waterworks

today I was invited to a tour of Frauenfeld, the capital of the Canton Thurgau. It's not far from where I have lived for many years but I've actually never been there! The tour was really interesting - we went to see a brand new hydroelectric plant, which was explained to us in great technical detail. There were about 4 of us in the group who were obviously interested and the rest of them had that glazed expression that goes with total boredom. Particularly interesting was the fact that the generator was placed directly above the turbines...hey, come back, it's really interesting, honest!!

Then we looked at the old fortifications and the old industrial part - a lot of that has now disappeared but it was a very important industrial town once upon a time, some internationally known household and industrial names started off there, some important inventions made - the river, called the Murg, is a very powerful and natural river that runs straight through the middle of the town and the early industrialists created canals to power their machines, some of which are still in use! The oldness of the place, plus the canals reminded me very much of Gent, which I had the pleasure of visiting twice a few years ago.

The tour ended with a lovely meal - so it was a very pleasant morning indeed. This picture is on the river at a point where it gets slightly dammed up and part of the water sent off to a canal (lurking in background), this is the overspill. The pipe on left is a bit annoying but I was already in a slightly dangerous place and getting rid of the pipe in the picture may have meant me drowning in the reservoir or falling down into that white water at the bottom, neither of which I fancied.

After a lovely morning I came home to find that the children had actually done what I asked them to do! Not sure what went right there...

And then my in-laws came past with some cakes (good) and the usual round of insults from ma-in-law to me (bad). You'd think I'd be immune to them by now but I get upset every time, even though my rational self knows that they are just bitchy comments. One day I'll grow a thicker skin - until then, I'll just rely on blippers, obedient children and town tours to cheer me up :-)