Perhaps it is all that getting washed by the rain, but I noticed that the places I have been seemed so clean. There must be dirty spots but for the tourist it seems so clean. It does not just happen. People do clean the place and I have seen them.
It is not some cursory wipe over but a genuine clean with attitude. They seem to be cleaning - not because it is their job - but because it is the right thing to do. Because the thing, item, place actually is deserving being cleaned.
They clean it like they mean it.
Two examples from today.
It is not some cursory wipe over but a genuine clean with attitude. They seem to be cleaning - not because it is their job - but because it is the right thing to do. Because the thing, item, place actually is deserving being cleaned.
They clean it like they mean it.
Two examples from today.
I was on the station in Lauterbrunnen waiting for my train to Interlaken. I noticed some of the work gang working on the tracks wandering into the café bar for a swiss version of smoko. Most of them reappeared with a toblerone, or some swiss chocolatee confection to join with their coffee, or more likely hot chocolate and the mandatory cigarette. They took a seat laughing and joking in their orange work clothes. Then another of them appeared but he had cleaning materials. OK just a rag I guess but he meant business. And within 5 minutes, Lauterbrunnen rail station had the cleanest, shiniest metal garbage can, I have seen in a while. Truth to tell, this guy cleaned the garbage can with purpose and conviction.
I thought nothing of it till tonight in Zermatt. I had finished dinner and was walking in a now deserted toy town and came to the bahnhoff, the rail station from which I will hit the Glacier Express in the morning. Trains were parked at the station, a couple still scheduled to run down the hill, some finished for the day.
I spotted a cleaning crew running through a carriage. One of them was collecting the garbage left on the floor and seats, dropping it into white, plastic bags. She seemed finished and about to move onto the next carriage when she produced a cleaning rag and attacked the windows. Now it is not that she did it that caught my eye but the way she did it. She meant to have that window be the cleanest and bestest viewing portal possible. She cleaned with a rag but she used attitude, what our mums all called elbow grease. But when I used my mums elbow grease it was applied with a liberal sprinkling of grimace not grace.
The cleaning episodes I noticed today were what my mum meant by elbow grease. Clean it like you mean it.
I thought after these 2 little cleaning stories that these 2 people cleaned not because it was their job, but they cleaned because it was the right thing to do. In a place that is so reliant on tourism, a clean window on a scenic train makes sense. I had not thought about it before but the windows have been clean on my trains to date.
I sure hope that woman gets to wander past seat 52a on the Glacier Express before 0852 tomorrow.
I thought nothing of it till tonight in Zermatt. I had finished dinner and was walking in a now deserted toy town and came to the bahnhoff, the rail station from which I will hit the Glacier Express in the morning. Trains were parked at the station, a couple still scheduled to run down the hill, some finished for the day.
I spotted a cleaning crew running through a carriage. One of them was collecting the garbage left on the floor and seats, dropping it into white, plastic bags. She seemed finished and about to move onto the next carriage when she produced a cleaning rag and attacked the windows. Now it is not that she did it that caught my eye but the way she did it. She meant to have that window be the cleanest and bestest viewing portal possible. She cleaned with a rag but she used attitude, what our mums all called elbow grease. But when I used my mums elbow grease it was applied with a liberal sprinkling of grimace not grace.
The cleaning episodes I noticed today were what my mum meant by elbow grease. Clean it like you mean it.
I thought after these 2 little cleaning stories that these 2 people cleaned not because it was their job, but they cleaned because it was the right thing to do. In a place that is so reliant on tourism, a clean window on a scenic train makes sense. I had not thought about it before but the windows have been clean on my trains to date.
I sure hope that woman gets to wander past seat 52a on the Glacier Express before 0852 tomorrow.
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