Lake Luzern

Luzern from the shore

On Friday, March 7th, after work, I hopped a train to Aarau, the capital of the northern Swiss canton of Aargau, to visit my cousin.  After my cousin met me at the train station, we grabbed some food then went to visit his friends at their house on a hill outside the city.  The hill overlooked a small church, which one of the friends proudly exclaimed (repeatedly) had the tallest steeple in central Switzerland.  Of course, we responded by teasing him that having a tiny church with the tallest steeple in central Switzerland was basically the equivalent of being the king...of an ant hill.  Still, he remained extremely proud of the little church's steeple the whole evening.  The friends also happened to have a foosball table in their house, and we all had a blast pairing off into teams and competing the whole night.

Luzern and the Dragon Boat

The next day, my cousin and I spent some time just enjoying the beautifully sunny spring weather and wandering around Luzern.  Having lived there previously when I first visited Switzerland, it was familiar for both of us.  We enjoyed walking along the waterfront on both shores of the lake.  When we got back to Aarau, we cooked a delicious Persian-inspired meal complete with the delicious white rice and tadiq to prepare for a backgammon (تخته نرد) battle.  Apparently, so-called "Tehran Rules" count points differently than my rules, so after some tough games, we proceeded to debate in true family fashion who actually had beaten whom.  It was a lot of fun, and I think I found my backgammon match.

On Sunday, my cousin took me back towards Lake Luzern, but on another side.  There, we met up with one of the friends I had met Friday evening and the friend's 5 year old son.  I am not exactly sure where along Lake Luzern the boat was stored, but it would have taken a few hours at least to make it around the lake over to the city of Luzern's waterfront.  Of course, that time would also be skewed because the boat we were in was the largest size watercraft one could operate without a special boater's license - which is to say that the boat and its motor were very small.  I think they make lawn mowers with more powerful motors.  

Once we got the boat in the water, the American (me) was put in charge of music.  Given that it was a beautiful spring day with warm sun and calm water, I chose my Motown playlist (although honestly, is there ever a bad occasion for Motown? The answer is, obviously, no).  So with Motown music pumping, we kicked up the motor and began to make our way around the lake.  

The lake was beautiful, and it was fun to see another side of Lake Luzern other than the (still gorgeous) view from the city.  We could even see Mount Pilatus and some other peaks from the water.  The friend's 5 year old son was having a blast taking the dock rope and dropping it in the water and pulling it up onto the boat, watching it splash around.  The little boy only spoke Swiss German and would speak to me in Swiss German as well, assuming I understood fluently, and would giggle when I responded in English.  At one point, while his father was sitting on the other side of the windshield on the boat's bow, the boy took the wheel to steer, but then suddenly jerked the wheel to the left.  Of course, the child giggled and found his dad's surprised face hilarious.  

Halfway through the trip, we pulled the boat over to a small restaurant along the shore that had a dock next to its balcony seating.  We enjoyed cold sodas while watching the lake.  After spending some time just sitting (from land) watching the lake, we went back to the boat and began our return to our dock.  What a perfect way to spend a Sunday during Switzerland's springtime.

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Posted in: 3L,Aarau,backgammon,English,J-Mad,Lake,Lake Lucerne,Lake Luzern,Lucerne,Luzern,Muhen,Pilatus,spring,Switzerland

Weekend in the Alps: Grindelwald, Interlaken, Engelberg, and Luzern

Grindelwald

This past weekend, four of my fellow classmates and I took our first over-night trip together in Switzerland.  We had a busy weekend planned: Grindelwald, Interlaken, Engelberg, Luzern, then back to Geneva by Sunday night to be ready for work on Monday morning.  We decided to pack very light and to save our money for a night at a hostel, so we left at 6:00am from Geneva for our first stop:

Grindelwald

We arrived here around 10:00am on Saturday, February, 1, 2014.  Walking from the train station, everything is surrounded by mountains.  And these aren't the beautiful-but-far-away mountains that we saw in Gruyeres.  These are the real deal - the Alps of the Jungfrau region and we were right in the middle.  The first order of business was to find something to eat for breakfast so that we could be ready for our adventure up the mountain.  We wandered around and found a little cafe connected to a bakery.  It was still too early for the lunch menu (and Europeans have this thing about small breakfasts) so we bought enough at the bakery to tide us over for a little while, then started walking back through the town to get to the Firstbahn station - the base for the cable cars.

