Today we arrived in Switzerland for the next part of the genealogy tour. As usual, all the ancestral places are tiny villages and up hills, or rather in Switzerland it's more like up mountains! As we made our way to our first destination, Canton Zurich, we started up the mountain on a twisty twisty road. I am not afraid of heights. I do get nervous but how else has the species continued if it wasn't cautious? What I don't like is the narrow twisty switch back roads, especially when you have a father like mine who drives like a German. He joked to me while we were speeding up the mountain that it's a good thing we haven't met a bus. He jinxed us. Thankfully the road was wide enough and we weren't at the curve. This is unlike a few days ago in Austria when we were going through a small town on a two car one lane road and met a bus going around the corner. Let's just say there was a squeal of tires, a scream from an unnamed person who thankfully did not need a restroom at the time. We had to back up a ways to let the bus pass. The unnamed person simply shut her eyes and prayed we wouldn't die. Moving on, traffic was light of course until we hit the most unbelievable traffic jam. Cows. They were coming home after a long day of grazing and of course they were taking their sweet time, ignoring the bemused humans waiting patiently in their cars. Cows should be respected. They help produce two amazing things that Switzerland is famous for: cheese and chocolate. We owe those cows big time!
Here in Switzerland, or the Confederation Helvetica, we are looking into three branches of my dad's side: the Binckeles, the Fulwiders and the Linders. If you remember, the Binckeles appeared in the Alsace. Peter Binckele was born in Switzerland but immigrated to the Alsace with his family, married an Alsatian girl and then immigrated to America. The Binckeles are from the Guggisberg area. The Fulwiders married into the Binckeles in America and then a generation later married into the Hangars or Hengerers (remember them from Germany?). They are from five small villages in Canton Zurich. The Linders married into the Lang family, who I will talk about when we get to England. I don't know much about the Linders so we shall see if we find anything. They are supposedly from Saanen. For all three families I am looking at least to my great grandparents X 6, all from my paternal grandfather's side, the Binckeles and Fulwiders from his father's side, and the Linders from his mother's side.
Tonight we are staying south of Zurich. The hotel said they specialized in cordon blue so that's what we had! I had to have something with cheese. We are in Switzerland after all! The interesting thing about the hotel is that our room is on the third floor, the toilet is on the second floor and the shower is on the fourth floor. I figure if I can handle two footprints and a bulls eye, I can handle a toilet and shower on different floors! Also, the hotel owner came by our room and told us the police might come by for us in the morning to ask questions if they see a foreign car (our car has Norwegian plates). Apparently that's what the Swiss do. They just want to make sure everything is legit. I forgot to mention one thing about Switzerland, it is beautiful and completely mountainous, with snow on the mountains! Yet the hills are not covered in rocks, they are covered in green meadows, perfect for herding sheep and cattle!
Cheers!
Elizabeth
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