Our tour wasn't until 10.15 this morning, so we had a really relaxed start to our day. Today's tour was Switzerland mountains, cheese and chocolate tour. Tom was really worried we might be doubling up on experiences, but today's was nothing like anything we'd already done. There were 13 of us on the little bus - a lovely young couple from Melbourne, another lovely young couple from Mumbai (who arrived here yesterday after three days of getting married - I admired her henna patterns on her hands and arms), a couple from Indonesia, a young couple from Hong Kong, and three people from Turkey, plus us! Our bus driver was also our tour guide. We started with a visit to the Lindt factory shop. It was just a shop, but the Lindt was soooo cheap! Say no more! We were glad that our tour guide had two large Eskies in the boot! We then moved on to the Appenzeller cheese factory - last week's cheese factory was a one man job and very rustic, this one was big, shiny and automated, with a polished audiovisual presentation in a little theatre. We looked in their shop and found the only tasteful aprons we've seen so far, but they were $50 each! Really! $50 for an apron to wear in the kitchen and get cooking stuff all over! Keep looking Colleen! The countryside was quite different to what we'd seen elsewhere. So beautifully bucolic and seemingly idyllic. Our guide explained that the Appenzell area is different to other parts of Switzerland. They farm using traditional methods, they celebrate taking the cows up and down the mountains with festivals, and they speak their own dialect. They still gather in town squares to vote on important matters by a show of hands. Women only achieved voting rights in 1994! We drove through the wonderful countryside to a modern, new-looking cable car station, to take us to a mountain we've never heard of before: Hoher Kasten. The cable car journey was very picturesque. When we reached the top, to this lovely new viewing area, it was almost deserted. No tourists but us. There were a few hikers (they do a lot of that over here in the summer). But the view!! We were looking straight out onto mountains tops, and overlooking the Rhine River valley. Standing in one spot in Switzerland we could see Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein. It was beautiful. We photographed for ages, then went inside for lunch (braised beef marinated for three days in Appenzeller beer), to a revolving restaurant! So we could continue looking at the incredible view all around us while we ate. Every mountain experience has been different! And we couldn't choose a favourite because they were so diverse. But today's was really really really awesome (tried to upload my little movies to Facebook but either fb or the wifi couldn't manage it). After the gloriousness of the summit, we returned to our little bus and drove into Appenzell itself for a guided tour and then some free time (yes, I found a cheaper and better looking apron). We left there at 6pm, arrived back into Zurich about 7.30pm and back in our room by 8pm. Awesome, but sad - our last guided tour in Switzerland. :(