August 1st is a big holiday in Switzerland, very similar to 4th of July in the US. We were less interested in all the speeches that happen on this day in cities and towns across Switzerland, but we did attend some spectacular fireworks nearby, one in Fluelen, a town at the end of Vierwaldstädtersee (Lake Lucerne) and one on Buergenstock, a small mountain (1100m) overlooking the Vierwaldsädtersee and Lucerne.

Not only are there very nice professional displays, on the first of August, many people also shoot fireworks, sometimes big ones, privately. In the run-up to the holidays, you can buy fireworks everywhere, including at the grocery store.

Here are some pictures from the fireworks we attended in Fluelen. As always, click on a picture to get a larger version:

Church overlooking Fluelen

Playing with the camera

Spectacular Fireworks

Fluelen by night

Spectacular Fireworks

Last Sunday, we suddenly heard an odd sound coming through the windows. We were curious to find out what it was, so went outside to check it out.

Sure enough, there were a couple of men playing alphorns right outside of our window on the courtyard! The alphorn is a traditional Swiss instrument that looks like a very large trumpet, made from wood.

I had the chance to try to play one of those instruments a while back in a team building exercise at work and, like most people at the event, found it very difficult to even get a note out of the instrument, let alone actually playing a tune on it!

You can hear a short recording of what we heard in the player below. If you listen carefully, you will also hear cowbells in the recording. This is another typical Swiss tradition, where all the cows have large bells hanging around the neck and you can hear them from far away! We have five of those cows on a nearby field and constantly hear the cowbells ringing.

Here are a few pictures of the two men playing the alphorns:

After what, I suspect, is the longest flight possible without crossing more than a single time-zone, we arrived in South Africa. Apparently I slept a bit better than Johan. I wouldn’t know, as I was asleep much of the time. I didn’t think this was the case. I can do little more than lay on my back with my arms over my head, in these seats that don’t quite go flat.

Immigration was a breeze. Short lines, no hassle. We got our bags quickly and then discussed the customs forms with the inspector, and that too was no trouble. Then we made the hike down to the domestic terminal. We maybe could have caught an earlier flight on to East London than we had ticketed, but elected not. Instead we had breakfast then tried to gain use of the South African Airlines business lounge. They would let Johan in, but not a guest. We will not be flying them more than we have to in the future.

We landed in beautiful weather and walked across the tarmac to the terminal. The HR director was waiting, we quickly had our bags, and then to our temporary car. Seems Toyota needed more time to deliver our new Camry, so we got an older model from Hertz.

Temporary housing

Then we drove straight over to our temporary house and got checked in there without hassle. The landlady insisted her grounds keeper carry our heavy bags upstairs to the bedroom for us. We don’t even let the bellmen do this in fancy hotels, we don’t like it. This was totally different from that, since we were ‘home’, even though temporary.

Once everything was settled we washed our faces and went out to find some groceries. We decided that we didn’t want to wash up for dinner, so we just got something simple from the store.