A walk in the NW corner of Switzerland: Gempen Tower and a Roman Temple

Sunday April 25, 2021 -- Sometimes we take hiking suggestions out of a magazine we subscribe to, and there was a description of a farm near the city of Basel where 1200 cherry trees (some over 150 years old) blossom like huge fields of snow. The hiking suggestion included a look-out tower and a fortress ruins, and there was the promise of good weather in this northwest corner of Switzerland, where we otherwise rarely go.

So we made our way to Gempen in Canton Solothurn, and the first shock we got was when we changed from the train to the bus in the city of Dornach: The bus was jam-packed full and had to leave some people behind! We should have realized that any excursion near a major city means that all those city people seek out their own countryside! Luckily it was only a 15-minute bus ride. Most of the people got off where we did, and I was a bit worried that they all wanted to go up the Gempen tower, but we waited till the crowd dispersed, and as it turns out, you had to pay 1 SFr. to go up the tower, which meant we were basically alone up there!

The view from this 28m-high metal tower on the cliffs called Schartenflue is almost 360 degrees, stretching from the Black Forest to the North, over the city of Basel, into France to the West, and apparently to the Alps in the South, but those were not visible due to the hazy air....

Next stop was the cherry orchard, a big disappointment as the vantage point afforded little view of the trees, which were either already finished blooming (highly likely) or whose blossoms had turned brown due to the recent cold spells we had. Third point of interest -- the old Schauenburg ruins...were also disappointing: Overgrown with weeds, and lots of people up there making smoky campfires. Apparently the original fortress (1275) was destroyed in the Basel earthquake of 1356, and in the past 100 years constantly dug around in by treasure hunters.

Next point of interest: A viewpoint high up on top of the next set of cliffs called Schauenflue was worth a detour. Fantastic view, and the remains of what was apparently a temple built by the Romans who also thought the view was worthy. From this vantage point we spied another fortress ruins, which we also walked to, but could not visit as it is currently undergoing restoration.

Somewhere along the way we crossed over from Canton Solothurn to Canton Baselland, and even though the end-city of Frenkendorf didn't have much to offer, the landscape otherwise was pretty, especially in the forests where the various spring greens are a pleasure to look at.

In the Nortwest part of Switzerland, the houses and churches (Protestant instead of Catholic) are totally different again than what we normally encounter. It is a pleasure to travel through Switzerland and see all these different styles.

Many of the buildings consisted of the farmhouse with adjoining stables. In the meantime, the stable sections have often been renovated into living quarters

A 30-minute walk from the bus stop in Gempen along the trail no.32 "Via Surprise" takes us to the Gempen Tower at the top of the Schartenflue cliffs, and to the popular restaurant of the same name.

The 32m-high Gempen Tower. We were afraid there would be many people on it, but the people were more interested in the newly-opened restaurant terrace

View from the Schartenflue cliffs westward toward Dornach from where we came up by bus. Interesting fact: Here where we stand is in a small northern "finger" of Canton Solothurn, which includes the small community of Dornach below. All around to the West, North and East are the communities of Canton Baselland, which form a kind of megalopolis with the city of Basel Stadt.

There are five levels of spiral staircase that we have to climb to get to the top viewing platform on the Gempen Tower

The spiral staircase was very narrow!

The view from the top of the tower toward the communities in Baselland, Basel City, France, and the Black Forest in Germany

Below us is a farm called "Im Baumgarten" (in the Tree Garden) with some flowering cherry trees. But even from here you can see they are more "brown" than "white".

A motorcycle group showed up, because the winding streets up to here are fun to drive. People are glad that the restaurant terraces are finally open

The motorcycle group were standing very close to the edge of the vertical drop!

It cost 1 SFr. to go up the tower (luckily we had a couple of those coins!). The turnstyle "cage" was also quite narrow, even I had a problem squeezing through, let alone Urs who is much bigger!

From the Gempen Tower, the next goal is "Stollenhäuser", where we expect to see 1200 cherry trees in bloom

We started our 3-hour and 11-km hike in Gempen, walked to the tower in Schartenflue, then to the fortress ruins at Alt Schauenburg (via the cherry orchard at Stollenhäuser), and then on to Frenkendorf.

