SWITZERLAND: Fun facts, tips, Report: DAYS 9,10: LUZERN

I'm giving some general observations/tips and fun facts about Switzerland at the end of this post...they'll be of help in adding value to your trip.

But, first I'm winding up the report of  the last 2 days of our trip... 

Sep 6, 2014: LUZERN

  

We pondered over whether we should hike in Mannlichen [do the walk down to Kleine Scheidegg from the Männlichen starting at 2450m roughly and drop down to around 2000m. Walk is about 5km. Should take 90mns (without stopping to admire the views)]  and leave for Luzern mid afternoon.

The weather was a little gloomy and we decided to take the early morning train to Luzern.

Again this is part of the golden pass panoramic route. Nice bucolic scenery.

View from the train window

After checkin at our hotel, went into the town with no fixed agenda.

Checkin at hotel Ibis...11.30 by the clock

No frills room...OK for a day's stay... loved the bunk bed

In front of Luzern bahnhof (train station)...1.35pm on the station clock

Kapellbrücke (chapel bridge):

Kapellbrücke (chapel bridge) is a covered wooden footbridge spanning diagonally across the Reuss River.

The bridge itself was originally built in 1333 as part of Lucerne's fortifications.

 Beside it is the octagonal Water Tower (Wasserturm, 13th C.), once part of the town's fortifications.

Loved the Keppelbrucke with its historic paintings---people were just walking thru with nary a look up!!

Hanging from the rafters of the roof are more than 100 pictures (17th Century ) depicting local saints and scenes from the town's history.

The Kapellbrücke was gutted by fire in 1994. It has been completely rebuilt and restored. 

Nice views from the bridge...

Classy souvenirs were laid out in a shop on the bridge... music boxes were awesome...

Live music on the banks and the usual street artists who pose as statues in public places!

The church of St Peter’s nearby is simple. 

We are devout Hindus but we make it a point to learn a little about other religions… this knowledge enhances appreciation of religious art work we encounter in travels…

The picture below is an alabaster carving of the Mount of Olives remains from the previous church building.

Jesus praying on the Mount of Olives before crucifixion 

Jesus made many visits to the Mount of Olives when in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

This is after His last supper with His disciples.

After the meal, He took His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, literally “oil-press,” located on a slope of the Mount of Olives just across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem.

There Jesus prayed in agony as He contemplated the crucifixion the following day... God sent an angel from heaven to strengthen Him.

This is the church interior.

We walked along the bank, and through the old town...There is a famous fountain in the church square...

The Kapellplatz Fritschi Brunnen fountain

No one knows who Brother Fritschi really was.

Around 1450 there was a farmer (or farmhand) living outside town making jokes whenever he came to town.

 Medieval town clerk and chronist Cysat reports that Fritschi left some money to the Safran guild on condition that they serve wine to the poor during Fasacht.

The guild is still fullfiling this obligation today and has dedicated one storey of their guild rooms in Nölliturm to Brother Fritschi (the location is not open to the public, however)...Legendary brother Fritschi plays an important role in Luzern's Carnival tradition.

 Brother Fritschi's grave is supposed to be under this fountain, on the medieval graveyard attached to St. Peter's Chapel.

Fritschi Brunnen: Fritschi Fountain (built 1918) on Kapellplatz (Church square). 

Water is spouting out of alpine horns!

An alpine horn was being dismantled and packed up after a street concert...

The buildings in the old town have painted facades...

Old town: Painted facades of buildings

Old town: Painted facades of buildings

There were plenty of fountains... one in each square

Fountains again: Swans spouting water

St Peter Fountain

St Peter Fountain... the spout up close....

The city train was chugging along with tourists 

There was a craft market... had wood craft with these kids stuff ... which kid won't hang up their clothes when the hanger is this cool?

Circus theme hanger

Garden theme hanger

On the ship...AHOY!

Lovely Bonsai

It was pretty warm... around 28 C and the town was quite crowded. 

After our idyllic time in the BO region and the Vevey area, Luzern was a bit of a let down for us... probably because of the heat and the crowds!

Tried to walk to the Lion monument, lost our way. These shop windows were great distraction...

