Wed 6th July Pilatus

 Today was the day to climb the Mountain we have been looking at from the balcony in Horw. It was sunny first thing but before we even caught the bus there were clouds drifting around the peak. Regardless we set off catching the bus to the base of the mountain in Luzern.This was because we have the Grand Tour to complete today.  Once we walked up from the bus stop to the chair lift we were up and  away. From the chair life we transferred to a cable car which holds 55 people. That took us right to the top. The view was stunning but cloud was driftingin and around all of the top in patches. Hence most of our photos have cloud picture frames.

We took some photos of a couple of senior citizens who came up to play their Swiss Horns. It was a very melodious performance. Later we came across a couple of women who played jaunty tunes on small accordiians. Meanwhile we went for a walk up to the summit and then climbed down some steep steps and a path to a lunnel which went through the perimeter of the mountain and back to our starting point. Maria then led us down to the "Dragon's Cave" which had an audio visual presentation of a local myth. We played with that for a while  and then went for some lunch. This was on the terrace and by then the cloud had decided to envelope that area and it was time to have jackets on as it was pretty chilly. After a visit to the shop to see what might be there we headed for the funicular which took us down the opposite side of the mountain to our trip up. Along this route we could see the hardy types who were either walking down or climbing up.

Once at level ground again we walked over for the second last trip of the day. This was a ferry ride down the lake to Luzern central.  Here we stopped for a drink at a Restaurant and brewery managed by a friend of the family.  After a drink and some pretzel bread we moved to another of her restaurants to arrange reservations for a Traditional dinner Night for the four of us plus Lea and Michael on Sat evening. From there it was the bus trip back to Horw to kick off our shoes. It was a fantastic day despite  the clouds frustrating us a times. I will post some of the photos in two batches.

Tues 5th july Photo From Aarau

 

A real mountain goat - but dead.

The main street of Aarau with fresh water channelled down the street. This is all through the Old Town streets.

This is part of the town plan model. It was took big to get into one shot. Lea is on the RHS.

S

Tues 5th July Horw

 Today we packed up and set off to have lunch with Lea at her place of work in Aarau. She works for the Council in their Town Planning department.  She was waiting for us as we walked up from the car park and we went straight to lunch. Bob and I ordered a local version of a pizza which Lea described as a white pizza. That was a good description but it was tasty. We also had the option of soup or salad as a precursor and Bob was most surprised at the first taste of his tomato soup then he discovered it was a cold soup.

After lunch Lea took us on a walking tour of the Old Town. As with others we have visited it has been beautifully restored and maintained. Lea then took us up to the top of the Council building to show us the "map"  of the town. This is a 3D construction of every building and park in the city  of 20,000 population. It is all done in light wood and dried vegetaion for the forested areas. They then place proposed contruction in the site designated so they have an excellant perspective of how the building will appear in relation to it's neighbours. No high rise can be built higher than 6 stories but we saw a model of a creative implementation of the rule which was two horizontal high rises in which there were adjoining buildings of decreasing height from 6 stories down to one in either direction creating a curved skyline. Altogether it demonstrated  very thoughtful city design.

From there Lea went back to work and we went to the gelati shop but the purchases weren't as extravagent as yesterday. We then mosied through the beautiful Swiss valleys until a stop for Maria's favourite hand made buscuits. These are smaller than a gingernut but twice as hard. Tonight after dinner I had a lesson on how to karati chop them in the palm of my hand into four pieces so I could suck them to death. The trick I decided was to take a quarter of a biscuit and a mouth full of hot chocolate and hold the liquid until the biscuit was soft. Which worked fine if the drink wasn't too hot.

So now we are back in Horw for 4 or 5 days. I cooked Lemon Chicken for dinner which took longer than it ought to cook in an unfamiliar electric oven but which was a success. Tomorrow it is forecast to be clear skies so we are going up Mt. Pilatus which has been tantalizing us every time we look out from the balcony.  It is 2,100 metres or 7,000 ft so the views are sure to be spectacular.

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.