The cherry orchard at Stollenhäuser was a bit of a disappointment, because the land slopes downhill and from this vantage point you don't see a lot of the supposedly 1200 trees, some of which are over 150 years old. Either the blossoms are practically over (highly likely) or they are damaged by the many frosts we had this spring.

What I mostly love about walking in the forests at this time of year is the lush green floor covering of bear garlic. And it smells so good! These will totally disappear back into the ground in a few weeks

I love the dark green of the bear garlic, and the pale greens of the newly-emerged leaves in the beech forests.

Walking through the beech forests in spring means we get lots of sunlight. Along this stretch we have crossed from Canton Solothurn to Canton Baselland. 

This is the ruins of the fortress "Alt Schauenburg", an archeological monument of Canton Baselland. Built in 1275, it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1356 and further plundered by "treasure hunters" in the last century.

A quick look around the ruins of Alt Schauenburg. We didn't stay long because there were quite a lot of people up here making a camp-fire for a Sunday barbeque.

From the fortress ruins, a view to the lovely rolling hills of Canton Baselland in the East, all the way to the Aargau

I got a kick out of this: Generally, on high mountain tops there is a box with a "guest book" in it that you can sign that you have scaled the mountain successfully! I usually expect this on peaks or crossings over 1500m. This one is 666m high and did not require a lot of exertion to get to!

At the look-out point on the Schauenburgflue, the Romans had apparently built a temple, of which these walls are the remains. 

Sitting on the wall of an old Roman temple (!) with a view of the ruins of the fortress Neu Schauenburg below

After descending from the Schauenburgflue, we took a little detour to the ruins of "Neu Schauenburg" but were disappointed that there was no access due to restoration efforts. It is privately-owned anyway, so probably no access allowed. This fortress was built in the 12th Century and also destroyed in the earthquake of 1356, but later rebuilt and then abandoned.

Heading back to the trail from our detour we get to see where we had been up there on the Schauenburgflue where the Roman Temple once stood. 

Last stretch toward Frenkendorf heading East. This view, though, is to the North, across the city of Pratteln to the Rhine River and Kaiser Augst, an original Roman settlement. Beyond that is Germany.

As we head East, we admire these very pretty farms with flowering cherry trees. This hillside is in Canton Baselland, and on the other side is Canton Solothurn.

A very pretty field of buttercups!

Here in Frenkendorf we're taking the train back home again. There is a very small "old part" of town to walk through.

An interesting octagonal fountain

Here are some undamaged cherry blossoms

A cute small street in the "main square"

Our excursion for the day mapped out on Google Maps. 

And then, on the way home via Luzern we had some very nice views out of the train window as well:

High-growth fruit trees along Lake Sempachersee

Another nice look at Mt. Pilatus from the lesser-recognized side

Clear view of the Central Alps South of Luzern

This is the NW corner of the country where we did this day's hike. 

Along the "Emme Riverbank Trail" from Flühli to Schüpfheim and Escholzmatt

Saturday April 24, 2021 -- Keeping it close to home again, we traveled to the Entlebuch this time, which is a UNESCO-designated biosphere encompassing 39,000 hectares of farms, peat bogs, karst geography, and wild rivers west of Luzern. This region is nicknamed the "Wild West" of Luzern.

In one of the valleys here called the "Waldemmental", the Waldemme River has its source on the flanks of Mt. Brienzer Rothorn, and flows north past the popular vacation town of Sörenberg, joining the "Wissemme" river near Schüpfheim, and continuing as the "Kleine Emme" (or "Small Emme" -- as opposed to the "real" Emme river which gives its name to the Emmental region) to flow into the Reuss River near Lucerne. All along these various "Emme" rivers are walking trails, in particular one such trail called the "Emmenuferweg" or "Emme Riverbank Trail". 

A year ago almost at this exact time, I walked a section of this trail starting in Sörenberg and ending in Flühli. 

(That blog entry can be found HERE)

It now seemed like a good idea to continue this trail, starting in Flühli (which by the way is the birthplace of glass manufacturing here in Switzerland: The early glass craftsmen came from Germany in 1723, and basically decimated the forests around here in their need for wood for their furnaces) and heading out of the valley at the top of a ravine formed by the Waldemme River.

