7567 posts
Hi Rebecca _
<<“cows returning from the alp? Where do you recommend and when does it happen?”>>
The world “alp” should be in the plural…”alps.”
Many places on different days in the Fall.
I’ve seen them above Buochs and Emmeten, in Beckenreid, in Schwyz…..just because I happened to be there on the day that the farmers decided to bring them down. That date is set by the farmers, and varies by geography ( temperature/climate.)
(By the way, some travel by helicopter…)
I’ll see if I can find more specific information …but not for a few days. Have some traveling to do, my self.
I am sure there is a whole lot of stuff on the internet, and if I could remember the German word for the processions, I’d suggest that you search for that term.
Probably, some one else will rescue me. ;-(
Slowpoke.
604 posts
Slowpoke is right, in most areas it is entirely dependent on the weather. If sleet and snow show up early they bring the cows, goats, and sheep down right away. Otherwise they wait as long as they can so the animals can continue grazing on grasses up high rather than hay down in the valleys.
That said, there are some regions that proclaim dates in advance. See here http://www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/service-updates/events.html? strubrik=2312
The coming down of the animals is called Alpabzug. Loosely translated it means “pulling away from the Alps”. Most people think Alps means mountain tops. In fact it means hanging meadows where animals can graze.
7567 posts
Rebecca –
Once Kim improved my German, I did a Google search on Alpabzug “travelling away from” and also Alpaufzug, “travelling up to or up onto” the alp or alps.
Both produced many hits, both for going up in the Spring or coming down in the Fall.
Get out your map and look at some of those Google hits, such as
search.yahoo.com/yhs/s earch?p=alpabzug+appenzell&e i=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp =yhs-001
I like this map, but there are many…
map.classic.search.ch/
72625 posts
Thanks for all your help. I very much appreciate it.