The Girls Tour Italy: Day 4 Switzerland

Today was supposed to be warm and 27 so I headed out for more hiking. My plan was to go out to the wine region and I had found a hiking route on the tourism website to do. It was supposed to start in Schaffhausen but for the life of me I couldn't find the starting point. Also it was cold and foggy and I seriously considered going back and changing into pants.
Eventually I found what I thought looked like the right direction and had the right route number. It led me up into the hills and suburbs of Schaffhausen. By the time I got to the outskirts of Schaffhausen the sun had come out and it was turning out to be a nice day.

I ended up walking in the forest and then popped out above the village of Merishausen according to the sign. This was unfortunate because it wasn't on my route. Luckily I had a map and it was written on the map. Less helpfully was that all the destinations that were on the sign weren't on my map. So I decided to walk in the direction of the village.

While on the way I noticed another sign that indicated a walking trail in brown. I followed that for a few minutes but felt like I was doubling back so abandoned that plan and went to the village. Once in the village there were numerous yellow walking signs but all places indicated weren't on the route that I wanted. So I went through the map and found another walking route that involved Merishausen and decided to go with that. It was mapped about in green and there was another route in the same area in brown. Reevaluating the signs there were ones indicating a brown trail and a green one. So I thought I'll just follow that and see where it takes me. So I followed it above the village and around some fields and some cows and then realised I was actually walking in circles. Oh good grief I was unhappy! The green signs were actually for a nature walk for the region (everything written in German so took me ages to figure out), sigh so in spite of walking for hours in what was now a very hot day when you are hiking (we hit the 27 degree by now)I had gotten absolutely nowhere.

So I found a yellow sign (back on the walking trial) that said Beggingen only one hour away. It was past lunchtime so I thought walk there, have some food and re plan. So I headed in that direction. And it was uphill for a long long time. Eventually I reached the top and it was a bloody mountain!! 890m high!! Who doesn't right that on a sign!!

So at the top I was totally deserving of food so rewarded myself with a le snack and apricots. It took me an hour and half to get to the top and I was think what is with these crazy Swiss that leap up mountains in no time but on reassessment of signs it turns out it was 2 hours to Beggingen, oh sigh.

Luckily for me what goes up must come down so I got to go down hill through a forest. When I came out of the forest I was overlooking the valley and the village of Beggingen. Firstly... ohhh wow talk about beautiful! It was covered fields, all different colours, perfectly set out and so incredibly Swiss. It actually made the walk so worth it (mind you this is at the point after I got off the mountain).

I walked into the village which was very peaceful and immediately found the nearest pub complete with toilet and large beer! After a rest I felt that I could keep going. So off I went again.

Now beer and 6 hours of walking will cloud your judgement somewhat because it never occurred to me that once leaving a village in a valley that you climbed a mountain to get to, that would have to climb another mountain to get away from it. Sigh and so I ended up climbing up a mountain again thankfully not as steep as the previous one. I was almost to the top when I came to an intersection with no signs. Not a single flipping sign and 4 possible directions in which to take. I walked along for about 5 minutes to see if there was a sign further along but no joy.

Now I don't know if you have been lost up a mountain in the middle of Switzerland by yourself at about 4 in afternoon having walked all day and and having an overactive imagination, but it is not a good time. I started thinking of all the things that could possibly go wrong (mostly incredibly unlikely ones, like being killed by a bear), so I decided to back track to the village. This was sensible because by the time I got down to the village again it was already 5. So I got a bus back to Schaffhausen in absolute relief.

Once home and having had a fabulous shower I took myself out to dinner, to a slow cook Swiss restaurant and had rosti (like a potato pancake) which made it all worthwhile. And I slept very well that night!!

My well earned beer!