You occasionally run into strange cultural stuff when you’re up in the mountains in Switzerland. Cantonal -ethnic jokes, the foehn, Heaven knows what else. Some things are odder than others.
One of the bigger restaurant/hotels in Leukerbad is the Roemerhof. The name refers (as one might guess) to the Romans, who were the first ones up here (besides the local Celts) to notice the hot water coming out of the ground. They beat a lasting and ancient path to the water, one which is the basis for the modern road which winds its way up from Leuk in the Rhone valley.
The Roemerhof restaurant has a big outdoor terrace which seems to be frequented by most of the locals between lunch and dinner. (This means about 1500 people in a town that has about twenty hotels and at least a hundred apartment buildings offering “ferienwohnungen”, holiday apartments of the kind that UK users call “self-catering”: basic linens are usually included in the price, but you bring your own food and whatever else. ) Right now Leukerbad is in what can best be called “shoulder season”: not everything is shut, but most things are on “reduced hours” until the really serious summer season kicks in in July.
The Roemerhof has a guy who comes in to play keyboards and generally entertain the locals at the late lunch-early dinner-dinner periods. He’s pretty good. For one thing, he doesn’t let his keyboard do all the work. He makes his chords with his own hands (a tendency I honor, myself dating from a time when keyboards weren’t as smart as they are now, and a keyboard artist was expected to be able to execute a complete “round-the-clock” chromatic chord sequence with his/her own hands).
We had a weird cultural moment a little while ago. Our entertainment played a song which was clearly identifiable as “This Old House” (not the TV theme…). What brought my head up was the moment in which the words “Lucky Ducky” suddenly got into the song…thus turning a fairly cheerful musing on the nature of mortality into something completely un-parseable.
I have to look into this and find out What Happened To The Song. More reports as they become germane.
Meanwhile, the temperatures are unseasonably high (mid-80’s) and the sun
has been out pretty much costantly. My left arm is sunburnt (but not the right. Go figure.) It’s really a shame we have to go tomorrow.
Coolest piece of tech spotted: a little electric “hauler” that grapples onto a “trailer hitch” thing on the front of a wheelchair-user’s chair, and hauls them along the road at 10-20 kph. Very cool. It’s like being at the chariot races.
Nicest local cat: Iggi, who is a brown tabby with unusually tiny feet,
and very friendly.
