The Heidi Trail

Heidi is quite possibly the most famous Swiss child. She embodies the spirit of Swiss children with her love of nature and the mountains. Though her story is a bit dark with being orphaned at a young age, living with her grandfather in the Alps then being shipped off to other family in Germany while always yearning to go back to the mountains, she always seemed happiest in her little corner of the Alps. The author, Johanna Spyri, is said to have named the town of Maienfeld in Switzerland as Heidi's home. This village is about 40 minutes from where we live and the Heidi Trail hike through the mountains which inspired the book has been on my list since we knew we were coming over here. Despite it being so close, we've struggled to carve out the day to go hike it as it is quite high up so the mountain has a long ski season, but a short hiking season. Thankfully the stars finally aligned today with good weather, running cable cars, and no plans on our part.

As you walk the trail, there are 12 of Peter's goats who were lost for the kids to find. (Human kids -- not goat kids...) At the start of the trail everyone is given a card to stamp at each goat. If you do them in the right order, it's supposed to reveal a message from Heidi. Either we didn't do it in the right order or my German is even worse than I thought, because we have no idea what the message is.

You put the card in the goat's mouth and pull it's horns to stamp

We were supposed to stamp with the goats not kiss the goats

Regardless of our inability to complete simple tasks, we had a great time on the trail.

We did some yodeling. We walked on a "barefoot path" (I don't recommend this...ouch!). We sat in a large hand??? We chilled in hammocks in the forest. We found a playground to swing & slide on. 

The best part for me was the huge swing near the end of the trail to rest and take in all the views.