Day of tours

To lake Constance—
More facts about Switzerland—50% of church going people are Protestant, 40% Catholic and the others are Jewish, Muslim, etc.
Swiss people voted against having minarets in their country. Another of their initiatives on which they vote. This vote upset their European neighbors fearing reprisals.
Their army is like our National Guard. Service is compulsory for men of a certain age—they go to training camp, for 5 months but after that their service is 3 weeks per year until the age of 35.
Many cattle here do not have horns, having been burned off at birth.
Diesel fuel prices vary, but one pump showed $1.91 per liter.
The state (country?) pays for all burial and or cremation for every citizen.


We stopped on our travels to buy stamps for post cards. The ones we got had 2 men’s pictures on them. Henri Durant (founder of the Red Cross) and Gustave Moyner, who was a member of the organizing committee of the Red Cross, but who ousted the founder over control and power issues. Our Guide mentioned that it was strange to haave the two men on the same stamp. He recommended a book MEMORIES ON SOLFRIENO as a good book about Durant and his Red Cross. By the way stamps to send postcards to the USA were $1.90 each.

Again, driving through the countryside, we see green fields, animals and lots of trees. Some of the fields seem to be straight up and down.



Our private tour at the Maestrani chocolate factory was set for 10:30 and we arrived in plenty of time. Our guide met us at the entrance with baskets of wrapped chocolates of all different types to be tasted. I suppose anytime is the right time for a taste of chocolate. Sadly, no photos were allowed in the factory, so I can’t show you the process, but needless to say it was interesting.
This factory has 150 employees and produces 4,000 tons of chocolate per year.
Their varieties of products are chocolate sticks which sell the most—milk chocolate with white coating, “ladybugs”, bees, organic chocolate bars, and regular chocolate bars with flavorings or plain. They produce milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark choc. We were told about the difference in ingredients that are mixed to produce each. My favorite was the chocolate banana. I at first thought they were dipping bananas in choc and shipping them and that sounded really disgusting. But the reality is that they use a banana powder and the final preduct is like banana flavored marshmallow covered w/ choc. And yes, they are good, not disgusting at all.

The Swiss eat the most choc. per person of any country in the world—11.7 kilos per person per year. Second being Germany at 11.4 kilos
As part of the tour we were given the opportunity to see and experience cocoa beans, cocoa powder and choc solid, before it is processed. And all are bitter. It is the processing and mixing that make the choc. that we buy. Approx 50 cocoa beans are used for one choc. bar. Today (mid-Oct) they were producing chocolate Easter Eggs, having already done all their chocolate for Christmas sales.

No liquid is used to clean the machinery in the factory, only pressurized air and paper. Whatever choc is declared “waste”, (much is remelted if it is still “clean”) it is fed to pigs.
The employees must wear uniforms with no pockets supplied by the factory- washed every day- and also are prohibited from using nail polish and from having piercings.

After visiting the museum (and tasting and tasting and tasting) we had lunch—just soup/ and salad.

The textile museum is the only place that has been a disappointment so far. I think we were expecting a working textile mill that produced embroidery, but instead it was strictly a museum of various fabrics (some very strange) and embroidery. Our guide explained well, but we were not particularly impressed. We did learn that St Gallen at one time, produced ½ of the world’s embroidery. Machine embroidery ( like a hand driven loom) has been done since 1100 AD. We did see the princess Eugenie of France’s dress which took 36 women over 1 and a half years to embroider. They have a swatch of fabric (from St Gallen) from Mrs. Obama's inaugural dress
We saw a strange knitted tunic thing which was one woman’s “travel diary” of her trek through the mountains—she changed colors of thread depending on the altitude at which she climbed.

After this muserm, we checked into our hotel whose name is "Bad Horn". It is right on Lake Constance and has a lovely view of the water, even though we did not spend much time there.


As we walked through the lobby we encountered a mirror with an unusual suggestion etched into it.


After getting settled in our hotel, our guide Kurt delivered us to Otto Anderau’s house. That will be the next story.