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The Tramlines of Fribourg

More photos from our visit to Fribourg, the best-preserved medieval town in Switzerland. Other than the fountains that I covered in the last post, the old town is chock-a-block with pretty churches and palaces and other historic buildings. A photographer's paradise?  Not really... try and take photos of these places and tram lines get in the way. Tram lines are everywhere in the old town. I fully understand the eco benefits of electric trams, but couldn't the dudes find some other solution?  I tried every angle to try and avoid the lines, and finally gave up in frustration. I decided to photograph the tram lines instead, using the historic sights as mere backdrop. I decided this post would be about tram lines. I suppose, two hundred years from now, even the tram lines will be considered a part of the history of Fribourg.

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The fountains of Fribourg

Next stop in on our Swiss tour, the medieval town of Fribourg, said to be the best preserved in Switzerland. Fribourg is famous for its fourteen fountains (notice how that sentence rhymes). Here are pics of some of them...

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Quaint church in the Alpine meadows: Rossinière

Continuing my series of posts on our trip to Switzerland: No trip there can be complete without a hike in the Alpine meadows with cowbell music, and we duly took care of that on the second-last day, right after visiting Gruyeres Castle (see previous post). We selected for our peregrinations Gantrisch Natural Park, mostly because it was a short drive from our base in Cully, and from looking at Google maps it seemed to be full of lovely low hills and meadows, which undoubtedly had platoons of cows, all duly accessorized with bells. It was while driving around the park looking for an appropriate place to begin our hike, and perhaps find a B&B to stay overnight, that we ran into a quaint old 14th century church in the village of Rossinière. Absolutely picturesque, I think you will agree after you check out these shots (followed by a few shots of the hike itself): 

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Gruyère's Cheesy Castle

as we were driving to our next trekking route -- a walk in the alpine meadows this time -- we came across a signboard that said "Gruyère".  Gruyère, in case you don't know, is the all-purpose Cheddar of the French-speaking world. It is used in slices in burgers, grated and strewn on top of pizzas before baking, folded into omelettes and quiches, and so on. It is a bland, faceless kind of cheese. This is what it looks like...

Our fridge is always full of packets of grated Gruyère for Blandine's quiches and omelettes. So this was the place where that darn thing comes from. So of course we had to stop for a look. The cheese gets its name from the village of Gruyère around which it is made, and Gruyère castle that looms above the village on a hill. The village itself wan't anything much so we trekked up the castle. From a distance, the castle looks imposing. But come up close, and it turns out to be a disappointment. The whole place has been renovated out of existence. It looks bland, artificial and ... cheesy. No other word for it. Not a patch on the painstaking restoration work on historical monuments that one sees in France, taking care to preserve as much of the original as possible.

Anyhow, the place makes for great pics, with the surrounding Swiss countryside. Check it out...

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