Category: Switzerland

We had been hearing about the big Swiss party called Fasnacht since long before we came here. Basel’s is the biggest, Lucerne’s is the noisiest, Fribourg’s is also highly recommended. Which shall we see? Any of those 3 would require train rides, hotel bills, and Jon taking off work (it’s a multi-day party) to “do it right”. So we decided to simply go to the last day of Bern’s Fasnacht and see the parade and hear their “Monster Konzert”.

We were in place, waiting with 1,000’s of others behind barriers lining the street in preparation for the parade, well positioned with a view straight down the street. Finally, here they come: half a dozen men in flapping green, red and yellow costumes with HUGE cowbells on their hind ends that clanged with each step. And there they go: into the McDonalds on the corner.

Hunh? Is that it? Wait. Wait. Wait. Oh, now I hear a band. Where are they? Oops, we’re facing the wrong direction! We worm through the crowd, find some short people to stand behind, and for 2 hours watch the over 50 bands and other miscellaneous groups pass by. Tunes were nearly recognizable: ABBA, Bob Marley, John Denver.

Unlike American parades, there were few floats, none mechanized. One was a big white ship with sailors, with an outhouse on the back that the swinging door showed was in use. Another was a castle attended by its dragon and knights with a cannon shooting purple confetti. MC got a direct hit.

But it was the costumes, make-up and big fake heads that were so different from what we have ever seen. Fantastical, brilliantly colorful, and unique. Each group or band had a theme–similar colors, fabrics and style and usually the same make-up–but each individual had their own details, making them seem both elaborate and ragtag.

After the parade, the bands scattered about the city, on different corners or bandstands that had been set up. This was their “Monster Konzert”.

The streets were lined, as for any event, with vendors, some selling confetti or kid toys, but most offering food. We headed home a little after sunset. Half a day of partying being enough for us.

It has snowed AGAIN!!

This past week Thursday was warm (10 Celsius) and the last bits of snow had melted.  But Saturday brought a new light coating and now as I report from my living room there’s a fresh thick layer from last night and more coming down.  It is all white and pure and, as ever, fluffy.  Jon says this kind of moist light snow which piles on trees and bushes like pillows is rare in Iowa, but here it seems it’s the only kind they have.  A new fairyland about once a week!

Thoughts of skiing were put aside this weekend, mostly because Jon was still recovering from a cold and the strain of the winter concert schedule.  Instead we plowed through planning for the sabbatical.  We will have no computer with us and we are aware of the difficulties we had on past trips finding our way, finding food, finding campgrounds.  So these cold dark winter nights are spent in true European style:  planning vacation.

After spending all Saturday indoors on the computers, I insisted on a walk Sunday afternoon.  Jon was a bit skeptical of heading into the woods, knowing the paths would be muddy, but I so prefer to be engulfed by life, rather than surrounded by the concrete boxes of town.   He’s still fascinated by figuring out where all the paths lead so we headed down a few not yet taken.  We came to a section of path lined by a fence of huge rocks.  Leaning over the fence, we saw a canyon with a steep wall so flat and smooth, Jon was sure it was concrete.  Following the track further and going around the fence we came to a road leading into the canyon where it became obvious this is the quarry of Ostermundigen which we had heard of from a co-worker.

We’ve seen other quarries where rock or sand are being taken out, but here this exceptionally solid and consistent stone is cut out in large blocks.  What looks like stripes are seams where the cuts were made.

Last night was Jon’s penultimate Swiss concert, Verdi at the KKL.  The choir’s last rehearsal was midday Saturday in the concert hall, leaving us 5 hours to entertain ourselves in Lucerne.  Our goal was to see whatever we might have missed on our 1^st visit in July.

Our list:  Cathedral, the Nine Towers of Lucerne, and the Lucerne Historical Museum.  We were happy to be joined by Bettina, a multi-lingual choral friend who enjoys practicing English with us.