Chocolate violins and pianos and a cool pink cake with white eidelweiss flowers and a chocolate cow on top! Yum!

We tried to get into the bus but we could not buy tickets from the driver.

The ticket machine options were a little unnegotiable. So far we had had an easy experience buying tickets from the ticket machines for all our trips---though only the French option comes up for the later stages in Vevey/Montreux region and the German option for the later stages in the BO area.

Anyway, we had had a great trip and returned back to our hotel as we had an early flight back home the next day.

Sep 7, 2014: 

 We caught the 7.10 am train from Luzern to Zurich flughafen (airport) and reached well in time for our checkin! Our flights were at 11.50. 

Some of our chocolates from CAILLER 

So that was the end of our fab Swiss vacation!

SOME RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

Here is the google map with details/notes marked by me for our trip:

http://goo.gl/maps/SqTWw

one can zoom in and out, click on the bubbles and look at the text part for detailed info. It helped us orient ourselves.

 I suggest this as a useful tool for trip prep

There are ramps in train stations--- most people trek down the immediately available
stairs without looking for the ramps. Do use ramps.

Use the sbb site www.sbb.ch/en/ and be aware of train frequency and the time of last train. For mountain excursions, use the official site and know the last cable car out. We heard about a family trekking down after missing the last gondola.

Of course, the weather site www.meteoblue.com should be your Bible on a daily basis so that you are not fogged out!

Hiking trails are extensive and graded according to difficulty… read up and use one fit for you and family.

COOPS and Migros stock all picnic supplies…usually one located near the main train station… price depends on locality… Lauterbrunnen was cheaper than Murren for instance… guess difficulty of transportation comes into play.

We were a little disappointed at the color of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva)...just a dull grey, We had mentally expected a Nahuel Huapi (Argentina) with its startling deep blue. Brienz lake appealed a bit more… guess it all depends on season and how the light strikes the water

We were also sorry we did not get to hear a single bird on our trip... saw and heard a few sweet birds only in Gimmelwald and not elsewhere. Even in busy Houston or our home town New Delhi, mocking birds and other song birds create a ruckus every morning and evening right near our home, which we adore!! Would have loved to see/hear some Swiss version

We were surprised by the total lack of other people in our coaches on most of our train trips… guess it pays to be the early bird! And traveling in the shoulder season!

We were also surprised being totally alone on our walks in all the mountain villages with nary a living soul in sight...chalets boarded up, restaurants closed… fortunate that we always carry our own food for the day!

We had a startling experience at the Grindelwald church—the door creaking open when we walked near… we are used to the motion sensitive glass doors in airports and public places but a traditional wood door of a church opening on its own was eerie! It shut automatically behind us too…and thankfully opened again to let us out when we were through!

We heard the Gruyeres church shuts down for the night automatically...an unwary visitor might get locked up inside overnight! Did not get to confirm this fact though... ha.. ha..

A live organ playing in the empty church in Lauterbrunnen made us jump out of our skin…saw the organist playing by herself… what devotion!

HOWS AND WHYS AND WHATS

We are ever curious about the whys and hows and whats of everything we experience…travel becomes richer when we read before hand about the places of our visit.

Our sources are official sites, even wikipedia…

I’ve included some such facts in the day to day report of our trip earlier.

Here are some more…

 FUN FACTS:

 

NAMES:

We can deduce that horn is probably peak when we hear many peaks bearing this suffix…  Matterhorn, Wetterhorn,  Brienzer Rothorn, Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, (12 and 8 km away from Jungfrau) etc

MATTERHORN:

The German name “Matterhorn” is probably derived from “Matte”, meaning meadow, referring to the grassy extended valley under the Gorner gorge, which has now been almost completely covered by the village of Zermatt (“zur Matt”).

Matterhorn 

Klein means small in German (pronounced clan-combo of ae)

When some one says we are going to the Matterhorn, it really means they are mountain climbers; mere mortals are happy to be on Klein Matterhorn looking at Matterhorn

SCHRECKHORN:

The majestic Schreckhorn (4,078 m) towering behind Bachalpsee… is the highest peak located entirely in the canton of Berne.

