Swiss Open Air Museum

On Sunday (in the rain) we went to Interlaken to visit the open air museum. The road to Interlaken went over a pass behind Luzern and we had a nice view down the valley.

The open air museum had a rooster crowing competition when we arrived. Actually, I don't how they judged it but the roosters were crowing the entire time.

They had many different species of rooster, even an all black one!

This rooster did not look very attractive when he was crowing. But he made a lot of noise.

The open air museum is a place where they move old buildings from all around Switzerland. They create microclimates which would surround the buildings based on the region where they were from. They had some really good examples, like this barn below. However, in Switzerland there are so many old buildings just sitting around that sometimes they didn't look that special. You could walk inside the buildings and barns (the museum was devoted to rural culture) and they had lots of farm animals around. However, I thought the similar museum in Holland had more interesting buildings, but maybe that's because there are so many newer buildings in Holland compared to Switzerland. And I've also traveled a lot more in Switzerland.

The other group at the open air museum was the Swiss National Bunny Hoping Team. Actually, I'm not sure of their actual name, but they had red (of course) coats with Swiss National Team written on them. They had a little runway with a few small jumps set up and the owner would run with the bunny to get them over the jump. The black and white bunny had it all figured out. He would stop directly in front of the jump, very very quickly knock down the top two poles and then jump over it.

Some of the other bunnies were a bit quicker (and less of a cheat).

Biology

I found a snail having a poop in our back yard.

Also, while visiting St. Gallen I saw this restaurant. Definitely for the tourists.

Ceilidh in Italy

On the holiday weekend I traveled to Italy with the Ceilidh band for a long weekend retreat and concert. The weather started out rather crappy and I made a huge round trip of Switzerland on the train to bypass the alps (Klosters to Zurich to Bern to Visp and through the mountains). At the end of the ride we crossed the lake on the ferry.

And took a super winding road up the mountain. It was very very steep and the roads were almost on top of each other. The road was only really wide enough for a single car in many places. At the end of the trip we were in San Antonio and stayed at a bed and breakfast. Behind the house there was an old church which is where we practiced.

Also at the this B&B there were tons of cats, I counted at least 12. At dinner time in the evening they would make a lot of noise and run around waiting to be fed raw meat on the stairs.

We had a fantastic view down the lake as the sun set.

Part of our group played a concert in the church the second night, the place was packed. I was surprised that so many people traveled up that tiny mountain road. And the next day in the afternoon there was a dance rehearsal. In the evening we played a concert and I must say - playing outdoors in the evening is not my favorite. It can be really nice, or it can be freezing cold, with the wind taking your music away and you can't hear very well. However, the audience was keen which is always the best.

Here I am again with another chicken. Chickens and ceilidh bands....

On the last day we took the ferry back and again it was hours and hours of travel for me.

In one place just before we crossed into Switzerland at the end of the lake there was a town with an Elm that was 500 years old! I have no idea how it survived Dutch Elm Disease.