The Alp decent

The weather here is cooling down now, and a couple of weeks ago it was time for the farmers to bring the cows down from their lush Summer pastures in the Alps. This journey of cows and farmers is celebrated with processions and festivals around Switzerland. The cows and farmers dress up and there are games, stalls, dancing and food.

So two weekends ago we went to one festival a couple of hours out of Zürich and enjoyed a lovely day in the countryside. The weather was beautiful, the food was beautiful and of course the cows were beautiful, so beautiful there was even a cow beauty contest!

We took an early train from Zürich and a couple of hours later arrived here.

 Since we now have a small person to consider, we decided to stop for lunch straight away. Lunch was a buffet of local meats, cheeses, breads and jams, and was served in a community hall, complete with entertainment of a traditionally dressed choir and band.

 

After lunch we wandered around the stalls that were selling all sorts of lovely things, sampled the cheeses, and bought a jar of one of the tasty jams that had been on offer at lunch.

 

This type of bell is given as a prize to the loveliest of cows but it wasn't all about the cows, the sheep had a good group representing them too, although I'm not sure how they felt about having their wool coats removed this time of year!

I rather liked this guy's hat, the other side of it had sheep on it.

After we had checked out the stalls we wandered through the village and back down to where the cows were.

 

 How cute are these girls?

 Apparently not as cute as this one...

 or this one.

After a lovely day out enjoying the sunshine, I can easily see why everyone escapes Zürich during the Winter weekends and heads to the mountains. I'm no skier but I do like blue sky and sunshine and am quite OK with heading out every now and then to get a good dose of vitamin D!