Aug.1 – A new Year

 

 OK not a new calendar year, nor a new fiscal year, but a New Year all the same!

Today Switzerland celebrates 731 years since it was founded.

 

Falling as it does this year on a Monday, means that a lot of people – or rather the few who weren’t already gone on summer holidays – took a long weekend. I, for once, am in town.

But am planning on a very low-key celebration, on my own as simply too hot these days to enjoy crowds and/or bonfires. Not that the latter will take place due to the extreme dryness of the whole country. Many cities and communities are getting creative and I have even heard that there are drone displays mimicking fireworks. Such inventiveness.

 

It’s also a personal milestone as I have been a Swiss citizen for 15 years now, but always felt patriotic on the day having lived in the country for almost 50 years. I enjoy the four national languages although my Romantsch is rather lacking and it depends upon the dialect of Swiss German being spoken: for some reason I do best understanding those from Lucerne – go figure. I love the mountains, the culture, the diversity. Switzerland is not only a land that emigrated, but also a land of immigrants. There are occasionally clashes, but on the whole a country that can function in spite of, or perhaps thanks to, its diversity is a great one to live in.

The Federal Charter from early August 1291 is Switzerland's oldest constitutional document. In this ancient pact, the valley communities of Central Switzerland, Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden pledged to help each other resist any threat of violence or injustice. Foreign judges were not to be tolerated, while the existing power balance remained intact.  

Summary of the Latin text

“For the common good and proper establishment of peace, the following rules are agreed :

1. In view of the troubled circumstances of this time, the people and communities of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden promise to assist each other by every means possible against one and all who may inflict on them violence or injustice within their valleys and without.
2. Each community shall help the other with every counsel and favour and at its own expense in the event of any assault on persons or goods within and without the valleys and to this end have sworn a solemn oath to uphold this agreement in confirmation and renewal of a more ancient accord.
3. Every man shall continue to serve his overlord to the best of his abilities.
4. The office of judge may not be obtained for any price and may only be exercised by those who are natives or resident with us.
5. Any dispute amongst the Confederates shall be settled by the most prudent amongst us, whose decision shall be defended by all.
6. Those who commit murder shall themselves be put to death. A murderer who flees may never return. Those who protect him shall themselves be banished from the valley until they are recalled by the Confederates.
7. Those who maliciously injure others by fire shall lose their rights as fellow countrymen, and anyone who protects and defends such an evil-doer shall be held liable for the damage done.
8. Any man who robs a Confederate or injures him in any way shall be held liable to the extent of his property in the valleys.
9. The property of debtors or sureties may only be seized with the permission of a judge
10. Every man shall obey his judge and must if need be indicate the judge in the valley before whom he must appear.
11. Any man who rebels against a verdict and thereby injures a Confederate shall be compelled by all other Confederates to make good the damage done.
12. War or discord amongst the Confederates shall be settled by an arbiter and if any party fails to accept the decision or fails to make good the damage, the Confederates are bound to defend the other party.
13. These rules for the common good shall endure forever.

Done with the seals of the three aforementioned communities and valleys at the beginning of August 1291.”

Anyone wishing to can look up the history behind the Federal Pact although it was adopted as the beginning of Switzerland only in the 19^th century can follow this link:

https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/federal-council/history-of-the-federal-council/federal-charter-of-1291.html

 

Utterly or Udderly?

I came back to Switzerland a long, long time ago, but it’s really my sister who loves cows.

I love the mountains, the lakes, the folklore (including cows), the paper cutting and in general most everything – so much so that I actually took the nationality.

But cows, they are something typical and somehow sacred to Swiss folklore. So many things from cows, including the cheeses for the national dishes of fondue or raclette, never mind the very-sought-after Gruyères cheese.

Once a year there is an exhibition “Swissexpo” concerning only cows. For the past 17 years it was held in Lausanne, but due to the obsolescence of the exhibition grounds there and the lack of good access, this year the International (yes, there were some 200 cows from outside of Switzerland!) fair for cows “Swissexpo” was held in Geneva.

I saw all 1’000 cows, admired them being groomed for show and duly noted all the agricultural supplies, equipment, etc. on show.  German seemed to be the main language and interestingly enough there were as many young women taking care of them as young men. I noticed that the girls seemed to work slightly harder as well so it will be interesting to see in a few years time a farm or group of cows owned and cared for only by women.

