Water Fountains
I have always had special feeling and favor this kind of drinking water fountain in Europe. You can never find two identical drinking water fountains. Every and each one of them is specially designed and built. They are always unique. Make no mistake, this is the medieval version of our modern drinking water machines. Let’s do a simple comparison with our modern drinking water machines. Even though the modern drinking machine are not always built the same but they literally never get outside of a box. It’s always a box. High efficiency is probably the only merit of our modern drinking water machine because it would never keep letting the water flow.
Nevertheless, there is something missing, something missing from our modern drinking water machines and that is “BEAUTY”. Unlike these medieval drinking water fountains, there is no beauty in the modern drinking machines and it’s a kind of beauty in our living. These medieval drinking water fountains usually built in the middle of a city or town or I shall say the most traffic location. This way it could serve the most number of people. Moreover, it doesn’t just serve people, horses and farm animals or even wild animals could benefit from it. It provides the essential to many, many different kind of living things, not just limited to people. And, because of this reason, it’s not only a functional water fountain, it’s also a place for people to rest. There are usually seats beside these fountains. Other than quench the thirst of people’s need, it also provides a visual rest and comfort for people. And, the never stopping water flowing offers a kind of soothing sound to people which touches and massages people. This is something disappeared, extinguished or wiped out in Europe after the Industry Revolutions, a beauty in our living. In comparison, other than providing drinking water, there is really no other functions with our modern drinking water machines. As the matter of fact, the modern drinking water machines some times it’s an eyesores if we put it in a very well designed location or room. If it’s not because of thirsty, we would never think of our modern drinking machines. On the other hand, the medieval drinking fountain could be a place for people to gather, a spot for travelers to rest, a fountain to quench people’s thirst and for people’s mind to be beautified subtly and gracefully.
Let’s look at the medieval drinking water fountain from another angle. This facility provides us with a hint of the social phenomenon at the time. People realized that for every or each family to go to river side or well to collect water is very inefficient and finally a public drinking water fountain was born. This kind of drinking water fountain is not only for people but also horses, farm animals or even wild animals to survive. From this point of view, even though the water in this kind of fountain is flowing 24 hours a day but it also serves 24 hours a day. It’s really not a waste. We have to remember that horse, farm animals and wild animals don’t know how to operate a modern drinking machine. I didn’t do any research on these medieval drinking water fountains but I believe they were built by local government. This explains that local governments were carrying people’s welfare to a certain degree. Moreover, there must be a certain quality in these waters because to the minimum it couldn’t make people sick or diarrhea. This is a kind attention in the public health issue. It doesn’t matter from a point of view in providing a subtle beauty in people’s living or attention in public health, this medieval water fountains deserve to be known and praised. For these reasons, as long as there is right opportunity, as long as there is right angle, background and timing, I would take a shot at these water fountains. Forgive me if you have seen them too much, I couldn’t help myself paying extra attention to them. Let’s just say it’s my tribute and respect to the functions that they provided to us.
Language Barrier
Before I came to Switzerland, I know there is a French district so I downloaded the Google offline translator for French. Little did I know there is also a German district and people speak German there. I was in trouble. The most confusing thing is up till now I still don’t know is the writing language French while in French district and German in German district or is there a common Swiss writing language? Moreover, do French district people pronounce a same word different than people in German district? On top of all these the way they pronounce word is very much different than English. For example, I visited a lake and it is spelled as “Oeschinensee” and all I could do was staring at it and produce a weird noise from my throat like “Oh, oh, oh…………” like I was dying. At Zermatt, a very busy and popular tourist destination, there is a bus stop named “Kirchbrücke”. All I could do was also having some weird noise from my throat like “Kir, kir, kir……….”, and that’s it. Please don’t give me wrong and I am not promoting the idea that the entire world shall switch to English so I could be comfortable with it. No, if that’s the logic behind it, I would rather the entire world switch to Chinese because that’s my mother tone. What I am trying to convey the idea is since Switzerland is a country heavily depending on tourism and a very modernized place, could we accommodate tourist a little bit more especially at some very popular destination like Zermatt or Grindelwald? Frankly speaking, they do and I must be fair and honest with the fact. There are many places providing several language selections for tourists including English which is convenient for a tourist