Welcome to Toggenburg, the land of circular rainbows! Or semi-circular to be precise. I'm sure as a wanderer you have heard of circular rainbows (if not seen them), they form between your eyes and Sun, and not on the other side like in a normal rainbow. Usually it's hard to witness circular rainbows but as you see Toggenburg is infamous for it's rainbows. Beside Leichtenstein, in the Eastern Switzerland and in between to Mt. Säntis and Churfirsten massif exists this heavenly place (to understand the names, please go through my previous travelogues).
There is a direct way to reach here from Zürich, however while I was staying at Konstanz in Germany, it was easier for me to arrive here via Leichtenstein. In that way, I also saw a new country in all together, isn't that cool? I came to this place twice and both time were amazed with out-of-the-world experience atop. I first saw this place when I visited Mt. Säntis atop in winter, the Churfirsten range kind of beckoned me and then next Autumn I could easily see that one can go atop the Saw-tooth wavy structure of Churfirsten. So I googled and found out a cable-car going atop and was patiently waiting for a time when I can grab the view from there, which already were looking to be very lucrative. Unfortunately I had too many work & couldn't make it before the winter (sad), however the winter beauty was more dramatic and breathtaking that I feel now, it was a blessing.
I started from Konstanz with the Ostschweiz tageskarte to come to Rorschach in Austria via Romanshorn by the banks of Lake Konstanz (damn, I crossed four countries that I count now- Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Leichtenstein). From Rorschach, a beautiful mountain train picked me to Buchs, a station by the banks of river Rhein and Leichtenstein. I could see the Hoher Kasten range and snow-capped giant walls all over, clanged with clouds. I went twice to this place by the same route, while I absolutely loved my journey. I had a double-dekker bus that goes via the Wildhaus-pass to WIldhaus, my first days destination. Actually what happened was I aimed for the topmost mountain, which is called Chäserreugg but only after reaching the base (Unterwasser Post), I could find that the lifts are closed! It's pretty surprising while there were no such notifications with the Swiss railway counter people, neither anything written in the mountain-sport website. Apparently they were upgrading the system for the winter-skii season to start in next month (I went there in October end). Alas, while coming back, I found a similarly trapped group of ladies from Zürich who were heading towards another mountain by their car and offered me a ride without even asking (Swiss people are really generous about their visitors). The group consisted of three persons with varied age group and mixed profession, from medical surgeon to a University professor to even a kindergarten teacher. We headed to Wildhaus and from there took the cableway to Alp Gamplüt. This is a nice station up in the northern ridge of Mt. Säntis, and because of the fresh snow, it was quite good to walk and have some snowfun up in there. We also ate in the local cafeteria, though usually I avoid such meals due to heavy cost of Swiss food. From Alp Gamplüt we hiked down to Wildhaus - what fun to walk on the first snow in Alps. While the day was more or less over, we went all together for a hot chocolate finally before to part ways. It was quite fascinating to get acquainted with this ladies, unfortunately I lost all contacts to reach out to them (hope someday we meet again in Toggenburg). The trip was not unsurprising, while I witnessed the circular rainbow in this trip!
In the next trip around February, I was lucky to have mountain lifts open and from Unterwasser post I started with the Iltiosbahn to the next station Iltios. Its the last place where the mountain train can go, from where I took again the cable car to reach Chäserreugg - the top of Toggenburg. Again pardon me for not been able to describe, the beauty is something I cannot write in words. I thought I have roamed enough in Switzerland but mountains alway comes with a surprise! From Iltios itself I was seeing that clouds were flying in flocks in real time like a movie. When I reached there, I was stunned!!! Its kind of a knife edge, the other side of the ridge is Walensee, Flumserberg etc. From here, the Säntis Altmann massif was clearly visible. A few paragliding students were initiating their flights. Decided that I'll go for the walk, I took the round circuit in Rosenweg. The journey was more than an awesome, it was like a miniature version of me going through a smoked kettley and the smoke is cold! The shades, the peeping sunlight, the snow, the massif, the cowbell ringings, what a lovely moment I had back then. From the last point I could see the Walensee Lake down, also the Heidiland where I had made many summer hikes. I came back all alone to the summit station and roamed to the other edge of Churfirsten. Finally I came down to Iltios, roamed around in the snow and then back to Unterwasser. I still had to wait for the bus so I roamed at the small uphills and neighbourhood and finally bed good bye to the setting sun to come back home. I think I particularly liked this place very very well and hope to go again, perhaps in summer, to meet again with the beauty of unexplored Switzerland. A bit of warning, you might feel strain if you don't speak German while it's not a popular destination for non-Swiss travelers. The pros is, the nature can be got in a nascent form - free of irritating tourists. Happy travelling to Toggenburg :)