Although I didn’t take too many pictures, there were many a scene that I wouldn’t have thought of, not being a farmer myself: the dash to put a pail under the tail anytime a cow decided to produce a leak or more; the forking over of fresh hay constantly; the attention given to hair cutting (or whatever one calls it if it is an animal – not shearing as they weren’t taking all the hair off), the waxing of the udders to make them stand out more, the precise braiding or fancy cutting of the tails, etc. Truly a fascinating industry when seen close up.

One also forgets that on top of nature’s “calls” that the milk cows need to be milked.

udderly attached

 And of course there were specimens of the next generation to admire.

All in all a few hours well spent!

utterly adorable

Train to somewhere…

Train to nowhere – travelling for me is often simply going with the flow. And that can be metaphorically or physically given that we certainly have enough rivers and lakes.

I bought myself 20 “day” cards on the Swiss train system for my birthday last year and am really enjoying the joys of “getting up and going” when the mood hits.

Last Saturday I finally made it to Basel (have been saying that I would for several months now, but something – or rather several someones – more interesting came up and I never managed.)

Dame Helvetia overlooking the Rhine in Basel

View of the alps from above the Bern train station Jan 11, 2020

Tuesday I accompanied my younger son on the day out, which I had given him as a Christmas present: a gloriously sunny day, we left at 8 a.m. and returned at 8 p.m. having spent only about 2 and a half hours on foot in all that time. So beautiful that we kept doing loops. Original goal – Lucerne – where I showed him some of the sites and where we ate in Tibits, the new vegetarian restaurant chain that has taken over most of the major train stations. It was so lovely that instead of back-tracking we did a loop to Interlaken so managed to see many of the famous mountain peaks all in one day. Were happily tired but still had a last bite in our local restaurant to round off the day.

Welcome to Lucerne

The old wooden bridge in Lucerne

The lakes on the loop from Lucerne to Interlaken

The same view of the alps from above the Bern train station Jan 14, 2020

Snow day in Switzerland…

It could be worse.

Oh yes, it was back a couple of days ago when the temperatures were 8.5°C just outside my kitchen window. But who would have thought that snow would stop everything in Switzerland?!!!

Now I do remember that back when I first arrived in Switzerland - just across the border in France – winters were “normal”, ie it did snow and sometimes the snow actually stayed for days or weeks on the ground throughout the winter.

Those times have changed and this year’s winter has been a hodge-podge of spring, summer, and finally winter (ok if you call Siberian cold and -8 +C “winter”).

Now, and again for once as the weathermen predicted, it is the first day of the meteological “spring” so of course it snowed. Now only did it snow – remember this was predicted – it snowed enough (again predicted) to totally wreck chaos in the public transportation system.  Even the airport was shut this morning.  We have had so many warm winters the past 20 years that busses no longer have snow tires or chains and when as was the case this time the snow goes down on frozen solid ground, streets become skating rinks and busses and cars the fun (for those not employing them) of the bumper cars that one finds in amusement parks.

Believe me it is a lot less amusing in real life, but the snow is beautiful, I was warned so set the alarm early enough to walk to my first appointment if necessary. But managed with the car - just slow.

However, later in the day (much later and I expected things to be clear!) I had to go into town for another meeting - total chaos. Apparently in the city of Geneva they no longer salt the streets. That being said I didn't see a snowplow of any sorts and the busiest cross streets were the worst with either lumps of frozen snow hard enough to pierce a tire or slush so bad that one couldn't get through. My return to the countryside was a delight as here our local departments did salt, did plow and the streets were actually better than in town. I mean really!

Will enjoy the pristine white at least until tonight when it is supposed to rain.

From my balcony this morning

The front drive once I shoveled out the gate

Looking through the side window

One of the reasons that I live where I do or…

Where else but in Switzerland is the bureaucracy sometimes really on the ball.

This is probably a record that can’t be beaten: last night, and yes it was a Sunday night on top of it, I decided to tackle some of those administrative tasks that have been let go a bit too long, including organizing an appointment to renew my Swiss passport.

A side remark: can you believe it – I became Swiss 10 years ago and need to renew my passport? The years have flown and most were very good to me.

So I filled in the forms with all the pertinent data including my parent’s names and received a reply (computer generated of course) saying that I would hear from them when my files had been checked to program an appointment. The confirmation e-mail is logged in on April 9^th at 18:17.

If I hadn’t seen it myself, I never would have believed it, but I got an e-mail this morning

April 10 at 10:31 with the link needed to go online and reserve a date.

I will do this as soon as I get back from my trip to California (ah the blessings of having someone living in the house for cats and security) May 11^th.

