Interlaken: What follows are some random thoughts following a day of riding some 12 trains around Switzerland. First thought, the Swiss must be the neatest people on the planet. I mean "neat" in the not-messy sense. This whole country is characterized by tidiness, neatness, square corners, order, and a lack of entropy, for physics enthusiasts.
The German-speaking parts of the country may be marginally tidier than the French-speaking parts, we visited both today. Both, however, are world-class squared away. The main thing you notice in the French-speaking cantons is that more of the homes are all-stucco. In the German-speaking cantons you see a much higher percentage of homes with a stucco or masonry ground floor and a wood-sided second floor.
Many homes in this heaviliy forested country burn wood for heat. Their wood piles must be seen to be believed. Each piece is exactly the same length, and they are stacked with military precision, and each stack covered with a roof or piece of corrugated metal or a tarp, if nothing else avails.
The Swiss are gonzo-crazy for trains, they run trains to places we might not even bother with a road to. They run trains in multiple gauges: standard, narrow, and somewhere inbetween.
Today, 2 of the trains we took were "cog-assisted" which means they can function as a cog railroad but only do so in steep sections. Where it is flatter, they motor along like a streetcar. Our guide, Geoff, assures us there is a difference between a true cog railway and a cog-assisted railway, and we're inclined to take his word for it. The one we took could sure pull some steep grades. It could also descend those same steep inclines with no drama from overheating brakes.
There is a lot of building going on in Switzerland, the building crane is seen everywhere. Actually we've only seen one new homesite, the rest have been commerical or multiple dwelling. The country appears prosperous and obvious signs of militarization are less in evidence than formerly - better concealed, fewer in number or both. The Swiss will build a house or barn on the slope of a very steep hill, apparently think nothing of it. The effort to get a road or driveway to some sites must be Herculean.
The place is overrun by Muslim couples with wives covered up like nuns of old, or moreso. We're unclear whether they are tourists, or residents. If the latter, Europe has an immigrant problem much worse than ours in the States. It feels like I imagine it did long ago when some people had slaves following them around docilely ... creepy.
