Travelog for: Knopf

Here I am in front of the KKL (concert hall) in Lucerne. It's directly at the lake. There are lot's of people and different boths here. This is the BlueBallsFestival with live music in different parts of the city. I had fun listening to some of the bands and trying different food.

Today it was very warm again and we went to the lake to go swimming. Here we are at the end of the little harbour, watching the ducks. The horizon always seemsed to move from my viewpoint on the little pier.

This morning we had an early start and drove to the aerial lift in Morschach to take it up to Stoos & Mt Fronalpstock. You can see it behind me in the picture above at Bouchs.


Today there's a family spa hotel here, but formerly this was a very illustrious place to go on holidays. Queen Victoria of England, Ludwig II. of Bavaria and Winston Churchill belong to the tourists that visited here.

Up here it's very beautiful. One can go skiing in winter and in summer there are many hiking paths. Many people just take the ski-lift up to Fronalpstock, though, to look from there onto Lake Lucerne, surrounding mountains, in some places until the Jura mountain range or to Zürich. One can also see the Rütli meadow, where the legendary Rütlischwur was sworn that laid the foundation for Switzerland. It will be re-enacted next week on on the 1. Aug, the Swiss National Day.
We went hiking, but without the heavy camera. It was too hot and the path we took too difficult for that.
In the late afternoon we took the lift down to Morschach again. Look where we were (and Morschach is already part of the way up on the mountain).

We decided to take part in a very Swiss experience and make cheese fondue over an open fire at the lake.
We found a wonderful place here:


(These are actually 2 different parts of the same mountain that are next tp each other but look alike from this perspective.)


The sun was already low in the sky but I checked out the way the waves hit the shore. The water looked very clear and inviting.



While the big people built the fire, I rested at the lake.


We later witnessed a beautiful sunset:



Then it was time to put the pot on the fire, put in the cheese mix, lemon juice, white wine, cherry liquor and some spices and stir it:

we dipped in bread and apple pieces and banana. It was good!

With a very full stomach, we settled down to watch the light play again.



I like going to the lake! When it was nearly dark there were still some scuba divers coming up.

Today is Swiss National day and all shops were closed, people went hiking or mountainbiking etc and had bbqs with flags and lanterns as decoration. There were fireworks all day long but esp in the evening. Many mountains had Swiss flags on them and when it got dark they had lights in the form of the cross from the flag on them. You can see one in the distance behind me.

Another beautiful and warm day here in central Switzerland. We got time off work and enjoyed being lazy and watching all the little insects humming around in the garden. People pull these mushrooms out of the ground. I rather like them...

Here I am, driving towards the Brünig Pass. It's only a bit over 1000m high, but behind these one can occasionally see the higher mountains: Mönch, Jungfrau and Eiger.

Here's the beautiful view back:

This is he administrative building of the museum at Ballenberg. Old houses from all parts of Switzerland were taken apart and rebuilt here to preserve them.
Here's the very cute Richterswil house.

It's complete with kitchen garden, ducks and all kinds fo outbildings.

One can go inside and see the furniture and a kind of small hairdresser museum.


This is the bed of a young woman. It's in the cupboard of the family room. I'm sure she must have been very small, otherwise it would have been very tight in here.



There seldom was a nursery like this, most houses just have the crib in the parent's bedroom.



Different crafts are also explained and shown here.
This water wheel powers the saw:



While walking I also saw this butterfly. It wasn't shy at all.





This shows how carpets and farics are woven and how silk is spun.


There is some information about doctors and midwifes 100 years ago. Until the flu epidemic in 1918, there was still the combined job of surgeon-hairdresser.

This room is realy cute.




This house has landry hanging outside.


Not my idea of a 'quiet place'...

There's a big barn with a wagon, a hay loft, huge cow bells etc.



This house has an extra cheese-storage house. Inside, a man is doing some woodwork.



On the wall there's an old notice about what to do during bomber alarm (WWII).



This is an old festival pavilion that give a good view of the next old farm house. Ther were some authntic animals. I particularly liked one mud-spotted piglet.



The oldest house, from the 14th century had this huge keyhole.

And again a big vegetable garden.



Lot's of Swiss men had to have been in the military in order to obtain an official marriage license and were then married in their uniform. The bride of the earl 20th century traditionally had black wedding dresses that could long be used as 'good' Sunday dresses and later for the funeral.


