Day 27: Spitting Cherries

July 7, 2012

I LOVE cherries. So imagine my delight when I happened apon the cherry festival in Zug!

Zug is a beautiful town on a lake that bares it's name (Zugeree). The cherry festival was paired with the Saturday morning farmers market. It was a happ'in'en place.

It was all things cherry--cherry bread, cherry kuchen, cherry wine, cherry jams, and, well, cherries. Cherries of all kinds and varieties. But the most interesting thing to me was the cherry liquor. There was even a cherry still on hand to make it. Looked like corn mash to me, white lightening with pits.

The Zug Cherry Festival. Whoa, that's some hard likor!

Looks like white lightening to me! Reminds me of my days as a bootlegger, running corn mash in the hills of Appalachia, out foxing the feds and......wait, did I say that out loud? Oh, what the heck. Yes, reminds me of my days running corn mash in the hills...

They had apples too, which was actually kind of cool. I saw more unusual apple varieties than I've ever seen in my life. I bought 8 apples and not one of them were the same. SO good! And SO much better than buying 8 "red", mealy, apples at home.

Oh, and there were olives and other stuff at the cherry festival too.

I hung out for a while. Sampling the cherries, and a couple of pieces of cherry kuchen. I watched the excitement of the cherry spitting contest and listened to the sounds of the um-pa band. Yes, the um-pa band. Don't believe me? Here...

The cherry pit spitting competition. The winner qualified for the Olympic games in London. Okay, I made that last part up.

Also in Zug. Pretty details and roof, don't ya think?

After Zug I headed southwest, to Luzern, about 20 miles away. Luzern is fabulous. A great little town loved by all. The only problem is that it's loved by all. I.e. there are a lot of tourists there.

I can says as I blame people. It has beautiful riverfront property, and two old, famous wooden bridges that span the length of it. I walked through one bridge. It was pretty cool, if you want to know the truth, and I know you want to know the truth. And the paintings that ran the length of it were nice too.

"They really seemed obsessed with death," I heard a woman say of the people who created the paintings.

I think she is right, though that doesn't surprise me. The bridges were build a far piece back, in the 1300 and 1400's.

The town of Luzern, from the middle of bridge one

...and from the same bridge, looking in the other direction.

...and these paintings run the length of the bridge.

This is bridge two, the longer one. I didn't go inside. No bikes allowed in this one and I wasn't about to leave The Trucker unattended, even for a minute. I would have to admire this one from the outside.

After Luzern I continued west. I'm now making my way back to Geneva to close the loop.

This part of Switzerland is decidedly flatter than the high mountains, though it's not "flat." I spent a good part of the day riding next to a river, which was flat, but as I made my way to the campground I hit some real leg breakers. Had to push the bike up one stretch.

But it's still pretty here, don't get me wrong, just in a different way.

My day ended in an over crowded campground. But, it was cheap, and the only game in town, so what are ya gunna do?

Tomorrow is another day. Until then...

Chinese food? Here!? It doesn't seem to fit, but Chinese food is good. I guess it's okay if the Swiss eat Chinese food.

Crowded campground tonight. I have noticed that Europeans seem much more comfortable tents right near each other, more than Americans are, at least in my experience.

Today's ride: 115 km (71 miles)
Total: 2,680 km (1,664 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	2
Comment on this entry	Comment	0