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 3: Travel by train to the "Rigi" mountain, visit the peak "Kulm" & walk back to Goldau via Arth
(Map 1).
After a delicious breakfast they were ready for the "Rigi" mountain!
The "Rigi", (with the highest peak "Kulm" at 1797m a.s.l.) is a product of the alpine mountain formation. The major parts have been formed out of suspended subalpine molasses originating from huge "Nagelfluh" alluvial fans and fluvial transports. Further important elements are limestone sediments from the "Helvetic nappes" and "Flysch" (RIGI).
At the railway station (5 minutes walk from the hotel) they boarded the "Rigibahn", which is a train on rack railway and is the oldest mountain railway in Europe (will celebrate its 150 years anniversary on the 22 of Mai 2021) (RIGI). It took them approximately 45 minutes to reach the top "Kulm". In the train there was a big crowd, with tourists from all over the world who were taking pictures and "selfies".
When they reached the final station, they walked to the viewing tower of "Kulm" (Figure 12). From there they enjoyed a magnificent panoramic view. Due to its insularity, the peak provides an almost all-round view to the surrounding northern, eastern-Central and southern Swiss Alp mountain peaks, as well as different lakes, such as the Lake of Lucerne, the Lakes of "Zug" and "Lauerzersee" (RIGI).
Figure 12: View from the peak "Kulm" (1797m a.s.l.) direction to the lake of "Zug"
An hour later the group headed downhill direction to the village of Arth. To cover a distance of approximately 7.5km it took them about three hours. First, they went through a narrow path, which took them through an alpine grass area with a rich diversity of flowers.
The "Rigi" mountain harbors approximately 890 different flowering plants. Most famous is the "Rigirolle", a type of troll flower.
This rich diversity of flowering plants is a result of a combination of geological (molasses, flysch and lime stones) and climatical conditions.
During the ice age the peak of the "Rigi" remained ice-free (Nunataker) and therefore over 100 flowering plant species could survive.
The landscape of the "Rigi" is of national importance and therefore several areas are protected and under conservation order, such as, "Chestenenweid", "Gersauer Alp", "Kleinseggenriede Rohrboden"/"Riedhütten"/"Langerli" (RIGI).
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From the alpine grass area, they continued their walk passing by the "Alpkäserei Chäserenholz" and found a small pick-nick area where they decided to stop for a short lunch break.
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Then they continued their walk direction to Arth. They slowly felt the heat on their descend and they looked forward to a refreshing swim in the Lake of Zug, which they could already see on their way down (Figure 13).
Figure 13: Lake of Zug with the villages Arth, Oberarth and Goldau taken from the viewpoint "Dächli" (948 m a.s.l.)
The community of Arth consists of three villages, Arth, Oberarth and Goldau and has almost 12'000 inhabitants (ARTH). Near the harbor they found the lido, where they decided to spend the rest of the afternoon. The lido in Arth has a small beach for swimming, a big grass area for sunbathing, sports as well as a small coffee bar. It was just the right place to be.
After a couple of hours, they walked back to their hotel in Goldau. The walk back took them about 45min and they followed a path going through a steady upward slope, which was compared to the demandingly descend from the "Rigi" mountain quite easy. On their way they first past by a small monastery, then by the imposing church of Arth "St. Georg & Zeno", which is one of the most impressive churches in Switzerland of the early Baroque time (PFARRKIRCHE ARTH). Then they walked along an area where pastures and fruit plantations alternated with settlement. On their right hand side they could see again the "Rigi" mountain and on their left hand side the "Rossberg" mountain, which will be part of the program for the next day.
For dinner they went to a typical Swiss restaurant the "Gotthard", where they enjoyed a big portion of "Rösti & Spiegelei", which is made out of fried grated potatoes topped with fried eggs. It was delicious!
Back at the hotel "Rössli", Thomas gave a short info for the next day's program, which would be a walk through the track of the famous historical landslide area "Goldauer Bergsturz". The briefing was very interesting and with this it was time to retire.