After a quick stroll through Appenzell, and a stop at the toy store to pick up a belt for Noah, the baptism boy, we headed over to Eichberg.
This little house is covering the water fountain Papa and his siblings used to stop and get a drink at before tackling the big hill on the way home from school. We have a picture of just Chris and I in this same spot on our honeymoon. Fun to come back with all the kids so many years later. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to the fountain. You aren’t allowed to drink the water anymore, I guess it isn’t safe. 🙁 
Right behind the fountain were some funny sheep. 
They came running down the hill toward us, I guess they thought we had food? Anyway, they were all bleating very loudly at us, which just cracked us up. Then I bleated back, and we had a conversation. 🙂
Eichberg itself is pretty small. There isn’t really anything to do there. So we drove past the old house, stopped at the restaurant on the top of the hill to admire the view, and then headed over to the Hoher Kasten.
Back when Chris was a kid, they always took visitors up the cable car to the top of this mountain and then hiked back down. Our kids may have been up for that sort of thing, but there wasn’t time. So we rode the car both ways, courtesy of Grandpa Jean. Thank you for the tickets, Grandpa!
Some of the kids had expressed some concern about the ride up the cable car before we got there. But it wasn’t nearly as scary as they had feared, and the views were amazing. Grandpa kept moving around to snap photos out of every different window.
We saw two white cats in the field going up, and one of them was still there on the way back down! Watching them helped the kids calm down quite a bit, and just enjoy the ride.
When we got to the top, our party broke up. The older generations went to the restaurant to enjoy the views and have a bite to eat. We headed around to the back side of the mountain and had a picnic lunch.
It was a very happy, relaxed atmosphere, and there was much giggling. In fact, at one point, Nick’s drink went flying out his nose he was laughing so hard, which only cracked us up even more. I am sure the man sleeping on the bench nearby found it slightly annoying, but we were just having fun and creating memories. And then when the man woke up and walked away we started laughing again because it turns out he was a she!
Sophie did need a bit of help going down the path to our picnic spot, the path was just a bit steep for her. But we all made it and were able to enjoy the view.
Wouldn’t it be fun to hike to that lake and go swimming on a hot summer day?
And since it’s Switzerland, you have to see the crazy cows grazing on the steep mountain slopes. 
If they can walk up there, I know our kids could make it! But how do they not fall off? Crazy.
We left the others on the mountain since they were going to visit either the chocolate or cheese factory, both of which we have seen lots of times. We just wanted to get home. But by the car park, we did see this fun, crazy statue.
It always fascinates me how things like this don’t just fall over.