We started in Giswil on the South end of the lake, and after a pleasant walk along the canal where three rivers join to enter the lake, a slightly muddy trail led up the hill on the West side of the lake, where we had our lunch at a small chapel before continuing high above the lake and back down to Sarnen -- the capital city of Canton Obwalden -- at the North end of the lake. More specifically, we ended our excursion with a look around the beautiful Baroque parish church of Sarnen, i.e. St. Peter & St. Paul, a stunning church which has national monument status. Although most of the current construction is from the 18th century, parts of the church walls date from before the year 1000.....
An easy 13 km that took us about 3.5 hours of walking time, or a lovely 5-hour afternoon! And toward the end, we even had some sunshine...
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| Heading South by train along the East side of Lake Sarnen, we get a good look at the hillside on the other side where we'll be walking. The sunshine looked promising, but was gone by the time we got there. |
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| Two rivers join here: The clear one is the Giswileraa River coming from Lungern Lake higher up, and the other is the Laui River which is bringing more of the snowy run-off from the mountains in the West! Cool how the waters don't mix for a long time. |
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| We always enjoy walking through moor landscapes. |
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| The forest trails were muddy, but mostly only where large bulldozers were clearing the fallen trees. A lot of this forest seems to have been left to nature to break down. |
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| This is a fairly new and modern chapel, the Mattacher Chapel, where we found a bench in the entryway, where we had our lunchbreak at 13:30, quite late for us, but the first bench we found! |
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| View from the Mattacher Chapel where we had our lunch |
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| Very exciting to see all of the first early meadow flowers! |
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| And always lots of fun when the cows are out, also enjoying the fresh air! These were all fairly young and very curious! |
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| There was a very nice variety of different kinds of trails along the way. |
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| On the long descent toward the North end of the lake |
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| This old farmhouse has a particular splendid location |
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| Time for a coffee break! |
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| The view South from our bench, all the way up the valley toward the Brünig Pass |
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| We passed a couple of such man-made waterfalls. It takes a lot of work to reroute the river like this, but protects the villages below! |
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| Below is the village of Wilen (with the ever-present crane), and across the lake the village of Sachseln, and above that the birthplace (Flüeli-Ranft) of Switzerland's patron Saint: Brother Klaus |
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| Ah, finally the sun has come out, makes everything more pleasant and beautiful! |
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| Close to our destination: The city of Sarnen, capital of Canton Obwalden, and behind that Mount Stanserhorn |
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| The parish church of St.Peter & St.Paul in the oldest part of Sarnen. To its left is a small ossuary, i.e. burial place of several important people. |
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| Lovely ceiling in the Ossuary Chapel |
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| And another beautiful ceiling in the Baroque church |
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| Even more beautiful was the entry door: All lovely metal-work |
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| Detail of the fine metal artwork on the main door |
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| At the back was a larger organ, this is a smaller one at the altar. Lots of pretty pink marble detail |
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| I never get tired of all the artwork, especially on the ceilings |
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| One last look at the church before heading to the train station at Sarnen |
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| This was a long hike for us, almost 13 km, but so much variety that the time flew by |
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| On previous occasions we have walking in the Northeast side of Sarnen (i.e. Kerns, and Füeli-Ranft, to visit the hermitage and birthplace of Brother Klaus, Switzerland's Patron Saint). |
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| On the train ride back to Lucerne (This is Lake Alpnachsee), the evening turned out to be most beautiful. |
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