The Schreckhorn is the northernmost Alpine four-thousander and the northernmost summit rising above 4,000 m in Europe.

schreck=fright/scare; horn=peak

Reminded of Shrek movie, ha?

JUNGFRAU, EIGER, MÖNCH:

The Jungfrau is the westernmost and highest point of a gigantic 10 km wall dominating the valleys of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald.

The wall is formed by the alignment of some of the biggest north faces in the Alps, with the Mönch (4,107 m) and Eiger (3,970 m) to the east of the Jungfrau, and overlooks the valleys to its north by a height of up to 3 km.

The Jungfrau is approximately 6 km from the Eiger; with the summit of the Mönch between the two mountains, 3.5 km from the Jungfrau.

The Jungfrau (German: "maiden/virgin"; 4,158 m (13,642 ft)) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps

The owners of the alp were then the nuns from the monastery of Interlaken and they named it the Jungfrau mountain

The Mönch has an altitude of 4,107 m above sea level. Mönch is located in the middle of the famous trio Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau

The Fiend Eiger (an ogre, a human-like monster) would put his paws on the virgin, but he was prevented from doing so by a merry monk, goes an old tale.

Jungfraujoch is a col between Jungfrau and Monch (col=lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks)

So climbers go to Jungfrau, tourists are on Jungfraujoch!

Pronunciation of some place names:

Some letters are silent in place names, Jungfrau has a silent J and r

Vowels may be pronounced different from what they are in English. There are some attempts at what the word should sound like below:

Wengen ( “VEHN-gehn”)

Lauterbrunnen  ("La-oo-terbroonnen")

Männlichen (“MEHN-leek-en)

Kandersteg (Kan-der-schteeg )

Schynige Platte (“Shin-nig-geh PLAH-teh”)

Spiez ("Spee-it-sch" )

First (“Feerst”)

Isenfluh (EESen-flu)

Brienzersee (BREENTSer-zay)

Thunersee (TOOner-zay)

Rothorn (“ROAT-horn”)

Shönegg ( “SHERN-egg”)

 Meiringen (My-ringen )

Chur (”hoor”)    

SWISS TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Swiss Infrastructure is excellent and has made remote mountain tops accessible to tourists. If you have the money, get on the cable cars and mountain railways…

 Else, trek on the endless hiking paths so well maintained… you get to enjoy panoramic vistas any which way!

There are maps and trail info everywhere…

Even the tables on trains have detailed maps of the concerned region!

Heard a family loudly complain of the high prices in the Jungfraujoch restaurant…one has to understand that every little thing has to be brought up and so overheads are high,

It’s indeed mind boggling to consider the logistics of how these transport systems were constructed… these facts about the Matterhorn cable car and Jungfraubahn are fascinating!

MATTERHORN EXPRESS CABLE CAR: 

The cables had to cover the distance of 3,600 meters (11,808 feet), with a vertical altitude of almost 1,000 meters (3,280 feet).

Construction started in August 1976 at all three construction sites: the valley terminal, the three tower sites and the mountain terminal.
 Creation of the mountain terminal was a difficult undertaking.

Some 2000 cubic m of concrete were used in the mountain station, transported there by helicopter in specially insulated tanks, mixed with warm water and 2% anti-freeze.
Weather conditions at the work site (3,820 m above sea level) in high mountain terrain were extreme: temperatures falling to minus 40°C, snowfalls, and high winds of over 100 km/h.

In the summer of 1977 the cables totaling 35.8 kilometers (22.2 mi) in length and weighing 300 tons were dragged from Schweigmatten to Trockener Steg, a massive undertaking in itself.

On December 1978, all four track cables were installed, and all remaining operations were completed by the spring of 1979.

In the fall of 1979, the two 100 passenger cabins were flown from the village of Täsch to the valley terminal, attached to the hanger frames with the carriages lifted on to the track cables

 Operations finally started on 23 December, 1979,  the start of the winter season.

The building promoter had to negotiate with the Swiss Alpine Club and with the Swiss Nature Conservation Society before getting the license.

JUNGFRAUBAHN:

The train runs 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) from Kleine Scheidegg to the highest railway station in Europe at Jungfraujoch (3,454 m). 

