Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
Day 2: Walk through the famous "Rothenthurm Hochmoor" nature reserve & travel by train to Goldau (Map 1).
The group woke up to a bright sunshine and were ready at 08:00 for breakfast. A delicious buffet was served. At 09:00 they met in the lobby.
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They headed to the railway station of Einsiedeln to check-in their luggage to Arth-Goldau, then started their walk direction to Rothenthurm via Biberbrugg. The time planned to overcome a distance of approximately 17km was about 4 hours.
Figure 6: View from the hiking track between Einsiedeln and Biberbrugg
They first followed a smooth flat trail through pastures and farmland. In that area many farmhouses were beautifully decorated with pots of hanging geraniums at their windows. A herd of cows was peacefully grazing in the fields. Their passage went through a high plateau, so they had a clear view of the Central Swiss Alps (Figure 6). On the farms a number of dogs surrounded by their puppies, were playing in the courtyard. Beatrice, who was a dog lover, instinctively approached one of the puppies to pat him. Suddenly the mother dog jumped in her direction and gave her a loud bark. Beatrice drew back as fast as she could and they continued their walk further to the railway station of Biberbrugg.
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From Biberbrugg they followed the bog path, which took them through the high valley of the "Biber" river up to Rothenthurm. The hiking path went first through a dense coniferous forest then along the river flow of the "Biber" (Figure 7). In the forest they found a pleasant pick nick place equipped with all facilities for grilling and swimming, where they decided to have a break (Figure 8).
Figure 7: Hiking track along the "Biber" river
Figure 8: Picknick place along the "Biber" river
Later on they continued their hiking heading to the famous "Rothenthurmer Hochmoor" (Figure 9). The "Rothenthurmer Hochmoor" is with over 1100ha one of the largest moorlands in Switzerland. It provides a large biodiversity (Figure 10) with important habitats for rare plant and animal species. The landscape of the "Rothenthurmer Hochmoor" has been shaped during the last glacial period and characterizes a high valley with glacial deposits (moraines), drumlins and compacted clayed soils on which swamps were formed.
After adoption of the "Rothenthurm-Initiative" in the year 1987, this moorland became the first protected moorland in Switzerland (ROTHENTHURMER HOCHMOOR).
Figure 9: The moorlands of Rothenthurm
Figure 10: Dactylorhiza maculata orchid growing in the moorlands of Rothenthurm
They went through a diverse and adventurous path consisting of several gravel and mud roads. The existing small wooden bridges made their walk easier. The peaceful and quiet environment was overwhelming. They admired the varied vegetation, which was mainly formed out of meadows and wetlands. Among others, there were woody plants, light forests formed by a mixture of mountain pine and spruce trees as well as some rare plant species, such as orchids (Figure 10), all added to this fantastic vegetation.
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In Rothenthurm they headed to the charming café "Turm" and took a break. Then they boarded the Voralpen-Express to Arth-Goldau. Shortly after the village of Sattel the train passed by a hamlet with a chapel. Tobias, who was interested in unusual locality names, looked at the place-name sign, which read "Ecce Homo" (ECCE HOMO) and was curious to know more about it. He then goggled in his Smartphone and got so involved that he almost missed the spectacular landscape of the Central Swiss Alps, the "Rigi" mountain
(Figure 11) and the "Lauerzersee" lake.
Figure 11: The Voralpen-Express between Rothenthurm and Arth-Goldau with the "Rigi" mountain on the left
When they arrived at Arth-Goldau they picked up their luggage and headed to their overnight lodge, the hotel "Rössli", just opposite the church of Goldau and close to the railway station. It was a pretty old house, rebuild in 1812 after the historical landslide event "Goldauer Bergsturz" in 1806 (HOTEL RÖSSLI).
After a short rest they met in the lobby at 6 o'clock and went to the "La Piazza" restaurant for dinner. The meal was delicious and they enjoyed the view to the "Rigi" mountain, which they planned to visit the next day.