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Published: August 30th 2018
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The day started with rain as expected which brought the temperature down to 18 - shades of home! The rain soon passed and left the day with clouds high up on the mountains and quite clear in the valley, so it was conducive for a walk down the valley on the high road. This trail took us along through farms and past farm buildings. There are virtually no animals around at present so I can only assume they are still grazing higher on the mountains until it's too cold. We came across a dairy selling mountain cheese, fresh milk, eggs and preserved meat so we purchased a block of cheese for about half of what we would pay at home. We also continued to pass textile factories that appear closed which took us to 4 in the immediate area. I thought there might be one or two mills from the past but appears that the whole valley was industrialized for textile manufacture. After "Googling" Glarus and textiles I found that around 1865 the textile industry sparked the "Glarner industrial miracle". At the height of the boom there were 6000 people working in the factories and weaving mills and it appears they
were mainly printing cotton fabricsWhen the industry collapsed around 1900 many lost their jobs and emigrated out of the valley.
The other point of interest in the valley are the symbols everywhere of St Fridolin who was an Irish monk from the Upper Rhine valley. However, it seems that the Fridolin of the Glarus area happened much later and is to do with a landowner who was converted to Christianity through a courtcase where Fridolin summoned the dead brother of the landowner to appear in court to where a gift of land was being contested. I guess he was so freaked out he became a Christian believer and gifted all of his land as well as the contested land. Now he is the Patron Saint of the valley.
We caught the train down the valley to Glarus town in the afternoon which is further than I at first thought. It is about 6 train stops from Haetzingen so a bit more than a short walk! It is the main town for Glarus Canton but isn't very big at 12000 people. It has a busy main town area but is nothing like the other larger cities in Switzerland. We
Was ist das?
What is this indeed! This is the Survival Bunker in the house we are staying in. It has a heavy thick door made to seal in the dwellers against any catastrophe... had a wander around the older and newer parts of the town, bought a Black Forest Gateau for dessert and got the train back to Haetzingen. We spotted another couple of closed textile mills along the way. Just how many are there? This place must have hummed in the past. It is now a pretty valley, not too densely populated, cheaper than other parts of Switzerland and well catered for by industry and tourism. We'll save further exploration for when we return at the end of September for a week.
I have included a picture of the survival bunker in the house of my niece because it is so unusual. The door is thick and heavy with huge handles to open it which can be removed and taken to the other side to prevent opening. The room is about 3m x 3m and lined in heavy concrete. There is a pump to bring in fresh air should it be used. It was a requirement up until 2003 to have these survival rooms installed into all new build houses. Originally, tunnels and bunkers were constructed throughout Switzerland in case of nuclear fall out.
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