The initial open-air section culminates at Eigergletscher (2,320 m)

The railway runs almost entirely within the Jungfrau Tunnel, built into the Eiger and Mönch mountains… there are 3 tunnels: 80% of length of the entire railway.

 Longest Tunnel is 7122 m, shortest 110 m.

Contains two stations in the middle of the tunnel, where passengers can disembark to observe the neighboring mountains through windows built into the mountainside.

Construction began in 1896...

Sixteen years after work commenced, the tunneling crew finally breaks through the glacier in Jungfraujoch.

Jungfraujoch station was inaugurated on 1 August, 1912

Uphill journey takes 50 min, the downhill return journey taking only 35 minutes.

 SNOW IN SWITZERLAND:

Snowline (where you can find snow) depends on latitude as well as altitude.

 In Norway, the snow line is at 3000 ft!

The Andes does not have permanent snowline even at high altitudes in most places.

In Switzerland, nature is assisted with man made technology to maintain the famous ski resorts… Next to the mountain station, Zermatt’s “Snowmaker” is hard at work.

In autumn, Zermatt’s “Snowmaker” facility turns water into snow by means of a vacuum; the snow is then used to improve the quality of the pistes.

The technology originated from a desalination plant for converting sea water to fresh water.
From this, engineers developed cooling equipment for diamond mines.

As the “by-product” was snow, the logical next step was the development of the Snowmaker.

The facility welcomes group visits on request.

FAMOUS PERSONALITIES:

There are some famous personalities, both real and fictional, associated with Switzerland.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung creator of some of the best known psychological concepts:  the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and extraversion and introversion.

Bollingen Tower, former home of Carl Jung on the banks of Lake Zürich may interest.

Charlie Chaplin lived in Vevey the last 25 years of his life… why? Read and you’ll be surprised.

Reminders of Holmes everywhere… in souvenir shops, ice palaces etc… 

of course the village of Meiringen has plenty…Sir Conan Doyle had stayed there and staged the scenes in the locality.  There is the bronze statue and the roaring Reichenbach Falls with the fateful ledge where the detective and his arch enemy Prof Moriarty plunged to their end.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum has numerous objects related to his history. The museum opened in 1991 on the 100th death anniversary of Sherlock Holmes in the basement of the old English church in Meiringen. The parlor of the Victorian home located at Baker Street 221b in London, where Holmes lived with Dr. Watson, is authentically recreated.

James Bond is also ever-present here:

Many scenes for the 1969 James Bond 007 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service were filmed at the Schilthorn/Piz Gloria . Piz Gloria, the world's first revolving mountaintop restaurant is located on top of Schilthorn, a 2,970 metre high summit in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, above Mürren. It's Blofeld's clinical research institute, and Bond spends some time there, eventually destroying the whole place. In reality, the Bond production team helped financing the completion of the unique revolving restaurant and the helicopter landing platform.

The story goes that Indian film maker Yash Chopra spent his honeymoon in Switzerland and promised his bride he’ll shoot some scenes there for all his future films…all his movies have since had scenes in scenic switzerland

We are not into movies but googling brings up locales of several Indian movie shoots in Switzerland. Diehard fans retrace the footsteps of their fav actors in the Gstaad Saanen area, the station where the lead actors missed the train in the film "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ)". Or the church they prayed in, the bridge they danced on etc…

ANIMALS:

Alpine Ibex, Marmots, St Bernard Dogs And Swiss Cows are omnipresent.

St Bernard is a breed of very large working dog from Swiss Alps and north Italy and Switzerland, originally bred for rescue. The average weight of the breed is between 65–120 kg (140–260 lb) and the approximate height 70 to 90 cm (28 to 35 in). This museum will be of interest to dog lovers

http://fondation-barry.ch/en/welcome-barryland-mus%C3%A9e-et-chiens-du-saint-bernard-0

Gruyeres cheese:

Milk comes from approximately 1775 cows, which all graze within a 30-kilometre radius of Broc – thanks to partnerships with around 56 farmers.

Facts are definitely fun, aren’t they when backed with such richness of scenic beauty? 

Next blogs are on Paris.

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