Rooted Wanderings

At the end of our WWOOF stint in Ormalingen, we had an entirely free week ahead of us before our next farm. Where to go? What to do? We decided to head to the canton of Graubunden in the far southeastern corner of Switzerland, a region we had not yet explored. We hopped on the train and after a few hours we were yet again immersed into a whole new world. The language of choice was now Romansch, Switzerland’s fourth and smallest official language. The Romansch language developed out of the Latin spoken by the Roman Empire when it held power in the area almost 2000 years ago. Today Romansch has only 50,000 speakers, spread over five different regional dialects. As our train rumbled into Graubunden, a unique style of architecture emerged as well. The buildings were painted with images of nature such as flowers, suns, and mountain creatures. Graubunden has a long history stretching back past Roman times, and its old feel seemed to linger in the isolated valleys. As a hiking base camp...

We said our goodbyes to Colby’s family in Murren and left them to continue the party without us for a few more days. Although we would have been happy to stay on in this spectacular place, the time had come for us to wave farewell to the mountains and venture on to our third WWOOF farm. This time, we would be helping at a vineyard and winery in the rolling hills of northern Switzerland. By evening we had arrived at our hosts’ house on the edge of town in Ormalingen, near the city of Basel. Although the view from Murren had been jaw-droppingly spectacular, our new surroundings had their own calmer loveliness. Ormalingen is a town of about 2000 people nestled among a mosaic landscape of grain fields, fruit orchards, forested hills, and other villages. A larger town of 6000 people down the road has all but merged with Ormalingen, so our new WWOOF farm had a much more populated feel than either of our previous farms. As we dream about what kind of environment we ourselves would like ...

As we took the familiar bus back to Marianne and Ewald’s house in Winterthur, it felt like we were going home. After an active month of WWOOFing, we were happy to circle back to the place where we had first started our time in Switzerland. We arrived just as Marianne was putting some of her delectable cheesy garlic bread into the oven. After a refreshing splash in the pool, the four of us sat down outside with a platter of fresh bruschetta toppings to put on the toast. As we caught up on each others’ lives and reflected on our experiences so far, we were struck again by what a gift it is to be embraced by such caring people. In the evening we pitched our tent in the yard, because it was going to be a full house! Over the next two days, the rest of Colby’s family reunion arrived from the United States to join the party. The guest of honor was Colby’s 91-year-old grandfather Hans, who emigrated to the United States from Switzerland as a young man.  The rest of the group ...