velotel
08-24-2012, 04:21 PM
Just so you know in advance, nothing about cycling in this post. Just being a tourist. With a camera.
Day two, cruising with the wife, shooting pics, checking out the countryside. Basically scoping out rides for the future. First stop Rougemont, the next village up the valley from Chateau d’Oex. Beautifully crafted wood houses, works or art. Only they’re not, they’re houses. Everything’s wood. Well, maybe not the windows but only because they never figured out how to make glass out of wood. They’re all dated, the oldest we saw from the 1600s, the most recent 1959. Did a double take on that last. Thought that’s not old before suddenly realizing that was 53 years ago. I was still in high school. They’re all decorated with designs and writings, intricate work, done by real artisans, proud of their work. They should be. Plop a modern track home or even some american trophy home next to one and the modern house would probably wilt into the ground in embarrassment. Shot a lot of pics. Regular house parade.
Moved up the valley, heading to Gstaad. Got waylaid in Saanen at the train station. Had to shoot it, then the hotel behind the train station. Welcome to Switzerland.
On to Gstaad to check out where the rich and famous park. Didn’t see it when I rode by on the bike path. Center of the village closed to cars. Pay parking, helps to pay for the cleanliness. Strolled through, nice place. Reminded me a bit of Aspen, only the buildings are lower, the village more laid back. Or so it seemed. Nothing I can define, just a feeling. Mostly a place to shop and eat but agreeably so. We did neither. Strolled through to one end, turned around, strolled back. A good sized building, but not high, two stories, was either getting modified or being built. Looked like a major project. Spectacularly clean. Everything organized, materials stacked, attractive barriers guaranteeing if anything fell no strollers would get hit. Probably an exaggeration but I had the impression that if a wind came up no clouds of dust would be lifted off the site. A few sub-contractors on the job, each one with their own company t-shirt. I’m not making that up. I saw that on just about every work site I passed, the crews all wearing the same t-shirts. An organized country.
Also multi-lingual. Chateau d’Oex and Rougemont are in a french speaking canton, Gstaad in a german canton. The line between the two is distinct. A small bump-bump when I road over it on my bike. Like a traffic counter. Road signs 10 meters away from each other will be in different languages. On the french side all the signs are in french, on the german side german. I wonder if a house is built on the frontier, do they change languages as they change rooms? What was odd to me was that the frontier seems like a totally arbitrary line drawn on a map as opposed to one that follows some geographic boundary, like a river or a line of hills. I suppose most people there speak french and german but I definitely noticed that the people in the french sector spoke french between themselves and those in the german sector spoke german between themselves. I speak no german at all so spoke french and most of the time in the german canton had no problem. A couple of times ran into people who spoke no french at all.
Gstaad is definitely in the german canton. Had the impression that the second most important language there was english, not french. Maybe they get a lot of english tourists, like Sean Connery who supposedly likes to hang there. Anyway we had a quick tour of Gstaad and we’re ready to head back into the hills. It had rained during the night and was still gray in the morning but by noon it was all sunshine, white clouds, blue sky. Decided to take a flyer over to Interlaken so see if the Eiger was visible. Not far away, over a low col, and down into a valley that flows into one of the lakes Interlaken is between. Drove over the low col, full urbanized with swiss chalets everywhere, almost none old and rooted. Dropped down the back side, looked like a potentially big time fun downhill on the bike. Tomorrow. Today was cruising with the wife. Spotted a one-lane road angling off to the left and up. Steep. Impulse turn. Lunch time, figured we’d find a good picnic spot. We did. Relaxed in the sun, watched the clouds float by. Drank some beers, feeling mellow. Quick nap, then turn around, head down. Seriously steep. Definite hard man climb. Hit the main road again, turn left, heading to Interlaken.
Could have been in New England in that valley, bunch of covered bridges along the way. All wood. Looks like it could be a good bike ride, apparently there’s a bike path instead of having to do the road. Lot of traffic on the road. More than I had expected. Then again my expectations in that department maybe have become a bit out of touch with reality. Broke out of the hills, hit the autoroute for Interlaken. Lots of traffic on that puppy. Runs right along Lac de Thune, french name for a lake surrounded by towns with definite german names. Huge lake. Lac de Brienz (another french lake surrounded by german names) is the lake on the other side of Interlaken, which I’m assuming means between lakes. Definitely the case, maybe only 4 K, max, from one lake to the other. I had no idea Switzerland had so many huge lakes until maybe 10 years ago when we drove across part of it on a return from Italy to France. Don’t know what they’re like in the winter but in the summer they’re gorgeous.
No luck for the Eiger, the clouds had thickened and lowered. Interlaken seemed like a small city so we just turned around and drove back. Saw all the views that were behind us on the way over. Dropping back into the valley of Pay d’Enhaut was wonderful. Amazingly calm there. Might have already said this in my earlier post, reminded me of Colorado. I could live there easily and happily. Start hiking in the mountains again. Hiking trails everywhere. All marked. Day-long hikes with a return by train, perfect. Signs for mountain bike trails were as numerous as the ones for hiking. Maybe I’d start mountain biking again. It’s just a gorgeous place.