like me. However, I will also have to be honest with the fact that a lot of times it’s done halfway. For example, I could download train or bus schedule from web. When I get onto the web page, it actually let me select a language that I am familiar with such as English. (There was no Chinese provided so I could only select the second best option for me.) I was so happy and tears almost coming out from my eyes because I could finally read and understand it!!! But then once I downloaded the schedule, everything is back in Swiss language which made me illiterate again. Should I download the schedule? If I don’t, I don’t have a schedule to rely on. If I do, I can’t read the comments or whatever words are on it plus it’s taking storage space out of my phone. Checkmate!!! Another example would be at the gas station. At the main menu, it would let me select a language out of several and, again, highly appreciated. But then once it comes to pay the bill, it’s all back to Swiss language. Illiterate again, yes. What could I do? All I could do was guessing. If I guess it wrong then guess again. If wrong again, guess again. I would have to keep guessing till I get it right. This is paying bill we are talking about here and it has my credit card. It just makes me utterly nervous. Wouldn’t you? The only thing I could do is keep guessing, praying and letting the fate decide it. I was horrified and helpless. Last time I was this helpless was at Bolivia because I don’t speak Spanish either. However, there wasn’t much opportunities to “read” at Bolivia and it requires quite some reading in Switzerland. For example, again, at Zermatt I must read the map to locate exactly where I am in the town so I could find where the bus spots are. In order to present that they are unique and cultural, some places like to use very fancy and complicated calligraphy to write the name of their business. This causes big issue for me. I can’t tell if the character is “D”, “O”, “P”, “Q” or “G” because it is way too complicated and fancy. Why is this a big issue? The surface area on a map is very limited and they can’t print everything on the limited surface. The solution is to print numbers on the map for business or buildings and then at the back of the map it will correspond the number to the name of the business or building. The issue is if I can’t read whether it is “D”, “O”, “P”, “Q” or “G” then I can’t spell out the name of the business. If I can’t spell it out, I can’t find the corresponding name to a number. If I can’t find the right number, there is no way I would know exactly where I am in Zermatt and hence can’t find the bus stop. I felt so helpless. Well, some may suggest that I could look around and use other business name. Yes, I had thought of that. The issue is I guess because of pandemic many of the business were out of business and I couldn’t find any other references and the map wasn’t up to date. At least not where I was at the time. I felt so helpless and powerless somewhere in the middle of Zermatt. I said before: The main function of language is a bridge for communication but when the languages are different, it, unfortunately, became the biggest barrier.
Mad Cow Disease
After three weeks hiking in the mountains and carrying heavy camera equipment, I was both physically and mentally drained. I decided to find a small town, stay there for a few days and take a break to recover. I arrived the afternoon the day before and didn’t get out of bed other than enjoying the breakfast provided by the hotel. It’s afternoon and I was finally kind of recovered and awake. So, what now? I can’t just lie in bed all day long even I want to take it easy. I then remember that I saw a pointing roof from a church yesterday while I was driving into town. I decided to take a look and may be a few shots. I take both of my cameras; because I can’t anticipate what situation I would encounter, tripod, snacks, drinking water and heading out.
Since all I want to do is “taking it easy”, I was taking a slow stroll on the streets toward the church. Right about three blocks or 50, 60 yards away, I heard something, something very familiar. It’s the sound of cattle bells! It’s very common practice for cattle and sheep to have a bell under their necks so the owner would know where they are in Switzerland. The only exception are horses and I have never seen a horse wearing a bell. Anyway, it’s different than the cattle bell sound I heard before. Usually, it’s a few bells ringing on and off. This time the sound of the bell never stopped. There must be a huge group of cattle somewhere around. I take a look and sure enough there is an extra long line of cattle moving slowly far away coming down on a hill. That would be a fantastic subject to take pictures of and that was the first idea into my mind. However, they are far, very far away and may be seven or eight hundred yards. Plus, it seems they are taking a turn and moving toward the other direction from here. As I said that I am going to take it easy today and there is no way I am going to pursue them this far away. I am way too tired. I turned into the street leading to the church.
After I took a few pictures of the pointing roof of the church, I want to take the interior decoration of the church. As I was opening the door half way, I was stunned to learn that there is some ceremony going on in the church. Immediately, I slowly, quietly and gently close the door. Luckily enough, I didn’t disturb their on going event. Right at this moment, I heard it again, the cattle bell. Instantly, I know I made a mistake. Those cattle didn’t turn away on the hill, they were turning around the hill and coming this way.
