Appenzell and Lucerne

Friday, September 27, 2013

Janet is gracing the Chapel Bridge in Lucerne. Today we visited Appenzell town, went to the cheese factory nearby, and then embarked on a grueling trip to Lucerne. We had no map, and had to stop numerous times to find our way. It took about four hours. Yet, our walking tour in old-town Lucerne was wonderful due to its beauty and charm. Like this wooden bridge, built in 1333.

We woke up grumpy due to the incessant church bells.

There's the culprit - a modern church, just across the street. Maybe we could have forgiven it a little had it been an 800-yr-old beautiful cathedral, but this little thing just made us mad! When we went to breakfast downstairs, the woman asked how our night was and I mentioned how it was difficult sleeping due to the church bells; she said cheerfully that some people just can't get used to it while others do. La de dah!

The breakfast was yummy, including Appenzeller cheese and a nice selection of breads and meats. When we arrived downstairs, we were the only ones there, but when we left it was jammed with the local workers.

Here is our Gasthaus. Our room was directly above our car. We drove the short distance to downtown Appenzell. Of course, Appenzell is more that the little village -- it's the entire Swizz canton we'd been in since the previous evening. It's most famous for its "cow" culture and the fact that it is Switzerland's most traditional canton. It also includes the tall mountain range capped by Mt Säntis (8200 ft), which Janet and I could see off to the east from where we were. 

Once in town, we tried to park where our tour guide said it was free - in front of the Appenzeller Bier Brewery. All spots were taken, so we squeezed into a spot on the road while the beer factory workers cheered me on.

Here I am where we parked, with the brewery right across the street.

Another view across the street at the brewery, this time with that decorated truck waiting to be filled.

We walked 100 meters across the river and were in the center of this touristy town with its beautifully decorated buildings (Lüftlmalerei). We met up with another couple doing a walking tour, and they were from Coure d'Alene, Idaho. Interestingly, they had stayed at a hotel right there in Appenzell, and the big church across the street had kept him up all night too.

See the attractive buildings, with the distinctive roofs and decorations? I could have taken 20 pictures like this one. We went into a store called Salesis House, from the 16th century and the only free-standing stone building in Appenzell other than the castle. Outside of it we saw Appenzeller cheese cycling kits, on sale for only $53. I tried it on, and Janet encouraged me to buy it.

Cool-looking, isn't it? Of course, this photo was taken once we got home. I love the black strips with the little golden cows, herdmen and carts.

We continued walking around the village, admiring the charm and shopping for a cow bell.

More town color, and another Appenzeller Bier truck.

And this photo includes a Nestle truck, and more pretty buildings. I don't seem to have a picture of their large town square where in-person voting, using raised hands, takes place once a year. They had a postcard showing the square jammed with citizens with their arms in the air voting "yes" on something, and it made us wonder what they had to do if a vote was close? It would certainly take all day to count each hand in the air for yay and nay.

Even the Three Kings Hotel had cool paintings. Perhaps the most painted was this store below that we shopped in for cow bells, but still we didn't make a purchase.

Not only painted walls, but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the balcony top, and other figures. Even a gnome on the top of the pole on the right. Note the name of this shop - Hersche. Say it aloud. Sounds like Hershey, doesn't it? Well, that's no coincidence. They are the family of Milton Hershey, who immigrated to Pennsylvania from Appenzell. If you look REALLY closely, you can see a Hershey Bar wrapper on top of a little white post above the 2nd "A" in Bazar. Here, let me zoom it in for you:

We drove north to the nearby town of Stein, where they had a cheese factory and museum.

This was a kiddie playground in the form of the famous Appenzeller cheese, just outside the factory. Also outside the factory were several "cow benches". Janet wanted to get my photo sitting in one, so down I sat, and...

...oops, there was a puddle of water on that bench! My pants were drenched. Luckily, our luggage was in the car a few meters away, and I was able to change into dry pants.

We toured the museum, featuring Appenzell Canton culture, and the photos I took were cowbells and cow parades.

This particular cowbell was interesting in that it looks very much like the one we eventually bought for our souvenir (in Munich). The two little cows and herdman near the top are what are all over the cycling jersey I bought earlier in the day.

In the cheese factory next door, the best feature was watching the film about the Appenzell cow culture. It was half informational and half advertising, but we learned so much about this interesting part of the world. Their cow parades are steeped in tradition. We chuckled at their cheese advertising campaign in which they play off the "secret" recipe that only TWO PEOPLE are privy to.