The Cathedral (Hofkirche St. Loedegar) with its tall spires is easily spotted from the opposite shore, so how we had missed this when we were here with the Patels is beyond me.

I had printed directions to our next site, but missed the 1^st turn.  With the help of our GPS, we wiggled through the narrow streets to get on the right road and suddenly we see above us one of the towers.  Buildings are so dense and tall on the hillside up to where the town wall was built that you can’t see the towers from the water.  But when you get there, and walk along the wall looking at the 9 towers, you are reminded of the medieval need to guard what you have from ground attack.

Meandering back to the lake, through some squares I well remember due to their unique painted buildings, and across the covered bridge with death panels (now covered with bright signs for the coming Fastnacht), we find the Historical Museum.  How each town displays its history is itself intriguing.  Lucerne’s museum is in a 15^thcentury building, plain in itself, with the interior completely rebuilt for the museum.  The décor is all painted gray metal staircases and shelving which feels like a cross between an old warehouse and a military ship’s hold.  Still the conglomeration of odd articles always entertains.  Each item has a barcode displayed on its case and you are provided for no extra charge with an audio guide which reads the barcode and tells you about the item in your own language.  That was an improvement on museums with signs only in one or two languages.

Strolling along the quay toward the concert hall, we pick a restaurant for dinner, based on its sandwich board menu out front.  A very happy choice:  Bettina and I both had their “Kurbiscremesuppe” which is winter squash soup, here made with coconut milk, ginger and a swirl of pumpkin oil.  (Yes, I am a foodie!)  And Jon was happy with a light pasta dish.

Fortified, but not stuffed, since the two of them were to sing, we return to the hall and separated there.  I had not bought a ticket before the concert because I had put it off too late to have them mail one, but also vaguely hoped to wriggle out of it as I had in Geneva.  I knew they had over 200 seats left, although most were in the 4^th balcony.

Ticket for the cheap seats in hand, I walked upstairs, and upstairs, and upstairs–accidentally coming out one floor too high and finding myself on an outside terrace,  below the huge expanse of roof.  There I watched the sky darken and the surrounding city brighten.

The concert went well.  Acoustics were excellent even where I was seated.

 

Winter is a mixed blessing.  We rather enjoy the loveliness:  snow here seems always to be soft and fluffy, clinging to trees, and the streets never seem to accumulate the dirty slush that I remember from St. Louis, I suppose because there are fewer cars and the snow often melts after a few days and then a few days later we get a fresh coating.

Our friends Bruce and Susan, back in Lake Shastina, recommended to us the little town of Dornach which they had once visited.  Yesterday the Dornach Symphony was to play at the Goetheanum there, so despite cold and snow we planned our day around that.

A little history:  Rudolf Steiner (who started anthroposophy and whose work is the inspiration behind Waldorf Schools and biodynamic farming) designed and built a wonderful structure in Dornach, The Goetheanum.  Begun in 1913 and completed in 1919, this was the home of the Anthroposophical Society and its primary performance venue.  That one was destroyed by arson Dec.31, 1922. A new one was built, this time mostly of concrete.   Due to its presence, many anthroposophists moved to Dornach where they built homes in the “Steiner-style”.   As you walk through the town, you go by what were once very unconventional (for Switzerland) houses.   While they do not seem unusual to the modern eye, they definitely look more interesting and friendly than more rigidly right-angular houses.

The train ride from Gumligen to Dornach is 1 hour 40 minutes with 2 changes.  For us, now familiar with both of the train stations where we needed to change (Basel and Bern) this was easy.  We know to take something to read; we know we’ll be warm and comfortable.   Arriving in Dornach and getting our bearings (all our destination points were programmed into our GPS), we headed up to see the Goetheanum.  Up being the key word.  A few slips on icy walkways, but no tumbles, and it was easily found.  Outside it is imposing, but it seemed institutional with its massive concrete walls and mostly small windows.  Inside, unusual angles and curves proved interesting and vari-colored walls warmed the look.  We saw photos and models of the 1^st Goetheanum and wondered why, as beautiful as it had been, Steiner’s second design was so much less graceful.