Switzerland is the only country in the world that mows its mountains! I’m not kidding. Okay, maybe partially. It’s not like they’re out there with lawn mowers, at least not lawn mowers like you’re probably used to. The farmers are subsidized by the governments to cut the mountain pastures. They store the grass for the animals in the winter. Hard work. Lots of those fields are on slopes so steep a person would have a hard time just walking up them and these guys are out there either cutting them by hand with scythes or with these mowing machines that they walk behind. That’s on the really steep slopes. For the less steep slopes they’ve got these small tractors that they manage to cut the grass with. Afterwards on the steep slopes they rake the grass by hand with big wooden rakes, just like they did a hundred years ago. All the hand raking seems to be done by women, kids, and the really old guys. A family affair. Or an extended family affair.
I realize this might make any republicans on this forum foam at the mouth but these farmers are apparently well subsidized financially to do all that. There isn’t enough money in farming to justify all that hand labor but the swiss long ago understood that one of their major resources is tourists coming to enjoy the mountains. Which means views and hiking and cows and cheeses and farmers and milkmaids dancing and singing with Julie (see my earlier post if you don’t know who Julie is). So the swiss vote to subsidize their farmers and everyone wins. A dirty word in american politics, subsidies, but if I was swiss, I’d sure as hell vote for it too. And for subsidizing all those terrific trains they’ve got. And their highways. Etc. I’m not saying that Switzerland and the swiss are perfect but for me no question that a lot of the world could profit from following their example. Kind of an interesting mix with lots of contradictions. They’ve got this amazing world of nature in the mountains that has been totally commercialized. They’ve literally turned their mountains into a financial entity that generates enormous revenues. But to get the most return out of that entity, a world of nature, they work hard and spend big to preserve the environment. Kind of like ensuring the health of a prize milk cow. Gets great treatment but still gets milked to the max. No milk, no revenues, no revenues, no farmers to keep the cows happy and the fields mowed. An interesting manor of blending socialism with capitalism for the common good. Never work in the states. No way, not in today’s political climate. End of political statement.
Got back to Chateau d’Oex and kept on going down the valley to village of Rossinière. My wife said there’s a house there I have to see. She was right. Built in 1754, or more likely finished that year. Probably took a few years to build. Or more. Amazing place. Back side in poorer condition than the front. Apparently owned by a countess of the same family that built it.
On to the photos. No cycling related shots. Those will come later in another post for my second ride there.
Day two, cruising with the wife, shooting pics, checking out the countryside. Basically scoping out rides for the future. First stop Rougemont, the next village up the valley from Chateau d’Oex. Beautifully crafted wood houses, works or art. Only they’re not, they’re houses. Everything’s wood. Well, maybe not the windows but only because they never figured out how to make glass out of wood. They’re all dated, the oldest we saw from the 1600s, the most recent 1959. Did a double take on that last. Thought that’s not old before suddenly realizing that was 53 years ago. I was still in high school. They’re all decorated with designs and writings, intricate work, done by real artisans, proud of their work. They should be. Plop a modern track home or even some american trophy home next to one and the modern house would probably wilt into the ground in embarrassment. Shot a lot of pics. Regular house parade.
Moved up the valley, heading to Gstaad. Got waylaid in Saanen at the train station. Had to shoot it, then the hotel behind the train station. Welcome to Switzerland.
On to Gstaad to check out where the rich and famous park. Didn’t see it when I rode by on the bike path. Center of the village closed to cars. Pay parking, helps to pay for the cleanliness. Strolled through, nice place. Reminded me a bit of Aspen, only the buildings are lower, the village more laid back. Or so it seemed. Nothing I can define, just a feeling. Mostly a place to shop and eat but agreeably so. We did neither. Strolled through to one end, turned around, strolled back. A good sized building, but not high, two stories, was either getting modified or being built. Looked like a major project. Spectacularly clean. Everything organized, materials stacked, attractive barriers guaranteeing if anything fell no strollers would get hit. Probably an exaggeration but I had the impression that if a wind came up no clouds of dust would be lifted off the site. A few sub-contractors on the job, each one with their own company t-shirt. I’m not making that up. I saw that on just about every work site I passed, the crews all wearing the same t-shirts. An organized country.
Also multi-lingual. Chateau d’Oex and Rougemont are in a french speaking canton, Gstaad in a german canton. The line between the two is distinct. A small bump-bump when I road over it on my bike. Like a traffic counter. Road signs 10 meters away from each other will be in different languages. On the french side all the signs are in french, on the german side german. I wonder if a house is built on the frontier, do they change languages as they change rooms? What was odd to me was that the frontier seems like a totally arbitrary line drawn on a map as opposed to one that follows some geographic boundary, like a river or a line of hills. I suppose most people there speak french and german but I definitely noticed that the people in the french sector spoke french between themselves and those in the german sector spoke german between themselves. I speak no german at all so spoke french and most of the time in the german canton had no problem. A couple of times ran into people who spoke no french at all.
