Lucerne: Wanderings across Confœderatio Helvetica

Hey, so here's the last post in the "Wanderings across Confœderatio Helvetica" 2010 series (check Zürich, Grindelwald & Zematt for more info), featuring my fave Swiss city - Lucerne (a.k.a. 'the city of lights'). In this post i've decided to concentrate more on the pictures & less on words. Indeed, being surrounded by breathtaking mountain scenery, surrounded by the scenic lake of Lucerne, best advertising for Lucerne is done with visual representations, not verbal descriptions :P

Lucerne is situated on the most scenic lake in CH - Vierwaldstättersee, so, naturally, the first thing to do after checking in the hotel was taking a boat-trip, in our case - to Weggis.

Right after coming back from a boat-trip we went to check out Lucern'e wooden symbol - 14th century Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge). Although Chapel Bridge's octagonal water tower survived a disastrous fire in 1993, it is thereafter the zigzag Spreuer Bridge (Spreuerbrücke) that oficially holds the title of Lucerne's oldest bridge. It was built in 1407 & its 17th-century roof paintings remain intact, detailing 56 storyboard-style scenes by Caspar Meglinger, called "The Dance of Death".

After the spooky Danse Macabre roaming the bright streets of the Old Town  was a cheerful relief & even the 'traditional' (tja, happened to me 4 out of 4 times that I've been in town) walk to the somewhat thought-provoking Bertel Thorvaldsen's Lion Monument (Löwendenkmal) seemed quite a breeze compared to the weirdly frivolous mischiefs of "The Dance of Death".

The festive (with all those dazzling colorful lights) ending of the day was a  waterfront walk to KKL Kultur und Kongresszentrum - btw, very advisable for photography admirers: one can hardly imagine a more scenic location than this striking work of postmodern architecture by Jean Nouvel with emblematic mount Pilatus (2132m) in the background.
Come visit, enjoy & take pictures!!!

Zermatt: Wanderings across Confœderatio Helvetica

Zermatt is situated in the canton of Valais & is deservedly on the list of the most popular skiing regions in the world. Population of Zermatt is candidly tiny - just 5,800 inhabitants, all of whom have an unrivalled pleasure of enjoying the disturbingly beautiful views of Switzerland's emblematic Matterhorn every day ;)

They also have a unique opportunity of reveling in such unique alpine fauna like Zermatt goats. This 'wonders of nature' are exactly 50% black & 50% white, with the "Great Colour Divide" 'separating' the goat exactly into two even halves :D Would definitely be something that makes me smile every day :)

Zermatt is well-known for connoting in minuature the very essence of Switzerland with its herds of sheep grazing grass on picturesque mountain slopes in the shade of the legendary Matterhorn (Monte Cevino, 4478m). To my great delight natural beauty is diligently protected in the region by thoughtfull ecological policies. To prevent air pollution which could obscure the view of the Matterhorn, the entire town is a combustion-engine car-free zone. Most vehicles in Zermatt are battery driven and almost completely silent. Exception is only made for selected municipal vehicles like garbage trucks & emergency vehicles such as fire trucks & ambulances.

It's not only the smart policy-making, but a very pragmatic approach to integrating technical innovations into the every-day life, that makes the Zermatt region so unique.

For instance, the breaking force of Gornergrat Bahn trains going down from the Gornergrat summit (meaning: the level difference of 1604-3089m) is recovered (don't ask me how) & used for powering the trains going up.

The weather was favourable, so for our 1st day's hike we chose the most spectacular (according my preceding photo-research) spot - Riffelsee. The trip up by feet would have taken the whole day, so we used the scenic Gornergrat Mountain Railway (the highest open-air railroad in Europe) up to the Rotenboden (2815m) station & made our way down to Zermatt along the hiking trails, which  - including photo-stops - still took approx.7 hours (?!).

