Northeast Switzerland
Soon after I joined up with my good friend, K, and we we off to Eastern Switzerland. We left our respective homes with the intention of linking up by cell phone when we arrived, me by car, she by train. After a 6 hour journey and no juggling of schedules, she disembarked her train and walked out of the train station just as I came to a stop for some pedestrians on the other side of the street. That couldn't have been accomplished if we had tried.
We started out in the in the town of Schaffhausen, located in the Canton of Schaffhausen.
History has deemed that Schaffhausen Canton, while remaining part of Switzerland, will be almost completely surrounded by Germany. It's a bizarre piece of geography. Many times it's quicker to go through Germany to get to another part of Switzerland.
On Saturday we wandered through Schaffhausen and then drove to the the town of Stein am Rhein, where the building in the old city center are still decorated with frescoes.
On our way out of Stein an Rhein we took a wrong turn and accidentally entered Germany. Not thinking much of it, we continued down the road for a while, turned around and found ourselves back at the border crossing. The guard stopped us, asked for passports and vehicle registration. After figuring we were Americans (which took all of about a half second) he motioned us over to the side, took our documents and began examining them. I guess he found us harmless enough, as he let us go soon after, but the car in front of us wasn't so lucky. As we pulled away the guards were still going through the contents.
After a quick drive back to Schaffhausen (being careful to stay in Switzerland) we arrived at the Rhein Falls. The largest waterfall in Europe, with 25,000 cubic feet of water flowing past every second, wasn't quite as touristy as Niagara Falls, but it did have its moments. The massive (for Europe) parking lot, the entrance fee, and the gift shop you began and ended your tour in made me think that if they'd just add a guy in an animal costume posing for photos they would have the whole package.
Returning to the car, we noticed a farm across the street selling apples, among other things. We wandered up the driveway, smiled at some families watching some free-range chickens. We noticed a sign on the barn indicating that the cows would be milked at 5:30. As it was 5:00, we decided to wait around. After looking around, finding a small unattended store selling cider, milk and other farm-fesh products we returned to the barn door with the sign. The only sign of life we found was a cat in the window who was busy napping. We had almost given up, and were turning to leave, when we saw a man walking toward the cow pasture. We approached him and communicated (as best we could) that we were interested in seeing the cow milking. He led us into a small building filled with two rows of cows. They were attached to milking machines, drawing the milk into a large stainless steel tank in the next room. The farmer took a plastic jug from a table and filled it from a spigot on the vessel. He handed the jug to me. It was warm, which I knew it would be, but it still took me a bit by surprise. Rounding out our purchase with some cider and apples, we returned to the car. I opened the milk jog, sniffed and took a drink
The next morning we ventured to the town of Osterfingen on the final day of their annual wine festival. We were most certainly the only Americans in the town, and the only ones that didn't speak German, never mind that dialect. We walked the town, sampling wine and food along the way. We talked at length with a winemaker's son (who was fetched as soon as it was determined we spoke very little German) about the town, the festival and the wine. By the time we left we were carrying two large boxes of wine (that's boxes containing bottles of wine…there was no "wine-in-a-box" to be found).
Upon reaching the car and driving away we started putting bits of information together.
1. It's easy to cross borders without meaning to.
2. There's no guarantee that we won't be stopped and searched.
3. We are carrying far more alcohol than our 2-litre duty-free limit.
We did decide to risk the border crossing (having travelled that way earlier and only seen a sign on the road that essentially welcomed you to Switzerland/Germany.
We continued our journey, taking the scenic route along Lake Constance/Bodensee and traversing some of the greenest fields I have ever seen. The two "Half-Cantons" of Appenzell are about as Swiss as you can get. Red geraniums in full bloom stand in window boxes, cows roam the pastures and small villages dot the sides of the greenest hills I have ever seen. We only had a short time in this region, so we drove through it until almost sunset, taking in as much as we could. After a dinner of (what else) fondue we found the town pretty much deserted so we pretty much called it a day.
The next morning we decided to visit a cheesemaker. On our way back we stopped in at the Appenzell Showcase Cheese Dairy. The "showcase" was a fully operational dairy that was viewable from a walkway above. No guided tours, no free samples, and no fuzzy mouse (although there was a 30 foot piece of cheese out front). We were able to purchase some of the "Extra," black-label, cheese (aged the longest of the three varieties).
