Unterwalden-Route

Rudenz Castle once protected Giswil, today it is the reed meadows on the shallow lake that are protected. The baroque pilgrimage church in Sachseln holds the bones of St Niklaus von der Flüe. Mountain slopes busy with dairy farming, green meadows dotted with brown farmhouses with steep baroque gable roofs and narrow roofing over the windows.

Bewitching Kernwald, a wild, boulder-strewn forest, separates the two half-cantons of Obwalden and Nidwalden. In Stans, the Winkelried memorial on the village square is a reminder of heroic Swiss deeds. The Rosenburg, once residence, granary and salt store, is the most impressive building in Nidwalden’s still peaceful main town. An ancient funicular railway scales the Stanserhorn.

The Engelberg valley begins gently, a railway purring up along the Aa. In Wolfenschiessen the 400-year-old Höchhus with many windows and projecting verandas - a true showpiece of a Central Switzerland mansion. The railway needs large cogwheels to master the Schwändiloch to Engelberg, cyclists need rather smaller ones. Engelberg, once a small, autonomous papal state, now a lively holiday village.