Bea Grob is this month’s gypsy traveller who takes us on a treasure hunt in Switzerland.
I have an itch for flea markets and thrift stores and the Flea- and Antique Market in the Wynecenter Buchs, AG, in Switzerland is one of the bigger here. They have emptied a whole parking garage of a shopping mall to squeeze in about 300 booths, there is also a small food court if you need a break.
Every month the first Sunday between March and November you can find people rummage through junk and treasures all thrown together. And often the question is, what is junk and what is treasure, well that is always in the beholder’s eye.
I couldn’t make it for the first two, but in I did made it for the first Sunday in May. So I hop on the wagon I drive you a bit around and show you what I like and what brings back memories for me. And by the way, my hunt wasn’t a very successful one this time, maybe next time.
The whole fleamarket is on 3 parking levels and the vendors can drive in with their car and have the booth in front, not a thing that is very common here in Switzerland.
Well, in the times of this toy shop they didn’t know about shopping carts.
As I said, this is both a Fleamarket and an Antiquemarket. So you can find the really old stuff, but also things like these which are replicas of old postcards.
Sometimes it is really hard to tell whether it is really old or again a replica. And I’m talking about the cooking stove, not the tools in the background. I don’t always care to much about that. If I like it and it is well made it is fine with me too. Not that I did buy anything from this booth.
There are thing in the longterm memory for a lot of Swiss people which belongs to the category “most favorite childhood memory. Those very specific child’s slippers called “Tigerfinkli” which means Tiger slippers are certainly one of those memories. As long as I know, they are not typically known outside Switzerland and they seem to be pretty unique in the world. It is not certain where the name come from as the patterns is certainly more like a giraffe or a leopard then a tiger.
Since 1938 they have been produced about 9 miles (15km ) outside Zürich in a village in Fehraltorf. In their best times, they have produced about 80’000 a year in the manufactury of the inventor Edi Glogg.
Nowadays, they are produced in Poland. They are still produced mostly the same way. The only little thing, today they use a snap fastener to close the slipper, I remember still having the glassbutton (it looked like a little eye) and, just for fun, here is the website if you need some of those for yourself.
Another Swiss thing, the metal badges for bikes. When I was a child every bike had to have those metal badges, similar to the car plates. You had to buy them every year as an insurance thing. Since about 10 to 15 year we don’t have them no longer. Or what about the typical train station watch in the back. Again trash or treasure?
Old tinboxes are always fun, but I have already a drawer full which I should turn into something…
I remember riding the still open tramway as a child and the conducter had this things with the change for the tickets and he went from one end to the other to collect the fair.
Certainly something old, but I don’t remember those kind of phones. We never had that many buttons, just the black bakelite case with the turning wheel.
But I do remember those old milk cans on the right.
…and a last impression from the Fleamarket a very typical instrument for the Swiss folk music, the accordions (not quite my thing, but…)
I hope you enjoyed our little trip to a Swiss Fleamarket.
See you next time!!!
– gypsies –
'Gypsy travels to Wynecenter Buchs, AG, in Switzerland' has 1 comment
May 28, 2018 @ 9:06 am Julia Cotrim
What a fun trip! I bet you loved every minute of it!