Cruise on Lake Luzern; Sort of...

Our most interesting drive, so far...

Switzerland consists very largely of mountains and lakes,

and occasionally they have to build roads out over the

lakes in order to accommodate the mountains, as above

Some repair was needed on this stretch, so the road was

detoured, on pontoons, well out into the lake, for a quarter-

mile or more

Like so

Vicki did not freak-out; well, only a little...but then we had

to do it on the way back, too

Richard Wagner Museum Luzern

One of the reasons we visited Luzern was the Wagner museum, in Tribschen, on the lake, now a city park area. Wagner spent most of his many years in exile from Germany in Switzerland, and 1866-72 in Tribschen. The house he lived in is now the museum, and it has many important artifacts.

Wagner museum, Tribschen; on the steps

the Siegfried Idyll was first performed

Luzern had a copy of the face death-mask; but the real

right-hand cast

Nietzche's death mask; he visited Wagner

some 23 times in Tribschen; then went on

to other things; should they ever make a

movie of Nietzsche's life, I nominate Sam

Elliot to play the role of The Philosopher

Wagner's Erard piano; if you have seen the epic movie

Wagner (Richard Burton's last film), you will appreciate

that this is the piano depicted in many scenes, as the

composer moves from country to country in his exile years

Renoir's charcoal study for his several

Wagner portraits (the Tribschen museum

also has the very famous Beckmann

painting of Wagner, Cosima, Liszt, et al.,

but the lighting had too much glare)

One of the earliest pix of The Master, in all

his megalomaniacal finery, seated in

This, his easy chair; somehow I can't imagine

the man long in an easy chair...

The second floor of the museum used to be the standard

collection of 19th century musical instruments; but now

it is temporary Wagner exhibits, this one, really

interesting for me, based on a recent book by two Swiss

music historians about Wagner's various walks and

scrambles amongst the Swiss Alps (I wonder if he

ever ran into Whymper) and how they bear on his

work, especially the Ring cycle; the large 1850s wall

map depicts his various hikes...

The Master's walking hat (alas, not a Tilley)

View of the house from lakeside

Luzern

We spent the better part of Sunday in Luzern, a city we have visited once or twice before.

Lakefront downtown

Arch

The very famous bridge and water tower

The bridge used to be decorated with dozens of 17th or

18th century Renaissance-style paintings, depicting the

city's history; beheading was a favorite theme...

But in 1993, they had a fire, and many were destroyed

Including this one

We had planned on visiting the Rosengart Collection

Our strategy in visiting less well-known museums,

particularly those featuring 20th century work, is to visit

the gift store first, check out the post-cards, and then

decide whether there was anything we had to see...

especially @ $17 per person

The Rosengart Collection lost out

So we visited the bahnhof shopping mall, the culture center,

and

Just sat in the park by the lake

And admired the view

Toys on Parade at the Susten Pass

So en route from Interlachen to Luzern, we decided to drive the fearsome Susten Pass road, one we had possibly not done before. The east side was in the clouds, mostly a white-out with 87 hair-pin turns, etc. Just short of the pass, we stopped in a parking lot for lunch, and to examine the six (Lotus/Caterham) 7's that pulled in behind us.

One of my favorite cars--sorry, Ken, no red ones...

BRG, of course

And a lime green; they all had headsets, talking to each

other

And then, no sooner had they buzzed off, than a cavalcade

of exotics, maybe 20 of them all in a line, came roaring

down the road...

I barely had time to reach for the camera

Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, all gunning their

engines after the tight turn...

And keep snapping pix

We finally lumbered on up to the pass, where the clouds

thinned a bit

The road back down the other side

Nicer views

And then, finally in Luzern, Tribschen actually, aloft,

another toy, possibly the same tri-motor I had seen

above the Eiger; and not a Ford Tri-Motor, either...

("oh, no, dem Fokkers were flying Messerschmitts...")

Swiss Wedding Parade

We had been seeing French and Swiss wedding entourages for a couple weeks. Cars are a major part of it all, decorated with bouquets and streamers, proceeding to the ceremony, then "chasing" the newlyweds out of town. Vicki got these three pix somewhere east of Interlachen. Near Les Houches we saw a cavalcade of some 30 cars.

Eigernordwand 3

More scenes from my Eigernordwand walk...

The trail, further on; lots of people, some

hiking up, most hiking down; it's a relatively new

trail

The north face is too angular to hold much snow or ice, but

there are some snow fields and dozens of waterfalls on the

lowest cliffs

Another, closer up

Another

Cutting some interesting deep clefts in the

limestone

Ditto

And at last we're back down, near Alpigen and

the train ride back 

Random Oberland scenery from the train

And back in Grindelwald

Vicki spent the day favoring her knee, reading, and doing the wash. I owe her yet another one.

Eigernordwand 2

It was a good day for hiking. Under the north face, however, it is a bit tricky to guess the right time to be there and see what you want to see: increasing valley haze, clouds, position of the sun and shadows, and so on, are all complicating factors. Part of the north face phenomenon, in this hemisphere, is that they get little or no direct sunlight. So in July, you're staring up into the sun, trying to see a 5,000 foot face that's in the shade. With the angle, foreshortening of perspective, other things, it can be frustrating. But still pretty neat...

Part of the station at Eigergletscher...enlarge to see the cogs

on the middle tracks

Closer up of Eiger glacier

Rounding a bend as the trail begins, you get

sort of a profile view closer up

Your can see the trail, upper right, and the terrain, which

was pretty easy

Looking toward the summit betwixt two

huge pinnacles

Below, the crossroads of Kleine Scheidegg

Play of shadow, angle, light, somewhere

below the north face

Round another bend and you're below the

"direct" area of the north face climbs, with

this helpful sign depicting some of the

classic attempts/routes; the box shows the

position of the Eigerwand train station,

inside the mountain, where you actually stop,

get out, go look out the big windows; the

weisse spinne above is the famous White

Spider, which conveniently funnels all the

avalanche and rock fall above onto the

north face routes; the sign well conveys

the concave nature of the whole face; in the

30s they called it all the "Mordwand"; the

north face is mostly climbed in the winter

nowadays

Artsy-fartsy attempt...

Grindelwald and valley below; and the Weisshorn

Another summit-ward view

Clumps of tiny Alpine flowers everywhere