Without hesitating or thinking, I started to run right away. I know there is a time pressure on this. Once those cattle passing by, they won’t be coming back. I was running mad on the narrow street of the small town. I believe many of you know that European has a habit and that is sitting outside their houses to look at people, cars on the streets and chatting to each other to enjoy a sunny afternoon. When I started running, I had no idea that I would bring up a huge disturbance to this little town’s neighborhood. All I was thinking is I don’t want to miss out this group of cattle. But, as soon as I start running, those old men and women who were sitting in front of their houses enjoying their afternoon sunshine starting to first starring at me and then bursting into laugh, big laugh. There weren’t many of them, may be 7 or 8. They were laughing so hard, they were rocking their chairs! Look, an Asian! You don’t see Asian that often in this outskirt small town, not mention an Asian running like for his life! They know. They know exactly why I was running because they were looking at those “walking cattle” too. How refreshing! This bumpkin Asian guy apparently never seen walking cattle before and running on the street like there is no tomorrow! Hearing and looking at them laughing, suddenly I start to laughing too as I was running. Because I know, I know exactly how ridiculous and funny I look like at this moment. I was holding a camera in my left hand, tripod in my right, another camera hanging down from my waist and wearing a pair of heavy hiking boots yet I was running like a wind. For what? Just for walking cattle!
After all the commotion was over and I was sitting on a rock to take a breath. I was still panting pretty heavily but then starting to laugh. I laugh because I recall that I made those old men and women laugh. I brought some very special kind of joy to this quiet and rarely any disturbance small outskirt town. All because I want to take some pictures of walking cattle with bells and I didn’t even try to make them laugh. Then I was thinking about how hard this scene to come by. I have seen cattle before in China and Vietnam but that’s only about a handful or may be a few of them. Even deep in the mountains at Nepal, the yak train to carry people’ luggage, they were only about 20 to 30 at once. There is noting like so many cattle walking on the street here. I would say close to a hundred or more. Moreover, it’s so lucky that there is actually some event at the church regardless it’s a workday not weekend. If there is no event, for sure I would be getting into the church and taking some pictures. Once I do that, there is no way I would hear the cattle bell. Just as I was smiling and laughing, I notice there is a truck driver with a mustache looking and smiling at me because I was still panting pretty hard and laughing. His truck was stuck in the traffic caused by those walking cattle. I smile back at him. Then he said something I presume in Swiss language which I have no clue at all. I spoke back to him saying “It’s beautiful, very beautiful!”. From the looks on his face, I am pretty sure he doesn’t know what I was saying either. We then look at each other and laugh and almost simultaneously gave each other a thumbs up. Beauty! This is beautiful. This is beauty in life and this is beauty in living. We don’t know each other and encounter with each other for merely a few seconds. I don’t understand his language nor did he understand mine. Nevertheless, we respect each other. There is no language obstacles, no racial differences, no social classes, we successfully communicated with each other with our smiling and joy. We don’t need to understand each other, smile covers it. It’s beautiful, just beautiful. It’s my “taking it easy” day yet I was panting so hard with smiling on my face.
By the way, so running like there is no tomorrow just to see a group of walking cattle with cattle bells, does this count as a special kind of “mad cow diseases”?
Note:
While I was conducting the post process of these pictures at home, only then I noticed that I was for sure not the only one who caught this “mad cow disease” because there were many people standing along the streets to observe this phenomenon. From the clothes they worn, there were many tourists like myself but also lots of locals. This made me believe that this really is some sensational event.
Public Transportation
I must praise a policy in Switzerland and that is their public transportation. It’s an outstanding policy and that is a tourist could enjoy free public transportation almost everywhere you go within a town. The public transportation includes local buses, light rails, or even trains as long as they are local. Wherever you go as soon as you check-in a hotel, the clerk at the local hotel will issue you a public transportation ID and you may use it get onto any local buses, light rails or trains for free, absolutely free. There are dates on the ID issued to you with the time you stay at that local town or city and you may enjoy it till you leave. As far as I know this policy applies to every town in Switzerland because I experienced this policy with all the towns and cities I traveled to.
It’s an outstanding policy because first, the public transportation in Switzerland is extremely convenient and it services almost every where you want to go. Some places don’t even have roads leading there but public transportation could take you to it. Second, a tourist like myself won’t have anxiety like where to purchase local public transportation and how much it is. Once you have that ID issued by your hotel, you can enjoy your trip worrying free, absolutely free. Third, this policy could dramatically reduce over crowded traffic. If the local public transportation is convenient enough then there is no need for everyone to drive by him or herself and could rely on the public transportation. Overall, this is an outstanding and beautiful policy. I can’t praise it enough.