In the informal tally that I have been conducting on Swiss culture, my preliminary results are that Swiss people on the whole are either nice or polite, but they do not like it if you break any rules once such rules have been established.  I am adding a new conclusion to my informal study: Swiss people are nice and polite, unless you break a rule....or interfere with their skiing.  In line for the cable cars to the top of the mountain, we were surrounded by a horde of rather pushy skiers all anxious to get through the lifts up to the top of the mountain.  Unfortunately, there was no separate line for tourists and their cameras to go, so we were sandwiched right in the middle of all the skiers who kept pushing and cutting through line to get to the front.

We made it through the cable cars and were able to take one for our group.  About halfway up the mountain, a 12 year old boy hopped into the empty seat in our car so he could get to the top.  He was only 12 years old, but had been downhill skiing since he was 5 years old, spoke French and German fluently, and had a pretty good command of English.  Ridiculous.  

Once we got to the top of the cable cars in Grindelwald (it's a 30 minute ride altogether), we started wandering around the area by the lodge.

Over one of the slopes was a BMW ski event that was being broadcast on the TVs inside the lodge.  The BMW event had nice Swiss music playing, and the music could be heard floating across the snow to the other slopes.

We managed to find some nice spots with a view and despite the cold, had a great time wandering around the top and taking in the mountains.  Check out these amazing views: 

After we made it back down the mountain, we hustled back to the train station to make it to Interlaken before nightfall.

Interlaken

We managed to make it to Interlaken that afternoon.  We took our time walking back from the train station in order to stop at the watch and souvenir stores along the way.  The hostel itself was actually extremely nice - one of the nicest hostels I've stayed at - and it's called Backpackers Villa Sonnenhof.  The employees were so nice and upgraded our split reservation to a 5-person private room with our own shower and bathroom.  The lockers inside the room were spacious and secure, each person had a comfortable bunk bed with a lamp, shelf, and outlet at each bed.  I think that hostel might have been more comfortable than my room in the foyer in Geneva.  

We quickly checked in, got our hot drink tokens, dropped off our backpacks, grabbed a map, then found the bus stop to take us to the lake to the west of Interlaken (we had passed Lake Thun on our way to Interlaken on the train).  As we were sitting at the bus stop waiting, an old woman with a bicycle starts talking to us from across the sidewalk.  We have a quick conversation with her, then as she swings one leg over her bicycle, she tells us, "Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be very terrible.  BYE!" And as mysteriously as she came, she pedaled away and disappeared down the road.

We took the bus as far as it would go to get to the other lake.  We found ourselves at the edge of the small village of Riggenberg and in the midst of a residential area of old wooden houses along the lakeshore of Lake Brienzersee.  You could smell a wood-burning fire somewhere in the distance and through the blue-grey sky, with dusk just starting to fall, you could see little puffs of smoke rising from the chimneys.  We found a gravel pathway behind the houses that turned into a little walking trail.  The trail then opened up into a clearing with a couple benches and a beautiful view of the lake, mountains, and Interlaken on the opposite shore.  The sky was becoming darker now, almost an inky blue, and across the teal-colored water, you could see the lights of Interlaken just beginning to flicker for the night.  The water was so still that we couldn't even hear the sound of waves brushing the pebbly shoreline.  If it had been less cloudy, I'm sure it would have been a beautiful place to watch the stars.

However, the trail was not lit, so we walked back before the sun set completely so that we could find our way back to Interlaken before nightfall.  We managed to find a small restaurant open for dinner where we ate before returning to the hostel for the night.

Engelberg (Mt. Titlis)

Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early to pack up our room, check out of the hostel, and eat breakfast.  It was a pleasant surprise to find that a light covering of snow had settled over Interlaken.  We had to hustle over to the train station where we hopped on a train to Engelberg.

Train in Engelberg

The train itself, like Grindelwald, was packed with people looking to ski and there we were, just wanting to see the mountain from the top.

