We were about 30mins in the hike and the terrain got STEEP! We were the only fools who were not wearing hiking gear. Hubs tells me “Kelcie, did we make a wrong turn? This thing better be close, I told you I didn’t want to hike”. I explained that it had to be close and that we probably only have a little bit more. 2 hours later, we were literally about to die! I am not even being dramatic, we had been hiking for 2 hours up the steepest climb I have ever been on, with NO water and the wrong clothes on! It was really tough, Kenny and I almost just went back down to the bottom because we were SO exhausted. But I told him, “I literally cannot make it all the way down without water! We have got to find water”.

So we hiked about 12 more minutes, and like a beaming ray of sunshine with a pot of gold under it, there was the Berggasthaus Forelle! We were BEYOND relieved to see it! We walked in, bought 3 liters of water, got THE LAST ROOM available for the night and crashed out for the afternoon.

We woke up at 6 pm, and laughed hysterically about the adventure and the fact that we had no clothes to change into, no chargers, nothing! And it was FABULOUS! Simple living was incredible.

We had the most amazing dinner ever in the hotel restaurant. It was fresh fish, caught from the lake with the most amazing sides, dessert and coffee.

While we were eating dinner, A HUGE storm blew in, so many of the hikers took refuge in the hotel restaurant. It was such a communal place where everyone seemed to know each other and just embraced the storm.

One of my favorite things was that the restaurant hours are “open when the first person arrives until the last one leaves” which I love.

Our Room!

We woke up the next morning to the sound of cow bells, people yodeling to call the cows in and the most magical view. Let me just show you the pictures!

We ate a simple breakfast, I enjoyed a latte and we descended down the mountain to discover our next adventure in Europe!

LOLOLOLOL HE would kill me if he knew I put this on here!!!! LMAO!

To Conclude...

Switzerland was magical, I would recommend it to anyone and I will make it a point to come back one day! Are you planning to go? Let me know and I would be happy to talk through more details when you begin to plan!