Traveling Sunday

Sunday- rain
We did a great deal of traveling today to get from the Bad Horn resort near St Gallen to Interlacken. We saw amazing countryside of green fields, some rather flat and manicured looking and others, at a 45 degree slope. The animals (cows, sheep and goats) seemed to handle the slant as if it weren’t there.



We saw apple trees loaded with fruit, squash plants that still had produce on them and raps plants, lovely yellow stalks, from which a cooking oil is made.
Some places in Switzerland the changing of the leaves was already finished, but this bit of forest was glorious.


We traveled along Lake Constance until it became one river which turned into the Rhine. We crossed the Rhine into Germany for about 10 minutes because that is the way the road went.

Some additional Switzerland facts :
Gasoline costs 10% less in Switzerland than in Germany, so many from Germany fill up across their border.
We saw a Bernina factory. I’m sure these are very good sewing machines, although I’ve never used one.
Switzerland is not a part of the EU, because that would mean a loss of autonomy for the individual who is used to voting on everything. They do have reciprocal agreements with their neighboring countries concerning border crossings.
In this part of the country, farm houses have different roof lines with a very high roof and eaves close to the ground. Think A frame, but not quite that drastic. The farmhouses seem larger because many of them have a stable/barn attached, making them look much deeper.

We stopped at the Rhinefals—a wild waterfall with a visitor center, gift shop and boats that took folks around the falls.



After another drive we came to Emmental which houses a famous cheese factory. One of the old outbuildings has old fashioned cheese producing equipment, showing how cheese was made in the mid 1700’s. Interestingly, the ceilings and door waysof this original building were really short. Kurt andI could stand up comfortably, but B and Marion couldn’t.
We moved to the modern facility which is sterile and computerized. We saw cheeses in different stages of completion. We were told that 100 kilos of good milk can produce 20 kilos of cheese.

After watching for awhile, we went to the restaurant and enjoyed cheese soup. It was thick and a little salty, but yummy. One man sitting down the table from us had a fluffy white plate full of food that looked like a pile of whipped cream. Turns out it was a meringue (pavlova). Really looked light and fluffy –not sure what was in the middle of the fluff.

After more driving, we stopped in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. We walked around a bit, saw a fancy clock tower and the shopping arcade. When our guide mentioned an arcade, all my mind could conjure up was a game arcade, but this was a very nice covered area with lots of shops—all closed because it is Sunday.

I noticed one bit of graphitti which said “Fight the Police” there has been graphitti all along, but since the words are in German, nothing caught my eye til this. On the way back to the car, Kurt bought us some roasted chestnuts which were delicious.



We drove a little farther to see a working dairy. We saw cows coming into the milking barn, being hooked up to the machinery, saw the amount of milk come into a glass vat which was connected by a pipe to the milk trailer outside. A very well run and interesting farm. I also made friends with the two barn cats.

We finally arrived at Interlacken to check into our hotel. It is a nice place which has the same name as a hotel and Casino in Mississippi. Not sure if they are connected or not.

Had a lovely supper at an unpronounceable place and are back in the room for the night.
Tomorrow the glacier—we’ll have to have double layers of clothing, especially socks .

I was sorry not to be able to go with the Thompsons and Nick to the Texas State Fair today ,but I can’t be two places at once.

Everyone have a great Monday.