Luzern, September 2007

Lucerne September 2007

LUCERNE'S LION MONUMENT

After flying into Zurich and taking the train to Lucerne, we walked to the Lion monument... a very peaceful setting made all the more enjoyable with the knowledge that the return walk would be mostly downhill and followed by wine, cheese and chocolates!

The traditionally neutral Swiss supplied mercenaries to foreign governments and enjoyed a reputation for honoring their agreements. In

1792 the Swiss Guards’ ABOVE: Bertel Thorwaldsen's Lõwendenkmal, Lucerne honor was put to the test, when --after trying to escape the French Revolution--King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and their children were hauled back to the Tuileries Palace in . A mob of working-class Parisians stormed the palace in search of aristocratic blood. More than 700 Swiss officers and soldiers died while defending the palace, without knowing that their royal employers--like Elvis--had left the building. In the early 1800s, the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen was hired to sculpt a monument to the fallen Swiss Guards. The sculpture was carved in a sandstone cliff above the city center

HANS ERNI: Mondays, when many tourist attractions are closed, is a good day to walk the 2 miles from the Center of Lucerne to the Museum of Swiss Transportation which is co-located with an IMAX, a planetarium and a delightful collection of work by local artist Hans Emi. h t t p : / / w w w . h a n s - e r n i . c h / h t m l

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JEAN NOUVEL’S KKL: Tuesday was chilly with a drizzle --perfect for visiting museums. First stop was Lucerne’s Museum of Art which is housed on the fourth floor of the “KKL” or Convention and Concert Hall. Designed by architect Jean Nouvel, the KKL is brilliant by night (top photo) if only stark and wonderfully functional by day (bottom). Its terraces offer spectacular views of the old city, a favor not exactly returned when viewed from the other side of the lake, but the structure is so shadowed during the day as to almost melt into the background and it actually camouflages some of the modern structures behind it (like our hotel). The Art Museum had a special exhibit juxtaposing and Francis Bacon -- the latter seemed like Picasso on downers – seriously twisted and not at all happy about it. I was happier with the works by another artist, André Thomkins and the free access granted museum visitors to the fifth floor terrace.

André Thomkins, Lackskin, 1980/81 Lackfarbe auf Papier 250 x 200 cm

Rosengart Collection: The second visual treat for the day came compliments of a father/daughter art dealer team, Siegfried and Angela Rosengart, who made significant donations to their adopted city of Lucerne. The collection includes 125 works by Paul Klee, 50 by Pablo Picasso, and a sampling of work by other classic modernists such as Cézanne, Chagall, Dufy, Kandinsky, Matisse, and Miró. I could have done with a few more Miró's, but I suppose that would have been greedy.

PICASSO MIRÓ KLEE Portrait of Angela Rosengart Danseuse II, 1925 Herzdame, 1922 Lithograph 1964

Market Day: First Wednesday of the Month. While the goods seemed to be predominantly from India, I was able to catch a whiff of grilled wurst between gusts of incense. Mittagessen! Lunch! I thought of sharing some of my brotchen with the swans, but sensed there was a local taboo in this regard (probably backed up by a hefty fine as well). Unlike their bees, Lucerne’s swan population is non-aggressive and self-sufficient. They do not chase after handouts—or potential handout-ees. Why should a visitor disrupt the social status quo? Dessert was a chocolate covered banana.

I suspect there is little the Swiss will not cover with chocolate.

The real treat for the day was a visit to the Picasso Museum. (Yes! There really are THREE major collections of his work here.) Works from the last 20 years of his life are housed in one of the city's most beautiful old buildings, the historic Am-Rhyn- House. They are accompanied by an amazing exhibit of nearly 200 David Douglas Duncan photographs of the artist at work and at play with his wife Jaqueline, his children, his dachshund Lump, and his goat Esmeralda. The photographer gave him Lump. I don’t know who got his goat.

Left: PABLO PICASSO/ MADOURA Ceramic charger, "Jacqueline Au Chevalet".

Above Left: Gary Cooper instructing Picasso on shooting Above Right: Picasso wearing the Indian headdress that Cooper gave him

Today’s Unexpected Finds around Lucerne.