After traveled in Switzerland for 6 weeks and many places, I fully enjoyed their public transportation. There was only once I encountered a conductor to check the ID issued to me by the hotel. The conductor was very friendly, nice and polite. Once I show him my ID and he check the hotel name and the dates, everything works out fine. It’s a nice experience.
Frankly speaking, the roads in Switzerland aren’t very wide in many places. I believe it’s because many roads were built since medieval or even earlier and there was no need for wider roads. Another reason may be the land is limited in Switzerland and it needs to be conservative when planing and building roads. There are many places the roads were so narrow I thought it was a one-way street and didn’t dare to drive onto it. I would park my car on the side of the road and observe till I saw other cars drive through it. After a few times, I learned. Moreover, I have also learned to be courtesy with other drivers. If the roads is too narrow for two cars to pass each other, then just be courtesy and yield to each other by using the shoulder of the road or just park to the side and let the other one passes first. There were a few times the road was so narrow that none of us could pass each other even if I parked my car on the very limited shoulder. The opposite car driver was so nice, he would actually back up his car till the road is wide enough and let me pass first. This is a totally different and refreshing experience I have had and it’s a very nice one. I must say drivers in Switzerland have better manners than many other places I had been to. Again, I can’t praise this enough.
Operating hours
This shouldn’t be a problem, at least not for local residents. However, this is an issue for tourist like myself. As the matter of fact, I think we brought this issue to ourselves onto Switzerland this place. What’s the problem? The operating hours. Let me use a world wide well known business as an example and that is McDonald’s hamburger fast food stores. The earliest McDonald’s opening time I have seen is 10:00am and the latest could be as late as 11:30am. I don’t know if there is any McDonald’s opens earlier than 10:00am or later than 11:30am but that’s the earliest and latest opening time I have seen while I traveling in Switzerland. What does this mean? Use the silicon valley where I live as another example. Most McDonald’s in silicon valley open at 6:00am to provide breakfast for people on their way rush to work. More often than not, one will see cars line up at the drive-through waiting for ordering breakfast or people waiting in line in store for ordering breakfast at 6:00am sharp. If a store opens at 6:00am, that means the staff will have to be in store an hour earlier to get ready for the day. As said before the latest opening hour of McDonald’s at Switzerland is 11:30am so that is a five and half hours differences if we also count the one hour to get ready time. Five and half hours is more than half the time of an eight hour operating hours. Moreover, the supermarket closes early than most of the supermarket at silicon valley too. Most of the supermarkets closes at 8:00pm and some of them at 7:30pm. There was once I was hungry for food and rush to a supermarket because I was afraid it would close early only found out they don’t open that day because it’s a Sunday. You could only imagine how disappointed and frustrated I was. So, isn’t this an issue or a problem? The problem is this only happens to a tourist like myself and it seems local people don’t have this problem. If it is, then we shouldn’t have any problem. From here we could derive a phenomenon, people here aren’t stressed out like we do. A tourist like me could sense that people here are living in a slower and healthier pace of life. I could easily see tourists pulling luggage walking in a pace faster, way faster than locals. It often seems the locals are enjoying Switzerland more than the tourists. It’s a very surreal yet so true phenomenon. I could even tell from cars driving on the roads. There are fast drivers everywhere in the world and it is no exception at Switzerland. However, overall the driving situation is way better than where I came from. Drivers are more pilot and courtesy to each other and rarely seeing speeding cars.
This draws a question onto my mind, why could people in Switzerland living in such a casual pace? On top of this, Switzerland is famous for its richness. Why could a small country such as Switzerland with so less population living in such a slower pace than most countries in the world yet with such richness? Is it just because it’s small and less population? However, isn’t less population representing less productivity? Isn’t less land meaning less resources? And, yet, their stores generally have shorter working hours. But, why then? I don’t understand this. Is it more efficient management or government? Singapore is another small, less population yet rich country. However, as far as I know people living in Singapore have faster, way more faster pace, far more competition and stress than people in Switzerland. So, what’s the secret of Switzerland? Why is Switzerland so unique and fortunate? I think other countries officials should come, study and learn how this is working so well at Switzerland. I mean real study and learn not bring the entire family here for a vacation trip. Moreover, I mean coming here to learn how to resolve problems, not create new ones. There must be something working here in Switzerland that the rest of the world could learn from.