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Published: July 19th 2017
Beautiful Falls
A welcome stop on the way to Baretswil!Into our rental car to begin our drive and adventure to Baretswil From Gruyere. A lengthy but beautiful drive through the Alps passing Lausanne, Interlaken, Lucerne, Rapperswil and on to our sweet holiday apartment on a farm in the hills of Baretswil. Definitely a number of hair raising moments for Deb as we traveled through the switchbacks in the Alps ???. OMG (was heard many times).
En route we made a stop at a beautiful waterfall in the mountains which needed a closer look. It was a beautiful setting and came just at the right time for a short break from the driving. Located in the midst of a village, it was surrounded by gorgeous scenery and homes.
A stop in Lucerne for a visit to a banking machine, and a quickie stop for a few supplies. Lucerne is a pretty city but time was pressing on, it was time to continue and get to Baretswil. It had been a long day on the road but we wanted to do the scenic route and not drive the Motorway which is meant for speed and not nearly as pretty. Finally, we arrived to a wonderful farm property owned by Joachim
and Alexandra Katterwe situated in the hills. A beautiful setting with the sound of bells - a lovely reminder of the cows grazing on the distant hills. We were greeted by Joachim, Alexandra and their friend Ruth Battaglia. Ruth, is turns out, lived in Toronto for many years and has now returned to her home in Switzerland. She had only just returned from a visit to Toronto the week before. They were all very warm and welcoming people. Ruth helped with translation as Joachim and Alexandra speak mainly German but they did extremely well with their English but just got stuck on a few words. You always seem to manage with communication with a little bit of sign language thrown in. ?
Once we settled into our holiday apartment, which had everything we could ever need, we relaxed from our long day of driving. What a lovely place to call home for the next 5 days. We will be very happy here. All the comforts of home - Swiss style. And the view, breathtaking!
Part of travel is experiencing new surroundings. We were in our little village and happened upon a small local restaurant, a mere 500 meters
from our home. When we walked in we thought we were interrupting a family gathering as there were old and young alike. Babies, grandparents and parents all together. We were welcomed in by the group to join in and take a seat at the group table. This was a wonderful place with a long history and many artifacts on the walls, including giant brass cow bells. The hostess immediately greeted us (in English!) and made us feel at home with a nice cold beer, followed by a schnitzel. We enjoyed a nice evening talking to her as well as some of the local folk.
Ruth asked us to come by for a visit to her home on Saturday afternoon which was very kind. In the morning, we took a drive to Dubendorf a town about 30 minutes drive to attend a geocaching event. We were greeted by a friendly group who were meeting in a nice little park and were offered drink and snacks. We made contact with several cachers who offered us information and help with our caching in the area. We exchanged information.
On our return to our home base in Barestwil, we contacted Ruth and
River from waterfall
Cool and refreshing break made plans for a visit. We traveled to her home in Bauma (another very nearby town - 5 minutes away ) where we were greeted by her and husband Hans. We shared some wine and had a long visit and lots of chat about Switzerland ?? and Canada ??. Great fun and the visit evolved into a dinner which was very very nice. Hans and Ruth have a very lovely home and garden, where we sat to enjoy our afternoon visit and meal. Very kind, fun and generously showed us great hospitality. Their little dog Cindy was lots of fun. Debra and Ruth took Cindy the dog for a walk along the river, after the meal, and enjoyed the evening air and gorgeous gardens in the neighborhood. We said our goodbyes and made our way home.
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Margaret
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Evening walk
I bet it was nice to be able to go for a walk in the evening without being bitten by the Mosquitoes. It looks beautiful there.