Before I forget, and this is especially for Gerrit and Irv, we had a very nice red wine at a Greek restaurant last night: Katogi Averoff/Metsovo. I started the day with a visit to the Jesuit Church of St. Francis Xavier, after whom my father was named. It is Baroque light with the delightful colors of alpine flowers. Two of Lucerne’s lesser know museums yielded some unexpected treasures. The history museum was, shall we say, eclectic. Amid the artifacts I would expect in such a beautiful old city were displays of kitchen appliances your grandmother had the good sense to throw out and a selection of undergarments, which for completeness included a pair of silky orange bikinis from the Seventies. However, perhaps as a reward for including a church on today’s itinerary, I was surprised to find the family crests of the Sforze’s of San Severino, a town near where my father was born (Sopravia di Nola) and which he mentioned in essays he wrote in college. Also of interest was the Palm Pilot like device visitors receive and which reads the bar codes beneath the displays and delivers a description of the items on the device’s screen in the language of your choice (provided its German, French, Italian, or English). And a final technical note, this rather dusty museum with its old display cases is wired so that lights are motion activated—as are our hotel hallways…a nice environmental touch.

There was snow on the mountains this morning! The Natural History museum at first seemed as though it would be a bust—the first two floors were decidedly designed for K-2 students, although one of the displays solved the question of the identity of a bird I had noticed on the lake. It’s the fulica atra, aka a coot, whose rather formal attire fits in quite nicely with the tuxedoed musicians who hang out on the terrace of the concert hall drinking wine.

The third floor proved to be a charm hosting a photographic exhibit of winners of the 2006 European Nature Photo awards. As luck would have it, the only two photos from the exhibit that I was able to find on the internet were: - the one I wanted Kate to see of a hooded crow trying to open a bottle (or so the photographer claimed) and - the one for our favorite otter researcher, Debbie Boege-Tobin, of a Giant Otter eating a Piranha.

Markus Varesvuo Hooded Crow

The fourth floor stood in sharp contrast to the lower levels revealing a modern security vault for a prized insect collection. Each safety deposit box was whooshed open by placing your museum entrance card into a slot above the doors – and what a collection it was! The arrangement of the iridescent beetles looked like earrings on display in a jewelry store. I must admit I left there Manuel Presti Brazil feeling rather bug eyed.

Today was a bear of a day: good for me, bad for Wall Street. I took the train to , the Swiss capital which bears the name of its mascots. Here is a picture of the three bears especially for Francesca and Marisa who are interested in the animals I am encountering here. Bears have been kept in the Bern Bear Pit for more than 600 years. Their habitat includes rocks and caves, a fir tree for climbing, and a deep water basin for swimming. My bus passed by them on the way to the Paul Klee Zentrum, an undulating art center designed by Renzo Piano. You can see how it seems to grow out of the landscape. Over time more of it will likely be overgrown as wild flowers and grasses slowly creep over the structure. You might want to check out more photos of this wonderful building at this web site. http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/paulkleecenter/index.html Here are a few of my favorites from the collection and a website where you can see all of them: Klee Collection

Today’s chocolate was filled with Remy Martin; we will have much to repent upon our return.

Lake Boat Cog Train Gondola Tunnel vision and crow’s feet take on whole new meanings here. Engineering feats literally are of monumental proportions with trains burrowing through mountains with apparent ease, though the Swiss seem just as happy to go up as well as through the steep inclines. Today’s journey to Mt. Pilatus (2132 meters high) started by boat and continued on a 4600-meter stretch of railway. This is the world's steepest cogwheel railway (maximum 48% gradient). At the summit we were greeted by Alpenhorn players and Alpendohlen, both of which are extremely tame and well-fed, but the latter captivated us when they graciously accompanied us on our hike and then joined us for lunch. It wouldn't be far from the truth to say that, if you have seen one Alp, you have seen them all for on a sunny day there are many peaks visible; the Jungfrau and Eiger were just two that were visible today from Pilatus. You might enjoy taking a look at the Pilatus webcam (during Swiss daylight hours!). Our return trip by gondola and bus was delayed while we napped under the alpine sun.

Alpenhorn Blowers: Talk about tooting Check out YouTube - Alpendohlen;; your own horn! Ricola! you might also like to see Lucerne’s Swans or Bern’s Bears

We hiked up to the point on Mt. Pilatus from which View of Lake Lucerne from halfway this photo of the visitors center was taken down the mountain All was not quiet on the lakefront this Sunday morning. Saturday night’s revelers had barely abandoned their posts on the sidewalk beneath our window when the horn on a paddleboat announced its imminent departure. We decided to grab water bottles and books and head for the lake for a day of leisurely strolls and reading on the waterfront interspersed with café, wine, and, of course, chocolate (gianduja today). Our first stop was in front of the Palace Hotel—one of Lucerne’s grandest. If any of the guests were planning on sleeping in, they were in for a rude awakening as the youth guard of several local churches were armed with trumpets and drums which they wielded vigorously. The swans, which were quite placid during the week, were busy displaying their plumage and flourishing their own trumpets. We had a late lunch at a café near where the lake narrows into a river before strolling (NOT Palace Hotel dancing—see below) across the Spreuer Bridge.

