Eidgenössisches Schwing- und Älplerfest 2007

Traditional Swiss sports are somewhat down to earth. It’s nothing like chocolate-eating competitions or cheese-rubbing time-trials. Traditional Swiss sports are wrestling (Schwingen), rock-throwing (Unspunnen-Stone, 83 kg) or maybe Hurnussen (hornetting).
The latter is rather a flatland-sport, where as Swiss wrestling and rock-throwing come from the mountain areas. There are several happenings throughout the year with these sports, but the federal alpine-festival (eidgenössisches Schwing- und Älplerfest) only takes place every three years. This year it was in Aarau.
Swiss wrestling has got nothing to do with the dumb and perverted show-off fights of American wrestling. As already pointed out it’s very down to earth, and it’s not professional.

Here are some basic rules of Swiss wrestling:
- There are two types of wrestlers: ‘Sennen-Schwinger’ (shepherd-wrestler) and ‘Turner-Schwinger’ (gymnast-wrestler). The Sennen-Schwinger is one who only does wrestling and no other sports. The Turner-Schwinger is one that is in a gymnast-club and wrestling is only one sport he does. Turner-Schwinger have to be dressed in white, Sennen-Schwinger have to wear dark trousers and preferably a blue shephard’s-shirt without collar. Both types have to wear wrestling-pants with handles.
- During the fight, both wrestlers have to hold the opponents pants with at least one hand, otherwise the fight is being stopped.
- The wrestling-field is round and covered with saw-dust. Both wrestlers wipe the dust off the other ones back after the fight.
- Wrestling is a non-professional sport. No prize-money is given. At normal events the first prize is a cow-bell, at national events the winner gets a wreath.
- The winner of an event will further on be referred to as ‘bad guy’ (ein Böser) or ‘evil wrestler’ (böser Schwinger).
- The winner of the annual national Schwingfest and the even more important federal Schwingfest (every three years) is called King.
- The athletes are named the ancient Swiss way: Family name first. So this year’s King isn’t Jörg Abderhalden, it’s Aberhalden Jörg.

If you think, throwing a guy on his back with nothing but grabbing his pants, you better think again: Most athletes are at least 1.9m tall and 100kg heavy (6-footers at 220 lbs)! An athletic sports-commentator of our national radio station got flipped over in less than a second in a fun-fight on Friday!
The rules for rock-throwing are even simpler: just throw it as far as possible. The rock is so big and heavy that hardly any athlete can really throw it…
The festival attracted 200’000 people. If you have been to Aarau before, you might be able to imagine what the city looked like over the weekend: The whole city was a huge camping yard, and every green spot large enough to put on a tent was occupied. But still the festival was very peaceful. Unfortunately one athlete died because of the heat and dehydration.

Hope you enjoy the videos.





Thanks to Swissinfo.org that they put some videos on youtube!

Meeting a friend

Five years are a long time. Especially when you haven't seen one of your very best friends for so long.
It struck me thunder when my friend from Singapore wrote me an email not too long ago that she'd come to Europe to visit a friend in Germany and would like to spend the last weekend of her holiday at my place. I was at the ceiling!
So I took a 2-day leave from the job and drove up to Albstadt in southern Germany (Schwäbische Alb, for those who know the area) where she was staying with her childhood friend. On the way I got some chocolates at Zurich Airport, payed the beautiful town Rottweil (yes, that's where the dogs are coming from) a visit, and also the airfield Degerfeld with the infamous asloped runway that goes downhill in the western direction.
Of course, being Swiss I calculated the driving time and told her I would be there at 4 in the afternoon. And of course, being me some things didn't really work: The restaurant at the airfield, where I wonted to get a drink and maybe an ice-cream, would only open at 5 in the afternoon. So I arrived one hour early in Albstadt. So I stood there at the house, 30° C in the shade, with a bag filled with melting chocolates. I'll spare you the details about how they looked after that...
Anyway, Natasha and her childhood friend with kids arrived. Meeting a friend after a long time is something very special. I don't remember having been so happy in the past five years.

Meeting for the first time

We went out for dinner, local dishes of course, and back 'home' had a nice chat with the master of the house. The next morning hosted a very nice surprise for me: The lady of the house runs a Balinese Wellness-Studio in the basement of the house, and she offered me extensive treatment for a special "friendship-price". 90 minutes of total relaxation including a fullbody-massage!
After that we had some time to fool around a bit, take some pictures and in the afternoon we drove back to my place. After a light dinner at home we went to Lake Halwil with my parents for an ice-cream and a little walk at the lake.

Fooling around at Lake Halwil

Saturday was a surprise for my friend: One of my work-mates once spent a couple of days in Singapore, and my friend played tour-guide. And now we met my mate again in Zurich. The usual thing: Walking through the old town of Zurich (it's more beautiful than many people think!!!), souvenir-shops (travelers want to bring something home for their friends) and of course: Sprüngli!!!!! Switzerland's No. 1 chololate manufacturer, that runs several shops in town. The day ended with an italian dinner in a restaurant near my place.

Fooling around in Zurich

Sadly the next morning was departure. But only after a nice breakfast together with my parents and introducing my friends into walnut-trees and lime-trees - not the ones with the citrus fruits, but the ones where you make lime-tea from the blossoms. ;-)
Later on I drove her to the airport and we parted for the next year or so...

The sadest part

See more pictures here.