 

We then hiked further uphill to the ruins of Dorneck Castle.   As is common practice, it was built on a high and rocky promontory.  Much of the exterior wall remains, though the inside is closed to visitors in winter.  Footprints in the snow led us around the building, but we missed the same turning of the path as someone before us, and had to climb the hillside a bit.  For me it felt like the 1^st time in weeks I needed to use my whole body, hauling myself up with tree branches.

 

Continuing our walk, we skirted a horse farm, watched lots of sledders enjoying the hillsides, and made our way to the Hermitage, a landscaped park from 1785.  We were a bit cold and tired by now, so we didn’t try circumnavigating its 3 lakes in the snow or climbing to Schloss Birseck, a partially-restored palace.

Our last stop was the Arlesheim Cathedral.  Erected in a mere 2.5 years, it has a simple enough exterior, but the inside is pure Baroque candy:  dozens of plaster cupids and flower garlands, more pink than one expects in a church, carved choir stalls, and marble altars and pillars.

 

 

Proceeding again to the Goetheanum, we paused in their café for sustenance, and then heard the delightfully well-executed concert by the Dornach Symphony.

With more than half an hour until the next train, we extended our day out with dinner in the only available restaurant, The Pergola.   We’ve been in Switzerland a while now and we think we’re used to the high prices, but a cup of cooked pasta with a little sauce for 22 Francs?  Worse than Bern!

In Bern Jon joined 2 different choruses, Canto Classico and Berner Bach Chor.  Each group plans various projects through the year and members chose which ones they want to sign up for.   Wanting to get as much experience singing here as possible, Jon signed up for everything possible, leading to 7 concerts in two weeks, plus extra last minute rehearsals.  Since many of the concerts are out of town, we also got around Switzerland in a new way.

12/8 Geneva – Offenbach at Victoria Hall

See 12/9/12 post for a description of our day in Geneva.

12/9 Bern – Weihnacht at Marienkirche

12/11 Luzern – Offenbach at the KKL

12/16 Basel – Offenbach at the Stadtcasino

Arriving early for the rehearsal and concert, we were able to visit another Weihnacht Market, fortunately just outside the concert hall. Outside Basel’s red sandstone Cathedral, we listened to a Christmas Tuba concert!

12/19 Bern – Haydn’s Creation at the Kultur-Casino

 

 

12/20 Bern – Offenbach in Bern’s Kultur-Casino

This show was also in Bern’s Kultur-Casino.  Since MC had seen the show twice already, she had the night off.

12/22 Biel – Haydn’s Creation

The Haydn was performed in conjunction with the Biel Orchestra.

A concert in Geneva, in the famous Victoria Hall, ooh sounds lovely!  Might as well go early and spend the day seeing this famous city by the lake. Research turned up a few architectural sites:

Unexpectedly, the timing of the concert coincided with Geneva’s unique holiday, “Escalade”.  This commemorates the day, Dec. 12 1602, when Geneva fought off a stealth attack by the Catholic Savoyards, saving the independent city.  The Savoy troops tried to scale the city walls in the dead of night to open the gates from within, but were seen. The alarm was raised, battle ensued, victory was theirs.  The most famous anecdote from the night was about La Mere Royaume, a mother of 14, who threw hot vegetable soup out her window onto some Savoy soldiers (some say she threw the whole cauldron).  So the celebration includes vegetable soup and chocolate ‘cauldrons’ filled with marzipan.  In the old town lots of people wore costumes of the era, muskets and cannon were fired throughout the day, drum and fife bands played, and of course Vin Chaud (hot wine) flowed.

 

We loved that we were there for this special event.   And we did enjoy our day.  But it was very cold and the wind off the great Lac Leman did not make it any easier.

