Swiss and Switzerland

Ornate Painted Medieval Houses

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If you spend enough time walking around medieval German and Swiss villages, you’ll eventually notice that most of the houses are so-called half-timbered houses (with planks of wood separating the stuccoed exterior) but that a number of houses are painted in a very ornate and detailed style.

Here is one such house that I discovered in Olten, which shows both styles: the half-timbering at the top, and a large painted area below:

What I don’t know is the history of these houses.  Were they always like that right from the beginning?  Were perhaps ALL the houses like this, right from the beginning, and was it only recently that some of the houses stopped receiving this painted attention?  One of the many, many mysteries if you live in Europe!

Olten

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Olten, situated along the river Aare, is very picturesque:


What’s very interesting  is how the occasional floods have left their mark on the buildings, as this snap shows:

On the day I visited it seems I was not alone to stop and enjoy the view.  A lone wasp took a short break from his busy day to relax, eat a savory spider he just caught, and admire the view of the river:

When backs are better than fronts – 5

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Continuing the series, this is what you’ll see if you visit the Briner company, at least if you don’t fall asleep first, because in this industrial part of the Swiss city of Winterthur each building tries to outdo its neighbors in achieving the greatest architectural boredom:

But, if you don’t mind a bit of adventure you can walk around to the back of the building, where the building sits next to a railroad spur, and your eyeballs will explode when you see the amazing graffiti:

I didn’t want to photograph each artwork in detail, but I did want to provide at least one snap so you can see the amazing quality:

The amazing underground recycling cisterns of Switzerland

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I’ve written about garbage in Texas and garbage in Switzerland.  I’ve also written about garbage in Germany.

So as long I was in a garbage state of mine, I wanted to finish by showing a very common sight in the Swiss canton of Zurich: a long row of very nice looking, very pretty smelling chutes:

They make it just about as easy and convenient as possible for residents to drive here and empty their recyclables into the appropriate chute.  From time to time, a truck will arrive, and a single driver / operator is all that is needed to operate a boom/crane to unload the cistern.

It’s also just as much fun to see the long list of items that are prohibited:

Incredible Carthusians

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The Order of Saint Bruno, also known as the Carthusian Order, is the strictest order of Catholic monasticism – you can think of them as the Navy SEALs of monks.

I did some work in Grenoble, France, and this gave me the chance to drive by the most famous Carthusian monastery, in Chartreuse.

There is an erstwhile Carthusian monastery not too far from where I live,

and they still grow hops used for a local beer that they brew

 

When bad things become good things – 2

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Continuing the series,  there is an unused building not too far from where I live, and the rock garden in front has been taken over by wild weeds.

The most amazing part is the diversity of the weeds (I stopped counting after spotting around 30 different plants) and how they seem to optimally fill their environment.

Probably almost everyone who drives by this place never stops to look – or if they do, only sees a lot full of weeds. It is truly amazing what wonderful things you can find if you just stop and look.

Natural spring

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This is something you don’t see everyday.  High on a hill overlooking the Swiss countryside is a little pool of water, surrounded by cattails:

You can’t see it very well, but if you look in the middle and far down the hill you’ll see the Thur River.

In fact, and although I don’t show it, just behind me is a substantially higher set of hills. So as the groundwater slowly heads towards the Thur it takes a little break in this natural pond.

Tricky to get in, tricky to get out

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The airspace in Switzerland is said to be the most complicated airspace in the world, but when you look at the overall chart of Europe, it is quite likely this is just a marketing statement:

Nevertheless, having flown with private pilots in many countries, here I am in the co-pilot’s seat and making a turn over Pfäffikon at the southern end of Lake Zurich, en route to ZRH.  For light airplanes engaged in private aviation, there is a 20 minute window during the morning in which the approach must be made.

Amazing Animal Bridges – 1

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You take some things for granted – and it can be a huge shock when someone points out they are in fact unusual.

Case in point: animal bridges. I never really stopped to consider just how unusual they are, until a friend of mine from India, on her first visit to a country outside of India remarked “What?  They actually build bridges for animals?”

Yes, they do! I’ve only ever seen them in Germany and Switzerland – although to be honest, I’ve seen animal tunnels along the highways through the Florida Everglades. In both cases the principle’s the same: let animals cross the road without becoming roadkill.  Or perhaps more fitting: let animals cross the road without damaging the expensive cars and trucks.

