October 17, 2008 - April 3, 2012
WE'VE MOVED
TO CAMBODIA!

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~ Jeanie and
Robert
boarded the
7:10
train to
Milan, and
then on to Zurich. It was a fine, clear morning,
a great day for a train trip!
If you
have
not experienced train travel in Europe,
you must understand that while the rest of western Europe has
beautiful, shiny, clean trains, Italy chooses to continue to roll out
their 1940's-era-looking battered trains. But we got a great
deal on our tickets ~ 169 euros (about
$200)
for 2 round trip tickets to Zurich.
So no problem; let's go!
Along the
way to Zurich our train stopped at Lake Como, just south of the Swiss
border. Apparently this area is so
exclusive and expensive because Gearge Clooney ownes a place on the lake
somewhere. We
didn't see George at the train
station, so we cannot substantiate Lake Como's
supposed claim to fame. But it was a gorgeous sunny
day, so it sure looked like a lovely area.
Leaving
Italy, we began to see a very
distinct
change in climate and landscape,
as we left the dry & brown fields
and low hills of
Italy and
ascended
into the lush
green mountain passes of Switzerland.
There were
also dozens
of tunnels through the mountains, and every time we emerged from a tunnel,
the hillsides seemed greener and the mountain
peaks more stunningly beautiful.
The
trip took us 9 hours on the train, and we arrived in Zurich at 4:30pm,
where we changed trains again for a 20-minute ride to the city of
Winterthur, just northeast of Zurich. In Winterthur we
were met at the station by Kirkor Kurtcuoglu, a friend of Robert's from
their college days as engineering students at Ole' Miss. Kirkor
drove us to his home in a
quiet area of Winterthur,
where they have lived for more than
30
years. They bought half of this beautiful building, and they rent
out apartments on the top and bottom floors, and
they reside on the middle two floors. At the back of the house Kirkor
keeps a
garden, with apple and pear trees, grapes, blackberries & raspberries,
tomatoes, zucchini, and other assorted goodies. The fruit was all
perfectly
ripe,
and we especially enjoyed the crisp ripe pears right off the tree.
Yum!
They also have a kiwi vine that grows up the north side of the house.
They harvest the kiwis in
November,
and store
them in the basement, where they maintain their
freshness all winter long! So cool! Across the street from
their front door is a beautiful old fountain that flows continuously from
a spring. We actually
saw these fountains all
over Switzerland. It's as if they are saying, "we have
so much good fresh water we can't keep
it from bubbling up along every street!" Also near Kirkor's
home
is
a rose garden, which
we noticed while we were out walking the following
afternoon. We also noticed a unique BMW scooter parked downtown,
complete with it's
own roof!
But
we're getting ahead of ourselves. On
Wednesday morning, Kirkor & his
adorable wife Ursula decided to show us one of their favorite areas of
Switzerland: the Gotthard Pass. So we piled into
their van and rode south to the town of Wassen,
where we turned
west
and headed
into
the mountains. We made several stops along the way, to see Lake Guk (Guk
means "lake" in German, or so I'm told), and several small waterfalls
along the road on the way
up Gotthard Pass. Ursula had told us that the summer had been
very
cool and rainy, which made this weather of clear blue skies seem even more rare and
wonderful.
It seemed that everywhere we
looked were beautiful mountains, rivers, trails, and people. Jeanie
sounded as
excited
as a schoolgirl
on a field trip. Another thing we really appreciated was that our hosts
seemed to enjoy the experience as much as we did. And they
had
done this tour a few times
before …. There were mountain streams flowing between the rocks around
every turn, and Robert taste-tested the water a few times to confirm that
it was snow melt.

As noon approached, we topped the first pass, Sustenpass,
at 2200
meters. We stopped here for a picnic Ursula had prepared among
boulders, grass and a pond of
water. As if on cue, as we began our lunch a local man on a nearby hill
began blowing on an alphorn, like in the “Ricola” commercials. We kidded
with Kirkor that he had set that up for our enjoyment
exceptionally
well.
After lunch we continued our drive, and Robert kept
thinking, why haven’t the
Swiss taken advantage of all this water power potential … and suddenly
there it was, an enormous three-level
hydro
facility way up in the mountains! We got out and explored
the Grimsel
Dam,
and then drove on above it. As we crossed near the next dam, we
noticed
there was a large stone island with a road connecting to it, and a hotel
and
restaurant right in the middle! There were actually several hotels
and restaurants at the top of Grimselpass,
as
it was a very popular stopping point for the
hundreds
of motorcyclists who come here to enjoy the
winding mountain roads and scenery. We stopped at a little
place for tea and hot apple
cider, or
“appelpunch”,
and
although the sun was still warming us, a cool wind was beginning to cool things down, too.
We then continued down the pass toward the town of
Andermatt. We reached a bridge which is famous as the point where the
Russians stopped Napoleon’s French
army in 1799.
Thousands
were killed in this bloody battle, and there is a Russian memorial built
into the stone.
The remains
of the old
“Devil’s Bridge” (Teufel’s Brucke) are still there, next to the waterfall,
below the newer bridge. By now the sun had set behind
the hills, and the
temperature dropped from the 60’s into the 40’s. We decided this might be
a good place to stop for dinner,
and we met the man who manages the restaurant. Indeed, he rents the
building
for six months every summer, does all the cooking and cleaning by himself
(he has
one helper on busy summer evenings), and then in November he
travels to Thailand and works for six months in a golf resort! Well, the
food was OK, but the real beauty of it was when the manager offered the
keys for us to tour the inside, the “belly”
of the newer
arched bridge. So
after dinner we unlocked the gate, flipped on the lights,
and
explored the infrastructure of the new Teufel’s Brucke. Robert and
Kirkor got on their hands and knees and
crawled through the narrow center of the arch to the other side… fun for
two engineers!
The next morning Jeanie’s place at the breakfast
table
was
decorated with presents and cards … a birthday to celebrate… #40!
That day we went off to see Rheinfall, a waterfall near the German
border. It was beautiful and clean, spectacular for being such a heavily
used
waterway. Industries along the Rhein have done a lot of work to clean the
river, and the result is spectacular.
And even
today, they take a side stream and run water through hydro generators.
There are also ferries that take tourists from the viewing area to the
rock outcropping in the center
of the waterfall, to get that full
"misty" experience. We enjoyed seeing the old
waterwheel,
the delicate tropical foliage, and even a watergate! (Now I know
where
that word
comes from.) The statistics of the falls
are there (in six different
languages!) to impress you … if you’re interested.
Next we’re off to the lovely old city of Stein am Rhein,
celebrating it’s
1000th year. Most of the
buildings
along the main
promenade here date back to the 14th and 15th centuries, and many are
decorated with intricate and
elaborate
paintings. We tried to
capture some of the art work painted on many of the buildings, but the
lighting just didn’t allow it.
~ Robert &
Jeanie
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