Friday, May 12, 2006

Ring my bell

I'm on a mission...before we go back the States, I'm absolutely obsessed with finding a genuine Swiss cowbell (Kuhglocke) to bring home with us. I don't want one of the little touristy cowbells that you can buy in any shop in any mountain town, nor do I want a brand-new one. I want a big bell with an actual leather strap that an actual Swiss cow has worn around its actual neck while grazing on actual Alpine meadows. The problem is, where to find one? The most obvious place would be an antique store somewhere up in the Alps, but in our trips to the mountains thus far we haven't actually found such a store. (We did find one at an antique shop in the Alsace, but with all due respect, I don't want a French cowbell.) So now I've taken to checking the Swiss eBay site a couple times a week to see if there are any good Swiss Kuhglocke up for bid (I never even used eBay back home and now I'm trying to figure it out in German).

So if you know of any good Swiss antique shops, or even a farmer who is looking to upgrade his cowbells and wants to get rid of last year's model, let me know. I gotta have more cowbell.