Appenzeller

It is pure and traditional Switzerland, with its centuries old customs that the Switzerland Tourism is projecting to the 140-odd international journalists hosted by it in the charming canton of Appenzeller. In one of the world’s most advanced countries when it comes to precision and technology, it is amazing to see the pride and passion with which the Swiss hold on their traditional customs.

Whether it is folk music or yodelling, cheese making or the ceremonial descent of the farmers’ livestock from the high mountains to lower regions before the onset of winter, people in this land of chocolates, cheese and cows do it all in great pomp and style.

In Appenzell, doing the Gonten barefoot trail – a magical 4-km walk through lush green landscape that could be mistaken for being photoshopped in this era of technology – and reaching the Gonten upland moors, we find farmers holding on to their land, even though as elsewhere, farming has ceased to be as lucrative as it once used to be. Of course the Swiss government supports farmers through subsidies, “but we pay taxes just like everybody else does,” says Kurt Rusche, a farmer who was elected chief of the region in 1982.

In those days, he recalls, there were 142 farms in Gonten, where he has his farm, but the number has now come down to half, at 70. “To survive, the farms have to be bigger in size, so some of them have consolidated.”

The farmers who had to give up agriculture – anyway, in Gonten because of the cold weather it is not possible to grow diverse crops or vegetables… so it is mostly dairy and livestock farming – have moved away to other professions, mainly teaching and activities related to tourism.

At the age of 78, he now runs the little museum, in a traditional barn, that is devoted to the local history of peat-cutting. But he can speak only in German and once again one feels the frustration of having to interview someone through translation.

Golf courses galore

Believe it or not, this tiny country of barely 8 million has as many as 100 golf courses! Eberle Ruedi who owns an 18-hole golf course in Gonten, spread over a sprawling 55 hectares, shows us yet again a sample of the zeal with which the Swiss guard their natural beauty. “This is a natural protection area and I have been allowed to put up this golf course on the condition that one third of the area will be a natural protection zone and won’t be touched,” he says.

The golf course has a restaurant where we sample a traditional lunch of fresh green salad, a delicious and juicy sausage and local pastry with a filling of hazelnuts. The taste, explains Deborah, our guide for the day, comes from “honey being mixed in the batter.”

When I marvel at the huge number of golf courses, Ruedi smiles and says, “At least one percent of Switzerland’s population plays golf.” It is good to know that one third of them are women, particularly because in the region we are seated – the Appenzell canton - it took as late as 1991 for women to get their vote. When amazement and outrage is expressed by the group, which is predominantly female, a Swiss woman chuckles and says, “Oh, we didn’t bother too much about that because anyway we would tell the men who to vote for!”

(to be continued)

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