Off To The Mountains

For our second week in Switzerland we rented an apartment from a friend of Manuela's at Flims, which is part of the Laax skiing area.  The town of Flims sits at about 1,100m and the vast ski fields rise above it to an altitude of just over 3,000m.

After we had settled in on Sunday, we set off with Manuela to have lunch at beautiful Restaurant Conn.  It was about an hours walk through forests below Flims.

 Approaching Restaurant Conn

 Relaxing with a glass of wine after lunch

 Near the restaurant was this very exotic viewing platform, which projected way too far over the edge of the cliff, even if it afforded amazing views

 From the platform you could see down to the Rhine River

The walk back uphill was harder so there had to be some high jinx along the way.

Dale went skiing on the Monday morning.  Rodney and Stefan also drove up from Einsiedeln, having only flown back from New York the previous day.  We had a lovely lunch in our holiday pad after Dale got back from skiing and then we wandered up to the classy Hotel Waldhaus for coffee and hot chocolate.  It was great that we could catch up with them as they were heading away again a couple of days later.

Dale skied again on Tuesday and I walked up behind Flims to the top of the Foppa chairlift along a very pretty walking trail and met him for lunch.

Whilst Flims has seen a lot of new accommodation development, it is still a working rural town with cattle and other animals.  Farms are dotted amongst the ski lodges.

 The animals bring a earthy feel (and smell) to the town.

 The walk afforded lots of nice views back to Flims... 

  

 ...as well as up to the ski fields above.

The Crap Sogn cable car station is right at the top centre of the photo.

 After lunch Dale headed back for more skiing.  It took him 90 minutes to get from here back to the glacier at 3018m, an indication of just how enormous the ski field is.

I took another way back down to Flims after lunch - more views of Flims.

On the Wednesday Dale took a rest day from Skiing, and we decided to take a long walk from Flims to the town of Falera, passing above Laax along the way.  We had lunch in Falera and then caught the bus back to Flims. 

Laax is apparently snow boarder heaven.  We wondered why every snow boarder we saw was carrying a back pack.  Dale dismissively suggested that it was so they could carry their selfie stick.  The next day, while skiing, he came across three of them, with the selfie stick out, filming themselves with a Gopro.

At a cross roads. The walk was pretty well marked although Laax seem to get further and further away.  Lucky we were happy to walk above it and enjoy the view.

Laax down below

The old old church in Falera

The newer old church in Falera

You say Luzern, I say Lucerne

We spent the 2nd and 3rd of January visiting beautiful Lucerne.  We briefly visited Lucerne 5 years ago, but it was excellent to be able to take a little longer to savour its delights this time .

It was pretty cold and wet both days, so while we did spend some time wandering around, we also spent quite a lot of time in cafes and restaurants where the true delights are to be found.

We were also lucky to be able to spend the first day catching up with Martin, a friend of Manuela's, with whom we traveled in Argentina in 2011.

  Snow dusted little boat on Lake Lucerne near the snow dusted 14th century Kapellbrucke bridge

  Part of the medieval city ramparts. You can walk around them, but not in winter.

 

 In front of the Lion Monument Memorial

We didn't know about this important tourist attraction but plenty of other tourists did.  It apparently commemorates the Swiss soldiers who died defending King Louis XVI during the French Revolution.

 Martin, Dale and me enjoying kafee and kuchen in a very chic Lucerne cafe, selected by Manuela.  Photo is also by Manuela.

At Martin's suggestion we went to the Bourbaki Panorama, which was excellent as a piece of artwork and very interesting historically.  It is an 1100 square metre painting that encircles the room, with real diorama elements in front of the painting to provide a 3D feel.  The panorama vividly depicts the miserable state of retreating French troops during the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war.  These troops were taken in by the Swiss and looked after until they were well enough to return to France.  This was probably the first major international mission undertaken by the Red Cross and had a big impact on Swiss society.

An effective mix of modelling and painted scenery

 A building stunningly decorated as an advent calendar

We had dinner with Martin and then we walked around taking photos of the enchantingly lit up city. 

