Rhena on the move – Part 3

From Steckborn, Eichhölzli to Mammern

I have a bit of insider information that the tourism board and the people who mapped out Route 60 probably wouldn’t want me to tell you. So, here I go. If you want to walk from Steckborn towards Mammern and Stein am Rhein you can save yourself the climb up the first hill. Do you see those bus symbols up on the hill? That’s the bus that takes you from Frauenfeld to Steckborn. You can easily cut across and back onto the route if you hop off the bus at Steckborn Eichhölzli. You also have an amazing view from up there. Just follow the edge of the forest and you’ll have rejoined the route in no time. This is especially useful when it’s really hot and if you don’t like hiking up hills.

Source: map.search.ch

Anyway, I’m amazed at how diverse this area is. I mean I was born up in the mountains and there was not much going on, nor were there many people. The area around Lake Constance is really busy. It looks to be especially popular with cyclists. Of course, I could do without them sticking their smelly feet in the water. There should be a law against this. Or, we should be allowed to do stuff to their feet. I’m cool either way.

Now, if you skip the hike up the hill from Steckborn train station, you won’t miss much really. It’s a residential area and then you hike up through the forest. What you will miss is walking past the BERNINA factory. It has a long history and tradition going back to the late 19-hundreds. For those interested in sewing or sewing machines – here’s the company history.

I’m fascinated by sewing machines. I’ve seen some discarded ones further upstream. That made me sad, but from what I hear these ones are very modern and shiny and excellent quality. Makes me wish I could wear clothes. Although some of the ones I get to see up close, I would never wear. Don’t people realize we can see them when they get in the water? Then again, I’d rather have people wearing ill-fitting horribly-colored bathing suits than nothing. So, I’ll take that back.

I kind of like that the hiking route is away from the water up in the hills. Gives me more time to enjoy floating along and also to just look up into the hills and daydream. That forest looks amazing. I mean we get trees down here too and sometimes we tickle their roots. Oh, I should not have told you that. Could you forget I said that, please? Anyway, the trees are our friends. We provide them with water – essentially giving away parts of ourselves and they provide us with oxygen and let us rest in the shade. It’s a pretty symbiotic relationship. Remind me to tell you why I don’t like beavers later on. I mean, they kill my friends!

I can now see a castle way up high. It’s basically just ruins at this point, I guess. The castle was originally built in the 13^th century and the watchtower was used to look out over the water and keep an eye on the trade that was conducted on the lake. That makes sense to me. I mean somebody had to keep the peace and make sure there was no illegal activity. What doesn’t make sense to me is that they were only looking at the boats and the people and not at how beautiful we look from way up high - we are making an effort here! But I guess that’s how it is.  

Overview map so you remember where we are. Source: Google Maps.

If you time this stage right and are tired from all those hills you can catch a train from Mammern or you can even hop on a boat – at least in summer. Oh, I would so love to take you on a boat ride. How fun would that be?! I’ll be back soon. In the meantime, check out Evelyne’s video.

Notes:

BERNINA – a history (I picked the US as a country to get this in English; other English-speaking countries are available)

YouTube videos