This weekend all roads lead to Guido and Ann Kretz´s Dairy farm in Moos for the great St. Patrick Day´s Wellie Race up the Alps....Yep, that´s right, a dairy farm in Moos! The townsland of Moos is not a Katzensprung, as they say in these parts, from St. Gallen. - (For you non-German speakers not a cat´s spring, or stone´s throw, from St. Gallen.)
This is the very farm where wellie racing in the Alps all began...
On Saturday, the day before the big race, preparations are already underway...
Mary and Martina proudly fly the Swiss flag...
While mother Ann marks out the wellie race route below....
Now the very alert among you will note that well... there is ne´re a flake of snow on the ground... Yes dear wellie race aficionado no snow this year, not a flake to be seen on the race way, nor indeed within a mile of it!
But tell me that that view of the Sanits Mountain is not FABULOUS!
Lest anyone in Switzerland would feel left out, the flag from every canton (county) in Switzerland was hung out for the day that was in it.
Clare and Kilkenny Counties were well represented!
- I tell you, you would be so lucky to have such great weather for a county final as we had in Moos for the St. Patrick´s Day Wellie Race..
And when the bionic Kretz woman get to work you can see the results in the ´after´shots below....
But it did not end at a major over haul in the garage.
There was going to be hungry wellie racers and their groupies to be feed....
And let me tell you that was no slap dash affair, as you
can see from the menu Mary wrote up. There was soups and desserts and sausages. Most notably there were cakes celebrating Irish and Swiss pride.....
Definitely time for a well earned siesta after all that hard work......
Oh oh.... there are two slices of cake missing... Well let me tell you, no one here knows anything about anything... (But I would not go looking for crumbs under the bunk bed just the same... )
Before the big crowd arrived Mary´s teacher and family turned up. They did a good turn for the Walls of Limerick which, fair dues they took took quite fast...
Le Big Day. Finally. We are all set for:
The Great St. Patrick´s Day Wellie Race up the Alps.
(albeit sans snow!)
Now the wellie races in Kilkenny and Canada may win on numbers and what have you. But let me tell you, for our not-so-big wellie race in the Alps, I bet you we win hands down on global participation; in the five years we are up and wellieing in the Alps, we have had in past years participants born in Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Clare, Italy and Kilkenny. This year we were no less international; as well as the usual suspects we also had participants from Kenya and Malta. Oh and did I say Switzerland!
This fellah may call his wellies ´super speed´ but time will tell if that is all talk or if indeed his ´speed´is super! The racers were off so quickly, we could not get a starting line photo...
But we do know Italy´s wellie representative came in first for the boys under 10
The first girls home were so quick we could n´t keep up to get a clear photo of them. But we know the Kretz daughters came in nos. 1 and 2..... (I bet you it has something to do with that extra energy that came from two missing pieces of cake. BUT nobody knows anything about any thing.)
It was neck and neck to the finishing line in the women´s event, with Malta and Switzerland both being represented proudly. (The first place winner in no where to be seen - she´s already home!)
And the women are off!
And fair dues Mr. Super Speed himself came in first. Followed by Super Speed Jr. The pair have been wellie running for a few years now and it is clear to see the gap between father and son gets closer and closer... We anticipate that Super Speed Jr. will over take Super Speed Sr. in the next year or two....
I am not sure what the cows on the farm made of the wellie race; but Petra and her co-cows appear be rather bemused with the whole business. 
Prize Giving Another highlight of the day was the prize giving... NOT least because we managed to get Guido Kretz into the photo.
The family Kretz is seen presenting prizes to our youngest winners. The under five group who represented Italy, Malta and Switzerland.
The Swiss Mädel (young girl) at 2 was our youngest participant this year.
And for the junior girls... The winners were the Kretz sisters and Johanna from Malta.
Malta on the podium again. - It must be something in the sea air around that island that makes them all so good at Alpine wellie racing!
Switzerland was well represented on the podium for the ladies race. And yes - Malta ... again!But I tell you something: women Alpine wellie racers make a fine cut of it... Tell me that´s not a fine trio of woman below.
Now one year of fine woman could be a coincidence, but look at the small picture on the left. These are the winners in the women´s section last year... Are n´t they women no one would be afraid to bring home to the future in-laws.
Ah, but in fairness Mr. Super Speed did in fact win in the men´s section and his co-winners don´t look so miserable either this year, now that we have to admit, as you can see above.
