Beautiful, Civilized Switzerland

We knew this country would be beautiful with the mountains all around, but let me tell you the reason for the title of this post.  In Greece, Italy and some other countries we have been in, we were told that we cannot be the polite Canadians, where we don't push and usually leave space in front of ourselves.  This cannot happen here, especially in Italy, where everyone cuts in front of you or pushes and thinks nothing of getting ahead of you.  We have been told to use our "chicken wings", elbows out and push anyone who tries to but in front of us.

Two days ago Barb was in a rather long line for the ladies room when two women just casually walked past everyone and then cut in line. She lost it, grabbed one of the ladies and told her and her friend to go back. It is always convenient that all of a sudden these people don't speak English so Barb got the attendant and she ordered these women back. This morning it happened to another lady in our group in a coffee lineup and when she was challenged her answer back was "it will only take a second"!

At our rest stop this morning the area was full of tour buses and trying to get a coffee was like seeing the refugees here in Europe trying to escape to the UK. Imagine the old days at the stock exchange where people are packed around small tables drinking coffee, while others are packed all around them pushing to the counter with their hands up yelling their orders to the servers. Barb and I just shook our heads and went back to the bus.  This is the way in this part of the world.

So now we are in Switzerland, in the small mountain town of Engelberg, the scenery is amazing.

Engelberg is smaller than our town of Bowmanville ... you could walk almost everywhere except there are some homes up on the mountains so the walk may not be an option. Only 3721 people live here as of the last census. It is quiet, peaceful, friendly and the water is pure from the mountains, Tasting it you notice a real difference.

After checking in to our hotel were taken on a tour through the town on a horse and carriage.

We were taken to a local dairy farm where they explained what they do there. They raise 16 dairy cattle and have another 16 young cows. Also a few horses and the carriages we rode in. In the summer, the cows are taken to a mountain pasture (the Alp) for the summer where they give milk twice a day. This milk is used to make cheese in the summer.  During the winter, the cows are brought back down to the lower farm here in Engelberg and milk is sent to Lucerne to be pasteurized for the milk used to drink.  They cannot make cheese during the winter because the cows can only eat hay in the winter since they do get a lot of snow here. Grass fed works for cheese but not when the cows eat hay.

We were treated to wine, local cheeses, a cheese pastry, and chocolate cake all made from local fresh ingredients.  It was all so wonderful!  When I playfully asked their 13 year old son about the recipe, he asked his mother if it was okay to share it, and then wrote it down for us. It was fun working it all out because he is just learning English in school. In this part of Switzerland they speak either French or German.

The family is very friendly, we were able to walk anywhere on their tiny farm of only 23 acres. Barb even got to feed one of their horses.  Of course we didn't see the cows, they are about 1 1/2 hours away up in the mountain pasture.

We will stay here for two nights, tomorrow morning we are going up a mountain in one of these.

 

Yes a cable car ... the only way up and then back down.  I'm not the only one a little nervous about this, but I will be there. The views are too good to miss.  We're really hoping the weather clears for tomorrow as most of the mountains were in the clouds today. I want to come back here again one day because it is so beautiful.