In this house, jewelry is designed and made.


Here are ll the small tools.


Here's a big farm house after the image of the gentry's houses, built by a rich farmer in the earl 19th century.

It has a beautiful garden:



And another building for the cheese storage.

The useum is close to Interlaken, there are some beautiful water falls and grottos near here.



Different cow bells, the cows truly all wear them around here and one can pretty much always hear some closer or further away. One gets used to the sound and luckily the cows seem to move little in their sleep, so it's mostly quiet at night.



People often make their own sirup of mint of different plants, to put in their water.

We visited Geneva today.


It’s the weekend of the Fête de Genève but unfortunately the weather isn’t very good and we can’t stay long enough to see the fireworks, because we have a long drive back. We saw the floats with the firework, though and they were huge. It must have been great.

Different countries had booths with info and traditional food. Esp. impressive was that of the Sultanate of Oman, where one could get one’s hands painted with henna, buy incense or traditional clothes and try some sweets.

We also saw the Protestant cathedral. They have ‘Calvin’s chair’ here.

I like the choir a lot. Don’t I make a good dragon rider?



These canons were part of the defence of Geneva once upon a time.



Many musicians, writers, philosophers… send some time in this city, Franz Lizt stayed in this house for some time in 1835/6.


This old school, originally from the 16th century is being renovated now.


Among all the old buildings I found this funny little graffiti demon:

The most visited museum in Switzerland is probably the Verkehrshaus (traffic house) in Lucerne. It certainly is the most fun one for children. There’s too much there to see in one day. There are extra buildings for: railway, aircrafts, cars, ships, a planetarium and the imax cinema.

We started out with the railways:


There were also demonstrations, like a little ride through the building of the Gotthard tunnel in the late 19th century.


These model trains are the right size for me.:
A car that climbs a mountain like climbing stairs.

An early (1858) horse coach train:

A  ‘high’speed steam engine:

The Blue Arrow, built for maximum capacity in transporting passengers and without the streamline form because of it.


A horse drawn tram car form Zurich, from the times when taking the tram was a luxury:


This kind was hand powered:


And here is a car that runs on rails:

This is a big (real) version of the cog railway that goes up the mountains. The steps are there so the visitors can look inside.



Outside is kind of a playground where children can direct remote controlled boats, drive carts,

work on a real construction side with lots of machines
and drive small vehicles. It's funny to watch, I wonder if the playground is more fun for the kids or the dads.



Here is the building that shows cars etc.. I was very impressed by the airport fire truck. Look how big it is compared to me:


This is a crash test simulator. One can try it out, but only at 13km/h.



There're also some bleachers around an area where a single vehicle, the viewer's choice is shown.
The viewers make their selection via pressing big red buttons as often as possible while their favourite is shown on a screen and then this machine

gets it out of storage and places it on a revolving stage in the middle and plays a commentary.

There are all kinds fo older and newer cars that can be selected:
(for a special someone who asked to see thos super sportscar)



Many model cars in storage could be selected for viewing similarly:



I wouldn't mind this kind of wall decoration in my room:


There are also other kinds of moving things shown, from strollers over shopping carts to carrousels.


Of course, what's inside is also very important. Here a normal gasoline and a diesel engine:


There were also model cars to play with. The zoomed by so fast, it was hard to take a picture.





The next hall is contains all kinds of aircrafts and flying objects.




There were models of planes throughout the ages, with a special view of Swiss creations.


This little machine showed the creation of a tornado by heating water in the bottom bowl and adding wind from above:


Another specialty of Switzerland is that because of all the mountains, they need very good mountain rescue and use the helicopter a lot.

It's a special Rega designed helicopter and they had to built their own interior for transporting injured people.
It also explains which rescue ways are used in which weather.

In medium god/bad weather the helicopter can't fly very high, so if someone has to be transported over a high mountain, like the Gotthard, a helicopter flies to the town nearest the mountain, the the patient is transported through the tunnel in an ambulance and on the other side changes back into a helicopter to reach the hospital. Very complicated if you ask me. The visitors can imitate the ways in this model:

In very bad weather the whole way would be done by airplane in very good weather all by helicopter.

There's a small model of life in a space station. I am afraid I'd loose all my stuff in 0-gravity because it would just float away. Autronauts ahve to be very orderly and put everything away again in bags and compartments so things don't get lost or plug up air filters.



