Mother told me there would be days like this!

We crossed into CH yesterday and stayed in the little town of Schwarzenwald last night but had no internet connection except at McDonald this morning and I forgot to check my gmail there. We are now at Hotel Alponte in Wangen for tonight.

It's a long story but we started looking for Zimmers around noon today on our treck across Switzerland to meet cousins M.&P. - went through seemed like dozens of little towns but could find none. With no luck by 4pm, we got back on the Autobahn and started to drive west south hoping we would see signs for accommodations along the way, like we have in Canada and USA - NEINE / NIT / NONE. FINALLY off across the fields we spyed this hotel- it's about 20 min NE of BERN, CH. Expensive, we have not lived high on the hog lately so decided to splurge tonight.

We did manage to squeeze in about an hour of bike riding along the Bodensee today just before our hunt began. That was very pleasant. It was cloudy and there was a haze out over the lake but the fresh air was refreshing.

So that's the short story and hardly any pictures today so will include some from earlier. Actually the one of the church is in the town square in Schwarzenburg where the cows come home to drink - so they say - have not seen that yet.

Settled in Schwarzenberg

Monday, June 14, 2010

Last night we heard someone blowing the Alphorn numerous times down below somewhere. It was used in days gone by to call cattle back home for milking. Co-incidentally we noticed on the menu for the restaurant/zimmer next door (not serving until after 8pm as normal) that they were advertising veal cutlet as their special - hope the calf we heard bawling was not the one “called home” for the night’s special.
Today we drove the back roads on our way west toward Bodensee (Lake Constance). It was slow going in places - we crossed over at least 3 passes with the road winding round and switching back and up and up we went. Then the same thing back down again. At one point we were relying heavily on the GPS to get us to the next town but we had to turn back when the road went from a nice 2 lane to a single lane with the weeds scratching the car on one side and a drop off on the other - then to a cow path - actually it was labeled as a “wanderweg” (walking path) at that point. By then we were 2 ½ km into it so had to turn around carefully and retrace our path. So sorry that Jean was on the low side for the return and I’m CERTAIN she does not want to go there again. At times GPS served us well but today for some reason she was way off. Our final destination was Schwarzenburg a small town high up in the Alps where we had stayed in 2002. It is a unique town where the nearby farmers drive the cows to the centre of town in the morning for a drink of water from the fountain. Not sure why except that on our walk tonight we saw several hollowed-out-log drinking troughs for cattle to drink at but only a trickle of water was coming from the spouts. Or maybe they give better milk from town water?? Farmers are coming and going right through town with everything from hay rakes to full loads for manure. We drove to the zimmer where we had stayed in 2002 and planned to stay there again but there was no answer at the door so we drove around and found another one a short walk from town centre called “Zimmer Mit Du” - translated “Room for/with you” - a beautiful view out our balcony door across the valley and up the mountains on the other side scattered with farms. We can hear the cow bells from the distant hillsides - from our room. Should be good sleep tonight.