Judy's Postcards: Switzerland

The UK part of our trip ended in Bath and on our last day we drove from Bath to Heathrow and returned our hire car and then flew from there to Zurich.

Colin has a cousin in Zurich and we stayed with them for 3 nights. They live in a small country village of Weisslingen not far out of Zurich.

The scenery there is magnificent. On a clear day you can see the Alps. They have had a lot of rain over the summer and the countryside is a vibrant green rolling hills dotted with cows wearing gigantic cow bells. We were lulled to sleep every night with the gentle tinkling of cow bells and the ringing of the local church bells on the 1/4 of the hour.

We visited the village of Rapperswil in the canton of St Gallen The town of Roses, the Riviera on the upper half of Lake Zurich. The quaint alleys of the medieval old part of town are interesting to stroll around and window shop in the many shops.

Overlooking the town, the Rapperswil castle is perched high on a hill and is home to a Polish museum. From up here you have breathtaking views of the lakeside and surroundings. Rapperswil earns its name as the town of roses owing to the more than 16,000 roses that flower in the rose gardens of the Capuchin monastery and on the "Schanz". The latter is a rose garden for the blind with particularly fragrant roses, the names of which are written in brail on guide panels.

We ate our lunch of fresh bread rolls filled with ham and cheese on the terrace in front of the castle overlooking the lake and watched the life savers participating in some sort of carnival, swim from a small island in the middle of the lake back to the shore. We were unable to go into the castle as there was a function on, possibly a wedding.

We then drove to another breathtakingly beautiful village, Einsiedeln. In the middle of the town is the Abbey. It is a 1000 year old Benedictine Abbey and is on the pilgrim trail. Absolutely breathtaking inside. It is incredibly beautiful but unfortunately no photos allowed. I bought a postcard as a momento.

A lot of people come to worship the Black Madonna. The famous statue of Mary and her son Jesus in the chapel of Our Lady close to the main entrance of the abbey church was carved in the 15th century and is venerated by the pilgrims inside the Holy Chapel.

From there we drove to the car ferry and took the small 10 minute ferry from one side of the lake to the other and drove into the old town of Zurich.