Generally, the "Emmenuferweg" trail continues along the Kleine Emme River north past Schüpfheim to Wolhusen, but we turned west and followed the Wisse Emme tributary all the way to Escholzmatt. The train line between Luzern and Bern runs along this stretch, and we have traveled through here many times. It is a nice change to look at the area from outside the train. 

Aside of a monotonous 2.5-km stretch along this canal, the rest of total 16-km stretch we did this day was enjoyable... 

We started at the church in Flühli at shortly before 11 a.m.. This is a view to the south, to Mt. Brienzer Rothorn, where the source of the Waldemme River is. We're heading away from the mountains, northwards.

The sign says 2 hours to Schüpfheim (although it would have been more). Too short for us, so we decided to walk to Escholzmatt, although the trail we took was a different one, so 20 minutes less than indicated. The "Emmenuferweg" is Trail no.527

Following the Waldemme River, here's another look South to the mountains, which actually form the border with Canton Bern.

At first I thought cows were grazing on this hillside, but a closer look showed four deer, which was quite a surprise as this is close to a busy road. The traffic didn't seem to bother them.

These young deer were just shedding their winter coats. We observed them for a long time before this one noticed us and ran off to his mama.

Usually walks along a river are boring for me, but the trails here and the landscape were very nice. 

Another look up the Waldemme Valley to Mt. Brienzer Rothorn

Walking along the Waldemme River in the Entlebuch region of Canton Luzern.

One of the particularities of the Entlebuch region are these stretches of karst massifs called "Flue". This one is called Schwandiliflue

An interesting pothole created by the river shortly before it drops into the ravine

VIDEO:

The Waldemme River getting "wilder" as it heads into the ravine

We just crossed the "wild" part of the Waldemme River as it descends into the ravine. Now looking for a good place to have lunch!

One of many farms in this region

We came 1 hour 10 minutes to here, and it would be another 1 hour 25 minutes to Schüpfheim, so definitely longer than the two hours claimed in Flühli! Trail no.527 is the "Emmenuferweg" or "Emme Riverbank Trail

After a picnic lunch, we resumed walking along the ravine, and got a glimpse once in a while to the river below. 

We often see collections of old tools mounted on the side of the barns. This farmer also won many prizes for his cows and goats.

Out of the ravine now, and we're headed down to the river again on the left, but first a visit to a dairy shop, the white house in the middle. I said to Urs: "If they have Sörenberg Cheese, let's get some of that!"

It turns out the Sörenberg cheese (which is specific to this valley) was on special, so Urs bought a big chunk

The sign says "Specialty Cheeses of the Entlebuch". We bought Sörenberger and Sbrinz. Should have tried the "Entlebucher" as well. 

Here at the wooden bridge, the Waldemme River heads North, but we're going West now. Two more hours till Escholzmatt (having come just over two hours down the valley). 

Cool building!

Here is where the "Wisse Emme" (or "White Emme") River joins the Waldemme River. In the background is the town of Schüpfheim.

The first 2.5 kilometers along the Wisse Emme River were a bit monotonous, as it is obviously "manmade" here and totally straight.... After that the river's course was more of a meandering, which is much more interesting

At least there were interesting farms to look at, and once in a while the local train (BLS-Line: "Bern-Lötschtal-Simplon") would pass by. Actually, we have traveled with this train through this landscape DOZENS of times, so it gives a new perspective to have walked in the region

VIDEO:
Cows are now finally in the pastures

Shortly before the end of our hike we had a small uphill section, which then gave us the first view of the peaks and massifs to our South, since starting in the Waldemme Valley. (Not sure if this is the Schrattenflue, or Hohgant Massif)

Some more Entlebuch landscape

A particularly nice building that caught our eye.

A look at Escholzmatt before our descent to the train station.

And another look South. If I'm not wrong, that U-shaped saddle is the passage into the Justiz Valley and Lake Thun in Canton Bern, also something we would want to do...

It was a long hike after all! 16 km! There are no buses between Schüpfheim and Escholzmatt, so we basically were committed, once we headed West.