Glarus

We spent one day exploring North Eastern Switzerland, an area that sees little tourist activity. It is here where the Canton of Glarus is located and is also the ancestral home of Libbie's maternal Grandparents, the Stauffacher family.

In our travels we met a Swiss woman who told us the Stauffacher name is notable in Swiss history. She even gave us the correct pronunciation of the name in both traditional German and Swiss German.  I recorded her pronunciation while we were riding the train.  This recording was placed on YouTube and can be found  a few entries later in this blog.

Werner Stauffacher led the Swiss army that defeated the Austrian army of the Hapsburg empire in the Battle of Morgarten in 1315. The Swiss victory consolidated the League of the Three Forest Cantons, which formed the core of modern Switzerland.  A Forest Canton is a rural Canton, the original three were Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. The 21st century result of all this is streets named after Stauffacher are all over Switzerland, In Lucerne there is Stauffacherweg. Zurich has a Stauffacher bridge, a tram stop and a street.

One of the founding Cantons of Switzerland is the Canton of Schwyz. It's representative was Werner Stauffacher. During the 13th and 14th century many Stauffacher family members held the office of Landammann of Schwyz.

The capitol of the Canton of Glarus is Glarus, population 12,000. With this relatively small population there is a surprisingly vibrant downtown business district.

When we drove into Glarus the first thing we saw was a McDonalds. We stopped here for a bathroom break and to get more of the awful Swiss Keurig coffee. I call it Keurig coffee because unlike coffee from a drip maker, the stuff we have been drinking is like the awful stuff spit out by a Keurig machine. The machines seem to be everywhere, even in McDonalds McCafe, a place I normally associate with good coffee in other places on the planet.

Entering Glarus - Welcome to McDonalds

We parked our rental car on a downtown street and walked around Glarus.

Downtown Glarus and our black rental car

Downtown is very vibrant and alive

This church dominates downtown Glarus

We found the cute railroad station in our walking. It's opposite a very attractive park.  Flowers are everywhere in Switzerland, in window boxes, public parks, planters, etc.

Glarus street old public water source

Glarus train station

Glarus train station

This neatly landscaped park is opposite the train station in downtown Glarus.

While walking around we found many gardens one of which contained this Iris blossom.