Wadlstrumpf: Rorschach to Lauterbrunnen - Day 6

Thursday July 3, Obersee to Richisau

As we had come to expect from the previous few days, rain was in the forecast for the afternoon--but now anticipated earlier and in larger quantities. We rose at 6am, and instead of waiting an hour and a half for breakfast, we left a note and our key at the front desk and skedaddled on our way, hoping to beat the downpour.

In exchange for that early start, we were rewarded with beautiful early morning light...

Given how un-Swiss hypotenuses seemed to be, the trail often aimed straight upward, then continued more-or-less flatly along a constant elevation. In the photo below, we've just emerged from a steep rocky uphill climb into a meadow, about to enjoy some less-steep to flat hiking. We had also just emerged from a drizzle into sunlight, with more clouds building up ahead...

Wild orchid

That little shiny spot bottom center is the
Obersee. The Churfirtsen are top right.

Our pass for the day was the Längeneggpass. Much of the hike navigated around cows and involved hiking up and through a rocky creek.

The view from the pass was expansive--what a vast, green, wildflower-rich place.

From there, we hiked steadily downhill...

Sorta Nebelmeer? Clouds rounding the bend from the unseen Klöntalersee

...and downhill some more. Note the switchbacks in the gravel road.

Eventually, we arrived in Richisau, where either natural horns are not allowed, or Postbuses are not supposed to toot their horns:

Hitchhiking is formalized here:

We stayed at the Gasthaus Richisau, our first hotel splurge. I'm usually pretty good at finding cheap hotels, but this was the only place in town; indeed, the Gasthaus and the bus stop were the town. The Rules of Walking would have permitted hopping on a bus here and staying in e.g. Glarus, in the valley below, but that thought hadn't crossed my mind when we were arranging accommodations.

Certainly by Swiss standards (and comparable to chain hotels in big cities in the U.S.), this wasn't actually all that expensive: if you want to shell out a really exorbitant amount of money for a single overnight stay, Switzerland is more than happy to oblige (as is, I suppose, the U.S.). But the general lesson is that point-to-point hiking in Switzerland is noticeably more expensive than in Germany. As in Germany, in theory you aren't supposed to camp along the trails, except in too-few-and-far-between campgrounds, although some hikers do carry tents and sleeping bags. But the real money sink is in food. Affordable if purchased in stores, it can be as or more expensive than hotel rooms if you eat in restaurants. We knew this going in, but sticker prices were still routinely shocking.

Nonetheless, after 6 days of hiking, Richisau was a delightful indulgence. They were hosting a group of school kids from Zürich, and we surprised them by arriving early to beat that rain, a confluence that somehow ended up in us receiving an unrequested room upgrade.

Daily laundry

At lunch, they teased us for being vegetarians: "See that meadow full of grass and flowers? Those are vegetables. The cows eat that, so when you eat cows, you are eating vegetables." Nonetheless, they offered off-menu (did they even have a menu? we never saw one) vegetarian concoctions for both lunch and dinner that were among the best meals of our trip.

The Gasthaus was built by a foundation whose founder was an art collector, so rooms and hallways offered visual interest.

Rain arrived during lunch and threatened to continue through the afternoon, so we availed ourselves of the bus stop across the road and visited Glarus. Note the natural horn adorning the side of the Postbus.

Post buses are famous for their "Dü-Da-Do" Dreiklanghorns horns, which you can listen to on their website. These were helpful for us the following week as our route overlapped with roads approaching more popular trails near Grindelwald.

The bus route took us down past the Klöntalersee...

...and into Glarus, where we wandered around for a couple hours.

We felt a certain obligation to take advantage of the proximity, as alums of the University of Wisconsin. Madison is a mere 28 miles northeast of New Glarus, WI. Every summer since 1941, New Glarus has hosted a Wilhelm Tell Festival that includes outdoor performances based on Schiller's play, complete with live horses and cows in grassy meadows. 30 years ago, when we were grad students, some performances were in English, and some in German. Ca. 1996, S and I attended a performance in German, and it was clear that some of the lines had been memorized by rote rather than by understanding. We have joked about this ever since, thrusting a lackadaisical fist in the air and muttering in monotone, "Das Land ist frei, das Land ist frei." And now, 29 years later, here we were in old Glarus, where das Land was indeed frei.

Obligatory organ photo. Due to the heat wave, the church
was offering visitors free bottled water and a space to cool off.

We hopped back on a bus and rode past the Klöntalersee again, this time in sunshine...

...and back up to Richisau. Our host had recommended a side hike to see "the most beautiful view south of Norway," looking from Richisau down to the lake.