Anyway, this is a nice animal bridge in Switzerland, just outside of Konstanz.

Achter Lok

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In German I call them “Achter Loks” – but probably nobody else does.  In English, the closest translation I could think of might be “the eight train.”

These Re 460 locomotives are a common sight for anyone in Switzerland:

The reason I call them Achter Loks is that all the main design parameters all have to do with the number 8:

  • They have 8 wheels
  • They weigh 80 tons
  • They have around 8000 horsepower

The other cool fact I always remember: when a fully loaded train pulled by one of these locomotives brakes from high speed to a stop, this one braking event uses about the same amount of energy that a family of 4 will spend in one month – and that gives you a good glimpse into just how important electrical energy is for the Swiss Federal Railways.

One cool feature is that these locomotives all have names – and although I don’t like to brag, I started an Internet project to photograph each of the 100+ locomotives.

Home of blue jeans

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Just as the villages and towns of central and northern Europe are filled with ancient buildings dating back to the Renaissance, the villages and towns of southern Europe are filled with ancient buildings dating back much further, to the Roman empire.

Here is a Roman building, still in wonderful condition today, at the heart of the town of Nimes in Southern France:

It’s here in this town (Nimes) that the fabric used for blue jeans (denim) was first made famous.

Seven unusual houses near Appenzell

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You’ve probably read my post about the artwork of Swiss artist Udo Rondinone, Seven Magic Mountains.

Well, here’s Seven Unusual Houses!

While driving around the beautiful countryside near Appenzell, I spotted a huge field with seven identical houses arranged neatly in a row:

OK, I think I can safely rule out the “seven dwarves retirement community!”

Now if this were in the U.S., particular in a place like Texas, this would be easy to explain. Whole villages and towns (complete with banks and schools and train stations) were created by private companies and offered at low cost to European immigrants, to encourage (or exploit) immigration to new areas.

But here in Switzerland?  This is something I really need to research!

What motivated me to stop and take this snap was not the houses at all, but the rather unusual crucifix – typically they tend to be stone, but this one was gilded:

The Hidden Courtyards of Zürich

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Every summer tourists flock to Zürich, the most expensive city in the most expensive country in Europe. And they walk around and they see the sights.

But most of them do so quite unaware of some real wonders that Zürich has to offer, namely, hidden courtyards.

Just off of the Bahnhofstrasse shopping district, you couldn’t be blamed for walking past this opening, hardly glancing inside, and thinking it was a driveway.

But in fact, if you walk through, it is one of Zürich’s best-kept secrets: one of the many, many hidden courtyards, filled with huge trees, park benches, and historic water fountains, some of them dating back to the Middle Ages:

How can wonders be so quickly forgotten?

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It amazes me that some incredible things – well known to everyone at the time – are too easily forgotten and left for the archaeologists and accidental discoveries centuries later.

In one of the central plazas in the northern Swiss town of Winterthur you’ll see this:

It looks like a boring picture of a boring plaza, at the corner of which sits strange (but boring`) gray metal object, about the same size and shape as a garbage can.

And that’s what most people probably think that it is.

But they’d be wrong!  In fact, this is an observation portal built above a set of huge underground water cisterns. Apparently, I was told, these water cisterns were only very recently discovered while installing a new water fountain in the plaza.

If you peer down the portal and activate the light switch, it looks like this:

I still haven’t done any research of my own into this topic.  I was told that there were regular wars and fighting during the Middle Ages for as long as there were the Middle Ages. This culminated in a war between the city of Winterthur and the city of Zürich – and these cisterns were created as an emergency defensive measure, deep within the Winterthur city walls, so that the inhabitants could have access to water during times of siege.

When you think of Switzerland, a shortage of drinkable water is the last thing you’re likely to think about – and that shows how different our lives and experiences are today from those that went before us during the Middle Ages.

What other wonders are buried beneath Winterthur, awaiting accidental discovery?

Gabriel in Zürich – The true backstory

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If you’ve read my post about Historical Jewry in Zurich, I might have left a few details out. Here’s the “backstory” as told by my father of Uncle Eddy Speaks Up fame:

Gabriel felt uneasy in Zurich at the best of times.  The Swiss have made it clear that he was not welcome. But he was back.  Worse, he was about to enter the old Synagogengasse and he didn’t much care for company. And yet here, in the evening mist, was someone else, pretending to read the plaque that told of the old pogroms there and holding a cell phone camera.

