Sunday, July 25, 2010

Ascent of Zugspitze

Zugspitze in the morning; the summit is the far left peak







As with Pilatus, and for the same reasons, I took the cable-car up








Climbers on the huge Austrian face of Zugspitze











The mountain is shared by Germany and Austria, the
sloping side Germany's, the sheer side, Austria's







It is Germany's highest peak, and therefore its highest
bier-garten
















9:30 in the AM; breakfast of champions












I had coffee, melange, on the more sedate
Austrian side















After climbing to the summit; interestingly,
to get to the summit of Zugspitze, you have
to abandon the comforts of restaurant,
visitor center, and bier-garten, and





















And actually climb a bit, the last 100 feet or
so, unprotected, like these folks are doing












I gave serious thought to blowing this one off...the
exposure was terrific, but there was iron-mongery to hold
on to, and, hey, it cost 30 euros to ride that cable-car up..;
summit self-portrait












The summit mast














Other views from the top







Lermoos, Austria, below








And looking east into the Tyrol








The rest of the summit area

Tirol

We drove on from Fussen into the Tirol and headed straight, as well as mountain roads afford, for Ehrwald, at the Austrian foot of the Zugspitze, the big mountain in this area, and Germany's tallest.
Approaching Ehrwald, almost like the Tetons







Ehrwald cattle drive, probably staged for tourists










Alpenglow on Gruenstein












Ditto on Zugspitze; the summit is the farthest peak left






Gruenstein again











Typical Tirolean mountain view












And a field view, hay-sheds everywhere

Koenigschlosses

From Switzerland, we crossed into western Austria, then, avoiding the toll-roads, into Germany, Fussen, and the Koenig Schlosses, the castles of mad King Ludwig, who was, certainly, mad, but also Wagner's royal friend and benefactor; for a while.... We had visited them in 1989, so settled for a mere drive-by shooting.

Hohenschwangau in its Alpine setting











Closer up











Closer up still







And Neuschwanstein, a mile or two away








Closer-up; Ludwig had this thing about Schwans, from
Wagner, mostly; said now to have been inspired by
Disney...










Pretty Fussen, where we also had the good luck of finding
a water pump to replace our leaking Shurflo model 2088; I
 installed it immediately

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