Impression from Switzerland

 As a regular blog reader you might know that I have been home in Switzerland for several weeks. The main driver for my visit was supporting my parents during their move from a house into an appartment. But beside packing boxes and moving furniture, there was a little time to enjoy my home country. Scroll down to get a little impresion on what those weeks in Switzerland were like.

One Saturday Ursi and I have been hiking up to Pilatus, this fantastic view was during the descent .

My brother Stefan is a jack of many trades. Beside his job he also is a part time writer and has published his first book "Treibholz im Touristenstrom" recently. During his spare time he is reading a lot about history and specifically about WWII aviation. This afternoon I have joined him on the search on a WWII US bomber crash site search. We have found several things, however nothing was really clearly to be identified as aircraft parts. 

While I was cleaning the attic of my parents house I found some childhood memories.

Again...

...while hiking...

...wiht Ursi.

Like so often, beautiful might be dangerous. 

Uphill towards...

...Pilatus. The train that climbs up there is said to be the steepest train track in Europe. Pretty impressive to see, maybe even more so when you see it from a distance rather than sitting in it (a feeling I could not describe, since we hiked both ways).

Views from a along the way...

...and from the top...

...and while descending.

Aviation seems to have impressed me already at the tender age of 7. More first grader drawings found at the attic.

Since you have read Heidi, you might know: Each fall the mountain farmers in the Alps lead their cows down from the Alp meadows, where they have spent summer grazing and producing milk for Alp cheese and other tasty local dairy products. After many months in isolation up in the Alps this is quite an event for the farmers and maybe even for their stock. They decorate their cows and lead them down from the high level grazing areas...

...through the villages, back to their low level farms, where...

...the animals will spent winter in stables. Just weeks from now...

...the meadows in the Alps will be snowed in and inaccessible. Neither livestock nor men would stand a chance to survive winter up there.

Beautifully decorated with handcrafted bell-belts and fall flowers are...

...they guided through the village.

When ever I had a chance I was riding my motorbike and time permitting...

...always took...

...the long way around.

Switzerland - a very beautiful place to call home. So much more than banks, cheese and chocolate.

Should you like, you can check out a couple more pictures of Switzerland HERE.