fleece coats and long pants to stay warm. The clouds are hanging low
and spitting rain. Been this way for days. Today's forecast was
better, both dryer and warmer, but as we ate a Swiss breakfast of
tomatoes, soft and hard cheese, sliced meat, eggs and bread the grey
sky threatened. Gallus had a day of hiking planned, with an afternoon
at his brother's farm celebrating his god child, Tanya's seventh
birthday. A few Swiss equivalents of shit were heard as he saw his
hiking plans for the day drizzle away.
But, new to town and country and really just wanting to spend time
with Gallus, we were up for anything. Gallus needed to buy a birthday
present for his niece, so we hit downtown St. Galin for toy stores.
While there we visited the church and abbey. We honestly had no
expectation of anything fancy, just a church in a smaller city, but
when we entered we were blown away by this beautiful church. The
adjoining buildings contained a library of unparalleled beauty with
wood carved bookcases, railings and balconies and painted ceilings.
The 150,000 volumes in this single ornate room dated back as far as
400AD and were on display to see the hand written text and leather
binding.
We drove to the start of the hiking trail Gallus had in mind. Imaging
pulling into the Paradise parking lot at Mt. Rainier to find a gondola
to Camp Muir, a 4 story Swiss style hotel and restaurant and the
meadows full of hundreds of cows, each with a bell clanging across the
meadows. It was captivating. The trail climbed 3000' up a rocky cliff
to a restaurant on top. But the cold drizzle drove us back to the car
and down to town for one more look for a gift before heading out to
the birthday party at Gallus's brother, Fritz's farm.
This turned out to be the best afternoon of the trip so far. We were
able to step out of the tourist roll and become friends visiting
friends. Fritz's farm clings to a steep mountainside of pastures along
with 5 or 6 neighboring farms, each about 5 to 10 acres in size. Fritz
milks 29 cows, has 500 laying chickens and some pigs. He is also a
master carpenter having rebuilt the interior of his 350 year old Swiss
house and made all the furniture. He has five children from 6 to 18
years old and is himself 44.
We crowded into the tight kitchen overlooking the valley below for
birthday cake, wine and coffee, sang happy birthday in Germany and
English and had a lively broken english-german discussion. Markus,
the 18 year old son wanted to practice his English from high school,
so he and I talked about our home and lives, laughing at our inability
to communicate and asking Gallus to interpret for us now and then to
get by some tough phrases. Markus had finished upper school and was
in carpenters apprentice school, working 4 days a week and going to
class one. He was kind with bright eyes, a young face and a quick
smile and laugh.
We toured the house with Gallus and Markus marvelling at Fritz's
carpentry skills. Fritz speaks no English, and had to tend to his
farming chores, so we saw little of him during the afternoon. We
enjoyed a bowl of freshly made cream of broccoli soup, then headed out
for a walk thru the sloping pastures and hay fields, returning an hour
and a half later for bar-b-que of sausage, pork, chicken, zucchini and
chips.
Gathered around a cheap wire grill on a small open charcoal fire on
the ground, Gallus and his brother did the cooking, throwing
bratwurst, chicken wings and strips of meat on the little wire grill
over the next few hours, feeding the crowd of 8 adults and 9 kids,
ages 1 month to 18 years.
As the afternoon floated into evening all were fed, the fire was built
up with firewood for warmth and bottles of beer and a variety of
Fritz's home made brews made the rounds.
The kids thought we were special, coming all the way from the USA to
visit them. Five gathered around me and we played video games on my
iPhone. I discovered that there is a universal language - video game.
"Next level", "my turn", "start", "game over". The 4 kids playing with
me, aged 6-12 would get excited and start telling me about something
on rapid fire Swiss-German, but I had no idea what their excited
commentary was about. About 9:30 my batteries gave up the ghost. I ha
d to have Gallus explain to the very sad faced kids why we had to quit.
We reluctantly left Fritz's farm about 12:30 after a magical day.
Chuck
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