Cows on parade
(NOTE: If you don't care about Swiss cows--and just what type of person are you not to care about them?--you may want to scroll past this particular entry.)
So yesterday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to catch the Alpaufzug, in which several hundred cows walked up from the valley to a large Alpine meadow in the Engstligenalp where they spend the summer dining on mountain grass and enjoying the views. It's pretty impressive, since the walk is about 600 metres (2000 feet) straight up from the valley to the Engstligenalp. We watched a few groups set off from the base, then took the cable car up to the top and hiked part of the way down to see the first cows arrive. (On the way up in the cable car, Gretchen said "if we're here next year, I'm coming back and hiking up with them." After hiking a tiny portion of the steep, slippery slope I asked if she still planned to hike the whole thing next year and she said "No way.") Anyway, these were the first arrivals to where we were standing (they had probably climbed up at least 1500 vertical feet by this point):
This is what it looked like after they passed us to face the last set of major switchbacks (that's Gretchen standing on the hillside in the far left center of the picture...you can also see kids at the back of the group--a lot of kids came up as shepherds and seemed to be having a blast). Oh, and there were even a couple of dudes playing big Alpenhorns, just in case the scene wasn't already Swiss enough:
This is Gretchen getting up close and personal with another group:
Then the big reward once they got to the top: flat terrain, fresh grass, cool mountain air, sun, beautiful views, cool clear streams to drink from:
Some of them had the hugest bells (and accompanying straps) I had ever seen. This one also had the indignity of having a milking stool strapped to its head (a "unicow?"). One thing that surprised me is that I always thought it was only bulls that had horns, but all of these female cows had horns. If you doubt that they're female, the udder on this one should convince you otherwise:
Finally, as we were getting ready to go back down on the cable car--hot, exhausted, our shoes coated in mud and perhaps more than a little cow shit--we saw what happens to those cows that can't make the walk. They literally put them on a separate cable car and send them up alone. I really wonder what was going through her mind on the way up:
So if you find yourself in Switzerland next June and have a hankering to see big Swiss milk cows with big bells in their natural Alpine environment, we highly recommend the Alpaufzug in Adelboden (although supposedly there are similar events throughout the Alps). Two thumbs up!
So yesterday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to catch the Alpaufzug, in which several hundred cows walked up from the valley to a large Alpine meadow in the Engstligenalp where they spend the summer dining on mountain grass and enjoying the views. It's pretty impressive, since the walk is about 600 metres (2000 feet) straight up from the valley to the Engstligenalp. We watched a few groups set off from the base, then took the cable car up to the top and hiked part of the way down to see the first cows arrive. (On the way up in the cable car, Gretchen said "if we're here next year, I'm coming back and hiking up with them." After hiking a tiny portion of the steep, slippery slope I asked if she still planned to hike the whole thing next year and she said "No way.") Anyway, these were the first arrivals to where we were standing (they had probably climbed up at least 1500 vertical feet by this point):
This is what it looked like after they passed us to face the last set of major switchbacks (that's Gretchen standing on the hillside in the far left center of the picture...you can also see kids at the back of the group--a lot of kids came up as shepherds and seemed to be having a blast). Oh, and there were even a couple of dudes playing big Alpenhorns, just in case the scene wasn't already Swiss enough:
This is Gretchen getting up close and personal with another group:
Then the big reward once they got to the top: flat terrain, fresh grass, cool mountain air, sun, beautiful views, cool clear streams to drink from:
Some of them had the hugest bells (and accompanying straps) I had ever seen. This one also had the indignity of having a milking stool strapped to its head (a "unicow?"). One thing that surprised me is that I always thought it was only bulls that had horns, but all of these female cows had horns. If you doubt that they're female, the udder on this one should convince you otherwise:
Finally, as we were getting ready to go back down on the cable car--hot, exhausted, our shoes coated in mud and perhaps more than a little cow shit--we saw what happens to those cows that can't make the walk. They literally put them on a separate cable car and send them up alone. I really wonder what was going through her mind on the way up:
So if you find yourself in Switzerland next June and have a hankering to see big Swiss milk cows with big bells in their natural Alpine environment, we highly recommend the Alpaufzug in Adelboden (although supposedly there are similar events throughout the Alps). Two thumbs up!
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