The concert was quite a success.  Knowing the hall had at least 200 seats still available and worried that we might not receive a mailed ticket in time, we did not purchase one for me, planning to do so on arrival.  Finding the front door still locked at the pre-concert rehearsal time, we were rescued by a chorus member who noticed us and took us around to the side door.  Entry here is guarded, so as we go in this gentleman, who already had his own backstage pass, points to Jon and says to the guard “Tenor” and to me and says “Sopran”.  He’s a Czech and lied to authority as though it were the most natural thing in the world!  We were given passes and went on into the dressing rooms.

It’s fun to be allowed backstage, but it got better.  Another member, who speaks a little English and recognized me, took me up staircases, through the orchestra’s prep room and into the main hall for the rehearsal.  A rare treat to see this gorgeous space empty and to sit right up front (in the 125chf seats).

The pièce de résistance, as the Genevois might say, was a TV in the dressing room which broadcast a camera pointed at the stage so I could skip buying a ticket and watch the show from there!

How well named a town!  Jon’s chorus would be rehearsing with the Baden-Baden Orchestra, bussing there and back, thus taking a full day for a 4-hour rehearsal.  Room on the bus meant I could tag along to see the town.  What is Baden-Baden famous for?  Baths, of course.  Their old Friedrichsbad is the most traditional of all. http://www.carasana.de/en/friedrichsbad/home/

Some doctor figured out a system of bathing, with showers and saunas and plunges, each for a certain number of minutes at a specific degree for the perfect bathing experience.  17 steps!  I had to do something while Jon was singing.  So I ‘took the baths’.  And they left me super clean and relaxed and invigorated.  Three hours of watering my body.  Plus a few minutes of being soaped up and scrubbed  and ‘creamed’, a lotion application by a masseuse, definitely not a massage, but still pleasant.  The building itself is wonderful, very ‘Belle Époque’ luxury.  Soaking in fully-tiled rooms with domed ceilings, arched entries, and the occasional painting or Greek-style statue, I felt the experience was more about the ambience than the water!

The timing for the rehearsal was also fortunate as Baden-Baden’s Christkindlmarkt was in full swing right outside the rehearsal hall.

We found a very special Christmas gift for friends and tasted the German version of Gluhwein and Heisen Met (mulled wine and hot mead).

Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas Market, began in Bern on Saturday 12/1.  Jon and I walked into Bern, taking side streets just to see something different.   We spent most of the day strolling through the Christmas Market in Romerplatz, the downtown stores, and the handcraft market by the cathedral.   Booths in the Romerplatz were sturdily built with wood platforms, walls and roofs, rather permanent looking though they’ll only be there 3 weeks.

We found a beautiful edelweiss shirt for Jon and a couple small gifts for friends here, then headed home by a different route.

Jon wore his pedometer for our little trip and was happy to see over 17,000 total steps for the day, which amounts to 15km!

Now (Sunday) snow is falling softly but steadily.  Our world is white again.  This time many of the trees have finished dropping their leaves, so we’re looking out on a graceful tracery of branches, as we try to keep warm in this decidedly under-heated apartment.  Hot chocolate almond milk, anyone?

Rain and cold and another quiet weekend.  Played catch-up with pictures and blog posts.  We did get out for a quick bike ride over the hill and through the woods, a quick 20k just to be out.

Monday Nov. 26 was a special holiday for most Bernese.  Schools are closed, trams on changed schedules, some workers take off though most companies don’t close.  Certainly Autodesk didn’t.  So to partake in the celebrations, everyone heads downtown before work, some as early as 5 am.  We set the alarm incorrectly and got there late, about 6:45, to meet our friends who had arrived at 6 and were already a couple of Gluhweins ahead of us.

Oh, haven’t I mentioned yet what we were celebrating?  ONIONS!  And everywhere you looked booths were selling onions, mostly in braided strings, often red and white, sometimes with garlic, or decorated with sprigs of dried flowers.

