Swiss and Switzerland

Be careful – once you see this incredible sight, you will never be able to unsee it!

There is a very famous saying in Polish, Moje Gołąbki nie przepyszny, zły smak. Roughly translated it means, ooops I did it again, I ruined my stuffed cabbage.

After years and years of trying, this was my absolute worst batch yet.

If you’ve been to Zurich then you know how it is. Every streetcorner has a fountain, and the fountains are old, and they have clean, fresh water, and you can drink it. The people stop and the children play, and the Carabinieri toss their cigarettes into the street and move on. The worst thing is the smell.

Wait – stop – that’s what Hemingway would say.

I would say that of all the water fountains in Zurich this has to be the most unusual:

It even has a little plaque so that you can read about it’s history:

What kind of a tree this was – I don’t know.

Why did it die – I don’t know.

Who made the decision not to chop it down – I don’t know.

But I do know this was an artistic a snap as I thought I could take of a dead standing tree in a grassy clearing of a forest where I take my daily Nordic Walk.

Deep and remote within north central Switzerland – so deep and remote it would be rare to find a tourist, and indeed very dangerous for them, as the locals do not take kindly to outsiders – lies the incredible Rheinau Abbey, known as the Klosterkirche:

An artistic a snap as I thought I could get of a bridge next to the famous Klosterkirche in Rheinau,

I took this snap last year, pre-Corona times . . . not sure if they will do this again this year

Continuing the series, you can be sure if I see one of these incredble inventions, I’ll take a picture of it! I spotted this pair at the famous Rheinfall in north central Switzerland.

Switzerland, and to a lesser extent southern Germany, is dotted with majestic California Giant Sequoai trees, many of them hundreds of years old.

I took this snap on the eastern shore of Lake Zürich, where this tree was planted next to a church:

Interestingly, due to global climate change these trees in California are all endangered, but it could be the climate of Switzerland might provide something of a sanctuary for them.

I recently took this snap at the Zürich airport,

This is an artistic a snap as I thought I could take of a lone hunting shack at the edge of a farmer’s field in north central Switzerland:

Oh, the fun you will have sitting warming in this shack, covered by a thick wool blanket, waiting patiently for some animal to thoughtlessly walk into the crosshairs of the telescopic sight on your rifle.

I prefer fishing.

What I’m not quite sure about is why these shacks are so predominant in Germany and Switzerland, yet in other countries are much rarer or impossible to find.

Continuing the series, here is a pair of giant California redwood trees standing next to the Klosterkirche in the north central Swiss village of Rheinau:

As artful a snap as I thought I could take of a pond across from an ancient Carthusian monastary in north central Switzerland:

It’s really more of a holding pond for water that trickles down the hill above, chills for a while in the pond, then continues down to the Thur River below.

I often believe Schaffhausen doesn’t get the attention it deserves, it has to be one of the most magnificent medieval walled villages in Switzerland or anywhere else

A view of the misty northern shores of the Bodensee (Lake Constance), looking east:

One of the best sights in Luzern is not really of the old city, but rather of the various buildings that align the north shore of Vierwaldstättersee:

Deep within the Swiss village of Rorschach there is an open air art exhibit that provokes intense conflict between conflicting emotions. This is one of the most magnificent, stunning works of open air art I have ever seen, because the artist has very carefully established an intense, passionate conflict situation between heartfelt human emotions.

But what emotions are these?

The beautiful – stunning works of mosaic art, very carefully crafted over weeks if not months.

The hideous – enclosing these magnificent works of art in ugly industrial monstrosities.

The callous – letting weeds and wild grass grow within the monstrosities, showing the world that despite a superficial attempt at protection, in reality no protection is intended.

Here is an example of one of these:

And here is a second example:

Magnificent, absolutely magnificent!

No matter how small the pond, the Swiss use it as a chance to generate hydroelectric power, as this snap taken near Göschenen near the famous Gotthard Pass shows:

Switzerland is a land of many secrets. Everyone knows about the banking secrets, where anyone around the world can hide their money in a famous numbered bank account. Everyone knows about the secrets of lost paintings from WWII, hidden deep in bunkers underneath the Swiss Alps. Everyone knows about the secret Freeport in Geneva, which provides storage lockers at an airport that bypasses customs control, no-questions-asked, and where, according to experts, the overwhelming majority of the world’s art and archaeological treasures have been squirreled away by poachers and collectors alike.

But if you have lived here as long as I have, you know there are other secrets – real secrets – secrets so terrifying that even the Swiss themselves never speak of them, even in the privacy of their own homes. Secrets which, if you were even to whisper them to a close friend at a bar, mean you would be likely to simply disappear.

The Eschenberg Tower (in German, the Eschenbergturm) is one of these mysteries. It has been rumored to be a huge steel tower, many hundreds of feet tall, hidden deep within the thick forests of north-central Switzerland.

Who built it? Nobody knows.

Why was it built? Nobody knows.

Does it really exist? A secret that no Swiss will ever reveal to you.

Well, for several years now I hike through the forests – not knowing exactly if this rumor is true – so you can imagine my surprise when I found myself on a lonely hiking trail and I saw this sight:

Could this be that mystery tower?

My heart began to heartbeat. My pulse began to pulsate. My sweat began to sweatswate.

I approached slowly – and cautiously – in a state of near disbelief – until my eyes gazed upon this incredible sight!

It is indeed a tall tower, many hundreds of feet tall. Here is as artistic a snap as I thought I could get:

So, yes, I can confirm that this tower really does exist. But I cannot even dream of letting you know where. And in fact, after leaving he tower, I totally wiped my mobile phone to ensure there was no electronic trace whatsoever of where I have been.

Loud parties – even louder music – psychedelic drugs – great volumes of alcohol, drunk with wild abandon.

No, these wild bees are not those kinds of wild bees!

Continuing the series, here is another wild bee hotel, nestled deep in the Eschenberg Forest that is close to my home:

I took this snap looking up a rather steep hill in Wülflingen area of Winterthur – but the way it turned out, it looks rather horizontal:

Nothing special, just one of the many tens of thousands of “half-timbered” houses that adorn the North Central Swiss countryside:

Continuing the series, a while ago I showed this snap of the famous Underground Recycling Cisterns of Winterthur:

Well, today I caught an operator hard at work, emptying one of the cannisters: