Steam Boat

 I forgot that I had this photo of Bob inspecting the workings of the s5team boat.

Photos from Sunday

I have just mamnaged to download some photos from yesterday on the lake and afterwards. Today has been a quiet day doing the washing, cleaning the house and the men went to the car wash to clean the cow poo off the wagon before it sets took hard. Tomorrow we drive back to Howb to explore the central area a bit more from the convenience of Erich and Caterina' apartment.

Various flotation devices on the lake.

There are a number of colourful unicorns aaround the lakeside town as it is part of their area emblem.

Extravagent, delicious icecreams.

Sunday 3rd July Dubendorf

I didn't quite get time to finish the story of the 2nd. On our way home we visited Kyburg Schloss . This is an 11th C castle built by the occupying Hapsburgs. It is an elegant complex of buildings around a courtyard . Now it houses a restaurant and a museum but still has well maintained gardens. We had had quite a busy day so we didn't sign in for the tour. We just took in the atmosphere of the courtyard and walked through the garden.Today we had a leisurely startand drove the 15 minutes along the autobahn to Lea and Michael's for brunch. They turned on a magnificent spread and we then had the chance to view their wedding and honeymoon photos on the widescreen TV. They stayed in a very luxurious new hotel in the South Tyrol; Dolomites. We then split up. They took Finn to the local swimming pool which he really enjoyed because it was 30C today. Maria and Roland took us to Lake Greifensee for a cruise. The boat was a steam engine model capable of carrying 40 people but with seating for only about 20. It was built in 1898 and restored over 6 years between 1982 to 1988. The scenery was of course magnificent with snow capped mountains as a background. I only had my camera for photos so it won't do them justice. It was lovely out on the water and there were lots of people swimming and floating in everything from yatchs to body boards, to blow up skiffs to inflatables the size and style of small swimming pools.e ignore from here down .I will repost the photos. llpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Interior courtyard Schloss Kyburg

Entrance to the Schloss and external wall.

On the way back to collect Finn we stopped for Ice cream. This is one of Maria's rituals and we are sure she knows every restaurant that sells elaborate icecreams between Luzarne and Zurich. These are not just Magnums or Drumsticks but  elaborate deserts. They are not to be missed when the opportunity arises but I can feel the weight gain. Maria assures me that we are doing enough walking to counteract the impact and I live in hope.

Saturday july 2nd.

 Maria and Roland.s 8YO  (nearly  9 ) grand son Finn joined us for the weekend so we plañed and outing that would be both i teresting to us and fun for him. The weather was beautiful and we went to a small zoo park located in forest surrounds about an hour away.  It was very pleasant strolling around and the animals were carefully selected for breeding progammes to support threatened species. The fifst stop were the Mongolian horses. These attractive small horses are reduced to an endangered  status  and  the herd here is contributing to increasing their numbers in twoo small regions in Mongolia.

Note their brush like manes.

From there we walked uround a display demonstrating the impact of the last ice shield in this region. While Bulach  was just on the edge of impact Winterfall would have been under about 20 metres of ice.  Various boulders along the path were identified with labels which outlined their origins many kilometers away and found locally as glacier melt rubble.

The wolf enclosure was next and we almost despaired of seeing him as it was a vast wooded space. Just in time we realised he was patrolling  the boundary and he came flashing past the windows. No chance of photos but we worked out a couple of other vantage points where we could see him,  They we're  possibly a couple of different  wolves as there were surely more than one in that space.

We has about the same success with the Lynx with a good view of one of the three walking up to thhe den for an afternoon nap. Maria could see his head in the den opening but our eges were not as attuned to the woodland.

The European bisen and the wild pigs did not provide as much challenge.

Friday 1st July Glass Factory

 This was a day for close to home activities. Home being our remaining short time in Horb. It was raining intermittantly after a stormy night with wind, thunder & lightning. Maria took us to the Glass Factory Museum which has an  excellant audiovisual display of the history of glass making from earliest times to the operarion in Switzerland. It had a chequered career in Switzerland. At first the immigrants who brought the skill from Germany were welcomed in the small forest communities because they brought work opportunites and increased prosperity.  Although the pay was poor it provided a cash economy. However the furnaces were wood fired and in time the villagers recognised that their forest was almost gone. The owners were forced to find new forest.  Automation then introduced  more change and the factory was relocated to Fluhli until the wood supply became an issue again.The ultimate solution was achieved by again moving to Hergiswil where a lakeside location allowed easy delivery of wood. 

Walking around the musium it was well displayed how the early products were luxury elegantly designed products. With the increase of competative mechanisation elsewhere the products became more utilitarian. The second World War saw production focussed on preserving jars to efficiently manage short food supplies.  In 1975  the factory lost the viabilty struggle and closed. It reopened under new owners and had a more streamlined process. In 1988 the owner died and his son took over converting production to a craft/training operatiion and Museum. We saw the operation by workers young and old with the trainees undertaking the simple preparation tasks, graduating to uncomplicated vases and the seniors doing the more skillful glass blowing tasks. Bob immediately noticed that the footwear ranged from sturdy shoes to socks with flipflops . As he said anything short of thongs. 

We then adjourned to the SHOP. Ooh that was hard. The range of products from elegant to functional was impressive and  I envied Maria's freedom to purchase items she had been  hankering after since her last visit.

Ater lunch we drove back to Bulach and after purchasing the necessary spices I made Thai Pork Curry for dinner. Bob was delighted to discover that Maria had rice noodles in her cupboard so the meal was quite authentic.

A day in the mountains at Stoos.

 Yesterday we had beautiful fine weather but the threat of a thunderstorm in the afternoon. So we were up and off early to make the most of the day. The funicular railway is the only one in the world that climbs at 110 degrees. The carriages are within circular frames and rotate within them so that as the climb they are above one another. There is a spectacular view from each unit. At the top there is a transfer to 4 or 6 seat chair lifts and part way up there is transfer to a second longer one. To get to the highest point we had to hike up a couple of steep climbs with yet another chair lift in between. We thought the views from the first peak down over Lake Luzern were stunning and spent quite a while wandering around various view points.  By then it was looking like rain and we retreated to a hotel for a bowl of Leak and Potato Soup. Though we had to rely on Maria to translate the menu to know what we were ordering. 

It rained quite heavily while we were eating but fined up by the time we went back out. We debated whether to risk going up to the further highest peak but  since Maria hadn't been up there we allowed ourselves to be persuaded that it would not rain any more. It was definately worthwhile. The peak was the 1900+ metres mentioned with the photo and much more rugged. We eyed the footpath leading back around the crest to our previous location with disbelief. it was literately a footpath; i e one foot in front of the other with serious consequences to any misstep. A challenge for younger hardier souls.

It was a wonderful experience and we listened with slight envy to Maria and Roland's descriptions of what it was like with a deep layer of snow over the entire area.   Then it was time for home and a good nights sleep.

Photos from the Mountains

View of Lake Luzern

View from the Mountain Top at 1900+metres

This is part of how we got to the top. Two tunnels and even more track than this

Then a walk to get to the chair lift. Yellowblob.

Then a second chair lift after yet another hike. We slept well last night.