July 7, 2010

Norwin took Denise and I to town after our run to see the insides of the two big churches in town. Karen went ahead of us to the lakes because walking is hard on her knee. The churches were magificent. They were build in the 15th century and have been renovated a couple of times but are still very authentic and beautiful.

We wanted to take a tram from town, but wouldn't you know it the tram was not in service today. So we walked back to catch a bus to meet Karen and walked past three beautiful man made lakes where the folks were swimming and sun bathing. One lake was for the general public. The other was like a private club where there wa sa fee to pay. Lyle couldn't help but notice there were some topless female swimmers. The weather was beautiful today (80) and the countryside breathtaking. Every view is so picturesque. We ate lunch up by the lakes and the restaurant is on an actual "working dairy farm" so the food was fresh! It was great to see the horses and animals grazing in the fields while we ate. We then walked further to view a functioning monastary and to check out more closely a couple of dairy farms. These Elma boys can't seem to to get the dairy farming out of their blood. They are still fascinated!

We saw some beautiful farms today and great views of the countryside from a doubledecker tour bus that kind of scared us because we were on the upper deck and right in the front seats. The farms are as neat as a pin and they have bearutiful Brown Swiss cows. We visited the girls in all their glory!

We ended up in a little town of Rorschroch on Lake Constance, which a beautiful huge lake filled by the Rhine River. We enjoyed watching all the locals playing in the water as well as watching several large swans (the size of big dogs). We were going to do a barbeque but realized everyone was so tired we couldn't muster the energy to complete. After making connections on 4 different buses and walking around to do some sight-seeing, then catching the train home we were wiped out. So, we headed home to St. Gallen to have a light easy meal and then to crash!