Hike from Andelfingen to Rheinau!

Goodbye Andelfingen

Lovely village of Marthalen

Oh hello there!

Alessio, Noah and Halloween

View of Kloster Rheinau

Autumn Colours

During the school holidays in October Alessio and myself went to Andelfingen to meet Aimee and Noah to go on a hike together. The hike started in Andelfingen and we would take us to the Monastery at Rheinu, it should take 3.5hours and is 13.5km.

Once we left Andelfingen we continued walking along the river Thur shore, crossing over a bridge and eventually climbing steep steps into the forest. We reached the lovely village of Marthalen with lots of wonderful houses from the 17th and 18th centuries which are all protected. We walked through the village and came upon some goats and a lovely black cat which then proceeded to follow us on our journey. We also saw unexpectedly a bunch of llamas, hidden away in a shed munching on their food. Our walk continued through more bits of forest and the black cat was still accompanying us, the boys had decided to name him Halloween. Aimee and myself were a little afraid the cat would not know its way back and we would have to take it back. But lo and behold he suddenly stopped following us, he must have know his boundries.

Finally we saw in the distance the maginficent Rheinau Monastery which is situated on a little island on the Rhine. The Benedictine Monastery was founded in 778, in 1184 a Roman Basilica was consecrated and to this day it remains one of the most significant religious buildings in Switzerland. It certainly is amazing to see from near or afar. It is well worth a visit, there was lots of renovations going on inside though and the gardens were also lovely to walk around.

We then went into the village of Rheinau and stopped for drinks and the kids could play a bit. We continued on to get our train at Altenburg-Rheinau only to discover that the station was closed so we had to walk on to Jestetten which is in Germany. It was the last thing we wanted to do and the kids were not at all happy about this extra walking which added about 30mins to our hike.

It was a lovely walk and we saw lots of great scenery, I think the whole walk took nearly 5 hours in the end! We were all happy to get home that evening!