🇨🇭 The coolest school run ever?!

Today’s adventure took us across the Hostalde Suspension Bridge to the Hängebrügg-Beizli – 153 metres long and hanging 38 metres above the Engstlige river. 😳

But the story behind it makes it even better. A couple, Martin and Karin Wäfler, lived on the isolated side of the Engstlige, where the crossing was originally an old, precarious wooden footbridge called the Blambbi-Stäg. When Martin slipped on the steep path while carrying their newborn son Nils, it brought home just how dangerous the route was. Karin is quoted as saying that Nils would eventually have had to use that route to go to school and that this was simply unthinkable.

So they approached the local cableway/bridge builder Theo Lauber of Swissrope, who designed the new suspension bridge. It was deliberately made wide enough for a pushchair and for two people to pass one another, and incorporated damping to reduce the bridge's movement. Construction began in October 2006, with help from friends, sponsors and donors, and it officially opened in April 2007.

And here's the really cool bit: their children genuinely did subsequently use it as part of their everyday school journey to reach the school bus on the other side. Their younger sister Vera later did the same.

Meanwhile, Oscar absolutely smashed this one! ❤️ After being pretty nervous on some of the other suspension bridges we’ve crossed, he was SO much more confident today and nowhere near as scared. 🥰

Quite incredible to think that what felt like another Swiss adventure to us was simply the journey to school for the children who lived here!
And obviously… having a little restaurant waiting on the other side didn’t hurt either! 😂Læs mere