Gstaad is definitely in the german canton. Had the impression that the second most important language there was english, not french. Maybe they get a lot of english tourists, like Sean Connery who supposedly likes to hang there. Anyway we had a quick tour of Gstaad and we’re ready to head back into the hills. It had rained during the night and was still gray in the morning but by noon it was all sunshine, white clouds, blue sky. Decided to take a flyer over to Interlaken so see if the Eiger was visible. Not far away, over a low col, and down into a valley that flows into one of the lakes Interlaken is between. Drove over the low col, full urbanized with swiss chalets everywhere, almost none old and rooted. Dropped down the back side, looked like a potentially big time fun downhill on the bike. Tomorrow. Today was cruising with the wife. Spotted a one-lane road angling off to the left and up. Steep. Impulse turn. Lunch time, figured we’d find a good picnic spot. We did. Relaxed in the sun, watched the clouds float by. Drank some beers, feeling mellow. Quick nap, then turn around, head down. Seriously steep. Definite hard man climb. Hit the main road again, turn left, heading to Interlaken.
Could have been in New England in that valley, bunch of covered bridges along the way. All wood. Looks like it could be a good bike ride, apparently there’s a bike path instead of having to do the road. Lot of traffic on the road. More than I had expected. Then again my expectations in that department maybe have become a bit out of touch with reality. Broke out of the hills, hit the autoroute for Interlaken. Lots of traffic on that puppy. Runs right along Lac de Thune, french name for a lake surrounded by towns with definite german names. Huge lake. Lac de Brienz (another french lake surrounded by german names) is the lake on the other side of Interlaken, which I’m assuming means between lakes. Definitely the case, maybe only 4 K, max, from one lake to the other. I had no idea Switzerland had so many huge lakes until maybe 10 years ago when we drove across part of it on a return from Italy to France. Don’t know what they’re like in the winter but in the summer they’re gorgeous.
No luck for the Eiger, the clouds had thickened and lowered. Interlaken seemed like a small city so we just turned around and drove back. Saw all the views that were behind us on the way over. Dropping back into the valley of Pay d’Enhaut was wonderful. Amazingly calm there. Might have already said this in my earlier post, reminded me of Colorado. I could live there easily and happily. Start hiking in the mountains again. Hiking trails everywhere. All marked. Day-long hikes with a return by train, perfect. Signs for mountain bike trails were as numerous as the ones for hiking. Maybe I’d start mountain biking again. It’s just a gorgeous place.
Switzerland is the only country in the world that mows its mountains! I’m not kidding. Okay, maybe partially. It’s not like they’re out there with lawn mowers, at least not lawn mowers like you’re probably used to. The farmers are subsidized by the governments to cut the mountain pastures. They store the grass for the animals in the winter. Hard work. Lots of those fields are on slopes so steep a person would have a hard time just walking up them and these guys are out there either cutting them by hand with scythes or with these mowing machines that they walk behind. That’s on the really steep slopes. For the less steep slopes they’ve got these small tractors that they manage to cut the grass with. Afterwards on the steep slopes they rake the grass by hand with big wooden rakes, just like they did a hundred years ago. All the hand raking seems to be done by women, kids, and the really old guys. A family affair. Or an extended family affair.
I realize this might make any republicans on this forum foam at the mouth but these farmers are apparently well subsidized financially to do all that. There isn’t enough money in farming to justify all that hand labor but the swiss long ago understood that one of their major resources is tourists coming to enjoy the mountains. Which means views and hiking and cows and cheeses and farmers and milkmaids dancing and singing with Julie (see my earlier post if you don’t know who Julie is). So the swiss vote to subsidize their farmers and everyone wins. A dirty word in american politics, subsidies, but if I was swiss, I’d sure as hell vote for it too. And for subsidizing all those terrific trains they’ve got. And their highways. Etc. I’m not saying that Switzerland and the swiss are perfect but for me no question that a lot of the world could profit from following their example. Kind of an interesting mix with lots of contradictions. They’ve got this amazing world of nature in the mountains that has been totally commercialized. They’ve literally turned their mountains into a financial entity that generates enormous revenues. But to get the most return out of that entity, a world of nature, they work hard and spend big to preserve the environment. Kind of like ensuring the health of a prize milk cow. Gets great treatment but still gets milked to the max. No milk, no revenues, no revenues, no farmers to keep the cows happy and the fields mowed. An interesting manor of blending socialism with capitalism for the common good. Never work in the states. No way, not in today’s political climate. End of political statement.
Got back to Chateau d’Oex and kept on going down the valley to village of Rossinière. My wife said there’s a house there I have to see. She was right. Built in 1754, or more likely finished that year. Probably took a few years to build. Or more. Amazing place. Back side in poorer condition than the front. Apparently owned by a countess of the same family that built it.
On to the photos. No cycling related shots. Those will come later in another post for my second ride there.