Travelog for: Knopf

As you can see I arrived at another beautiful and this time very calm place in the mountains, at bannalp. One can again only reach it on food or with a cableway.

I watched the cows on these steep meadows and wanted to stay but work starts again tomorrow.

Ray and I went for a walk into town today:
Coming toward the center of town from a little up the mountain...

We got to the church and village square. We could hear the organ from outside. The was a children's service going on.


I esp. like the church tower with all the small details. Ray couldn’t decide.

There was a big article in the newspaper about hiking in Switzerland and how it has become very popular again. Well, of course we have to join in, after all it's the only way to really see the mountains in summer. We drove to Niederrickenbach and took the cableway up to Maria-Rickenbach.

There's a monastery of Benedictine nuns up there which is a place of pilgrimage. No road leads up, so the mail, groceries etc. are also brought up by cableway.
Maria-Rickenbach is a bit above 1000m high. Our destination was the Brisenhaus at 1753m. There were many friendly cows with their bells around. That way it's never really silent here, even if there are no people or machines around.


We climbed up from just over 1000m nearly to the Brisenhaus at 1753m.
There were single houses along the way, some offering a place to sleep in the straw.

The way got steep and eventually changed from gravel road to a path over the meadows.

We got closer to the tree line and also to the clods that hung low over the mountain ridge.


Finally we could see the Brisenhaus. The climb from here was scheduled for another 30 min because it was so steep and the way wasn't good.

We had a good view over the Stanserhorn.




On the way back down we took a quick look at the monastery garden. It was very pretty with a good view and peaceful.

We were off on another hike, taking advantage of the (still) good weather here in Central Switzerland. This time we took a small ropeway from Oberrickenbach to the Bannalp, Chrüzhütte and walked from there over mountains calles Walenstöcke to Engelberg. It's called the 'Walenpath'
Here they are:

Zoomed in, these made a very nice picture, the way they lay there like ying and yang or something similar.

I was fascinated by how nature worked those very artistic lines into the rock. The way was very steep in this part and the drop to the side was scary, I was happy to be carried. I thought it funny that my hosts walked to slowly, but they assure me that it's proper to walk slowly but steadily when hiking in the mountains. 



We still made very good time to the highest point of our hike where we broke for lunch.
The cows have a lot of freedom here and even when it's nearly silent otherwise, there's the sound of a cowbell from somewhere.



And here I am looking out over Oberdorf.

The higher of these two outcrops was the highest point of our tour.


After 2 more hours of walking, first down and then up again (how annoying!), we thought we deserved a little rest with view of the Titlis glacier and Engelberg.


We enjoyed the barefoot path at Brunni and made the steep descent to Ristis, where we took a big cableway to Engelberg. We had to hurry to the station to catch out train back to the car.

The train switches to kind of a cog railway for the very steep passages.

The mountain we are going to go on today is Mt. Pilatus, according to the tourism industry the mounain of Lucerne city, even though it lies on the border of the cantons Lucerne, Obwalden and Nidwalden, with its peak on the border between the two latter cantons.
We chose the way via the Pilatus Railway, the world's steepest cogwheel railway, starting in Alpnachstad, Obwalden.

The local legend goes that the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate (Pontius Pilatus) was buried in one of the mountain lakes. Everywhere else they wanted to bury him, thunderstorms rose up so a bis mountain, like the fractus mons (fractured mountains) as the mountain was called in the 11th/12th century. The officials in Lucerne didn't want the grave to be dissturbed, so they forbid the ascent of the mountain, a law that stood until the 16th century.
The lake however eventually dried out. When it is once again foggy and clouds cling to the mountain, locals say that a big dragon has risen from within and is breathing smoke.
I am sure that, as always with oral tradition, there are many different versions of this tale. But this is the one I was told during the drive there. There are also many other stories of oral tradition surrounding this mountain.
Here's the dragon of Mt. Pilatus, at the railway station:


Inside the steepest cogwheel railway in the world:




Looking down onto Lake Alpnach.


The maximum incline is 48%.

This isn't it, but it's quite steep already.

Today the mountain truly looks like something out of a fairytale. It has a certain beauty but does not always feel nice.


There's a cave, called Mondmilchloch (moon milk hole), the name refers to the light colored little being that help the diligent at night and punish the lazy and mean have been said to live in these caves. Stories of such creatures are very popular in the German speaking areas, each seems to have its own local version of the story.

We arrived at the Kulm at 2073m.
Unfortunately there isn't much of a view:

and the fog got even worse because it rose up from the lake throughout the day.

The biggest functional alphorn is to be foudn in the mountain. And even though it can't be one of these, the still are of an impressive size and play a haunting melody.


We climbed up a bit further to the Esel at 2118.7m (about 7000ft).
There we saw the mountain doles.



We desceded on the opposite side from the one we came from and took the gondolas down to Kriens.

We went to visit the Rosengart Collection, a museum showing mainly Picasso and Paul Klee. It was very impressive, with free info sheets in every room with explanations about he painters and every painting. Unfortunately, bags or tvs weren't allowed inside. But here I am passing the main station. It surrounded by stands full of bicycles on 3 sides. People use those a lot here. Parking in Lucerne in mostly restricted to parking garages and zones for inhabitants.

Today I witnessed the Alpabzug(Swiss), Almabtrieb(German) from the window. This is where the cows are led from the mountain pastures to the barns in the valleys. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go down and see it from close-up. But you can see how the cows have extra big and festive bells, that don't allow them to eat and are decorated with flags of Switzerland and the cantons. Traditionally there are also flower-decorations on the cows.

