Swiss Bliss

For our wedding present, Anette’s friend Julia invited us to Switzerland to stay at her family’s Alpine cabin in the Appenzell region, close to the German border. The morning after seeing Love Never Dies here in London, we woke up at 3:30am to catch a flight into Zurich airport - a sleek, Bauhaus-inspired building - where we were met by Julia, who accompanied us on the short train ride to her hometown of Winterthur.

On our first day we took a pleasant bike ride through town to the river, where we spent hours lying about and chatting in the refreshing shallows, enchanted by the sunshine, the leafy patterns among the tall trees guarding the riverbank, and the smooth stones of the riverbed.

We got to know Julia's parents, lovely people who don't have cell phones and don't drive cars, choosing instead to take time for life's slower pleasures, like preparing the most delightful fresh yoghurt mix for the whole family every morning, filled with fruits, nuts, grains and berries. Spiritual and physical health are cherished in their household, values that were clear to us despite our lack of understanding of Swiss German. We shared many a laugh as Julia's parents tried out their English and Anette strove to refresh her German while we both made forays into the local dialect. With their blessing the four of us (including Julia's boyfriend Ben) departed the next morning for the family cabin.

A scenic train ride took us to the town of Urnasch, where we stocked up on supplies for our four-day stay at the cabin, built in the 1950s by Julia’s grandfather, a carpenter. From Urnasch it is a steep hour-long climb to get to the cabin at 1500m, surrounded by snow-capped, cloud-ringed bergs that reach as high as 2700m.

Although the clouds and the quick-changing Alpine weather foiled our attempt to climb the highest peak, we had wonderful long walks every day, following the Wanderweg through farmers’ fields and forests, down into lush valleys and up again onto high ridges covered in wildflowers. In the grand Swiss tradition, mountain huts await the hungry hiker on most every scenic summit, where we partook gladly of the hospitality and the local cheeses, bread, salami.

The famous Swiss cows, brown, grey and white, were ever-present on our walks, their rustic bells clinking and jangling with every curious footstep. In the Appenzell, as all over the Swiss countryside, one can walk up to any dairy barn and buy fresh milk for less than a dollar per liter, a treat that we indulged in as often as possible. At night, as deep blue dusk enveloped the valleys, we sat out on the porch of the cabin and listened to the sounds of the cows' bells from valleys near and far, an ancient and natural symphony on long-play over the centuries.

We concluded our trip with a visit to Luzern, a beautiful old city with ornately decorated buildings (including paintings on the undersides of the eaves) and a covered wooden bridge from the 14th century that was sadly ruined by fire in 1993, but has been well restored. From Luzern we took a 100-year old steam-powered river paddler (a la Mark Twain) around Lake Luzern, which looks in places the fjords of Western Norway. All in all, our time in Switzerland was a much-needed break from workaday life in London, and we are grateful to Julia, Ben and the Weilenmanns for making us feel so at home.