Day 3: St. Peterzell to Neuhaus

Trial By Water!

But before we get to that we just want to mention how great our stay was in St. Peterzell. Claudia even drove to pick us up after the surprising dinner at Heidi’s!

Back to this morning: Reid looked out the window and announced that there was some good news and some bad news. The good was that the view is great, and it is not raining. The bad was that we have to start the day by climbing that hill!

So after breakfast featuring three kinds of very local (Appenzell) cheese and Claudia’s homemade jams (the strawberry and rose was very good) we get after it, and aside from the gasping and heart thumping, it was ok…at least for the next hour or so.

About halfway up the first hill out of St. Peterzell, we come to an old pilgrim hostel with wonderful paintings.

On the side of the building is a sign welcoming travelers to stop and have a bath (probably few and far between in those times).

We did not feel the need, so continued on up the hill (and it was a good one).

And eventually reached the top – not really, just the end of that steep climb.

But then the rain set in.

And the weather was only fit for our web footed friends …

Today we walked for over ten hours, and at least seven of those were in the rain!

The upside to all that was that we made some new friends.

We had to cross a field with 3 cavorting young cows (and a few older ones who were more interested in grazing than us). The two most curious decided to follow us to see what we were up to and show us the way out of their field. We got a hard stare on the way out as if they were saying “Don’t come back this way, pilgrim”.

And then we met a fellow pilgrim walking from Munich, on his way to Santiago de Compostela. Hopefully we will met again along the way – Buen Camino!

Descending towards St. Gallenskappel the rain finally stops! Too late: we are soaked, “waterproof” boots and all. But we can start to see hints of the mountains to the south. Can you see them in the following pictures?

And finally we get a view of the church at St. Gallenkappel, only 1.5 km from our destination .

We pause there to get our pilgrim stamp, and then a weary mile or so on to tonight’s rest in Neuhaus. We know that there are sights to see here, but…tomorrow!