Wildkirchli, Berggasthaus Aescher, Switzerland

Hotel – Wildkirchli, Berggasthaus Aescher

Category – Activity, Adventure, Off the beaten track.

Address –Ebenalp 1, 9057 Wasserauen, Switzerland.

Room Type we stayed in – We only went for a meal but you can choose to stay. It’s a dormitory so you share the room.

Experience – I can’t stress enough how amazing this is! Anyone who loves trekking, walking or have adventure corner in their heart. This should be on your Bucket list. Visit to Aescher will leave you speechless.

This is a Restaurant cum Hotel where you can enjoy local beer/drinks and Swiss local Rosti. I had Rosti with salad whereas Akhil had Rosti with Pork Steak. It’s absolutely delicious. You can also stay here over night but we went for surroundings and experience so we decided to enjoy the meal, capture moments and return same evening.

We got the cable car at 1800hrs (last departure). The moment we entered Ebenalp station to buy cable car tickets for Wildkirchli, the station guy looked at us and his first question was, “Sorry which shoes are you going to wear”? Akhil was wearing Converse trainers and I had Hunter boots! He he. I ran back to the car, changed my shoes from hunters to “Scarpa” and obviously I impressed the station guy whereas Akhil decided to stick to his Converse (This happens when you spend too much time in US ;-)) Station guy is not very impressed with Akhil’ s shoes but any how we are now in cable car. Took us 10 minutes and we are at the Wildkirchli station. You still walk for 5/10mins before you get to the restaurant. You also cross few caves which are amazing indeed. BUT let me tell you that 5/10 minute walk is going to be one of the most memorable walk of your life. You will end up spending lot of time on top of the hill capturing pictures. You have to force yourself to keep walking. If it is a sunny day then consider yourself to be the lucky person, we sure were 🙂

Lovely people, Delicious Rosti, Great laugh and you see people getting drunk with the schnapps. We enjoyed our meal and decided to walk back around 7.45 PM. It has started getting dark and we still had 1hr 30mins walk back to the town where our car is parked.

Real Adventure – Yes, it’s not finished yet. Trek back was not that easy as we thought. So we started trekking back after our meal talking how amazing day we had, lovely food and were patting ourselves that well done, Bucket list done 🙂

So after 15mins of trek, we realised that we have no clue which directions to follow. We got to one point where you see the signs but there were signs for different village but nowhere for Wasserauen. We were supposed to follow signs for Wasserauen. We started following our own way and realised after 40 mins we are in the middle of woods. These woods are quiet horrifying (at least for me who cannot even watch one horror movie) its dark, we are in the woods and alone. Luckily we had torch with us which was also going to die in any minute. Akhil was finding it quiet amazing and was enjoying his adventures but I was scared and horrified all the time. All of a sudden I see few rabbits crossing and noises coming from the woods. I was absolutely scared and forced Akhil to go back to the restaurant or I am leaving him. You know this is the kind of warning Husband take seriously 🙂

So we started walking back. In total we did 30 mins trek down and now we are doing 45 mins trek back to the Aescher retaurant. Phew!!! We are out of the dark thick woods and heading towards the mountain and suddenly we see two torch lights somewhere from far end. We started walking towards those lights and found amazing local couple who were heading down to Wasserauen after enjoying their meal at Aescher too. I took deep breath and was so glad to have found them. They were very sweet and we got the company and started walking together down to the village. What we realise then, we are crossing same signs where we could not find Wasserauen written and then local German lady explained us that sign (something written in German) was not a name of the village but means walking trail in German. So basically we were on right track BUT with our zero German knowledge we realised how we got lost for no reason. Now we all walking down to the Wasserauen village. After 40 mins walk, it started raining heavily. Now comes the role of shoes. Hahaha! Remember converse trainers versus Scarpa! Yes never do the mistake of wearing trainers to Aescher. You must have proper trekking shoes if you are in Switzerland. By the time we reached at the Wasserauen station, we were drenched. Our DSLR, shoes, clothes were fully soaked in BUT what an adventure over all. This experience made our Aescher visit even more memorable and we had great laugh in the car on our way back. Experience which will live in our heart forever.

Driving Instructions – Please use Wasserauen in your satnav. This takes you to the main parking of Ebenalp. This is where you catch cable car which takes you from Ebenalp to Wildkirchli. One way ticket is EUR 20.00 per person. Last cable car is at 1800hrs from Ebenalp and from Wildkirchli. Lot of people hike up to Aescher. Its good 1.45 mins hike up and 1 hour on way back. As we were running out of time, we took the last cable car and decided to walk back to Ebenalp instead.

Overall you have to go there. This is a MUST experience and will leave you speechless.

Near By Attractions – Plenty of car free villages around to visit. Zurich is nearly 100kms if you are looking for closest international airport.

Applause Moment – We had 4G network on top of the mountains and in cable cars, Cool eh!

P.S. Don’t miss reading our amazing adventure of getting lost in the wild on our way down from the hill top.