There's also a planetraium and another hall with ships and another with cable cars but I am tired and need to go hoem and relax. I've seen enough for today.

Bad weather on the northern side of the alps drove us to flee to the south for the day. The Gotthard-Pass (San Gottardo) is the main way for traffic to pass over the alps. It also seperates the German speaking from the Italian speaking parts of Switzerland. It's 2091 m high.  In winter one often can't pass over here but has to take the tunnel.

Here I am still on the cloudy side around Andermatt.


At the highest part there's still some snow...


... and the clouds are clearing from the low darker cloads to high photogenic ones.



The view south towards the Ticino and the plains around Mila behind it. 


Just look at the way the road is winding down:



The railroad can't get up here in a straight way and still has to make 3 big loops as we saw in the Verkehrshaus last weekend.

Going down again on the otehr side, it looks much nicer already.

We visited beautiful Laveno on the eastern shore of the Lago Maggiore.
I watched the car drive off and on the ferry,

There were lots of fish in the water and many motor boats on the lake.

Here I am in Varese in Lombardy at the foot of the Sacro monte di Varese in the Campo dei Fiori, a place of pilgrimage.


This is the Palazzo Estense.

North of Varese we drove towards the alps again

we passed Bellinzona, the city of fortresses and

and took a good look back south and west when we were on the mountain.


It was very windy up there but just over the Pass the wind stopped and we were in the clouds again.

I did something special today, I went up on the Titlis glacier.
First I had to drive to Engelberg and take the cableway up to Trübsee at ~1800m,  then on to change again at Stand in 2500 m and up with a rotating aerial lift to the small Titlis at 3020m altitude (or 10 000 ft).
Here we are wating for our cabin, each seats 6 people, or 3 and a bear.

Looking back to the station and Engelberg:

The view out the window:


There are lots of cows below on the alps, cheese dairies, a mountain railway for transport of heavy goods, ski-lifts etc.


Waiting for the next lift at the station in Trübsee:

Here's Trübsee, a great place for kids to play in the water with floats and on slides or for older people to have an even surface to walk on.


From Stand we went up to the glacier

The sttion at Stand, Trübsee is on the plateau to the farr left of the picture


Snow


The cabin itself didn't rotate as we expected but the platfor the passegers were standing on did within the cabin. It was a bit surprising and hard for the older passenger who couldn't hold on to anything.
The shadows of our gondola cabin and another passing in the air

Nearly at the summit...



After exiting the gondola we decided to skip the lines waiting for the elevator and walk up the 5 floors to the observation deck. After 3 floors, we felt how thin the air had gotten. We were so quickly out of breath.
When we were outside we put on jackets as windprotection, even though it wasn't really neccessary, the sun was shining, making it quiet warm.
The view back towards Engelberg. The mountain in the middle is the Stanserhorn.



We went out onto the snow a bit.

Small streams are running in many places in between or under the snow.

View toward the Berner Oberland:


Another narrow valley on the other side

Climbing up here felt funny

With this drop at the side
But the view was very good and clear.


We're this far up from the observation deck and already adapted quite well to the lack of oxygen. But I feel bad for a the babies that have been dragged up here and aren't used to it.


It'S amazing to see how the mountain changs from snow covered to a kind of desert of rocks to tree covered to very green grass to the valley with the river in the middle.




Please don't let me fall into a crevasse!


Maybe my favourite view was to this side, possibly because I had to work  bit and climb up further than most toursists go to get there, but probably because of the structure of the mountains.


The warning of the drop seems a bit flimsy...


The rocks do have their own beauty, but I can see when from time to time some come down and there are big steel fences above the roads in some places.


Here in the center of the mountainsrange in the distance you can see Mönch,  Jungfrau and Eiger again plus a few other mountains of over 4000m. It seems that we see these from all sides.


Time to go back down, our gondola is arriving:

A last look up

I like all the patterns in the snow.


Trübsee again, about 1000m below us, we'll walk around there a bit on the way back.

Nearly in Stand, it's a bit disconcerting to see how little actually holds us up in the air.

I'm lucky I'm not afraid of heights, some people here are and they have been banned to sit in the middle of the gondola where they can only see the other passengers. I hope they aren't also claustrophobic.



Looking up to the Titlis from Trübsee:

Staying at the lake (See = lake in German) sees like fun too.


We'll take this cable way down

over the plateau and on to Engelberg: