Lucerne Part II

On Sunday morning we attended Maurizio Pollini’s performance at the Lucerne Film Festival. The concert was in the KKL (Lucerne Culture and Convention Center), which is located adjacent to Lake Lucerne and across from the train station.

I wasn’t familiar with Pollini prior to the concert, but he quickly demonstrated why he is one of the world’s foremost classical pianists.

During the performance I couldn’t help being distracted by a woman a couple of rows ahead of us whose hair was literally the shape and size of a giant beach ball. I don’t think one could try to come up with a more obnoxious and inappropriate hairstyle for wearing to any type of performance where someone will likely be behind you. Fortunately our view wasn’t obstructed by the gargantuan rat’s nest of a hairdo, but the same couldn’t be said for some other pour souls stuck behind this woman.

After the concert we decided to take a boat ride on Lake Lucerne. The sun had finally come out and it was very nice.

Of all the lakes that I’ve seen thus far in Switzerland, I have to say that Lake Lucerne is the most beautiful. It is lined by picturesque mountains and the lake’s asymmetrical shape results in distinct sections that present unique landscapes given that the mountains often obscure the other sections of the lake.

We got off the boat in the town of Vitznau and took a cog wheel train up to Rigi Kulm. On a clear day Rigi Kulm offers panoramic views of the lake and surrounding countryside. Unfortunately, there were some clouds that obscured the view but it was nonetheless very impressive.

The train ride was very scenic – particularly when there were unobstructed views of Lake Lucerne. The following are some photos that I took during the ride back down to Vitznau.













After arriving back in Vitznau we boarded a boat heading back to Lucerne. The return trip was very nice as well and we enjoyed the afternoon sun while dreading the two hour car ride that remained upon our arrival.

Lucerne

This weekend Emilie and I visited Lucerne for some sightseeing and to see a performance at the Lucerne Music Festival. This was my second visit to Lucerne and Emilie’s first, thus qualifying the city as one of the few in Europe that I had visited before her (sadly, I considered this an accomplishment on my part...).

We made the roughly two hour drive on Saturday morning and the rain along the way did not bode well for the weather on our first day. Fortunately the rain lightened up a bit by the time that we arrived and after checking into the hotel we made our way out to see some of the city.

We began with a walk across the Chapel Bridge and then did a quick tour of the old town before heading up to see the Museggmauer – the remains of a medieval fortification that is in the hills above the city. From the walkway atop the Museggmauer there is a nice view of the city.

After a quick lunch we visited the Bourbaki Panorama, which houses an 1881 panoramic painting that depicts a scene from the Franco-Prussian war (1870/71) during which the French ultimately retreated into Switzerland. While the painting was interesting, the most impressive aspect is the actual size – 114 meters in circumference and over 10 meters high.

Our next stop was the Löwendenkmal (Lion Monument), which commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution as revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris. I had missed the monument during my first Lucerne visit, so I was particularly interested to see it this time. The lion is carved directly into natural rock and was much larger than I expected.

Mark Twain is said to have praised the sculpture of the mortally-wounded lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."

Our last tourist activity of the day was a visit to the Rosengart Museum. The museum’s collection includes primarily works by Klee and Picasso, as well as an assortment of works by Cézanne, Matisse, Monet, Chagall, Renoir, Miró and Kandinsky. Overall I enjoyed the museum – the photos of Picasso taken by David Duncan Douglas were particularly interesting – though I’m not a big fan of Klee’s work.

Here’s a picture that I took of the old town during our walk back to the hotel. The Chapel Bridge is in the foreground.

For dinner we hiked all over Lucerne before finally finding a nice restaurant that apparently was originally the home of a medieval guild of some sort. The interior was interesting and lined with the crests of the many guild members.

Fondue dans le Jura

Tonight I went out for fondue with Emilie, Cecile and Yvain to a restaurant in the Jura region where Cecile worked during a summer break from college. The drive took about 45 minutes from Lausanne and the restaurant could have easily passed for a farmhouse. In fact, when we were about to park the car we had to navigate the following local resident.

Once inside it became clear that the night would be more of a French language course than a dinner (for me, that is). It turns out that two of Cecile’s friends and their boyfriends were joining as well, so much of my time would be spent trying my best to follow the conversations and sound somewhat proficient at the language whenever I spoke.