Today we had the day off and visited the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, or Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg (as the local dialect, a kind of Moselfränkisch, calls it) or Großherzogtum Luxemburg (German one of the 3 official languages, along with French and Luxembourgish).
We walked through the streets and had a look at the shops, some lunch and of course he had to visit the Grand Ducal Palace, the official residence of the Grand Duke, where his offices are located and which is used to house foreign dignitaries and different official functions. They even have a guard up front but I was a bit dissappointed that he just wore a regular uniform, nothing special like the guards in London.

*pssst, Knopf's love affair with a ladybug*

Today was very exciting. We went to a postcrossing meeting on the Christmas market in Essn. postcrossers from different towns in Germay and some from the Netherlands and from Belgium came here.
First we met everybody at the big Christmas tree opposite the main station of Essen. The first part fo the christmas market starts here. BlackCat brought Santa Claus caps for everyone so we would have an easier time finding each other again in the crowds.



We went to the restaurant of Galleria Kaufhof where many postcards were signed and gotten ready to send. Some of the postcrossers were also toyvoyager hosts, so we were 12 toyvoyagers.




When the cards were all ready to go to the postoffice, we walked to explore the Christmas market and came by he old carrion. As it was close to the full hour we waited for a bit. It played a Christmas song and the doors opened for different figures to come forward.



On the Burgplatz (castle place) in front of the minster church there's a big ride every year. For the past few years it's been this ferris wheel. We decided to ride it to get a good look over the city.





Here's the minster church. It was built for a convent where rich ladies (not nuns) lived that actually had a lot of power for women in the middle ages because they owned a lot of land around here. It's well known for the oldest known golden Madonna. It can be seen free of chrage in the church but we couldn't take pictures inside because a choir was singing at the time.

The day before Christmas Eve, time to put up the Christmas tree. We bought a big one. It was packed into a net and now has to be shortened and put into the holder. Then the net can come off:

Is it turned the right way?
Later lot's of tiny lights are put in which is the biggest piece of work. A few hours, 3 different chains of lights, some replaced little lightbulbs and lots of frayed nerves later it looks like this:

Then comes the fun part. There are many different ornaments in big and small boxes: stars made of straw; glass orbs in many different sizes and colors, shiny, matt or transparent, with or without little pictures or stripes; wooden angels, Santas, skiing children, moon and stars...
We decided to go for the very traditional Christmas colors: red, green and gold this year.

Tadaa!

I went for a walk along the Ruhr in Essen-Horst. The neighbors go right down to the river in some places.

Here's the club house of a local sportsclub and many multicolored site caravans.

It's a beautiful clear winter day in this industrial landscape.

This is the old Horster Mühle (mill).

Here's the weir that produces the faster water flow

and the part where boats can pass it:

Directly above it on the Ruhrhöhen (heights) is the Villa Vogelsang. It was built for the industrial Friedrich Ludwig Niemann according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkels in 1840.

He didn't live in it very long and later the Vogelsang family that had the rights for the coalmining close by took over as premier industrials in the neighborhood. Here's the main hall that housed many of the  neccassary functions.



Above me in the picture you can see an an old tower that's now in someone's backyard but probably belong to the Vryburg, a circular hillfort from Carolingian times that's located on that site of the river.

I took a look back to the Villa and weir

before passing over the new footbridge next to the old railroad bridge and taking in the view toward Bochum:

Finally, after 1.5h, the lights of Dover harbor were visible. It was still dark and there was fog, so we couldn't see the cliffs very well, even after leaving the ferry on the bus. But the landscape was still covered in snow.

After the usual traffic in Greater London, we made it to Southwark and the major sights.

But before we started off to all that we checked into our hotel and admired the room and the great bathtub that had a window into the bedroom.




To start our quick tour we went to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.



A walk through Green Park and by many people feeding very cheeky grey squirrels and different kinds of birds, we reached Buckingham Palace. Apparently the Royal family wasn't in residence.


The underground got us quickly to the Tower of London. Unfortunately every famous building seems to be partly covered in building tarp. Nevertheless we walked to the middle of Tower Bridge and held up foot traffic by standing in the way to take pictures like any self-respecting toursit would.


This sign on the ground explains:
"This site formed part of Tower Liberty, an area originally kept open for the defence of the Tower of London. In 1687 a charter was granted, giving priviliged status to those living within its confines, amongt them the freedom of the jurisdiction of London. Although the last vestiges of these priviliges were finally dissolved in 1894, the tradition of the Beating of the Bounds takes place every third year on ascencion day.
William Penn, founder of Pennsylania, was born in Liberty in1644 and baptizes in the nearby Church of all Hallows, Barking."




After an afternoon brunch (we just hadn't managed to get any breakfast or lunch) of sushi and detox soup, we moved our photosession on to St. Paul's Cathedral at dusk.



Just a short walk away was the Millenium Bridge that resisted any depiction on film or electronic material from the angle but gave us a good look over London and all it's lighted buildings and bridges.



The rides on the double decker bus were very bumpy at times but we had a good view at others, better and much cheaper than many city tours and overheard locals giving their guests private tours of the city this way and learnt a lot more than we would have otherwise, both about the city and about the firends, relatives and aquaintances of said persons. (I am still wondering whether this one guy was really introduced with info about the size of his house and checkbook by his friend in Brazil, or if maybe that was a bit of "subtle" bragging to the blonde he was giving the tour to.We'll never know...)