Post Messenger Recorder -

It is cloudy and rainy this Thursday in Elm. In fact, it is too cloudy to see any of the mountains surrounding the small village of Elm. Tour guide Toni is disappointed: he wanted to show the tourists from the USA what makes those mountains so special. By the time the tourists arrive by bus, you cannot see the world-famous "Martinsloch" and the "Tschingelhörner."

Toni wants to apologize for the bad weather. But the group just got distracted by dead people. There is a church right across the street from the visitor's center. And next to this church, there is a cemetery with many tombstones standing there. On these tombstones, there are Rhyners, Zentners, Elmers and Freitags. The Kubly family even found a Kubli, and is excited about that.

Those American tourists aren't just regular tourists. It is the New Glarus Fire Department visiting Switzerland on a 10-day trip. The New Glarners spend three days in the Canton of Glarus, Elm is their first stop.

Captain Mike Nevil knows how to organize a trip to Switzerland. He is the owner of the New Glarus Hotel and an Officer in the New Glarus Fire Department. He spent several winter seasons as a Chef in Unterwasser. And he has done some trips to Switzerland with firefighters. He has a mixed group with him: active and retired firefighters, wives, father-daughter and father-son teams. There are Truttmanns, Hendricksons, Pernots and Tschudis. Nearly all of them have roots in Switzerland they want to discover.

Everybody likes the food in front of the "Landesplattenberg"-mine, where the tour guide is telling the story of slate-mining in Glarus. They are not just happy because of the good steaks, but also because some of the clouds faded away. You can see now the other side of the valley. It is a good place to make memories. When you watch this group, you could think that they are just normal tourists. But there are those other moments. When one member of the groups looks down to the valley, they are not just excited about the beauty of the landscape in Glarus. It about their roots, too: The mountains in Glarus are more than a postcard-picture for the New Glarners.

Captain Doug Truttmann is a milk farmer in New Glarus. At his place, there are several hundred cattle. He understands why his ancestors were very poor back in Switzerland as farmers. He grows most of the food for the animals on land right near the barn. In Switzerland, farmers have to get their cows up to the mountains in the summertime in order to collect the grass down in the valleys for the wintertime.

When New Glarus calls, Old Glarus arrives. For example, Christian Marti, the mayor of the City of Glarus. He is doing a speech on Thursday evening at the "Bergli". "It's not just the last names, that connect New and Old Glarus," he says. It's also the passion for good food.

Before the New Glarus group gets their food at the Old Glarus Fire Station, they have to do something: the clouds are now almost gone, you can see the sun at the "Schilt" mountain. And that means: Do some pictures! The US firefighters pose in their uniforms, they are proud to have the American flag on the shoulder. "But we keep Switzerland in our hearts," says one of them.

This changes later on that evening. The firefighters of New Glarus are getting promoted to officers of the Old Glarus Fire Department, which is why they have now Old Glarus patches on their shoulders, too. The New Glarus group reacts quickly: As freshly promoted Old Glarus officers, they command the Old Glarus firefighters to organize a trip to New Glarus.

Photo courtesy of Sebastian Durst

On Good Friday, the New Glarus group gets a tour through the city of Old Glarus. It takes them 45 minutes to get from the "Stadthof" restaurant to the Anna-Göldi-Museum. Not because Good Friday is a hangover day (this is difficult to translate, because I made a pun here. In German, Good Friday is karfreitag, and a hangover-day is called katertag), but because there are too many places to take pictures. There is a clear blue sky, there are the big mountains with snow on the top, there is a big fountain, a sculpture around a tree, the Linth river and the "Hänggiturm" where the Anna-Göldi-Museum is located.

They make memories here and there. Memories that are more meaningful than just postcard pictures.