Experience rivers, knights and a great youth hostel in beautiful rural surroundings

Sum­mer is here – it’s June and the tem­per­a­tures are high. I am explor­ing the small town of Brugg in the beau­ti­ful can­ton of Aar­gau and test­ing out some of regions’ sum­mer high­lights. The Schlössli Altenburg Youth Hos­tel in Brugg is locat­ed close to the beau­ti­ful Riv­er Aare and is the per­fect place to enjoy plen­ty of rest and relax­ation in stun­ning green sur­round­ings. A relaxed youth hos­tel with excel­lent eco­log­i­cal cre­den­tials.

It’s time to get back to our youth hos­tel tour of dis­cov­ery. The first hos­tel is the Schlössli Altenburg in Brugg. You may not have heard very much about Brugg. The town is locat­ed in a spe­cial place in the can­ton of Aar­gau where the Aare, Lim­mat and Reuss rivers con­verge. When I arrive at the youth hos­tel, the first thing I notice is the large, ver­dant gar­den and the bed sheets that are being dried out­side in the sun.

I meet Saba, the hos­tel man­ag­er, and she tells me that the hos­tel hangs every­thing out to dry. They have no need for a tum­ble dry­er at all. Wow! That’s a lot of work when you have to change 50 beds! But Saba doesn’t seem to mind. She also explains that she makes home­made syrups and jam from the boun­ties of the elder tree and fruit from the gar­den. Jara is respon­si­ble for the kitchen. Jara and Saba run the youth hos­tel by them­selves. I am impressed by the efforts of these strong women and the great atmos­phere that per­me­ates the Brugg Youth Hos­tel.

Active fun by the river

The Schlössli foun­tain bab­bles next to me as I enjoy my break­fast which includes the deli­cious home­made jam. Last night I was by the riv­er, only a two-minute walk from the hos­tel. There is a nice place with tables and bench­es to relax. One par­tic­u­lar high­light is the hang­ing vines, where you can swing into the water like Tarzan and Jane. Today, I make the most of the cool, ear­ly hours of the morn­ing and set off to admire the moat­ed cas­tle from all angles. I have decid­ed to do the two-hour bridge walk and will be walk­ing along the Reuss, the Lim­mat and the Aare rivers for a few kilo­me­tres.

Brugg’s long-distance hiking hotspot

Although you might not expect it, Brugg is a well-known hik­ing town. It is where the long-dis­tance Jura High Trail (Jura Höhenweg)passes through. This is total­ly my thing. I rec­om­mend the youth hos­tel as a place to stay. The Jura High Trail starts in Diels­dorf and ends in Nyon. It con­nects Zurich to the final des­ti­na­tion just before Gene­va. You arrive in Brugg at the end of the first day of the trail. I set out on this hike in 2018 and I would still rec­om­mend this hike to long-dis­tance hik­ers – even the dai­ly down­pours of rain did­n’t spoil the expe­ri­ence.

Today I’m on the panoram­ic Bridges Trail (Brück­en-Panora­maweg). It only takes 2 hours at a leisure­ly pace. The walk is shady and I enjoy the many oppor­tu­ni­ties to cool down in the water.

A final tip: On the way, I occa­sion­al­ly see signs bear­ing images of knights and stat­ues and I start to google. Appar­ent­ly, there is also an excit­ing legionnaire’s trail through Brugg. I don’t have time to do any oth­er activ­i­ties, but Aar­gau Muse­um is def­i­nite­ly a great place to vis­it if you’re a fan of medieval his­to­ry: Muse­um Aar­gau Roman Adven­ture Park