We spent a weekend with them at Heerbrugg, on the outskirts of Sant Gallen. Tania works as a draughtswoman for a housing company and Philipppe is responsible for IT at his plastics moulding company. They both work a short bike ride away from their offices.
We were delighted to hear that they will marry in August. We took a drive with them to look at a possible wedding venue in one of the nearby villages.
We later drove onto Appenzell, which is famous for its hard working residents who are rather short and bear the brunt of many jokes. Women were not allowed to vote in the annual
open air parliamentary elections until 1991 and even then a Supreme Court had to order it. In the square where the elctions are held there is a statue with his hand raised in the air. Today the voters still raise their hands and someone has to count them!
Traditional signs for the shopsBoth John and Lil are suffering from fever, chills and congestion. Lil was too tired to make the walk around the snow trails in the village but John did.
