Les Petit Swiss

Whilst in Aix doing our language classes we hit it off with a delightful Swiss lady named Manuela. So when she invited us to visit her in Switzerland, we thought it too good an opportunity to pass up. Manuela lives in the town of Zug, on Lake Zug, in the Canton of Zug. Just south of Zurich. We picked up our final rental car of the trip, a microscopic Peugeot 107 (3 cylinder 1.0l engine) and drove the 8 hours from Tours to Zug; except that it took 10 hours because of a bouchon and poor road signs in Zurich. Needless to say 2 extra hours and a $20 Swiss road map bought at a petrol station got us there in the end.

Our tiny Peugeot 107

Zug

Manuela has a great apartment on the 3rd floor with a big balcony and views across the town to the lake. It was a terrific spot for an aperitif and chat before dinner. It also affords Manuela with an excellent opportunity to spy on her neighbours (or to be community minded depending on your point of view). A case in point occurred whilst we were there. Manuela had noticed that the top floor window of the house across the street had been open for 5 straight days. Fearing an undiscovered corpse, Manuela went across the road and knocked on the door. An old lady answered and Manuela explained her concern. The old lady said she was touched, but in fact she was leaving it open because she had cats. So a lovely story for neighbourhood watch you say, but the next day the window was closed and over the ensuing days the old lady installed curtains on all of her windows!

Manuela's balcony with views to Lake Zug

Manuela cooked us a lovely dinner, and baked some traditional twist bread for the next day. I had a go at making one, which Manuela thought looked rather strange.

Making bread

Dinner at Manuela’s (NB David's inevitable acquisition)

Manuela invited her friend Guido to spend the weekend with us to make a jolly foursome. Guido is a character; in his early 30’s he grew up on a dairy farm, trained as a cheesemaker, went into events management and is now doing a 3-4 year acting/singing/dancing course (kind of like the WAAPA course). Of course he is gay, but is also interested in parenthood some day.

Manuela and Guido
Guido in flight

On Saturday we took the short drive (short at 140km/h) to Luzern. This very pretty town sits astride a river with an historic wooden bridge. Along the bridge there were 100+ anecdotes about the bridge and life in Luzern, but as we didn’t stop to read any of them, let’s move on.

Old timber bridge in Luzerne

We ended up at the stylish Art Deco Hotel Montana with a bar overlooking the lake
Wow, after 3 years I find the B&W setting on my digital camera

On the Sunday we drove to a surprising cultural theme park. They have transferred historic buildings, some 400+ years old, from every canton in Switzerland and placed them on a sprawling hillside grouped by region. The buildings have been chosen for their architectural and cultural interest, with many buildings housing working crafts and farming practices of the region.
Ye Olde Swiss House (and David discovers cepia)
Weaver
Cheesemaker
Water wheel powered lumber mill

One house was dedicated to the history of forestry, and they had a cross section of a tree felled in 1988 that they can date back to 1342 by counting the rings. It was fascinating, especially seeing how the rate of growth varied enormously from one century to another.
From l to r the dates read 1342, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 1988

Manuela had to return to work on Monday, so David and I took the train up to Zurich for the day. By this end of the holiday we have become quite fussy about what we’ll do in terms of museums/galleries etc; only the exceptional is raising our interest. We were therefore lucky to discover the Beyer Clock and Watch museum. This private collection of a local watch maker/seller contained a bewildering array of clocks and time pieces.

On Monday night Manuela went off to a practice session for her band Blehmuzik . They do weddings, parties, anything; and their web site is worth a visit! We had a quiet night in cooking for ourselves, and later had a good bye chat over the US Open mens final.

Next time - Rivers of wine in Alsace, and a psychic cat