We left Stein to drive to Lucerne, using only a map of Appenzell to get us, supposedly, on the correct road heading out of the canton. The "correct road" was told to us by the woman in the tourist office in Appenzell. It turned out she led us on the long route, which was so convoluted that it required I stop three times to ask directions. Some of the roads during the first hour were tiny, with no center line, and they curved up up up and down down down. We had some nice scenery and lots of cowbells ringing, but the road just never seemed to arrive where we were wanting to go.

Finally we reached Rapperswill on Lake Zurich, and the signs started showing Lucerne as a destination. We followed those, and eventually we made it, four hours later. I have looked at a map since, and by golly did we ever take the convoluted route. Thus, when we finally parked and began our walking tour in central Lucerne at 4:30, I was pretty well wiped out and frazzled.

After walking along the beautiful Lake Lucerne, however, and with Janet being so loving and calm, I soon settled down and enjoyed the walk.

Here is another view along the lake front, and I thought it was funny to see this couple taking their own picture. It was a Friday as work was getting out, so it became very busy on the streets.

Here is a view from Chapel  Bridge, looking down the Reuss River and at the open-air cafes on a warm evening. Seeing that boat is a reminder of what happened to the Chapel Bridge on my birthday in 1993. A small boat was tied to the bridge, and caught fire. It quickly spread to the bridge, made entirely of wood, and destroyed almost the whole thing. After careful restoration, no boats may tie to the bridge!

In the 17th century, they added these triangular paintings for the entire length of the bridge, and unfortunately, they too were destroyed in the fire. 147 original paintings were here before the fire, and now only 30 have been fully restored.

This photo of me is from the far side of the bridge, of the water tower. However, the tower is not a water tower in the usual sense, but the name comes from the fact that the tower is standing in the water. The tower predated the bridge by about 30 years. Throughout the centuries, the tower was variably used as a prison, torture chamber, and later a municipal archive.

Following our tour book's guided walking tour, we then walked a few feet to the Jesuit church.

As usual for our churches in Europe, it was overly ornate. Built in 1666, it is dedicated to Frances Xavier, who our local Cincinnati college is named for. Out in front, a group of young adults were playing guitar and singing what sounded like folk songs.

They had this low dam holding back water so that it would be "lake like" under the Chapel Bridge in the background. The dam also diverted water to several mills in years past. In fact, if we turned the other direction, we saw...

Mill Bridge. That one, too, is covered and has interior triangular paintings just like Chapel Bridge. Luckily, they are still original and undamaged. At the far right side is where all the mills were. When we walked to that far side, they have an 1889 turbine to see, which generated power. Actually, there is still a generator here providing power for thousands in the area. Notice too, in the background on the hill, are remnants of the original city walls and two of its towers.

On the other side of the Mill Bridge we were back on the "old town" side of Lucerne. What impressed us most were the Lüftlmalerei paintings on the buildings. The picture above is in the old wine market plaza, and represents the Wedding Feast at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. 

This painting is just to the right of the one previously, and the inscription just above the portico roof says, in Latin, "No medicine can cure a broken heart." This building used to be a pharmacy.

This painting on a Gasthaus shows an extensive family tree.

In a different plaza, they had a painting of Göthe (the German Shakespeare) because he stayed there in 1779 (it says so in the painting).

We considered eating in this restaurant, but it seemed too expensive, despite the urgings by the maître d. But the wall painting had an interesting story: It features symbols from Lucerne's annual Mardi Gras festival, called Fasnacht. Notice the name - Restaurant Fritschi. Well, the real Mr. and Mrs. Fritschi (who are still the restaurant owners) are shown at the top wearing masks and throwing oranges, and the rest of it tells the story of Fasnacht.

We completed our walking tour and then found a small cafe to eat. Yummy, but expensive. Janet had spaghetti and I had a simple chicken paprika, but it cost $50 (with beer, of course!). We then went back to the car to find our apartment in the nearby suburb of Littau. Without too much trouble we found it, and went up to the third floor to meet the owner. Very pleasant, and she soon departed for a party, leaving the entire place to us. I walked up the street to a small market to buy some beer and chips, and sat on her deck to enjoy them. Janet worked on her computer. It was nice to relax at the end of a long but fabulous day.