Boonie!

Saturday, September 28, 2013

After a morning in Lucerne, we visited Boonie in Bern. So fabulous to see her again! She took us to see Kathrin's family, gave us a walking tour of Bern, and then took us to her mom's condo for this Häcki Family dinner along with Susanne and her boyfriend Florian (who took the photo).

The day began with us going back into Lucerne so that we could see the famous Lion Monument. We had a bit of trouble finding it, but we did, and it was indeed moving.

We were lucky to be here early before any crowds while it was quiet, because it was somber once we learned the story behind this monument. It was carved directly out of the rock, and the lion is resting his paw on a shield with tears streaming down his cheeks. In his side is a broken-off end of a spear which is killing him. The monument honors Swiss mercenaries killed during the French Revolution. The Latin inscription above says, "To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss."

We dropped in to a cafe in the Löwenplatz to eat some breakfast - coffee, Gruyere cheese, and a croissant ($15...yes, Switzerland is expensive!). We then departed Lucerne to visit the Fortress Fürigen Museum.

We drove about 10 miles south of Lucerne, right on the lake, to a small village. We parked and walked a few hundred meters to this "hidden" opening in the rock wall. This is one of about 15,000 Swiss fortresses throughout the country meant to protect the country from invasions during WWII and the Cold War. Guns hidden in the wall could fire six miles to protect road and rail lines between Lucerne and Zürich. (Of course, they were never needed.) Janet and I, using audio guides, walked through the extensive tunnels to see how 100 soldiers at a time lived and worked, and would be protected in case of a nuclear attack.

This photo shows how narrow the road is along Lake Lucerne to reach the fortress. Those Swiss can make roads where no one else would dare; they have the most-expensive-per-mile road system in the world. 

The autobahn continued southwest toward Interlaken, but then became a smaller road as we went over Brünigs Pass.

We stopped near the summit for this scenic view of Lungerer See, and continued on twisty turns until we got back down to the autobahn toward Interlaken and Bern.

My directions got us to Boonie's street in Bern, but we kept missing sharp left turns to keep us on her street. That is, no signs said to turn to retain Stauffacherstrasse, so we kept having to make u-turns and search for street signs. We finally found her apartment and walked up the 5 flights of stairs (80 steps) to a smiling Boonie! She cried as we shared a long hug. So great to see her again - not since my 2004 broken hip visit. She has become a successful advertising exec ala Mad Men, i.e., on the creative team. She commutes by train to Zürich, and is now with her third firm. She said it's common to move to a new firm about every two years to maintain your creative edge.

This picture was taken at Kathrin's. We took the street car and a bus through the downtown to visit Kathrin and Mathias and their little Elise. We visited in their back yard.

 Kathrin is walking Elise down to the yard. Mom (who is a lawyer) is going to have another baby!

We ate some sweets, enjoyed another "kaiserwetter" day, and had a wonderful visit.

Look who is hiding behind the stroller. She was such a good-natured little girl, and explored all over the yard.

Boonie then took us on a walking tour of old town Bern. I have copied this photo from the Internet to provide an overall view of Bern, with the Aare River.

Coming from Boonie's apartment, we entered across the bridge at the back right. We then took a bus across the bridge on the back left to go to Kathrin's, and later walked back across it. The tall Münster is near that left bridge. The clock tower is between the two back bridges. The wide main avenue, Kramgasse, comes right down the middle and across the tall bridge at the bottom left (Nydegg Bridge). Bear Park is at the bottom left where the bridge reaches shore. Boonie's mom, Silvia, lives on top of the ridge just below where this photo is taken.

This is the famous Child-Eater fountain, with a close-up of the ogre. It was supposed to scare children off the former city walls. We walked across the Aare River with its beautiful views:

The tall steeple with scaffolding is the Münster, Bern's 15th-century Protestant cathedral. Boonie said they're frequently working on the 330-foot steeple, the tallest in Switzerland. That was our next visit.

The big square in front of the Münster, and while here we got to hear Suzanne toll 5 pm. Suzanne is the name not only of Boonie's younger sister, but also of the 10.5-ton church bell (cast in 1611). It reportedly took eight men to swing her; it is no longer swung by hand after a drunken bellringer was killed by the clapper.

This portico over the entry was a highlight, titled the Last Judgment. On the left are the saved figures going to heaven, while those on the right are going to hell. But what's important is that some priests are among those going to hell, showing that anyone, no matter your rank, can be condemned for evil deeds. We then went inside, but only briefly, because there was a function going on. The cathedral changed from Catholic to Protestant in 1528 after the plague devastated the town and the people favored the Reformation.

Boonie then walked us over to this parliament building, as Bern is the Swiss capital. Where we are standing was a big parking lot until 2004, when they turned it into this large granite plaza. The country got its independence in 1291.

Our next touristy thing was to watch the famous clock tower (Zytglogge Turn), there in the background, strike 6 pm. The tower, from 1250, was part of the original city wall guarding the entrance gate to the city. Boonie explained in advance the whole show (just as all the tourists were gathering).

It starts four minutes before the hour, when the rooster (on the left) crows. Then, a variety of things move around -- a parade of bears, a knight, a piper, a lion, a dancing jester, and Father Time (Chronos) turns his hourglass. Finally, at the tower top (above this photo), the golden man hammers the hour on the bell. This little show has been going on since 1530. It was fun.

Behind the clock tower is the wide avenue, Kramgasse, with all its shops, fountains, restaurants, and decorations (see the statues in front of some of the buildings?).

Here is one example of the statues adorning the building fronts.

Boonie pointed out Albert Einstein's house, where he lived from 1901 to 1909. Here, in 1905, he wrote his five famous papers that "changed the world", including his theory on relativity. A little farther along, Boonie got a shop keeper to reopen his wine store just so I could buy a bottle to take to the dinner that night at her mom's.

Just off the Kramgasse was the Rathaus, with the St. Peter and Paul Church behind. The knight on the fountain is holding the Bern Canton flag.

Here we are on the Nydegg Bridge with the Bear Park in the background. Boonie explained how this fancy new hillside park opened in 2009 after much advocacy from the Bear Liberation Movement to replace the old round concrete pits, dating from 1857, where Rich Hess and I saw the bears in 1971. Boonie said the dad and mom bears live there with one of the daughter bears. The other daughter bear had to be shipped away after the two daughters strangely collaborated to try to drown their mom in the fishing channel at the bottom of the hillside. The dad bear finally rescued his mate from near-death.

I don't know which of the three this one is - dad, mom, or daughter. They were walking around quite a bit while we visited on the bridge.

We proceeded up the hill past the Rose Garden and its views back to the old town. From there it was not too much farther to Silvia's condo. Janet's ankles were hurting pretty badly by then, so we were glad to arrive and sit down. It was wonderful to see Silvia again. Her boyfriend, Peter, could not be there because he was out of town, nor could we visit with Boonie's dad, Stephan, since he was visiting his girlfriend in Paris. But we were fortunate to have dinner with Susanne and her boyfriend Florian. Sorry girls, I have no photos of Florian!

We enjoyed an evening of great food, wine, and friends. Susanne is an events coordinator, whose biggest event each year is the Paleo Music Festival in Nyon. After dinner, Boonie drove us back to her apartment, set us up for the night, and then returned to her mom's. It was so generous of her to let us have her entire apartment. We did a load of clothes in her washer, but couldn't read the dials in German. It went on and on forever, and we realized the next day when Boonie returned, that we had pushed a button for "extra long".

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.