While I feel that my French continues to improve – albeit often at a snail’s pace – the language proves to be its most difficult when I am at a restaurant with a group of native speakers. The combination of background noise and rapid speaking definitely adds to the normal challenge that I face.

If I force myself to devote 100% of my concentration to what is going on, then I can generally keep pace for a while. But if I am distracted for even a second (often when I simply try to eat), then it immediately becomes a game of catch-up that I’m destined to lose.

By the end of the night I was a combination of full (from a massive amount charcuterie and fondue) and exhausted (from the non-stop concentration required to follow the various conversations). But it was definitely a fun evening and Cecile’s friends were very nice.

Une belle journée au lac Léman

After a stretch of unseasonably cool weather, the sun finally came out and summer temperatures returned for the weekend. As a result, Emilie and I tried to take advantage of the beaux temps, and ultimately decided to search for a nice spot along the lake.

From Lausanne you can follow the lake in two directions – east toward Montreux or west toward Geneva. I’ve taken the eastern route countless times and it is very nice. For some reason I’d never headed west along the lake, though, so we decided to give it a try.

While not as scenic, the western route has far more “beaches”, parks and other places to set up shop for a day at the lake. And that’s exactly what people were doing. It seemed as though all of Swiss Romande had headed to the lake and was BBQing, swimming, playing games, etc., etc.

After a while we finally found a spot that wasn’t too crowded. Unfortunately, this part of the lake wasn’t ideal for swimming. Unlike most of the lake, the water wasn’t very clear and the bottom felt kind of gross with a soft mud-like consistency and slimy vegetation.

The balance of the afternoon was fairly uneventful and around 5pm we headed back. On the way we saw a sign indicating that this area of the lake wasn’t ideal for swimming since it is where the outflow from a local water treatment plant empties. Though there were literally hundreds of people swimming in the area, it didn’t make me feel better about the inadvertent gulps of water that I no doubt took at some point.

Swiss Bank Accounts

A common perception of the Swiss banking system is that of a secretive establishment used primarily by über wealthy foreigners for hiding assets and evading taxes. Such a belief is often due to movies that make reference to a banking system defined by numbered accounts, wire transfers to/from banks in exotic locales, high-tech security and plush “old money”-type offices.

While there is no doubt some truth to such stereotypes (see Liliane Bettencourt), the reality for the average bank account holder in Switzerland is far less exciting. Just imagine the typical Wells Fargo, BofA, Chase, etc. bank account in the U.S. and you’re probably not that far from the truth.

And if you’re an American, the account restrictions probably make Swiss bank accounts even less attractive than their U.S. counterparts. Thanks to all the recent controversy involving alleged tax evasion by U.S. citizens with Swiss accounts, the major Swiss banks seem to now be erring on the side of caution.

"nude sauna suisse"

I recently took a look at some of the statistics related to my site and came across something interesting. It appears that some random internet searchers have found this site through some…how should I say...unique search phrases. The most interesting by far was “nude sauna suisse” -- I assume it directed the searcher to this post, which referenced a Swiss sauna and nudity. Apparently the searcher didn’t find what s/he was looking for (whatever that might have been…), though, as the total visit time was less than a minute.

Out of pure curiosity I decided to replicate the search but it proved to be fruitless. I gave up after the first 10 pages of Google search results (you can only imagine what the search turned up…), so I’m not sure exactly sure how far buried the link to my site actually is. One thing that I do know, however, is that whoever the searcher was apparently did a thorough review of the "nude sauna suisse" search results in order to eventually come across a random, unrelated blog from Switzerland.

Fresh Langostine and a Rainbow

On Sunday we went to Emilie’s sister’s apartment for dinner. Cécile and Yvain had returned earlier in the day from a trip to Brittany (the region where Yvain is from) and brought back with them some fresh langostine and cheese. Everything tasted great, including the lemon meringue tart that served as Emilie’s contribution (my contribution to the dinner was mispronounced and often nonsensical French...).

Before dinner the weather finally cleared and there was a double rainbow over the lake. I took the following picture with my phone, but it actually came out okay. The second rainbow is somewhat hard to see, though.

All caught up...finally

The past couple of days we’ve had an unwelcome break from the nice summer weather, with much colder temperatures and even some rain. It has almost felt like late-fall / early-winter weather and it’s convinced me that I need to take full advantage of the remaining summer once some proper weather returns.

