Around Switzerland

Everyone only seems to blog about traveling, but I find that the mundane activities from day to day can be just as interesting when they are different from your home country.

Every Saturday in Lausanne there is a huge outdoor market. Its size outdoes any market I have seen in the states, including Pike's in Seattle. It sprawls from the center of town down through the streets, offering a lot more variety than you can find in the local grocery store. Beyond just fruits and vegetables, you can find milk, cheese, meats, nuts, olives, flowers, and more. Sun, rain, or snow (it was raining this week), the Swiss are on the streets every Saturday morning. I was excited to get farm fresh milk, not ultra-pasteurized as most of the milk in the grocery store, and from cows that actually graze on pasture (and in the Alps no less) rather than living indoors fed corn as the great majority of unfortunate dairy cows in the US.

Mom has rescued a stray cat here. He lived in the park across the street and after many months she finally got him to trust her enough to follow her inside. Not sure how long he was out there, but I can't imagine he would have fared well through the winter. And now, the majority of the park has been torn out and there is currently construction going on all over the street, so I am glad he is safe indoors. The only misfortune is that the apartment is on the 3rd floor, so he has no yard to play in. There is a balcony, but apparently it is not uncommon for cats to jump off because they do not have the depth perception to realize how high up they are. Mom has arranged a net and plants over half of the balcony so that Jean (he is named for the park he used to live in) can enjoy being outside without having to worry about him. He enjoys his little play area, and he is a very loving cat. He is a big boy, and I'm sure he has gained weight living in the apartment, but he is fairly active and loves to play. When he comes back to the States I'm sure he will enjoy the backyard.

Switzerland is full of medieval towns, most of them well intact with city walls, towers, churches and (of course) old clocks. Today Mom and I decided to head to Murten, an old town on a lake of the same name. We had no idea but June 22 1476 is the date of a huge battle outside the walls of Murten, in which the Swiss united to attack the Burgundians and slaughtered an army of over 20,000 French, driving them out of Switzerland. This was the beginning of the Swiss Confederation which became modern day Switzerland. In fact, the city walls still have cannonballs embedded in them from this very battle. We came into the town having no idea there was a holiday, but soon realized something was going on. All the children were dressed in white, many shops were closed, and people seemed to be gathering for a parade. As we sat down to lunch our waiter informed us of the celebration, complaining that cannons begin firing at 5am so he was in a bad mood. So we got to see a parade, with apparently every child in town, bands, cannons and all. Mom and I seem to get lucky on accident- several times we have found ourselves in the middle of a festival having no idea what was going on.


The World Cup is on right now- and it is a much bigger deal over here than back home. I have actually never watched it before this year but I have gotten into the spirit. The Swiss are normally very reserved and quiet, there are rules about not doing laundry after a certain hour and laws about not making too much noise after 9 pm but that all goes out the window after a game. Horns are blowing on the street for hours, non stop. And I mean non stop. A game ends at ten and for two hours everyone is blowing horns, whether the Swiss played or not. I will say that when the Swiss lost the streets were fairly quiet after, but I have never heard so much noise here as when they beat Spain.
Speaking of Swiss Laws, there is a law that if you have only one cat, with no others, you must schedule a cat play date once a week with other cats so it can socialize. Haha.

Hopefully I will get to see some more Swiss cities I did not see the last time around. The weather has been cold and rainy, but hopefully it will be improving. If we get a nice clear day we will go to Zermatt (The Matterhorn). More updates soon. Mom claims she will post about her trip with Cat to Amsterdam one of these days....