Swiss Cheese Weekend & Fete de Vendages

I'm sorry everyone for making you look at that old car for so long when you would check to see if I had posted anything new. October has just been a busy month!!! I'm going to almost get caught up on the blog today.
Neuchatel was pretty busy at the end of September.

The streets were busy.

If you love the smell of cheese then you would have been in heaven. The aroma of cheese and fondue was a bit too much for me. I don't even know who won the awards.

We had a little get together with some families for the Fete. We had confetti everywhere. The weather wasn't the best but it was still fun. I had some confetti in a bag left over from last year that I sprinkled out the window on the kids.

Everyone waiting for the parade to start.

Liz and I had just gotten a handful of confetti in our faces from someone in the parade.

It was just a bit rainy. I think the adults were ready to get back upstairs to the refreshments:)

We didn't think the parade was as nice as last year. We thought it was pretty funny to see the Ninja turtles. I think it would be hard to wear those heads, march and play an instrument all at the same time:)

We made sure our windows were closed but the confetti cannon did get one apartment across the street from us.

Schilthorn, Switzerland

On Sunday the 19th of September, we decided to go on a road adventure. We decided to head to Lauterbrunnen and take the trams to the top of Schilthorn. I checked the webcams before we headed out and it looked like it was going to be a nice day. The car ride was 1 1/2 hours one way.

On our way we saw this "Cougar". It was like Jason's first car but his was green.
Then Devin took a picture of this Trans-Am in the parking lot. It's always fun to see "American" cars over here.

This waterfall was beautiful and it is right by the city of Lauterbrunnen. It was a sight to see this waterfall as the background while driving thru the city. I didn't think to take a picture.

We had to take 4 trams to the top of Schilthorn. I am guessing it took us about 40 minutes at the most to reach the top. The following are some pictures along the way.

It was definately steep and very high!

When we reached the top it wasn't too bad. We were going thru clouds the last part. It was a bit chilly - around 32 degrees F.

The view was always changing because of the clouds. We sat on the terrace and ate a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day.

It felt like we were on top of the world. I pretended that this is what it must feel like to be on top of Mt. Everest without all the hiking, oxygen tanks, frostbite....

A view on the way back down.

The Eiger on the left, Monch center and Jungfrau on the right.

Before we could board the next tram, the drinking water had to be unloaded.

A restaurant that offers hikers a break and or lunch with the cows.

The village of Murren.

The snow fences for avalanches. I think I would only like to live in this village in the summer months.

A suspension bridge which looks very scary to cross.

The sun was going down and here is a picture of the waterfall at the end of our perfect day!

Capa'Cite 2010

Every 2 years, Neuchatel hosts Capa'cite. It is basically a one week fair of all professions that is geared towards to middle school and high school age kids. In Switzerland, testing begins in the 6th and 7th grade to begin the development of your career. I believe by 9th grade, kids have to basically decide what they want to do in life. If you do well on exams and in school then more than likely you will go on to University studies. For those that don't do well, then apprenticeships begin in the different labor trades.

The fair was set up all over downtown. There were 5 tents set up in front of our place in the parking lot and across the street at the port. Our building is basically where that arrow in the picture that says "ici" (here). The tents housed the following areas: Health and Social, Gourmet, Tech Village, Arts and Business Management.

The area that really fascinated me was the Village Green and the Building and Construction.
It took them about a week to build the structures and get everything set up. However, some of things were built out of demonstrations and they just kept adding to them.

I was amazed at all the time and effort put in to the areas that were going to be taken apart in a couple of days. The ponds were beautiful along with the flowers of course.

The Building and Construction Area was busy and the artwork was wonderful.

They had demonstration of building cobblestone streets and it was a huge area.

The agricultural area was set up at the end of our street. I couldn't believe they brought in corn and cows and sheep. There was one cow that wasn't too happy and he didn't make the sound of "moo". It sounded more like a boat horn. The smell wasn't too pleasant either. Kate had a hard time standing there to get her picture taken. I think she is a city girl:)

It was something to see and it was wonderful to see them build exhibits as part of the town. I was also thrilled when it was taken down because it made the downtown area too busy for me.