Crossing the border from Germany into Switerzland along the auto route, there is a "Toll Douane" where you have to purchase your toll road sticker for the year – approximately 40 SF. In Switzerland, you don't pay for individual auto routes as you use them. Instead, a flat annual fee gives you unlimited access. It used to be a border control, but now there are just a couple guards that issue toll road stickers. It was at this toll gate that I got given a stern lecture by one of the guards because “I might be spying on his work area” and “could face a fine of 5000 SF”. I apologized profusely and let the matter drop. I honestly didn’t think it was a border control anymore and considering that they were just issuing toll tickets, I didn’t see what the big security threat was but I wasn’t about to argue.

Our first touristic stop in Switzerland was Schaffhausen falls. These are the widest waterfalls in Europe and they are pretty impressive. Nothing compared to Niagra of course, but still quite a sight. We parked our van and took a two hour stroll around the base of the falls and up and around to the top, taking numerous pictures along the way. There was an option to catch a boat back to the starting point but since we had the time and energy, we decided to just walk back the way we’d come.

The falls were on our way to Appenzell, our base for the next few days. We wanted to see Appenzell and the surrounding area because it is supposed to have beautiful scenery and give you a better appreciation of traditional Switzerland. Megs had researched a potential campsite because it was close to the town of Appenzell and so that’s where we headed first. Along the way, we stopped at an ATM to take out some Swiss Francs (SF) since we didn’t have any on hand. I took out 500 SF to get us started and the ATM spit out only 3 bills – a 2x200, 1x100 ! Not exactly the small notes I was hoping for to pay for camping and chocolate purchases.

We came into Appenzell and saw the sign for our campsite. It took us up a really steep, narrow, windy road where barely one car could drive at a time. After about 3 km up this twisty road and still no sign of the campsite, we decided it wasn’t exactly what we’d pictured as “walking into town” – at least the walk in would be easy, but we’d be dreading the walk back! So down we came and drove on further towards Jakobsbad – it was a good thing we had looked up another campsite just outside of Gonten. Camping Jakobsbad was about 8 km outside Appenzell but only a little ways off the main road and not up a steep mountain road so that’s where we decided to stop for the night. We met the owners of the campsite just as we were driving in and luckily for us, one of them spoke English and directed us to a spot to park. It had just rained quite a bit in the area, so they requested us to put down some wooden planks and park on that. We picked a spot just opposite the barn, made a quick dinner and went to bed soon after.