Engelberg from the Cable Car

The first leg of the journey is a cable car up the mountain from Engelberg (1050 meters; 3,444 feet) to Stand (2428 meters; 7,965 feet).  Then, you hop onto the Rotair - the cable car that rotates the whole way up (only a five minute trip) and takes you to Klein Titlis (3,028 meters; 9,934 feet).  The summit of Mt. Titlis itself is 3,239 meters (10,626 feet).

At Klein Titlis, there is a station with a restaurant, glacier cave (20 meters/65 feet below the surface of the glacier), open chairlift (called the Ice Flyer), the highest suspension bridge in Europe - the Cliff Walk. The Cliff Walk is a metal suspension bridge high on the peak - at 3,041 meters in altitude (9,977 feet) with a 500 meter drop directly below (1,640 feet).

Don't look down.... too late.

Somehow less scary on the Ice Flyer

Heights like that are not my favorite thing ever, but I managed to get over my nerves to cross the bridge (although I got dizzy taking a picture of my feet on the bridge).  The chairlift was cool too, but might have been cooler if you could see more than just the white clouds.  Definitely fun though.  And when we got back, I made a snow angel on Mt. Titlis at nearly 10,000 feet above sea level.

The mountain was pretty thick with clouds that day, although the snow was great for skiing (and snow angels).  Even though it would have been pretty great to see the mountain on a clear day, I think that the mountain has a completely different feel in each kind of weather so it was a treat to see the mountains in two completely different ways between Saturday and Sunday.

If there is time, it would be great to go back to Engelberg in the spring to see Mount Titlis on a clear day as well as hike below the mountain at Lake Trubsee and take a boat out on the water.

(not my picture, but I'd like to go when it looks like this too)

Luzern (Back Again)

On our way back to Geneva from Engelberg, our train stopped through Luzern.  Since we still had an evening left, we decided to spend it in Luzern.  The first time I went to Switzerland, as an undergraduate student in 2010, I came to Luzern to visit my cousin and see the town/country.

Luzern on a cloudy summer day in 2010

It was such a memorable trip, and even though my cousin was unable to join us today, I knew exactly where I wanted to go first: to the old wooden covered bridge and then to the lion.

On the Wooden Bridge

The lion statue (Lowendenkmal) is my favorite landmark in the town.  I know the bridge might be the oldest wooden bridge in Europe and all (with paintings from the 1600s that survived a fire in the 1990s), but the Lion, in the words of Mark Twain, is "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."  The statue is a memorial for the Swiss guards who died in 1792 during the French Revolution.  The statue itself was designed by a Danish artist (Berthel Thorwaldsen) then carved into the sheer ("شیر" also means "lion" in Farsi!) sandstone face by Lucas Ahorn in the 1800s.  The Latin inscription underneath the statue means, "To the bravery and fidelity of the Swiss."

Lion, Winter 2014

The lion rests in the rock above a shallow pool of water and next to a woodsy park with glacier rock formations and a view over the city.  You can see the lion's strength, pain, and grace in the statue.  Seeing it again four years later, it still speaks to me just as powerfully as the first time I visited.

Lion, Summer 2010

After taking my friends to the lion, we walked back along the river to find a restaurant that was open.  Luzern is definitely more lively at night than some other Swiss towns and cities, but we were wandering around on a Sunday night, meaning our luck was about the same.

We finally found one restaurant open along the water with some good Swiss food.  From the restaurant, we still had about 40 minutes to wander around the Old Town a bit before heading back to the train station to jump on our train for Geneva.  The Old Town was pretty empty, but the fountains were still illuminated, as were the bridges and buildings along the water.  It was a beautiful end to our weekend adventure.

Now, back on the train to Geneva and back to work at 8:00am on Monday - starting French classes tomorrow, so that should be interesting.

Already planning for the next adventure!

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Posted in: 3L,Alps,Cave,Engelberg,English,Glacier,Grindelwald,Interlaken,J-Mad,Lucerne,Luzern,Mountains,Switzerland,Titlis,Winter

Weekend in Switzerland

This past weekend, I went to Switzerland to visit my cousin in Luzern. Despite the colder weather (air conditioning compared to Spain), it was an amazing trip and definitely one of the coolest things that I have been able to do all summer. Right after getting off the train from the Zurich airport (flughafen) to Luzern, we headed over to one of the town's hang-out places, the Black Sheep. It is especially packed on Thursday nights because of their 2 for 1 special. The music was a good mix of European, German, and American dance songs, but also included one Arash song.