View from our table: Nadelwehr: Under the roof of Spreuer Bridge, the "Dance of Death" paintings wooden water spikes regulate the dating from the 1640's reflect the fear generated by numerous level of Lake Lucerne and feed a plagues. Death, represented as a skeleton or as the "Great Reaper" hydroelectric power plant. urges everybody to dance with him--Sorry, our dance card is full !

Alpine Gentian from yesterday’s hike. Spreuer Bridge An eclectic day in Lucerne I visited a mixed bag of sites today starting with Lucerne's main church. The Hof Church belongs to a Benedictine monastery older than the city. It was built in the mid-17th century—or about a century before the Catholic Church condemned Freemasonry. I mention this because what first appeared to be a holy Spirit symbol above the main altar, turned out to be a pyramid with an eye in it. It was a short walk from there to Lucerne’s Glacier Garden Altar & Choir Screen of Hof Church with some very high-tech Glacial pot hole in Lucerne exhibits, a small, well-labeled park with alpine plants, and an incongruous, but delightful, mirror maze. I made it through without walking into anything. While not particularly interested in 19th century panoramic paintings, I felt I had to pay homage to Lucerne's Bourbaki panorama which shows an episode from the Franco- Prussian war of 1870-71 and is billed as a “visual sensation of The 2826 pipe organ can mimic the time before the cinema.” Alhambra Labyrinth of Mirrors the sound of rain, thunder & hail. On YouTube - Spiegellabyrinth (Kate, Karen, Jane, Pes: you might prefer the post-cinema treats on TateShots, recommended on BBC Europe this morning, N.B. their short on Dali and Disney.) Defeated in battle, the French army of General Bourbaki was driven towards the French-Swiss border. Faced with surrendering, they opted to try out a new international law which allowed foreign troops to seek refuge on neutral ground provided they deposited their arms and were interned until the war was over. The Swiss are very proud that they reacted promptly and allowed the soldiers to enter their country. This was a key test both for the young Red Cross movement and Switzerland's humanitarian role as a neutral country. The soldiers were allowed to return to France with their weapons after the cease fire was signed and, I would point out, after the French paid the Swiss for the cost of the internment.

fn: The quest is over: Remy Martin filled chocolate is numero uno! Searching for a supplier, I came across the Enogastronomia site which also distributes for Donatella Cinelli Colombini who owns vineyards in Montalcino and Trequanda. The Montalcino winery is called "Casato prime Donne" and her site notes that "the wine makers are all women, a revolutionary idea, to prove the so called 'weaker sex' can compete in the highest level of enology." Reflections on Lucerne: This will be the closing entry to my Lucerne notebook. Tomorrow I will pack up my chocolate, visit Greg’s office and have dinner with one of his colleagues and his wife. Below are some of my favorite things about this trip.

Gigantic figs Swiss cow bells: click here to listen Schinken-yum! Today I traveled by train to Fluelen (top photo), a beautiful lakeside town – really more of a sidewalk to the Alps since there is only a thin strip of land there between the mountains and Lake Lucerne. Actually, Fluelen calls this part Lake Uri. And come to think of it, the Swiss don’t call all of it Lake Lucerne: it’s the Vier Waldstättersee or the Four Forest Place Lakes. Though the day was chilly and windy, the ride itself, around and through steep mountains, was worth the trip. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been amazed at Swiss Tunnel Vision. The Transport museum had large areas dedicated to the engineering equipment needed to accomplish these incredible subterranean feats. Even the Natural History Museum had an exhibit of the burrowing prowess of various Swiss rodents (NB: in German, rodents are called Nagetiere, or gnawing animals— Greg used to tell people this was where we got Naugahyde. However, a definitive study I found on the internet says it comes from a small chameleon like animal which sheds its hide without harm to itself.) Where was I? Oh, yes, the intersection of tunnels and rodents. Francesca and Marisa’s interest in the animals of Switzerland inspired my research (i.e., plagiarism) in this area. Considering what people throw out of train windows, railway tunnels are always clean, or so I am told—I’ve never actually gotten out and looked.. Zoologist Peter Vogel wanted to find out why. Since railway guards who check tunnels told of sighting rats and shrews, Vogel set up traps in a tunnel with bait like bits of apple and mealworms. And lo and behold: he caught – not rats or shrews – but perfectly ordinary house mice who either eat the trash or use it to build their nests.

Burrowing in Swiss Cheese CHOCOLATE!!!! Lucerne’s local beer – sweet!

Auf Wiedersehen!