Gstaad and Lauenen

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We had a rude awaking at 5 o'clock in the morning by an unholy clanging below the house! It was still dark. What was going on? We stumbled out of bed to see a herd of cows being driven along the road with bells on their necks and lights on their heads. We've seen the bells before but never lights. Whether these were set amongst garlands of flowers as we've seen before or tied onto their horns, I have no idea. I was too groggy to get my camera working in time to capture the sight. These are the scenes that make rural Switzerland special and interesting. Farming here is so different from home where everything is done intensively. Here, charm still exists.

We had a domestic morning. First, we had to find somewhere to get oil for the car and sure enough it was low on oil and took the whole litre. Really, we shouldn't have received a car that hadn't been checked fully. Imagine if we'd fried the engine through lack of oil.

We had a walk around Gstaad which is a pretty pristine town not unlike other Swiss resorts like St Moritz and Klosters. While being still attractive, Saanen is a much smaller and quieter place to stay but still having great facilities. Our apartment location is much more to our taste in terms of where to stay. It is rural in an enclave of 5 houses sitting high up on the hill looking out to the towns in the valley.

We did some grocery shopping at the Co-op in Gstaad to cover us for the next two days then headed back to the apartment for lunch.

Our afternoon was spent at Lauenen further up the valley from Gstaad. This is a location where we had been in 2006 when walking across Switzerland on the Alpine Pass Route. How did we do it? The passes around here are 1000m up and another 1000 down the other side on steep paths and we had carried packs as heavy as the bags we have brought with us. Not this time though. We walked uphill for an hour before leveling out into a farmed area where yet again hay making was happening. We then dropped down into forest before arriving at the lake which is relatively small set in a basin with a waterfall coming from a high circ with mountains behind. It's another 26 degree day again today so we were happy to stop at a restaurant on the way back to have a nice cold beer before walking through the village back to the car.

So ends another brilliant day in Saanenland. Tomorrow we'll go really high and will need cold weather gear instead of shorts, singlet and sandals.

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Photos

Walking up the Lauenen valley
How odd to see a lamp post with flowers right alongside and old barn in farmland

The Lauenensee
The beautiful setting of the lake in front of a waterfall and high mountains

Comments

[David Wilson]

F 'oiled!
Ooops, should have gone to specsavers! ! ( oil level !) You hit the nail on the head with your observation "farming in NZ has lost its charm" , so true. Looks a really lovely area where you are Enjoy! Sheilal and Dave