Tour d'Appenzell

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Each Tuesday at 10:00 hrs. there is a guided tour of 10 important buildings and their significance to the Town of Appenzell so we decided to take it in.  We have visited the town several times but never gotten to know some of the important historical facts regarding it's founding.  It was to start at the TI office so we went there first only to learn that the tour was only in German.  The gal there did have a copy in English of the itinerary of the guide and suggested we do it ourselves so off we went.

The interior of the Catholic Church

The original centerpiece of town was the Catholic Church established in 1071 as St. Maurice. We trucked around town picking out the various buildings and reading of their significance and owners.  Some were decorated with elaborate paintings of importance to the owner, eg. herbs, hardware, and crafts such as cow-bell making.

The town hardware store

Since it started to rain heavily we ducked into a hardware store which proved to be very interesting.

Most businesses have similar signs showing their wares

 The first floor looked much like your average hardware store but when we mentioned to one of the young employees that we "Komme aus Kanada"  he showed us the door to the upstairs and motioned us up there - 2 more floors up there.  It was like stepping back in time a hundred years in some ways - modern in other ways too.

The key room - the other wall was the same

What struck me most was the racks and racks of skeleton keys hanging on plywood panels - probably enough to cover 3 sheets of plywood - every shape possible - with end view profile drawings to help in the selection of the right one.  Tacked to each panel were also sheets of bar codes presumably for the owner to scan when the right one was selected.  Most doors here use skeleton keys to lock. 

Items were grouped in neat little rooms, listed by picture and name in a plastic cover right next to the door into that room and usually with a string of bar codes attached.

The cow-bell room with every size possible

There was a room for paint, a room for wire,  a room for rope,  a room for axes, ... shovels, rakes, wood handles, forks, metal with holes in it, cow bells, leather straps, nuts/bolts/screws/washers/etc., chains, ladders, and everything was in any size you might need.

The winter shovel room

 In some rooms there was an actual work bench up there too where they repaired or made the items - like the cow-bell room with strips of leather hanging to make up whatever size you wanted.

The axe and axe handle room

We met another follow that did not speak English and we asked if this was a "familie" business–yes, it was his father who started the hardware store and before that it was some sort of textile business.

The broom room

 A very old building dating from 1857 and we are thinking that some of the upstairs floors, ceilings and rafters were probably original.

The dumb waiter with cow chains behind

Very interesting building.  The fellow took us outside in the rain and showed us the plaque on the side of the building explaining the owners and uses of the building over the last several hundred years.

By now it was raining too hard and we had lost interest in walking through town, so to the car for our own coffee and sweets that we took along.

Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein was not home - no flag flying

Then the decision to drive to the mall in Liechtenstein that we discovered in 2010.  At least there we could be dry and have a place to spend time.  It was to be a 42 minute drive, but as always, not.  It really didn’t matter, we had the rest of the day to fill in as we knew the weather was not about to change.

October in  Vaduz, Liechtenstein - the capital

We found the mall, spent 2 hours there, then decided to drive through Liechtenstein in the rain.

McD's in Vaduz for coffee break.

 We did that until we found a McDonalds, stopped and went in for coffee.  While having coffee we did notice that some of the trees along the street were turning a nice yellow and red–sorta like at home.

Over the pass on the way home - fog - yuk.

Back to the apartment about 3:30 and to journal and blog.  The rest of the day what we do, WHO KNOWS!!!