And to think that I had been worried that my passport would run out on May 24^th without my being able to plan its’ renewal.

When they say that Switzerland works like their clocks and watches, you can believe it!

Screen shot from the Swiss Confederation's site for passports

What’s the cosmos trying to tell me?

So I know that I have all that I need and I know that it isn’t perhaps always easy to come up with something unique and different, but this year the cosmos made me laugh.

For Christmas – on top of other very precious gifts – I received two books on Switzerland from my younger son as well as one on maps of Switzerland from my housemate.

Never mind that due to an upcoming games evening I purchased a game called Tour of Switzerland.

If I don’t know much about Switzerland and all things Swiss by the end of the year, it won’t be for lack of input from those surrounding me: or does it mean that I should concentrate on staying in Switzerland instead of jaunting about the rest of the world? What is the cosmos trying to impart to me?

7 hours … across Switzerland and into Germany

Or the train from Geneva to Munich.

Due to the higher terrorist level in Geneva and the fact that the last time I tried to take a train to Germany I ended up turning around and coming back once I had done the 3 hours to Zurich, this time I decided to put more than the usual luck on my side. R took me to the train station early enough so that I could have an extra hour in Zurich just in case.

Of course having taken all those precautions, both trains went off without a hitch. Not only, but arriving in Munich I went out the correct door, got a taxi within seconds and was across town in my hotel in time for the 18:00 briefing ! Ran into the tour guide just leaving my room key in an envelope with my name (spelled correctly even – that’s once in a row) on it at the reception desk, so I was able to reconfirm the time as well as where the briefing was being held.

Although inside a train all day was able to get a few pictures out the windows once I had left the fog of Geneva, Fribourg, Neuchatel, Olten and Solothurn behind.

Now it’s on to Christmas markets galore with a childhood friend and her husband, first here in Munich, secondly on our cruise down the Danube from Nuremburg, Germany to Vienna, Austria.

Just a slight note of caution : in the fancy hotels wifi is paying, on the boat we may be out of range so the blogs of this particular trip may be a wee bit out of sync and slow in being posted.

Never mind, rest assured that fun will be had, photos will be taken and news will arrive albeit perhaps at a slower pace than usual.

sun through the fog looking down from the Geneva train station

double and sometimes triple suns through the windows

The Swaroski tree in the Zurich train station

Niki de Saint Phalle's "protective angel" sculpture in the Zurich train station

Into Lindau

Out from Lindau

Along the lake and the border

close up of the square rainbow in the picture above

Just another reason

I love Switzerland.

Anyone who knows me well, and even most of the people with whom I only have a passing acquaintance, knows how attached I am to my computer! And by my computer I mean any one of the three that I currently possess: the old one that I need to sort and finally transfer to the new one and my travel one.

I do tend to arrive in the mountains without one part or the other – and one famous year when I was planning on being here over a week actually had to go purchase another mouse. Usually it’s the separate keyboard, but I can actually manage without that for a few days (it allows me to put the computer on top of the mini toaster so that the screen is at eye level but still type properly at elbow level (those of us who took typing lessons will know what I am talking about).

Yesterday though was the biggest of disasters when I realized that I had managed to get up here without the battery pack! For an old computer where the battery maybe holds an hour this was not going to be good – all the photo work that I needed to do, the e-mails, the blogs, etc. for perhaps a week.  E-mails I could eventually pick up if I installed all my programs into the new computer, which I have brought along for the second time in hopes of starting that famous transfer. However as all the passwords are on the old computer it would have meant a lot of boot it up for 5 minutes, find a password, turn off, transfer to new, etc. with no hopes of actually getting it all done.  I love walking, but there is a limit to the number of walks that one can take in any given day. My reading materials are meant to be supplementary for a week so even they were going to run out. What to do? Go buy yet another battery pack – that is if I could find one?

Then I remembered: I live in Switzerland!

Call home, spoke to my housemate and R, had them locate the one that I had lent to younger son when he lost his, and send it express mail yesterday in the hopes that it would at least get here tomorrow whilst I was out taking my train ride so that come Thursday I could “work” again.

Bless my housemates, bless the mostly-efficient Swiss postal service – by express sent last night around 18:00 it arrived here in the mountains at 9:00!

Yes I’ll still go take a walk, but my life as I know it has just been immeasurably improved by this seemingly small proof of a system that on the whole works and works well.

