I figured I should probably break up the endless array of Australia related posts. Why not Switzerland? To kick start I guess I can tell you all about my unnecessarily long trip to climb Bachtel mountain and eventually Bachtel Tower.
While staying in Hinwil, you can’t help but notice a pretty little tower sitting on top of a hill and think.. Oooh I wonder what the view is like up there. Well, we will get to that a little bit later. Bachtel mountain sits 1,115m or 3,658 feet above sea level just outside Hinwil in the canton of Zürich. For you fellow Brits, that’s higher than anything on our little island. Don’t misunderstand though, you get a pretty good head-start in climbing it just because the crazy Swiss are like übergoats; casually living halfway up a mountain.
Climbing it was great fun, but don’t make the same mistake as me and try climbing it wearing thongs (flip-flops for the majority of the world). And be prepared to either dodge or run from the few million cows that appear to rule the countryside (aka country). Here you can see where I started from, its the slightly further settlement (Hinwil).
At the top of the mountain is Bachtel Tower, and a cafe. At the top of the tower are various markers indicated which of the Swiss Alps you can see, and how tall they stand. You also get an amazing panoramic view of the surroundings, including the famous lake (which I will save for another post).
Just be careful taking pictures. There are these annoying fluffy things called clouds that are adept at appearing right as you’re about to take a picture and leaving you with something like this as a result:
Funnily enough I actually met a really cool Brazilian guy when I got to the top. So if you read this, Olá! (This picture is completely unrelated, I just felt like throwing it in here, but you can see the Alps if you look).
I mentioned the cows, and although numerous, I didn’t actually snap any until my descent. I still managed to get one though, so now you can take a look at an authentic Swiss cow! Maybe they’re a fabled mythical beast. Who knows?
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