A Quick Trip to Bern

After a few hours in Biel, we decided to pay a quick trip to Bern on our return to Saas Grund. Bern is the nation's capital and we expected to see some grand buildings and streetscapes like those shown below, but not some of the antics also reported here. To start with the latter, we arrived to discover that Bern was host to the Swiss Cup Final (soccer) between Basle and Lucerne and that supporters of the two teams were arriving in droves to be met by an army of police deputed to keep the warring parties separate. Indeed, on the arrival at the station to return to Saas Grund we discovered that we were locked out of the station while the trains carrying the Basle supporters arrived. We had already seen hoards of Lucerne supporters passing down the street to the stadium letting off blue flares - the team colours - as shown here.

I was asked to photograph the supporters head on by the police, but felt able to do so after they gone past!

That besides, the rest of my photos show elegant city-scapes suitable for a national capital, some grand public buildings and remnants of an older era of city-building down on the banks of the river Aare - a tributary of the Rhine. The centre is full of statuary, ornate clock towers, flags waving in the breeze, and earnest shoppers.

Here, for example, we have the Swiss national bank and the national parliament (with its name in Latin)

And, on the banks of the Aare, is the older settlement of Bern:

 AS

Biel

One day we decided to head for the northern part of Switzerland, an area hitherto unexplored by us. We chose Biel (Bienne in French), on the edge of the Jura 'mountains' and Bern (Berne in French), the capital, as our destinations. Note the dual German and French spellings of these places which lie on the linguistic border with Switzerland. This post concerns Biel. And once again we used the Swiss rail system as our means of transport: fast, always on time, and serving just about every town in the country. Have you ever considered how one of the most mountainous countries on earth manages such a dense rail network?

We found Biel an attractive city lying on Bielersee. The lake front was beautiful. Downtown near the railway station, the architecture was fairly modern but uninspiring, but further back the historic old town was a maze of alleyways and lovely old buildings attractively nestling together. These pictures show what I mean.

AS

Bettmeralp

Not content with the Jungfraujoch and Lugano, we set out the following day on another epic scenic trip, this time to Bettmeralp in the Upper Rhone Valley, a synthetic village of modern Swiss chalets devoted to the tourist dollar. However, the place has one great advantage going for it: gorgeous views. Once again we had to travel via Visp and Brig to our destination, but this time on the Gotthardbahn Line, home to the renowned Glacier Express between Zermatt and St Moritz. However, we only went two stops beyond Brig before leaving the train and catching the cable car up the mountain-side in two stages. Bettmeralp had one of the few cable cars still operating in the off-season. The following four pictures show the ride up the mountain, with the scenery getting ever more stunning.

The next few pictures show grand views at the top. The first looks SE though the village.

The second shows the Bettmerhorn, NE of the village.

The third looks NE towards the local chapel.

The fourth shows the newly constructed travelator designed to accommodate patrons standing on skis.

The fifth looks SW towards the high Alps, with the Rhone in the trough below.

The sixth shows the conical Matterhorn looming over the mountains in the centre-right.

And the seventh also shows the Matterhorn in the distance with the Weissmies (at 4000+m) to the right. Phil's chalet lies west of this mountain.

Don't you agree this is lovely?

AS

A Brush With Italy

During our recent visit to Switzerland, we undertook numerous forays across the country. One such trip entailed the transit of Italy to the Italianate Swiss city of Lugano close to the country's southern border. The trip experienced some glorious scenery and a substantial cultural shifts! As with all trips from Saas Grund, we first had to travel by bus for 50 minutes down an often steep and winding, but visually brilliant trial to Visp and on to the railway station at Brig.

The first picture above shows the entrenched lower Saas Valley tumbling towards the Upper Rhone Valley running right to left in the background. Behind the Rhone lies the wall of the Bernese Oberland. Visp is hidden deep in the Rhone Valley out of view and the picturesque village in the foreground is Stalden, which has huge vertical extension between highest and lowest points. At Brig we caught the express to Milan. Immediately on leaving the station the train plunged into the famous Simplon tunnel, one of numerous passages from northern Europe to Italy. Somewhere in the middle of the tunnel we left Switzerland and entered the EU, though border protection was skimpy. The train then wound down the steep valley to Domodossola pictured below. The third picture looks across Domodossola towards the Swiss border.

From Domodossola we caught a neat little mountain train whose coaches had panoramic windows. The line wound steeply upwards through beautiful Italian countryside like that shown in the first two slides below. Have a look at the lush deciduous vegetation backed by snow-capped mountains

Then the line headed down through the Swiss border through scenery like that shown below - past vineyards atop gorges with fast-flowing water. Eventually we reached Locarno - famous for hosting international discussions about the future political landscape of Europe post WW 1.

Then it was on to the city of Lugano, which Phil and I selected to mark the 50th anniversary of our first visit there in 1962! Back then I thought Lugano an exceptional place. And so it was this time around. I'm sure you'll agree that the pictures below show a picturesque, stylish and urbane place draping the shores of Lake Lugano.

The dude on the plinth is, of course, one William Tell. After some energetic sight-seeing, dining and shopping, we headed back the same route - four trains and a bus - well satisfied with our day out!

AS

At the Top of Europe

I have just taken a magnificent train trip to what the locals call the Top of Europe! Yes, I went by train to an altitude of nearly 3500m starting maybe 40 km away in Interlaken at a height of perhaps 600m. So the train climbed something like 2900m in a short distance - some slope. In fact the line was fairly flat as far as Lauterbrunnen, making the trip even steeper over the last part.

The entire journey was stunning as the photos below show. Even the journey back which was via Grindelwald was stunning. I was planning to do this trip 50 years ago, but could not afford it then as I was only 17 and the ride is expensive! Still, if you've got any life left in you please bite the bullet and do it! The first photo shows the valley in which Lauterbrunnen resides with spectacular water-falls plunging over the cliff edge.

Wengen is a beautifully located resort high above the valley.

We're now looking up at the Jungfrau massif from above the snowline.

After changing trains at Kleine Scheidegg (c. 2000m), the line plunges into the mountain but stops twice to let passengers look out of windows cut in the north face of the Eiger (Ogre in English). Here is the view down to Grindelwald!

The railway climbs to the station at Jungfraujoch, the col between the Jungfrau (the Virgin) itself and the Monch (the Monk). There are several restaurants and outside walks to take as in the next photo, which shows the summit of the Jungfrau. The famous Aletsch glacier also starts just below the station complex.

Here's the Monch below. It and the Jungfrau are > 4000m. When I took these photos, I was wearing just shorts and T-shirt - to the amazement of everyone else, yet it was warm!

And here's the famous north face of the Eiger, which alas people fall off frequently attempting the hazardous climb!

And here's the train down - a steep fall.

Please take this trip!

AS

Haarlem

No, I'm not in New York. Rather, this post is made from close to the original Haarlem just outside Amsterdam where I have just finished attending a conference. On Sunday afternoon, a few hours after arriving here, Dot and I were met by some old friends and whisked away to their home district of Haarlem. Frans Thissen works at the University of Amsterdam and commutes the short distance daily.

We went first to the North Sea coast to see the surfing, the beach and the dune system, which were all very interesting. Then we walked around the historic town, once much more important than Amsterdam, before heading for a pub and a restaurant meal. The pictures show some of the scenes we saw.

AS