A Hike With Arcadian Beauty, Cows, And A Whole Lot Of Hay

We wanted to squeeze in a second hike after our big hike near Thun. Thanks to our book, we found another great one that was on our way home. We started from Rüeggisberg, in Switzerland’s Gantrisch foothills of the Bernese Alps.

Rüeggisberg is known for its mighty Cluniac priory ruin. It is a significant stop for pilgrims along the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. When we pulled up to start our hike, we heard music coming from the service that was being held among the ruins.

I don’t know if downtown Rüeggisberg ever sees a lot of traffic, but the typical Bernese farmhouses were dead silent on a Saturday morning. Luckily, an old school farm town café with pictures of historic local gatherings and cows on the walls was open so we could feed our coffee addiction before setting off.

Just like we’d seen the day before in Thun, farmers took advantage of the sunny weather to cut hay. In Europe, it is more common to use a tedder. In fact, that’s all we’ve seen here in Switzerland. For you non-farmers out there, a tedder spreads hay out to dry more quickly. It speeds up the process of haymaking and allegedly allows the hay to dry better, resulting in improved aroma and color. Can cows even see in color?

All the commotion in the fields stirs up any rodents living in them. It cuts up any cover and small animals are in the open for the scavengers to eat. We saw raptors circling the sky above fields and swooping down. Cats were also out in the fields hunting the newly exposed prey.

We have only seen round bales here.

The trail led through woods. We were excited to see the slate bottom on this creek bed. He climbed down to take a look. Since I still had my arm in a sling, I stayed on the trail. Sorry there aren’t any close-ups.

We came out into more farmland. We enjoyed checking out the well-tended farmyard. Hopefully, you do too.

I think I have slept in places more disgusting than this pig pen. Who am I kidding? I know I have.

We continually caught glimpses of the snow-capped trio of the Alps above the fields. If you look really hard, you can see them in the back of the photo below. It is the view the cows had. We now believe that happy cows don’t come from California (or even Wisconsin). They come from Switzerland.