mein erstes wochenende

so i have survived my first weekend in appenzell ausserrhoden! on saturday lori and jon picked up whitney, karen and i to take us to this little ridge area above tuefen to take a walk and have an amazing lunch with not too shabby of a view... the place was like a mini farm, with animals everywhere. inside the restaurant there was a room that was all windows so you could look in and see this massive pig who had just given birth to a bunch of piglets.. they were sooo adorable! my favorite was the baby goat though, with his mini little horns.

mountain from the restaurant view

baby goat

city of gais from afar

today (sunday) karen took me to appenzell. we split a schnitzlebrot (schnitzle, lettuce, onion, a sauce on fresh baked chiabattaish bread) and took the wanderweg (hiking trail) out into the fields.. it was gorgeous! i am going to have a ridiculous collection of photos of the one mountain by the time i leave here, the camera just cannot capture how magnificent it is! the coolest part about the walk was the assortment of people out, especially on a nice day like today. there were newborn babies in strollers all the way to grandparents who were in way better shape than i am! once we got to appenzell she showed me around a bit, there is an awesome metal works shop that was closed (great bells there sam!) and we got some gelato and sat in the sun by one of the fountains. then we went to the cheese stop next door and got these buckets of yogurt with fresh fruit in them... i got cherry. i can't wait to devour it! after more walking we decided on taking the train back to gais. the festival is still going strong, and we went to get a bratwurst and spied another type of sausagey looking item called a schüblig. the vendor told us it was a local brat and famous so we went ahead and had one each. i am so full it was fantastic! then after catching up with sam and mary, karen and i met whitney at the gais festival. unfortunately the bumper cars were almost out of use, but karen won a rose at the shooting hall and loaded up on sweets! overall it was a very good first weekend!

beauty queen cow!

covered bridge on the walk