Here is a selection of some of those photos.

 The 15th century Spreuerbrucke Bridge with the Hotel Chateau Gutsch lit up in the background

More of the Spreuerbrucke Bridge

 

More beautiful street lighting, this time in Zug

We went back to Lucerne on the second day to visit the Sammlung Rosengart Art Gallery, which is described as Lucerne's blockbuster cultural attraction.  It is the collection of a Swiss art dealer, Angela Rosengart.  She was a friend of Picasso's and amassed an awesome collection of paintings by Picasso and Klee.  There are also works by Cezanne, Kandinsky, Miro, Matisse and Monet in the collection.  However, we were most amazed by two small studies that were done by Georges Seurat as preparation for his works 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte' (Dale's favourite painting) and 'Bathing at Asnieres'.

We didn't take many noteworthy photos on the second day although we did take the one below of one of the boats that can ferry you around Lake Lucerne.  We'd like to do this on a nice sunny day.

Goodbye 14 , hello 15

On New Year's Eve we spent the afternoon wandering around Zurich before going to Guido's apartment, where we celebrated.

We had a brief look around the main shopping district before visiting the Swiss National Museum and then walking around two former working class inner suburbs, Kreis 4 and Kreis 5.  Guido lives in Kreis 4 and it still has the reputation for being Zurich's red light district. 

Zurich's vertiginous church steeples.

and trams.

 I

I loved the sight of these snow covered bikes.  I'm just glad that i didn't need to ride one.

Some unsanctioned, premature New Year's Eve fireworks

We had some wonderful food and plenty of wine at Guido's lovely apartment with Manuela and their friends Carmen and Reto.  

Immediately after celebrating at midnight we caught a couple of trams into central Zurich and walked down Bahnhofstrasse to get as close as possible to Lake Zurich, from where the city's new year fireworks were being launched.

The centre of Zurich, shortly after midnight

There was a great atmosphere.  There were a lot of people around but I didn't ever feel claustrophobic. We took along some gluhvein in a flask but most people seemed to be drinking champagne.

How great are these fireworks?

and these.....

 

Manuela, Dale and I stayed at Guido's place overnight and after a leisurely breakfast, we headed off on quite a long drive to a ski station just outside Altdorf.  Carmen and Reto rejoined us and we took 2 gondolas up to a way station that was way above the clouds covering the valley below.  We stopped to have a drink - the schnapps with coffee went down really well in the cold but sunny weather.

After Conny and Biat joined us we headed off on a 2 and a half hour trek to a remote little restaurant called Allp Selez.

  

Views of the valley below from the first way station (half way up)

and of the lower slopes

The moon was up even before we started the trek at 3.30 pm

 

We trekked steeply uphill but the views along the way were stunning.  We loved the way the snow was offset by these sunlit craggy rocks.

 

Manuela...and in the other photo a train of us following in Biat's wake.  Biat and I discovered that we were born on exactly the same day but I think he's a little bit fitter than me

 

We continued to trek uphill

and uphill - look at how deep the snow was.

And still uphill.  We had trekked past those buildings below.

We finally reached the mountain pass

We were deliriously happy to reach the pass...and we loved the sunset view that awaited us.

But then we had to trek steeply downhill... and downhill...and downhill.  This was technically challenging for first time snowshoers.  Find some fresh snow, lean back and walk on your heals.  But when you start to get the hang of it it seems like you are walking on clouds.  Bliss!

Finally we arrived at the restaurant.  It can only seat about 20 people. We were really really happy to be warm and fed.

Here's the fondue before we started.  We had 2 of these between 8 of us. Hmmm bread, cheese and garlic - if we had died of exhaustion we would have been in heaven.

 

And here's the fondue dish, not so very long later.

After dinner we walked about 15 minutes to another gondola way station.  We had to operate the gondolas ourselves.  Luckily the others had done this before.  The lights of Altdorf, in the valley below, were most beautiful.

The day had been exhausting but it had also been a truly glorious way to celebrate the first day of 2015.