Our adventure over, we drove to Zürich, where I dropped K off at the train station and began the long drive home.
We started out in the in the town of Schaffhausen, located in the Canton of Schaffhausen.
History has deemed that Schaffhausen Canton, while remaining part of Switzerland, will be almost completely surrounded by Germany. It's a bizarre piece of geography. Many times it's quicker to go through Germany to get to another part of Switzerland.
On Saturday we wandered through Schaffhausen and then drove to the the town of Stein am Rhein, where the building in the old city center are still decorated with frescoes.
On our way out of Stein an Rhein we took a wrong turn and accidentally entered Germany. Not thinking much of it, we continued down the road for a while, turned around and found ourselves back at the border crossing. The guard stopped us, asked for passports and vehicle registration. After figuring we were Americans (which took all of about a half second) he motioned us over to the side, took our documents and began examining them. I guess he found us harmless enough, as he let us go soon after, but the car in front of us wasn't so lucky. As we pulled away the guards were still going through the contents.
After a quick drive back to Schaffhausen (being careful to stay in Switzerland) we arrived at the Rhein Falls. The largest waterfall in Europe, with 25,000 cubic feet of water flowing past every second, wasn't quite as touristy as Niagara Falls, but it did have its moments. The massive (for Europe) parking lot, the entrance fee, and the gift shop you began and ended your tour in made me think that if they'd just add a guy in an animal costume posing for photos they would have the whole package.
Returning to the car, we noticed a farm across the street selling apples, among other things. We wandered up the driveway, smiled at some families watching some free-range chickens. We noticed a sign on the barn indicating that the cows would be milked at 5:30. As it was 5:00, we decided to wait around. After looking around, finding a small unattended store selling cider, milk and other farm-fesh products we returned to the barn door with the sign. The only sign of life we found was a cat in the window who was busy napping. We had almost given up, and were turning to leave, when we saw a man walking toward the cow pasture. We approached him and communicated (as best we could) that we were interested in seeing the cow milking. He led us into a small building filled with two rows of cows. They were attached to milking machines, drawing the milk into a large stainless steel tank in the next room. The farmer took a plastic jug from a table and filled it from a spigot on the vessel. He handed the jug to me. It was warm, which I knew it would be, but it still took me a bit by surprise. Rounding out our purchase with some cider and apples, we returned to the car. I opened the milk jog, sniffed and took a drink
The next morning we ventured to the town of Osterfingen on the final day of their annual wine festival. We were most certainly the only Americans in the town, and the only ones that didn't speak German, never mind that dialect. We walked the town, sampling wine and food along the way. We talked at length with a winemaker's son (who was fetched as soon as it was determined we spoke very little German) about the town, the festival and the wine. By the time we left we were carrying two large boxes of wine (that's boxes containing bottles of wine…there was no "wine-in-a-box" to be found).
Upon reaching the car and driving away we started putting bits of information together.
1. It's easy to cross borders without meaning to.
2. There's no guarantee that we won't be stopped and searched.
3. We are carrying far more alcohol than our 2-litre duty-free limit.
We did decide to risk the border crossing (having travelled that way earlier and only seen a sign on the road that essentially welcomed you to Switzerland/Germany.
We continued our journey, taking the scenic route along Lake Constance/Bodensee and traversing some of the greenest fields I have ever seen. The two "Half-Cantons" of Appenzell are about as Swiss as you can get. Red geraniums in full bloom stand in window boxes, cows roam the pastures and small villages dot the sides of the greenest hills I have ever seen. We only had a short time in this region, so we drove through it until almost sunset, taking in as much as we could. After a dinner of (what else) fondue we found the town pretty much deserted so we pretty much called it a day.
The next morning we decided to visit a cheesemaker. On our way back we stopped in at the Appenzell Showcase Cheese Dairy. The "showcase" was a fully operational dairy that was viewable from a walkway above. No guided tours, no free samples, and no fuzzy mouse (although there was a 30 foot piece of cheese out front). We were able to purchase some of the "Extra," black-label, cheese (aged the longest of the three varieties).
Our adventure over, we drove to Zürich, where I dropped K off at the train station and began the long drive home.
posted by tcw1138 at 9:56 AM
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