Switzerland and the Neff House.

When we left there Monday the 16th, we drove up to Switzerland. We had hoped to go see the Matterhorn, but again it was raining and the clouds covered the tops of the lower Alps we were traveling through, so we thought it silly to pay to go see the higher ones. We drove up to Altdorf where we decided to leave the freeway and find a room. We drove through the town and up the mountain. We went through Burglen and on up the mountain, until we could go no higher. So we turned around, we found a room in Burglen.

The room was nice and we had a beautiful view out the window. We walked down to the Tell Museum, but it was 5:01 and it closed at 5. We then went to the Tell Chapel, cemetery and church.
B, L and D in front of the Tell Church.

They had very interesting headstones in the Tell Cemetery. I had never seen stones with copper relieve designs or little pictures of the person on the headstone or below it.
D and I by the cemetery wall, overlooking Burglen and Altdorf. We couldn't figure out why William Tell was such a big deal in this little town. So I looked it up on Wikipedia.

The Legend of William Tell

William Tell from Bürglen was known as an expert marksman with the crossbow. At the time, the Habsburg emperors were seeking to dominate Uri. Hermann Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf raised a pole in the village's central square with his hat on top and demanded that all the local townsfolk bow before it. As Tell passed by without bowing, he was arrested. He received the punishment of being forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son, Walter, or else both would be executed.

Tell had been promised freedom if he shot the apple. On November 18, 1307, Tell split the fruit with a single bolt from his crossbow, without mishap. When Gessler queried him about the purpose of the second bolt in his quiver, Tell answered that if he had ended up killing his son in that trial, he would have turned the crossbow on Gessler himself. Gessler became enraged at that comment, and had Tell bound and brought to his ship to be taken to his castle at Küssnacht. In a storm on Lake Lucerne, Tell managed to escape. On land, he went to Küssnacht, and when Gessler arrived, Tell shot him with the crossbow.

Tell's defiance of Gessler sparked a rebellion leading to the formation of the Swiss Confederation.

Tell fought in the Battle of Morgarten in 1315. He died in 1354 while trying to save a child from drowning in the Schächenbach, an alpine river in Uri. There is a fresco from 1582 in a chapel in Bürglen showing this scene.

We drove through Lucern and then on to Zurich on Tuesday. The whole town was excited about the Euro 2008 Soccer Tournament. There was a game that night and people were wearing there national colors, dancing in the streets and singing their national songs. The display below was in the train station in Zurich. I think they had a statue for the best player on each nations team. They were huge.

We went to the Landis Museum in Zurich and saw the Adam Neff sword.

D, B and L in front of the Adam Neff Sword.
D and J in front of sword. Below is Neff house in Kappel am Albis. I am in back of the house with L, D and J.
Here I am in the Neff Room in the Neff house in front of a picture of Adam Neff with his sword.
B, L, D and J in the Neff Room.
Here I am at the wall of Soloturn with Bea and G on Wednesday June 18. We had arrived the day before and spent Wednesday morning walking around another castle. With our personal guides we went through Soloturn and learned about the city. Below is the cathedral.

Bea, D, J and B in front of the cathedral.

G pointed out that on ceiling there are 4 prophets painted around the center.

One of them is Melchizedek receiving tithing from Abraham.

Here are D, B and L in front of the Solothurn Castle. It is a long castle with a porch on each end and then another room, both upstairs and down ...

But as this picture of L shows, the castle is only one room deep. Kind of funny.

Good bye our good friends, we hope to see you again soon. Off we go driving through the Swiss countryside.

J has been in his car seat a lot, but he is still smiling. We followed the road signs through Zurich, there is a freeway headed into and out of Zurich, but not through, so it took a while. We headed out toward Germany. I had picked up some brochures and looked through them. There was one showing rooms in Appenzell, so we got off the freeway in St Gallen and headed toward Appenzell. B drove up the mountain, we passed several small villages, and cute hotels. When we finally got to Appenzell, we went to a service station and asked about the hotels, we found that the hotels were in the villages we had driven through. B saw a sign saying there were hotels up a road, so he headed out of town and up into the hills. Every once in a while we saw another sign saying there were hotels ahead. We suggested we turn around, but B just kept going on and on up this step mountain road. Finally we found a hotel way up the hill. It is a lovely place with a playground for the children and a pool in the basement. We had a lovely dinner and went swimming before going to bed.


Here I am with L, J and B in front of the hotel.