Gabriel’s hand went under the black slicker he wore and gripped the Beretta in the small of his back.  Standing in the shadows was a figure, quite tall and seemingly bald, he held a baseball cap to as to get closer to the plaque that marked the end of the alley. No one went to Synagogengasse, not even Jewish tourists.  Gabriel hoped that this was a coincidence, and that his cover wasn’t blown. No one was supposed to know he was in Zurich.

This was not a time for caution, and against his better judgment he had to move.  He slipped up quietly behind the stranger, pulling the Beretta, and jammed it into his ribs.  “If you want to live”, Gabriel said, “tell me who sent you.”

“Hey, man, quit the gun stuff”, said the stranger.  “I’m Ken, and I live here in Zurich”.  Gabriel’s eyes narrowed: “You have a slightly American accent – Ken.  If that’s your name.  And why take a picture of the Synagogengasse plaque?”

The stranger pushed the Beretta away from his ribs, and said: “the pictures are for my blog, you moron.  I travel all over the region – France, Germany, Italy – take interesting pictures and publish them in my blog.  This is a little known Jewish relic in Zurich and I wanted to see it.   I was trying to read the plaque when you came sneaking up, you jackass”.

Suddenly, it made sense to Gabriel.  “Wait a minute.  Ken —  blog — Zurich.  You’re Mr. Tradecraft’s friend Ken?”   “That’s right”, said Ken, now uneasy at the mention of the seldom-spoken name.   “I’m sorry.”, said Gabriel, “I’ll just slip away quietly and leave you to your reading.  Have you heard from Mr. T, lately?”

Ken looked at him, and made a what-a-dumb-ass-you-are face. “When Mr. T wants you to know where he is, he’ll call you.”

Amazing Bern

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Tourists come to Switzerland all the time.  Zürich is a natural location for tourists to see. And it seems hoards of tourists (particularly from India) flock to Lucerne.

But the real gem of Switzerland is not well known outside of Switzerland – it’s not at all visited by many tourists – and I think the locals prefer it that way.

Probably even writing this blog could land me in jail for breaking a carefully guarded Swiss secret. This photo just shows about one tenth of this incredible UNESCO site:

Interestingly, what I find most exciting about this city is not the city itself but the language that the locals speak.  They don’t speak German but rather a very special form of a more advanced, evolved language: Alemanic.  In addition to having many features that other languages could only dream about, Alemanic is hundreds of years more “evolved” than German: meaning that subtle changes in vowels and consonants that occur over the generations have yet to occur in German, but are present in modern day Alemanic.

Garbage in Switzerland

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After showing how Texans deal with their garbage, I thought it would be fun to show how my apartment building in Switzerland has recently tackled the challenge.

Until a few weeks ago, there were huge containers that we’d throw our garbage bags into:

They were smelly, took up a lot of space, and were an eyesore. It was also a lot of work for the garbage collectors to tip every container into their truck, and to clean up afterwards.

That was a few weeks ago, and this is today:

The garbage is contained in an enormous underground bag.  With a key, you can open the lid and toss in your bags.

Now there are no more smells, no more eyesores, and just a single garbage collector can do the job that previously took three – and do it much faster and cleaner!  It is emptied by a single operator using a remote controlled crane.

Historical Jewry in Zürich

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I just finished reading a fabulous history book by Riccardo Calimani entitled “The Venetian Ghetto: the history of a persecuted community.”  It makes a single reference on a single page to a Jewish community in the Middle Ages in the city where I live, Zürich.  Curious about this neighborhood, I decided to see what I could find.

It seems almost nothing remains of this area of the city, except a single small alley way named Synagogengasse (or Synagog Alley in German)

And a small placque that describes the street I was on (Froschaugasse) was the center of the Jewish community before a series of pograms decimated the community.

Here’s a close-up of the placque:

I have no intention of translating – it’s abominable to think what happened during the Middle Ages and later periods to follow. There’s still so many things about this period of history I just don’t know – but I find it WONDERFUL that with a bit of Internet surfing and an interest in history, you can easily find places like this.