Monday, July 12, 2010

Switzerland, July 5

After breakfast at the hostel, we loaded the coach and headed to the next village, Ftan. It was a breathtakingly beautiful ride...breathtaking in more ways than one...The scenery is breathtaking...
and some of the turns were breathtaking!Arriving in Ftan, Bjorn was directed to park in this parking lot...we heard a noise... oops! The parking lot wasn't quite deep enough. Bjorn, calm as ever, got out, moved the rocks, and moved the bus...no problem...there was only a little scratch...
And then there was Ftan (Fa-tan)...such a beautiful village...seems I keep saying that about everything in Switzerland!We had to hike a little ways to get to the mill...we were headed to the Ftan Mill....a 400 year old mill, a flour mill, that has been in the same family for 7 generations! Did I say the scenery was breathtaking? The mill is operated by the water from a stream...once this mill uses it, the water goes on downstream to be used by someone else below...so efficient! This lady is part of the family who owns it. Her great-great-grandfather bought the mill in 1831. In 1832, he built the 'new mill' which is this round part you see in the photo above. There's another one just like it across the room, which is still used, and it's 400 years old. I couldn't tell them apart. If you look halfway down this photo on the left, you can see part of a wheel...this is the wheel that turns the water that operates the mill. Actually, a new axle was replaced on this in 1939. This mill produced 16 tons of flour a year...and during the war years, it was operated 24 hours a day.
View out the window of the mill...
Farms in Switzerland are small. Dairy farmers, for example, will only have 25-30 cows. The government actually pays them to keep them like this. They want Switzerland to continue to look like Switzerland! No urban-sprawl here!

I never heard her name...just one of the owners of the Mill of Ftan...She didn't speak any English, but she was so friendly and happy to share her mill with us.
Genevieve appreciating the beauty of the Alps!

Looking down on the mill from the path above...
We started walking back toward the village....stopping along the way to take pictures...

Also, stopping at the fountains along the way...
In the evening, we dressed up for dinner. Three musicians played for us...we did some musical chairs...and took lots of photos...we only had one more night after this one...

Our tall guys with our not-so-tall, but oh-so-tough delegation manager, Jeanette!
The musicians who serenaded us...
Musical chairs was played in groups...I don't think some of our delegation had ever played this before. It was a bit comical to watch...
I think we played in groups of 9...of course, 9 delegates = 8 chairs...

A different variation had double the amount of people. You WANTED someone on your lap when the music stopped...our ladies had a great time with this one!
Someone suggested the leaders play...there were 6 of us: me, Steve, Karen, Gwen (Texas), Jeanette, and Bjorn....Looks like Karen was the first one out...sorry, Karen!
Bjorn was the next to go...and then, well, sorry Steve...looks like you went next...
It was down to three: me, Gwen, and Jeanette...and Jeanette didn't make the cut:(
And then...much to my surprise...I conquered Gwen...beat her to the punch...
So sorry, Gwen...
It was all in good fun...
Playing the spoons came next. One of our musicians demonstrated for us how it's done...
Sarah appeared to have it down...we couldn't say that for everyone!
Many of us tried...but not all of us succeeded!
Jeanette...what a great DM she was!
I wanted to have some photos of the leaders together...
and then I saw Genevieve and Chris posing for someone else...and I wanted one for me!
Danielle had gone upstairs, but looked to see what was going on below...
I told Jeanette I had a nephew a little older than her...Addison...and that I'd love to have her for a niece-in-law!
This photo was actually taken on the morning of July 6...One of the workers in the hostel came out to take it for us...

We were heading to Zurich, our last stop on the European Heritage adventure!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Hello to Switzerland on July 4th

Welcome to Switzerland!
We quickly figured out that Switzerland has an incredible number of tunnels! Some are fairly long...but others are very short. It makes sense. The country is so mountainous, that you'd have to go up and down hill constantly...and in the winter, you could go neither way! So, we go through them, not around!
We stopped along the way to eat a late lunch...

This was our restaurant...
After lunch, off we went again...
Steve was the patriotic American...
Look at this little church perched up there.
At the summit, Bjorn stopped the bus so we could get off and see the snow... well, a few snowball fights started...
Bjorn made quite a few of these hairpin turns...

We finally made it to Scoul..but first, a few of the 900 shots (a slight exaggeration) of the scenery along the way...



In Scoul, our destination in Switzerland, we went to our hostel...a youth hostel. That was a perfect time to take a few photos...


This was taken from right outside the front door of the hostel...our bus is the first one.

Our hostel...
We had a quick orientation and then went on a walk with our guide, Bob...Bob from Canada.
He told us how Europeans in general are much more 'outdoorsy' than the average North American.
We started off walking through the forest...
There were some incredible views of the town...
Oops...Sarah needed to make a stop before we ventured too far in the woods...
We caught up with the rest of our group on the other side of the bridge...a bridge over the Inn River...
Bob told us that trails are marked very clearly throughout Switzerland...actually throughout Europe...
Scoul means "Church on the rock"...

We walked into the old part of Scoul. Bob told us that these houses were built and entire families lived in them...parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles...the extended family...
The doors were large because at night, families would walk their cattle inside. Their heat would rise,helping to heat the home.
Scoul has many fountains around town with incredible drinking water. Here, there were 3...one was more of a bubbly water, but the other two were delicious and pure tasting.
Bob would stop along the way to tell us tidbits of information about Scoul, or Switzerland ...
Can you tell I loved this village? I have spared you the other 316 photos of this church!
I absolutely loved this section of the village...

Today, single families still own the homes. Bob told me that most of the homes have stayed in the families...have been in the same family for generations...
One last close up...