A few traditions go along with the Onion Market.  Every kid has a bag of confetti,tossing it by the handful on any and everyone, and a plastic hammer that pings when they hit you with it.  Then there’s Gluhwein (”Glow wine”, warm spiced wine), cheese and onion pies, garlic bread and colored necklaces of tiny cellophane-wrapped onions.  Plus the crafts and knickknacks you see at any fair.

The crowds were amazing, though it was pre-dawn.  You couldn’t see what people were selling because there were so many people jammed into the street.

We were shoulder to shoulder inching our way along.  But as predicted by our local friends, crowds started thinning after 7am, although the fair continues all day.  So the Autodeskers left for work and I dawdled about, finally able to make my way along the streets and check out the offerings.

 

My purchases were few, a couple items for Christmas gifts, but since I was thoroughly looped on 2 pre-breakfast glasses of Gluhwien, everything seemed rosy and intriguing.

The weekend would be foggy and cold.  What to do?  Smart Jon checked forecasts all over Switzerland.  Warmest temps would be in the South Valley.  He’d been wanting to bike there after reading about the bike route from Oberwald to Lake Geneva.  Oberwald is rather high into the mountains, meaning colder and a longer train ride to get there, so we decided to start at Visp.  GPS tracks were laid in, train tickets purchased, lunch packed and off we went.

Route #1 in the Swiss Veloland system, www.veloland.ch/en, follows the Rhone River.  So it’s downhill most of the way.  We anticipated easy riding.

And it was, except for the freezing temperatures.  Frost thick on the pastures, mud icy on the paths, and fingers and toes just wouldn’t warm up.  Our midpoint and overnight town was Saillon where there is a huge fancy thermal bath, www.bainsdesaillon.ch.  Daydreaming about submersing myself in those warm waters, I gritted my teeth and carried forward.

The massive rock formations on both sides of the river are awesome.  The towns are necessarily small, snuggled into corners of land.  But this valley has a lot of sun, despite the mountains, and has become famous for wine.  Wherever possible, and in some spots that seemed impossible, they plant grape vines.  Our respect for Napa growers has diminished since we’ve seen what other people do to make wine.

We made it to Saillon just before the early winter sunset.  But the baths, which we passed on the way to our hotel, were noisy with kids and further from the hotel, www.sarvaz.ch, than we had thought, so once established in our room we chose not to go back.

Unfortunately, the hotel restaurant (the only restaurant anywhere near) which we had relied on for dinner was completely booked for the night!  They did offer a set menu in the Bistro of roasted chestnuts, cheeses and dried meats with bread and fruit.  We ordered that, but it felt like an appetizer, so I explained to our waitress that my husband was still hungry and could they prepare something else for him.  She asked the chef, who agreed to accomodate us (perhaps because most of the real dinner crowd were not yet there).  Fed and warm at last, we cuddled under the duvets, watched a little French TV (Saillon is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland), and slept well.

The next day was, unlike the forecast had predicted, a whole degree warmer.  The ride was enjoyable, at least for the mid-day hours.

We particularly enjoyed the church of St. Maurice Abbey.  Built on the ruins of a 1st cen. BC Roman shrine, it was itself rebuilt after a 1942 rock fall.

It was pleasant to watch the landscape change.  After St. Maurice, the valley widens, there are few vineyards and more pasture land.

Then as you ride along Le Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), you pass through marshland which is a bird sanctuary.  We made good time lakeside despite the traffic and the uphill from Villeneuve to Montreux.

We were very pleased with ourselves when we boarded the train to go home.  We had only 3 minutes from ticket purchase to train departure and we made it despite having to take an elevator with our loaded tandem!

A side note for this trip was how much easier it was for both of us to deal with French than with German.  As people spoke, words kept coming back.  Bodes well for our sabbatical which starts in southern France.