Where to Switzerland - Day Eight
Leaving Zermatt was bittersweet. We listened to the town church bells ringing as we finished packing and I had my last coffee. It was just so charming of a town, but we were still excited for the next stop on our trip.
Goodbye to the gorgeous view of the Matterhorn. Back on the train we went, down from Zermatt and back to Tasch, where our rental car was waiting in the parking garage.
It was about a five and a half hour drive to our next destination, but we did have two very exciting stops along the way that I specifically made the route for so that we could visit them.
Only two hours from Tasch, we stopped at the Gelmerbahn, a mountain cable car with quite a steep incline. A lot of videos on instagram present it as this super fast rollercoaster, but it actually is SO SLOW!
After riding the Gelmerbahn up and then back down again, as is the usual, we got back in the car again to head to my favorite part of the day, driving the famous Furka Pass. We actually had to drive on the Grimselpass to get to the Gelmerbahn, so we back-tracked to get back on the main route and get to the Furka Pass, which only took about 30 minutes.
The Furka Pass is a winding, hairpin-turn mountain pass at nearly 8,000ft that you may recognize from Goldfinger, another James Bond spot! There is also the abandoned and picturesque Hotel Belvedere near the western summit of the pass that is very known in the photography and Wes Anderson-fan world. We were lucky to get to visit before the road closed for the winter season.
From the Furka Pass to our stay was another three and a half hours of driving, not including the traffic we got stuck in. There was lots of driving this day but we live for it! Plus, Switzerland is unreal; the time in the car seemed to fly by with all the sightseeing we were doing along the way.
Finally, just before darkness completely fell, we arrived at our cute little hotel/inn in the gorgeous hilly countryside of Appenzell. I wish that my German was better, even though I hadn't been practicing Swiss German specifically. We had a traditional Swiss German dinner in the hotels restaurant, before heading up to bed with a long day of hiking ahead!
It was crazy to think that we had already been there for a week at this point!
Where to (next), Meg?