`And there is one for everyone in the audience!` No, Oprah is not giving out a car this time, but everyone who turned up to race, got a unique one-of-a-kind totally awesome badge.....
Heck we were so magnanimous... even people who did not run got a badge... How lucky were they!
We´ve all been there... Oh yes EVERY wellie wearer, racer or not has been there....
There are time you just can´t manage it alone....
Sometimes it takes, well if not quite a village,...a few at least villagers to help get the wellies off.....
Le Big Feed.... Then there was a great feast laid out for us all to enjoy... ( The photographer was so busy enjoying the good food, that she was ahem ´unavailable´ to take too many photographs of people enjoying the good food!)
The sharing of gifts.
Ann
In the townsland of Moos and around the boreens of Clare it is a well known fact that Ann Kretz Boggy likes her cup of tea. And further that last year she got a very decent cut of a teapot in Wicklow when she was there with her sister. The former of which she is very pleased and proud. And quite justifiably so. So it was felt very much in order to present Ann with a decent cut of a tea cosy to keep said decent cut of a tea pot warm.
Guido received a gift with a different story altogehter.
But Guido´s gift will need some explaining to people not living in these parts. So get the kettle on, and Ann you can get out that teapot from Wicklow....
In school we all learned that they spoke three languages in Switzerland: German, French and Italian. THAT dear reader is only the beginning. First Switzerland has its own unique language: Rätoromanish.
In addition within each language group there are dialects and differences. For example in Swiss German also known as Alemannic German you have not only Schweizterdeutch but Schwyzerdütsch, Schwiizertüütsch, Schwizertitsch, AND other dialects.
The other three languages, French, Italian and Rätoromanish all have their own variations too, of which, I must hasten to clarify, the native speaker is VERY proud. And any foreigner, wellie racer or not, would do well not to jest over this abundance of linguistical variation.
- Indeed so different is Schweizterdeutch from standard German, that German T.V. uses sub-titles when Swiss people are speaking on the telly... And we here are only five miles away from there!
If you want to get an introduction to all these variations on Swiss German a good place to start is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_German
So back to Guido´s gift... Well as I said Guido prefers to speak Schweizterdeutch. BUT I know he speaks English too, I´ve caught him at it. And - I mean how could he not when he lives in a house with three females with roots in Clare.None the less we thought Guido might enjoy a further linguistic challange - a little something he could contemplate when waiting for the cows to finish their milking cycle at 5:00 of a winters morning perhaps - Schwäbisch Deutsch.
Now Schwäbisch Deutsch is a variation of German spoken a 2 1/2 hour drive away from Moss in the region around Stuttgart in Germany.
Not to make it too difficult for Quido so early in the winter mornings, he received only a very small dictionary: just a little introduction to Schwäbisch Deutsch.
Now the Kretz cows have it good indeed, as you can see here. But now they will also enjoy the dulcet tones of Guido practicing his Schwäbisch Deutsch in the privacy of the milking parlour.
More presents!
First for Mary who had a birthday the week before the Wellie Race...
Ann on behalf of the Kretz family presented me with a candle from the local area. But it had the Irish colours. - I only came enjoyed the view, ran in my wellies, and ate the good Ann, Mary and Martina prepared, so I don´t know why I had reason to get a gift at all, but there you are, and thank you Ann!
A local journalist, Andrea Heimbeck, who is a great supporter of the The Great St. Patrick´s Day Wellie Race up the Alps - and participant too might I add, also received a gift in appreciation for spreading the word on the race in the local papers.
Good food, good fun, wellie racing and sun shine... But, unlike Cinderella who had until midnight, we had to wind down at 5:00 p.m. for the milking and feeding.
And perhaps a little cat cuddling...
Talk about a chip off the block... Martina without a pip out of her, donned her wellies and woolly hat and went to feed the cows along side her Daddy. And this after a weekend of cleaning, baking, and wellie racing. I was very impressed with this - but clearly one local resident just kept on snoozing!...
All that for The Great St. Patrick´s Day Wellie Race up the Alps....
Plus....
.... A view to die for!.
Guido, Ann, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for inviting us to wellie race on your farm.
Your hospitality is gracious. And appreciated.
Follow up: Reporting in Swiss papars on the Wellie race...
The Clare Champion Ann´s home county wrote up this witty on the wellie race entitled: Sunglasses in the frame for Alps wellie race.
