Living In A Fairy Tale In Engelberg, Switzerland

by

Mackenzie Patel

Hello World Travelers! I just returned home from a stellar two week jaunt in Europe, complete with an overdose of culture, LOTS of wine, and good-looking young men dotting the urban and rural landscapes like attractive cattle. I traveled with my mother and grandparents as this trip was my high school graduation gift—I feel so fortunate to be able to experience my heritage firsthand with my family. For two weeks, I traveled extensively throughout Germany and parts of Switzerland, learning so many new things and drinking in as much culture as I could stomach. Looking back, my time abroad was just a blur of train rides, museums, and eating amazing food every few hours with the guttural sound of German humming in the background. Simply put, I loved it, and I can’t wait to return to Europe again.

After flying into Dusseldorf and then hopping onto a connecting flight to Switzerland, a family friend drove us in his sleek Mercedes to the small, isolated Swiss town of Engelberg. With just under 4,000 citizens living in this remote stretch of breathtaking beauty, Engelberg is truly a relic of the past, mostly untainted by the scars and jewels of modernity. After whizzing past sharp rocks, treacherous bends in the road, and steep cliffs that suddenly dropped off into prickly vegetation, I understood why so few people lived in this rural community—it was so dangerous and cumbersome just to get there in the first place! Read my thrilling article about the dangerous roads I have traveled on here.  After lolling around the swiftly twisting backseat like a piece of cork in water, the car emerged from the bend and I was plopped into a fairytale, replete with cowbells, farmers, dandelions growing everywhere, and of course, the Alps hovering in the background. Engelberg is situated in a valley between steeply rising hills (which mesh into the Alps at further altitudes), and it is the most idyllic town I have ever visited. Engelberg is translated as “Angel Mountain,” and this name is derived from the fact that Engelberg is so near to heaven that the voices of angels can be heard whispering throughout the land. As someone who has witnessed the beauty of Engelberg during faultless weather (it was warm, but not scorching with sunshine and little rain), I can attest that its landscape truly is the closest to the divine and pure as I will ever get.

I stayed at the Banklialp Hotel and Restaurant, a quaint bed and breakfast nestled into the densely forested hills of the Alps. Its architecture was so wholesome and organic, as if the brown building was simply part of the earthy landscape for centuries. Having eaten at the restaurant a few times, I can say with full confidence that their food was delicious and one of the best options available not just in Engelberg, but in the whole of Switzerland. As a tip, be sure to order cheese fondue (for two to three people!) and the spargel (“white asparagus” in German) soup when it’s in season because it tastes as heavenly as the legend of the town. The view from my room was worth staying there, even if their food was terrible and only fit for the loafing cows munching away on grass all day and sending a melodic tune of cow bells up to the brilliantly blue sky. Unreality shocked my mind and perfection infiltrated my eyesight at every turn.  To the right, the Benedictine monastery and its regal bell tower served as the holy corner of Engelberg; it was built in 1120 and also served as the school for the local children. The daughter of our family friend attended primary/secondary school there and even had a monk as her math teacher! Again, so unreal but amazing nonetheless. The chapel adjacent to the monastery was stately and plain on the exterior, but was dripping with gold, expensive marble, and depictions of the divine. White paint and an appearance of architectural lace on the ceiling gave the chapel a feeling of airiness and the baroque (although it was built before that dramatic era). It was hard to imagine that real teenagers like myself attended chapel in such a spotless and holy place once a week…there is absolutely nothing like that in the United States, at least not by me. Also within the hallow walls of the monastery was a cheese factory! With cows moseying around every corner and chewing endless amounts of grass on every hill, it was no surprise that the cheese produced in the factory was all local and freshly made. There was even a “cheese master” lovingly stirring his curdled cheese while I was there, the cheese harp in his ungloved hand making little waves in the milky substance. I also wouldn’t miss paying a visit to the monastery cemetery, mostly because the view of the Alps (especially the famed Mount Titlis) is stunning and can never be replicated accurately on an iPhone picture or sketchy YouTube video. I could just imagine some alphorn player tooting away in this little slice of hilly paradise, not worrying about pollution, crime (of which the rate is virtually 0% here), or the helter-skelter of rush hour traffic. In fact, most of the streets in this sleepy town are cobble-stoned and so narrow that only one car can pass at a time. It is a place truly built for walking, as everything you could possibly need—whether it be a grocery store, a ritzy restaurant, your house, or a florist—is within walking distance. I would also recommend dining at the warm Alpen Club, a restaurant that is so old that its low brown walls and brittle tables radiate wafts of history and gemütlichkeit. I ordered beef stroganoff and, just like every other meal I had in Switzerland and Germany, it was indescribably tasty.

On my final day in this wildly picturesque and pastoral area, I took a train to Luzern and spent the morning ambling along the typically narrow and gnarled streets and sightseeing. Look out for my article about my three hour rendezvous in Luzern! The train systems in Europe, at least in Germany and Switzerland, are impeccable. Every train I took was smoking in its tracks at precisely the time the ticket said it would arrive. Although several of my trains were switched (their track numbers changed randomly and often), the right one was always bellowing exhaust somewhere in the station. After I took the train back from Luzern to Engelberg, I witnessed another event that finally disturbed the bucolic stillness in the city of Angels. A marathon, hosted by the mint brand “Fisherman’s Friend”, was taking place within the cramped valley! With around 8,000 participants, this marathon included wading through freshly turned mud, running up the hills leading to the Alps, going through an obstacle course, and navigating through a pitch black maze. What a dramatic reversal my small city of under 4,000 residents experienced in only one day! From my view up at the hotel room, the participants, many of them younger men and women from around Europe, were like little costumed ants parading up and down the hills, towers, and small streets. So much action and excitement seemed disorienting in a town that rarely had any disturbances to tear down the wall of peace at all. Exemplifying true German and Swiss order, the whole day-long event was dismantled by the next day, and tranquility once again pervaded this valley of Angels burrowed away from modernity.

Tips for visiting Engelberg

• Switzerland is expensive, so always make sure to have plenty of francs on hand.
• In order to tour the cheese factory and get a thorough explanation of the ancient practice, make sure to schedule an appointment so as not to miss the cheesy goodness!
• The drive up the mountain is very treacherous, so be careful and don’t go too “Mario Andretti” on it.