Sunday, July 25, 2010

Pilatus

The other reason for visiting Luzern was Pilatus, a small (7,000 feet) peak west of town, but one of Europe's great mountain landmarks. My interest in Pilatus is four-fold: 1) view from the summits; 2) regard for Pontius Pilate, whose spirit allegedly dwelled near the summit (it was Pilate who asked, philosophically, "what is truth?," then went on to other things); 3) on Pilatus, supersitions about mountains began to fade after visits, in the 1700s, to the summit demonstrated that no one dwelled there and nothing bad came of climbing; 4) Wagner climbed Pilatus; 5) I wanted the exercise, but did not properly calculate the 5600 feet descent. 

Five-fold. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

I got back down by 4pm, had a Cailliers ice cream bar, thanks to Vicki, and we headed on past Luzern to a lay-by in extreme eastern Switzerland.
OK, I took the cog-wheel train to the saddle
at the top; it is the world's highest-angle
cog-gtrain, 48 degrees at the top; depicted a
bove is how it works














The train; note its terraced structure; had I walked up, I
would not have arrived till mid-afternoon, when everything
had clouded up







Morning view, Lake Luzern below













Lucerne below







Tomlishorn, the western-most, and, I think, highest
summit of Pilatus











Tribschen and the Wagner Museum, center








But the glorious thing about Pilatus is that, on a clear
morning, such as this, you can see, not all that far away,
the whole of the Berner Alps: here, the Finsteraarhorn,
the Schreckhorn, the Weisshorn, others we camped
below in Grindelwald








Summit schema from Esel, the eastern summit of Pilatus










And, snowy in the middle, the Monch, then the Eiger, its
north face in shadow, and then the Jungfrau; totally
exhiliarating!








Looking from the Tomlishorn to the central summit
(mostly Japanese turbuss-folk), and then the Esel; I
climbed the Esel and Tomlishorn, but skipped the
crowded middle









Looking down from the Tomlishorn, toward Luzern,
trails and a high chapel









It's all well above tree-line, but not above flower-line; the
whole trail around the summits is covered in flowers and
in flower labels








Looking down toward the descent trail, 5600 feet...










Down the trail, looking back up toward Esel and the
central summit (hotel, restaurants, gift shoppes, etc.)








And, click to enlarge, a little red train about to enter the
48 percent grade

































































































































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

Friday, July 23, 2010

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

Thursday, July 22, 2010

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.