Laowai

OK – this is the last of my Switzerland posts – then I’ll try to catch up with some posts on our Out West vacation.

For the last part of our trip we stayed in Appenzell – it’s a town in the east of the country. It’s well known for the way it preserves it’s history and cultivates it’s handiwork traditions. I took lots of photos of the pretty decorated buildings.

We visited their cultural museum and I was fascinated with all the traditional hand crafts the people of the region do. Things like the primitive painting, woodworking, paper cutting and especially the traditional costumes and lacemaking. The crafts have their origins in what the peasant farmers were making and wearing a long long time ago but when visitors started showing an interest they were influenced to put more time and refinement into their traditions. It seems so very Swiss – the way the farmers capitalized on the interest in their land and traditions to lift themselves up.

Also, interestingly, this region was the last to allow women to vote in 1990. Yes 1990! They are very attached to tradition.

We had a nice walk and picnic through the rolling farm land one night. All the neat little old farms have the farmhouse and the barn built so they are connected. 

There are lots of higher quality handicraft souvenirs that you can buy in the pretty little town. Or you can get a t-shirt like this:

Or how about a gnome? I almost brought one home.

And now I’ll wrap up this long series of photos with one more. Brian and the girls at the grocery store in the Zurich train station. In the chocolate aisle – we had to load up on chocolate before we headed for home. What a wonderful trip!