Tengia: Where the Grass is Greener than Green

The perfect escape from busy citylife into nature.

It’s no secret Switzerland is full of high mountains, green grass, pristine water sources, and beautiful scenery wherever your eyes go.

This is further emphasized in a quaint little village, just a two-hour car drive from Zurich. It’s a place where nature seems intact, where mushrooms grow in abundance, where sheep and goats roam free. It’s a magical place where only a small number of residents remain. It’s a perfect retreat, where those pesky work emails won’t ever reach you.

TENGIA

We were lucky to experience it in the midst of a beautiful, sunny and warm autumn season in October. We stayed in a house originally built in the 19th century and which, besides the mandatory renovations, hasn’t been tampered with.

Here are our impressions:

Good morning!

Imagine waking up in the morning and instead of hearing car horns, people and general city buzz noise, you hear sheep baaa-ing somewhere in the distance, you hear gentle belling of cowbells, you hear a light stream running outside your window, you hear leaves as they move in a gentle breeze. Ever so slightly, you can smell coffee brewing in the kitchen of the small house, you feel the warmth from a fire set up in the house’s fireplace. And you stretch and look out the window and marvel and thank that you are able to experience it. This is what our mornings looked like.

Walks in the Sunshine

Naturally, living in the midst of nature, one wants to experience it the most and discover all that it has to offer – in the form of relaxed hiking trips. So that is what we did. We packed our bags with some snacks and go to town – or rather, a mountain!

The views not only on the top but on the way were almost indescribable: quaint wooden cottages, old churches, bird’s perspective of the whole valley, mushrooms on practically every step, green hills upon green hills, clean water streams – truly a sight for sore eyes. And the best part: we didn’t even take any water with us, as the water from the streams is completely drinkable! It comes from glaciers on top of the surrounding mountains, which means it’s pure, naturally filtered, cold and super tasty.

What did we eat?

You won’t find a restaurant in such a small village, which left us with the only option – to cook. After being used to the fast and busy pace of office life, it felt more than nice to be forced to calm down, take a breather and not worry about the clock. In these modern times, most of us don’t feel like cooking when coming home in the evening, exhausted from the day of meetings and emails, it’s just so much more convenient to head into one of the numerous local restaurants. So when I say it felt nice to calm down, focus on cooking and preparing your own food, I mean it – it felt nice!

And in the evenings, didn’t we get bored?

I’m sure by now you know the answer: definite NO. One of the perks of living so remotely from any big city is the lack of light pollution; meaning, stars everywhere. However, it was unfortunately already too cold for us to stay outside, so we warmed ourselves around the house’s fireplace. Fresh fire, a little bit of wine, pristine water, books, cards, and company – that’s all we needed.

Of course, in modern times it’s difficult to avoid all of the distractions, stimuli and promises of instant gratification – that is why places like Tengia are a perfect retreat and why they should be preserved and intact from the modern city infrastructure. We, humans, were made for and with nature, so every once in a while, we need to revive this sense of connection.

Overall, to say that the grass is greener than green in Tengia would actually not be an exaggeration. Maybe in this case it is true that the grass is greener on the other side? On the side of Switzerland, that is.

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What is your favourite place where you can recuperate? Let us know in the comments below, we are always happy to hear about your experiences 🙂