Day 6 - Swans, Swimming & Glass

Our first full day in Switzerland starts warm and sunny with the ground still damp from the downpour during the night. Anna and I are staying with my cousin Sabine and she loves that they have a black and white cat named Nero. Breakfast includes mango orange juice, coffee, cereal and a wide selection of breads that are all delicious. Anna loves the European butter as much as I do and spreads it generously on all her breads.

We are meeting Alexandra, Bruno, Jan and Garret in Hergiswil at the Glasi factory at 10, but Anna is hoping to get some swim time in at the lake before so we leave early. Sabine rides her bike to the train station in the next town over, so she can return home after Glasi, and we pick her up there then head to the lake. Anna likes talking with Sabine about her job as a veterinarian. She wants to know all about the animals Sabine works with and the different things she has seen with them. It is funny to watch Anna's reaction to Sabine describing how she helps a calf be born.

The lake bottom is soft and squishy which makes Anna squirm, and the swans swimming nearby make her a little nervous. But Sabine and I wade out with her and eventually she is up to her neck in the lake. A man is throwing a stick for a strange looking dog, kind of a cross between a wolf , a German Sheppard and something fuzzy, and we talk about how we miss our dog Arny, who is staying with my parents. We only have about 20 minutes at the lake but it's long enough to make Anna happy.

We head into Hergiswil once we’ve dried off, and I recall this being a beautiful town on the shores of the Vierwaldstattersee (the four different kantons lake because it is so large that four different kantons, or states, are on this lake). This lake is the same as Lake Lucerne, but here they refer to it as the name above.

Hergiswil Glasi has grown a lot in the 20 years since I was here last. It now has an interesting narrative tour about the history of glass making and of the company, a lakeside café, a glass labyrinth, and a science center that is great for kids. We watch three teams of men make drinking glasses, tall German style beer glasses, and molded animals (it looks like cats that are laying down and sitting). Even

though it feels like more than 100 degrees on the observation platform above where they are working, we still watch for quite some time, mesmerized by the process. First a small grape size ball of molten glass comes out of the oven on the long metal rod, and when that cools slightly it gets dipped back into the molten glass and comes out with an apple size ball. The maker carefully puts the ball of semi-liquid glass into the mold and begins to blow into the cool end of the metal rod and stops right when the glass is just over the top edge of the mold. His partner cuts the glass free from the pole, waits just a moment then pulls the drinking glass out of the mold and clips it upside down into a machine that will spin the drinking glass while jets of flame begin to cut the excess glass from the top and make a smooth surface around the edge. The finished drinking glass is placed into an oven so it cools slowly.

I think Glasi must make at least 200 different items, maybe more. It is so hard to decide what souvenirs to bring home, all their products are beautiful. I want to bring home a butter dish with lid and a fish shaped bowl for a friend, but I don’t want to lug them around Europe for the next two weeks so we each choose something super small that will be light, easy to carry, and hopefully won't break. Bruno takes the kids through the glass labyrinth and they come out laughing with stories about all the funny things that happened, like running into glass walls. We relax by the lake with cold drinks (I love the apple chorle here, like a not too sweet apple cider). Anna keeps asking if she can swim in the lake again so we load up and head to Sarnen where there is the beach club that we saw last night.

The town of Sarnen is lovely with a small downtown area at the head of the lake. Walking distance from Andrina’s school is a beach club with pools, waterslides, and platforms in the lake that look fun. The lake is a little cold but not bad on this hot day. The kids swim out to

the diving platform and each jump off from the highest point. Then they swim out to a square float and play around with trying to sway it so someone will fall off. Bruno, Alexandra and I swim out to a pyramid shaped float and relax here for awhile before the kids arrive and eventually we all go back to shore. After eating an ice cream, the kids go straight to the second floor pool which has windows that they can see us from when they drive down. Unfortunately they only discovered how much fun the water slide was in the last half hour. They rode the slide down every way possible: all three together, all three separate, feet first, head first, sideways, holding hands, etc. The beach resort is SO MUCH FUN!!! Bruno has packed a tasty picnic with salami and the most delicious Swiss cheeses, with fruit and ice tea. It is wonderful relaxing in the grass here, eating great food and watching the kids have fun together.

We were treated to one of the best dinners at Sabine and Michi’s

house that evening. They have a very cool woodfire grill next to their deck that has a fire in the middle and a thick metal grill all around. You can cook anything on this grill, and the menu for tonight includes a colorful selection from their garden (green and yellow zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant, and corn on the cob), four different types of wurst, including one wrapped in bacon, and a garden fresh green salad. It was all delicious! And just to prove that it can be done, Michi cooks up a couple eggs on the grill which the kids gladly eat. We finish the day with some good Spanish wine and fun conversation. Such a fun, relaxing and enjoyable day in beautiful Switzerland.