On Friday, 23 July, the Blue Balls music festival began. Music groups from all over the world come to Luzern to perform and although you need extra tickets to get to the really cool people like James Morrison, 15 CHF (about $15 USD) will get you entrance to the Schweizerhof Hotel's concert hall and ferrying across Lake Luzern from one concert hot-spot to the other. Friday night, at the orange Pavilion built in 1908, a Belgian group called Selah Sue played - they were pretty good and Sue was only 21 years old. After this concert, we went over to the Schweizerhof to see a funk band called Juan Rozoff play. They were pretty good and the concert hall in the hotel is about 100-120 years old too.

We had more time on Saturday to visit the town of Luzern. We walked by the lake into the town to see the Panorama, painted within four months in1881 about the Franco-Prussian war and the troops from the armies as they passed through Switzerland. It places the viewer in the center of the 10-meter high painting and uses props and set pieces coming out of the painting, giving it a 3D feeling. Because there are also background sounds, it really places the viewer in the middle of the scene and is pretty impressive. The tickets for the Panorama and the Glacier Park can be combined so after the Panorama, we walked through part of the Old City and went to the Glacier Park. The Park has a lot of really interesting rock formations made by the glaciers. There are also very cool gardens with a tower and view of Luzern as well as a house of mirrors modeled after a section of La Alhambra in Spain.

From the gardens, the statue of the dying lion in the cliff is visible. The lion has a spear sticking out of his side as he lays down on a shield depicting the fleur-de-lis of the French monarchy. Behind him, there is a Swiss shield, too. The statue is a memorial to the approximately 750 Swiss Guards that died during the French Revolution. It's another very impressive piece of art in Luzern. After this area of Luzern, we made our way across the old wooden bridges for which the canton is known to go to the wall surrounding the old part of the city. Given that I like to climb every single watchtower available, we climbed all the way to the top of this watchtower in the Alps. The view was amazing. Additionally, the Swiss Air Force was doing an airshow and given the close proximity of their base to Luzern, we got an awesome view of the fighter planes from the tower. The old city has also preserved many of the buildings there for centuries. In one plaza, old slaughterhouses with intricately painted facades still stand. Bay windows on building around this time were also a symbol of wealth.

Before heading out to more concerts at Schweizerhof, we went to this really cool lounge on the top floor of a building with a flat roof that extended straight out over the plaza by the lake. The roof is even flexible so that it can bend about 25 centimeters on each side. After taking break here looking out at the lake, we headed back to the apartment to make a good Persian meal (morghe-za'afron va polo) and play a game of billiards while the rice was cooking. It was the first time in about 3 months that I have had tadigh (the "bottom of the pot," the best part of the cooked rice). After dinner, we met up with my cousin's friends, hung out for a while, then the group of us headed back by the lake over to the Schweizerhof. That night, there was a rock band playing (I think named Sorgente, but not sure). They had a good, strong rock sound and the concert hall was even more crowded than the first night. When their show ended, the group of us went over to Roadhouse, another popular hang-out spot for the younger people in Luzern. It was a lot of fun with a pretty good mix of music from the 1950s/1960s USA rock music to modern European and American dance/pop hits.

Unfortunately, the Study Abroad office thinks that missing days/weeks of work and class is a bad thing so even though I did not want to leave Switzerland, I returned to Madrid on Sunday, taking the scenic train ride from Luzern back to the Zurich airport. While waiting for the flight, one elderly Spanish man started speaking with me (en español, por supuesto) and told me that I already knew Spanish well enough and asked why I wanted to learn more. He also asked me if I knew that Obama had Swiss ancestry and how great Obama is. Despite the short time that I was in Luzern, it was one of the coolest things that I have been able to do this summer and I would love to go back.

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Posted in: Blue Balls Music Festival,English,ferry,J-Mad,Lucerne,Luzern,Schweizerhof Hotel,Spain,Switzerland