One benefit of the adverse weather is that it has provided me with sufficient time to finally catch up on all my posts. I feel like I’ve consistently been a month or so behind (at least) since my heavy travel began in early-April, so it’s nice to finally cross off all the to-dos with respect to my outstanding posts.

Now that I’m fully caught up, I hope I’ll be able to keep pace going forward. I probably shouldn’t make any promises, though, given that I haven’t been very successful on this front in the past. We’ll see how it goes.

Le Trianon

Last Friday marked a full year since Emilie and I met so we went out for a nice dinner to celebrate. We chose Le Trianon restaurant at Le Mirador hotel in Mont-Pelerin. The hotel is in the hills above Vevey towards the eastern end of Lake Geneva.

The view was pretty incredible and was enhanced by the beautiful weather. I unfortunately didn’t bring my camera but was still able to take a few decent shots with my phone.

The dinner was incredible as well and began with a mix of “complementary” appetizers. My favorite was the tomato, basil and mozzarella concoction that was served in the glasses in the picture on the left.

For the starter we both ordered the langostine, which was from the Brittany region in France. It was served in three ways and I don’t have the culinary knowledge to accurately describe any of them. All three were great, though my favorite was the one on top.

Here are some additional pictures taken just before sunset.

For the main course we were in agreement as well and selected the lobser (also from Brittany). It was very good -- slightly richer than but nonetheless a great follow-up to the langostine.

For desert I went with the ice cream and sorbet selection, while Emilie chose some sort of cherry and caramel creation. Both were very nice.

Champex - Part II

Unfortunately, we couldn’t rest too long as we still had a significant climb ahead of us and had to get back down in time for the chairlift down to Champex.

As we got higher up, the trail became much more rocky and we were basically walking in parallel with the glacier. At one point we came across a couple with a dog on the trail. Seeing a dog isn’t rare at all, but seeing a dog like this is – it was smaller than many of the rocks we were climbing over.

But it was in great shape apparently and kept up with its fellow hikers quite well. And it loved the snow.

We passed a small glacial lake as we got higher and even saw some people hiking on the glacier.











When we had nearly reached our limit (and started worrying that we might not have time to make it back down to the chairlift in time), we finally made it to the refuge. The views were beautiful, with snow everywhere. If it weren’t 80F, I could have easily been convinced that it was mid-winter.











We decided to take the snow / glacier route down as it was much quicker and we were feeling a bit time pressured. While hiking on a glacier requires extreme caution, there were fortunately previously established “trails” that we could follow and we had seen some people not far ahead of us already taking them.










Nonetheless, the “trail” was a bit sketchy at times with some small crevasses that required full attention. Sometimes you could even hear water running through the glacier beneath you, which was both interesting and a bit unsettling.










We ultimately made it down unscathed and made up some much needed time. One minor problem, however, was the fact that there wasn’t a clear route from the bottom of the glacier back to the main trail. As a result, we had to boulder hop for a bit before finally finding a clear path.

Despite making up time by taking the glacial trail, we still were cutting things close and had to pick up the pace once we got to the main trail. As a result, the descent turned into more of a jog / run at times, though in some places the uneven terrain required us to slow down.

The final 45 minutes were exhausting and with every new turn our heart sank as we seemed to not be making any progress back to the chairlift. But just when we were finally about to give up and accept defeat, we saw the lift and it was still operating. We didn’t want to take any chances, so we kept running until we got to the boarding area. And according to the clock nearby we only had a couple of minutes to spare.

Had the lift closed, we would have had a further 90 minutes of hiking ahead of us in order to reach the bottom of the mountain. And given the energy that we had expended over the past hour, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it would have taken us far longer.

Once we got on the lift, however, I wondered whether the hike down would have been preferable. Going down a steep chairlift such as this one was definitely not for the faint of heart. We were basically looking straight down a slope extending 1,000+ feet for about 20 minutes, swaying uncomfortably whenever the operators had to stop it momentarily.










Emilie just stared at the mountains in front of us and wouldn’t look down (perhaps I should have followed her strategy). Here’s the view that she had…

***

Since the chairlift shut off required us to finish the hike relatively early, we decided stop at Les Bains de Lavey on the ride home (this is where we stopped following the Champéry hike in June). As with our previous visit, the baths proved to be a nice way to relax the muscles after a long hike.