So Chateaux D'Oex is in the southwest corner of da Schweiz. It took us a mere 3:30 hours to get to it but it was a beautiful train ride and almost a lazy day except the fact that we were actually going somewhere.
Apparently this festival is "International" as mentioned in the title, and expected 80 ballons from something like 20 different countries. We only went for the last weekend and we were hoping for blue skies for some nice pictures but we were thwarted, as usual.
Not only were they filling balloons and sending them up but they also dropped a dozen people from an airplane and they gracefully floated towards the ground, colored sails standing in stark contrast to the black and white landscape....
The well timed flight of some black birds. I just thought the tree was pretty. They do this type of thing with the trees a lot where they prune it until the branches look like grasping arthritic fingers. Especially noticeable in the winter.....
Souvenirs from the balloon festival. Cute little marmots.
The tobogganing hill in the center town. This appears to be the town church, right on top. We stopped in for a bit to warm up..... The tobogganing hill came right across the main throughfair to the balloon coral so you had to watch out for flying children.
A view of the festivities. A lion family. A cat in the background. That prone plaid thing was supposed to be a highland piper but unfortunately the weather was not cooperating so he never made it off the ground.
A regular balloon.
Rachel and the church.
A pruty family pictor.
The stripey balloon is a one man balloon so the guys just sits there in a harness. A little different. And note the ABB ballon in the lower right corner... A lot of interns work at ABB.
A couple more church shots...
And a monument to a ride around the world in a balloon!
Not a bad day apart from the travel time. We stopped in breifly at a cafe before we caught out train back for coffee and croissants. Simply di-vine. :)
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