Hello out there dear readers, how are you? I hope life is treating you well and if you need support that you get all you need.

Please sit down, grab a mug of your favourite hot beverage if you live in the South of this beautiful planet and a chilled glass of your favourite cold beverage if you live in the North. Remember you rock!

Am back to a happier self so we concentrate on today’s country

I am happy to report that I am back to a happier self even though this might change shortly. Later today I’ll have my fifth FEC-T chemo and am curious how it will go this time. The dosage will be less, and my body should have adjusted well by now, so I hope I will be fine.

That is why today I will keep this part short and tell you a little more about Switzerland. It is one of my favourite countries and I am lucky enough to have visited often as my uncle lives there. So please come away with me to Switzerland 🙂

Please come away with me to Switzerland

Some of the first memories I have of Switzerland are my uncle, his the wife and an ancient Swiss farmhouse in a village, not even the border police knew about. Yes, I am old enough to remember border controls between Switzerland and Germany. That village is relatively close to the Lichtenstein border and was surrounded by beautiful wildflower meadows on which mainly cows grazed.

I think my uncle had fulfilled a dream of his to have a small hold. There were vines growing in front of the living and dining room windows. He raised bunnies, chicken and later when my cousin was older guinea pigs.

Not sure the villagers approved of half of the farm being rented out to a foreigner. Even though he was married to a fiery swiss lady, he was German after all. He is now Swiss. But that’s another story.

Thankfully they didn’t let me feel it, but I can imagine it might have been different for my cousin who was there all the time. I need to ask.

I remember huge mountains- mountains which even in summer had white snowy tops.

Here is a video that gives you a grande overview of Switzerland:

Most of the people were friendly but spoke a funny accent I didn’t always understand. Then there was the chocolate, of course. And huge soft white rolls. And the outlandish food my uncle cooked. He had trained as a chef I think both in Italy and France. Not that I appreciated it then. But now I do because it taught me to be open to new tastes. It’s a different journey when you go about it with your taste buds.

I had a friend in that village. She was a farmers girl, and she taught me to milk cows. No, I never mastered that art but being in the cowshed seems to make my hay fever bother me less. We lost contact when we got older. So did I with my uncle.

Until I was in my 20’s and my grandparents house-sitted a friends apartment in Zuerich. Such a beautiful city. What I did not know then was the fact that Switzerland had a bit of a drug problem. And a poverty problem too. We connect it with the rich and famous living at lake Zurich. But the farmers high up in the mountains who preserve the wildlife and mountains are often so poor they can’t feed their children. My uncle often went and supported one family he knew.

Again I lost contact for a while after I left my then-husband. And then WhatsApp was invented. It’s nice to say hello every morning even though we are a thousand miles apart. When I left Germany, I decided between Switzerland and the UK. After Brexit, I wished I’d moved to Switzerland. They are willing to pay for the privilege to partly belong to one of the biggest trading blocs in the world. But we do not go down that road today.

Five years ago, we went to Switzerland again. We stayed at a B&B on a farm close to Zurich and saw my uncle again. Even though he did not feel well, he took us on a round tour in the mountains. We saw two glaciers, a dam that created electricity via water power, lots of cows and goats and saw how much climate change is a reality long before Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg.

We enjoyed delicious food both in restaurants and at his. To me, Switzerland is a little piece of heaven even though they have their own set of social and ecological problems. We all have.

Do you know that Switzerland has four official languages? German, Italian, French and Raetoromanisch or Romansh in English. The last one is an ancient language that is only spoken in the South-Eastern part of the country. They do preserve their traditions those Swiss probably because they have a rather eventful history.

Here you can find out more:

Ever heard of “stoner rock”? I haven’t either, but apparently, Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin fall into that category. I like both so I thought I check out the Swiss band Monkey3. I wasn’t disappointed, so I thought I share it with you.

Monkey3’s page

The current Swiss music charts seems to be more into hip hop and German hip hop at that. I created a little playlist so you can check it out:

And where are we going next week?

Come Away With Me 2020 Musical Challenge Country for Monday, August 24th, 2020

I am taking a rather random route around the world, but sometimes it makes sense. Next week we move to neighbouring Lichtenstein. Please find musicians from Lichtenstein here on the Last.FM page.

As for the suggestions to take part:

1. Join in! No you do not need to have cancer. Everyone is invited no matter where, when and with what. You missed the first week? Don’t worry. Just jump in when it suits you.
2. Send us the link! The ping-back option does not always work so please leave a link in the comments of the post on the day you take part. Or leave it at the “Come Away With Me 2020 FB page“
3. Tag your post either with ” Come Away With Me Musical Challenge”/ #CoAwWiMeMuCh” / “Come Away with Me 2020 Musical Challenge” o/“CoAwWiMe2020MuCh” / . You can also use these as hashtags for Twitter and other Social Networks to give your post more exposure. If you add #blog and #music with your hashtags it will get you more readers.
4. No matter which music or country the prompt favours you create with it whatever you please. This is supposed to be a fun challenge and no chore.
5. I post a prompt for the next week with every “Come Away With Me 2020 post” I write.
6. If you like, use this picture for your readers to find the posts.

Please stay a little longer and find my poetry posts on The Bee Creates… on Weebly. Thanks!

You are more into photography? Then please check out my photo posts on Bee Wordless on Blogger.

You can also find my photos on Dreamstime (affiliate link, you do not need to buy anything but if you do I get 10% from your purchase).

Just one more thing before you go: The hospital that is treating me is fundraising for a dedicated breast cancer unit which would allow same-day diagnosis and better premises for patients and staff.

Please, if you can spare a little money hop over to their Just Giving Page and give as little or much as you can. Or share the page on your social media. Your support means a lot to me! Thank you very much.

Thanks my dears, for staying with me until the end. I appreciate your presence. Please stay safe, stay kind and remember that you rock!