The plan for the second day was to visit the 'less spectacular' Grünsee (2300m), Moosjiesee & Leisee & educate ourselves by means of "Climate Audio Trail" (the hint for which came from Sergey's friend Lars). Climate Audio Trail is an audio-project, developed by the company he is working for, MyClimate, in order to raise awareness about the climate change. It definitely must be noted what a great job they did on putting together such an entertaining "Hörspiel". On the one hand it informs you about climate change & teaches about the science behind it, e.g. how  glaciers' layers can be 'read like Earth's ancient diaries' by analyzing the bubbles of air trapped within their icey coating, etc. On the other hand the ClimateTrail unobtrusively gets you aquianted with local traditions such as yoddeling or "inukshuk"-building (inukshuk translates as "stone man that points the way")

It is also by listening to the Climate Audio Trail that I learnt a pretty cool way of (completely legally) enlarging national borders without waging a war against anybody :) The story has it that in the middle of the 20th century an agreement was reached between Switzerland & Italy that Swiss state boundaries would run on water divides of glaciers in the Alps. Because of global warning the glaciers have since then rapidly melted, which has automatically 'won' the Swiss substantial amounts of land! ;) here we go again - learn from the Swiss: smart policy making will take you further then war-making :P

So after educating ourselves on climate change, Swiss history & snapping some shots of swiss cows grazing grass with a view of Matterhorn around Findeln, we peacefully returned via a forest hiking trail back to Zermatt in order to pick up the reward for a hard 'walking/working day' in the form of fondue & some local Valais wine :)

P.S. That, of course, is not yet the end of our Swiss adventures, & more is to come in the next blog-post ;)

Grindelwald: Wanderings across Confœderatio Helvetica

As mentioned in the previous post, the true adventure started the next day, on leaving for Grindelwald, a mountain town that i've discovered 'by mistake' 7 years ago when i was forcibly put off the train in Interlaken because of trying to cheat with the tickets (hehe, best damn day of my life :P ).

So Grindelwald happens to be situated in the canton of Bern & lies at quite a high altitude in the Bernese Alps - 1,034 metres above sea level, which makes the ride with "Berner Oberlang Bahn" from Interlaken remarkably pictureseuque.

No wonder that Grindelwald can be found in contemporary pop-culture many times, e.g. a James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) includes a chase through a skating rink & Christmas festival in Grindelwald. Grindelwald's mountains were used as the basis for the view of Alderaan in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). Some of the action scenes in The Golden Compass (2007) were also shot in Grindelwald. And JK Rowling has been quoted to have used the name of 'Grindelwald' in the creation of her character; Gellert Grindelwald, in the Harry Potter novels.

But as all good things in this world - the wonderful views of Grindelwald cost a lot... And although Jungfrau Lodge gets a high-five from me for a reasonable combination of luxury of modern facilities with the local swiss small-town flavourm the 130 EURO bill for one night was quite impossible to forget... Well, maybe only once i managed to suppress it: in the morning when i woke up to a gorgeous view of the north face of Eiger, immersed in milky fog :P

Our touristic goal in Grindelwald was visiting a high (1961 m) mountain pass which connects Grindelwald & Meiringen - Grosse Scheidegg. As the time was limited we took a bus (in contrast to my 4 hour uphill hike 7 years ago ... ah, the sweet things we do when there's no money).

Finding the bus stop was kinda tricky, though, as streets don't have names & the only way to orientate is by adorable & impossible to pronounce house names like "uf em Bühlmättli" or something of that effect. Last time (at the same time of year) when I've reached the altitude of 1'961m it was wonderfully warm & cows were peacefully eating grass. This time over (& some people talk of the global warming :P ) the whole scenery resembled a permafrost desert & there was no sign of even one cow & not even a bit of green grass :P

On safely (but quickly) returning from 'permafrost' @ Grosse Scheidegg we ushered to our next stop, canton of Valais. Due to a minor schedule confusion we accidentally 'won' half an hour for a coffee-break-with-a-view in tiny-tiny (but nonetheless gorgeous) Spiez, enjoyed some spectacular views over a medieval castle in the harbour of Lake Thun & the lake itself & hurried to my favourite destination of this Swiss trip - Zermatt, the impressions of which are coming up next!