Friends and a laid back Sunday

Translates as get up at a very leisurely pace, enjoy brunch and good coffee, slowly gear up to heading into Einsiedeln where they have a cross-country skiing track with, off to the side, a walking one for those without their skis, or not wishing for whatever reason (lack of equipment, although one can rent on site, lack of appropriate clothing or lack of interest).

Following warm drinks in the sun at the tracks, return via a trip around the lake, to our base and chill each with our own electronics, or books or whatever to the smells of the host cooking spaghetti sauce for dinner.

A flute of champagne, some good red wine and delicious meal with conversation in all directions and it was off to bed early so that we could arise also early.

City Hall, Einsiedeln, Schwyz

Schoolhouse, Einsiedeln, Schwyz

Abbey of Einsiedeln, Schwyz

Church just behind the Abbey

window detail of the schoolhouse

one of many decorative shields

another decorative shield

Gargoyle on the Abbey

not many people sitting on the benches....

end of the day: mountain peak through the trees

Outwardly manifestations…

I hope that the love also travels inward.

Coming down the main road from the airport into town today I happened to pass by the Salvation Army’s nursing home – for want of a better word. It is in French an EMS or “medical and social establishment” (see this is why I like using all of my languages: the finesse that is sometimes lacking in one, is present in another, or the concept varies just enough to ring truer in one than the other).

I love what they have done to the facade, presumably in anticipation of Valentine’s Day, but maybe, just maybe it is simply an outwardly manifestation of the love to be found within those walls. By-the-way, the public is welcome to enter and enjoy coffee, tea or lunch.

In any case, the outwardly manifestation certainly made my heart fuller and me personally more willing to spread the love.

Girns to grins and sundry events

 Sometimes the unintended are the most fun and turning this weekend into an “adventure” certainly pleads in favor of that thought.

Today we decided to undertake two things: go to the Renoir exhibit at the Giannada Museum and have lunch in Martigny. The order was indifferent, however due to late awakenings on both of our parts (in turn due to getting to bed late as we not only watched a DVD but also got caught up in watching an English crime series thereafter) we had to change the order a bit.

In the end we were too late to go to the exhibit before lunch without rushing and too early to eat lunch so I threw a third thing into the mix: replace my cell phone!  I finally remember where there was a shop for my service provider, took a number (well actually had a “greeter” sign me up on his iPad or whatever tablet the company is favoring at the moment) and waited about 10 minutes. Explained that I liked my old cell phone (about 5 years old), didn’t want any more or any less service than I had and would even prefer the same brand due to chargers (we have an abundance of one name and none of the others). Turns out that chargers are now interchangeable so less than 10 minutes later I was the proud possessor of another “dumb” phone, i.e. I can make and accept phone calls, send and receive text messages, and little else… all without changing my current rate plan.  Grin number one (also all my stored numbers were on the chip so no additional dithering or adjustments – big, big grin).

Just in time to go find sustenance (like we really need more). For some reason we both were leaning towards Italian so picked La Nonna  (http://www.la-nonna.ch/index.php?action=home). Liked the décor, the waitress was very friendly and the policy of offering a small glass as an introductory cocktail was great. Upon seeing the menu though and the special hunt offerings we both chose the caquelon braconnier (very loosely translated as the poachers pot) – the full menu! Pictures tell it better than I can.

Hungry anytime in the near future – I think not! We did go on to the museum, but that’s a story for another day as still digesting lunch.

Village festivals

Corsier, Switzerland, started their squash festival many years ago when a local farmer opened up his property and sold his harvest.  There were a few other stands, all run by local clubs or persons.

This has since expanded and now people come not only from the village and the neighboring villages, but from as far away as the next canton up the lake. The main event, of course, is squash – squash in all shapes, colors and for all uses. However, one can also purchase many other types of food (again no industrial, only artisanal); ceramics; nuts; jewelry; knitted and crocheted items; and others, which have escaped my memory.  This year there was also two types of rides for the smaller ones and amongst the food – cotton candy!

The entire surrounding fields become a car park – in addition to the school’s actual parking lot. Many walk up on foot, leaving their cars as far as a kilometer away.  Weather was cooperative just the odd drop here and there, but not enough to shut anything down or dim the festive mood. This one is now past, but we are already looking forward to next year and I have promised myself that some year, I will actually buy and carve a pumpkin!

 

Small note to those who are interested in competitions: the largest pumpkin in the world this year was not grown by an American, but rather a Swiss: Beni Meier de Pfungen (ZH) grew one weighing 953,5 kilos thus beating the former champion, an American, whose pumpkin was 911 kilos.