Day 6 - Brienz Town

On the way back to hotel, husband made a detour to another lake side village, called Brienz. 

He said the town is famous for wood carving, and he was wondering if we could get some nice piece of art back home. 

The Brienzersee (Lake Brienz), is one of the town's main attractions. Surrounded by forested mountains on all side, the crystal clear lake has a maximum depth of 262 m.

Sons was happy to throw stones into the lake again.

At one side of the lake, just peaceful. 

We parked our car at this road side parking lot, then started to walk along the road. 

Brienz appears to be very domesticated. The village has been inhabited for about a thousand years. The local church dates back to the 12th century, and some of the town's houses and hotel were built in 1600s. Even the modern chalets look as if they were built a century or two ago, with their traditional overhanging roof and heavy wooden balconies. 

This must be the town church.

The time was only 6pm, but we could hardly see anyone on the street but us.

The place is just quiet, but I have a spooky feeling that some one was watching over us from the inside.

The most romantic part of Brienz is Brunngasse, which have been awarded the title of "most beautiful street in Europe" is well-known abroad. Most of the houses in the street dated from 18th century and are decorated with wood craving. 

Tourism and wood carving are the main activities. The Cantonal Woodcarving School established in 1862 is well-known and respected in the trade. The only genuine Swiss cuckoo clocks is made by the Lotscher firm in town. 

As time pass, I become increasingly interested to see how people decorates their house. 

This doorway was decorated so perfectly, must give it a thumbs up.

Just imagining myself the landlady of this house.

I was thinking : where will they hang their laundry for drying up? Without those wet clothes hanging around, the surrounding looks so pleasant. 

If everyone has the mindset to decorate their house as nice as they can, be they live in landed property or apartment, it will make a huge difference to the appearance of the neighborhood, isn't it? 

And I'm sure the people who live in a pleasant neighborhood is happier & healthier, beat me if I'm wrong. 

The Swiss people doesn't like people touching their sold items. We got to repeatedly remind the boys not to touch any of them, but they kept forgetting it. Luckily, this one was put outside the shop, so that owner didn't see it.

Happen to see these blue prune in some body's front yard. Looks very juicy to me. 

Out of expectation, we didn't see many shops selling wood carving along the main road though....so, the trip was rather disappointing to us. 

Their houses are very unique, which worth seeing. For example this house, I wonder how long did it take for the builder to stick those "fish scales" pieces by piece to the outer wall? 

At last, we've found some wood carving in a bigger shop at the end of the street. The price of some of their products is staggering high, for example, this piece cost more than HK$ 50K. No wonder the owner behaved nonchalantly when they saw us entered their shop, they just knew we won't buy anything of them. And she is right. 

30 minutes later, we have decided to leave the place....

Husband asked us to wait for him at this side of the lake, when he walked back to the parking lot to take the car. 

I sat over the bench there, observing an old man who was fishing quietly at the lake side. The boys were also very quiet too. I guess we all have been "infected" by the quietness of the place. 

10 minutes later, husband was here to pick us. We remained quiet in the car for quite a long time.