joy magnetism: High on a hill was a lonely goatherd...




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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd...

Magnet #194 - Val d'Isere, France

Country #5 - Switzerland

Again, I'm stretching with an applicable magnet.

A friend brought me this magnet (thanks!) from his ski trip to Val d'Isere in the French Alps...but today's musical ambassadors country is actually Switzerland. So maybe this magnetpost is really more Alps-y.

The confusion, though, is kinda fitting, because we're more than halfway through, and at this point, it's been about a dozen days, five performances, four countries, countless cities and villages, a lot of buses and many, many tours.

Lucky for me, I'd already discovered the magical restorative powers of Toblerone. Not the U.S.-made, weak-ass Toblerone. We're talkin' caffeine-laden, ultra-rich European Toblerone. AWE.Some. And I distinctly remember eating Toblerone as we traveled the through the incredible St. Gotthard Pass - seriously, it's God's country through there.

Let's see...Switzerland - Lugano, Lucerne, Engelberg.

I remember Lucerne because of this really cool medieval covered bridge, Kapellbrücke. It was built in 1333, and depicts the city's history. Sadly, it burned to the ground a couple of years after we went, so what's there now is a reproduction.

Hands down, Engelberg was my favorite place. We bunked here for a couple of days, and it was a good place to catch our breaths...or rather, hanging out in some billiards joint, having made use of the hotel's construction scaffolding to escape curfew and hotel room hop.

We took one of these skyways up to the mountaintops - where we froze our bums off, wearing our light summer jackets. Weird, because it was warm enough to picnic at the base of the mountain. Unlike the bigger towns where we'd all get separated, it was quite odd to see our band mates running around town...it felt like our own mini-invasion.

And it was such a sweet little village - all nestled in the beautiful Swiss Alps. Wrong country, but Engelberg was very Sound of Music-y.

(You're singing the puppet show song now, aren't you.)

Lay odl lay odl lay hee hoo
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6 comments:

The Geek said...

I totally AM singing it now. Damn you and your catchy, nonsensical yodeling lyrics. But it's okay, because I know this is karma for the other day when I got "We Are Siamese" from Lady and the Tramp stuck in my friend's head just as he was leaving for a date. :-) He said it was running through his head all through dinner. Whoops, my bad!

joy said...

Hahaha - I just came back from a meeting and realized that I was humming it...before, during, and after.

G said...

Make it stop. Make. It. Stop.

jen said...

I think the bridge actually burned down a coupla times. Poor bridge. I loved Engleberg too.... Sigh. I think Switzerland might've been my fave country we stopped in.

julie said...

i also heart engelberg... but sadly it was ruined when i saw mr. moely hanging out on his terrace in his underwear... and not the boxer kind. ew. ew. ew. still a cute little ski town in the off-season. :)

joy said...

Ok, ya'll can shoot me if I ever bring up that song again. I'm *still* singing it!