SUNGRL

We have been very privileged to be staying with our friends Karin & Elvis in their home in Switzerland. They have been tour guides extraordinaire, great cooks and great company. We have had a great time with a little mix of everything from going up mountains, walking around lakes, going to football matches and just chilling at home.

It has also been nice doing some domestic things – Karin & Elvis have built a house so there are always lots of bits and pieces to do so Saturday we helped water blast the pool and mow the lawns. Karin & I ventured to the river and collected river stones for the garden. They both work elsewhere during the week so they went back to work on Monday so we were left to our own devices – I felt like a right domestic goddess this morning making rissoles for our dinner, organising breakfast and then making a picnic lunch. The simple things in life. Also being able to watch the French Open live is a bonus – no middle of the night viewing. Loved our day that we had there last week – so cool!

Yesterday we drove to Schwanden where Karin teaches at the high school – about 1.5 hours from here. She has invited us to attend her English class where the kids are studying NZ – how fortuitous! One of her students – Andre – had written us a letter last week to invite us. Anyway they are looking at the tourist spots in Rotorua so we have to join in the group work so they can practice their English. For those of you who have ever received a text or email from Steve you will know that English is not his strong point – who knows what they may learn!

The kids in Karin’s class range from 13 to 15 – they were all very polite coming up, shaking our hands and introducing themselves. We had to introduce ourselves to the class and remember to speak slowly so they could understand us.

We then played a game where they have these words on a card and you have to say what the other tense is, eg took and taken. I got the first few wrong – how embarrassing! Once you had 5 right you moved onto someone else – the objective for them is to collect as many cards as possible. It’s back to the drawing board if you run out of cards.

They then had the exercise to do about Rotorua – they had to read a travel writers blog and then answer some questions about what they had read. They did this in groups so Steve & I joined different groups – I stuck with my group but Mr Social was flitting from group to group.

We then had question time – the kids had prepared some questions prior to class. The first question was – do we know any NZ tongue twisters? We couldn’t think of any on the spot so moved on to question two – do you have a relationship! She was meaning are we in a relationship – we had to smile.

Steve had mentioned he played table tennis so the kids were all keen to take him on – some of them had their own bats because there are two tables at the school. Once the class had finished we went down to play – Steve had them all lining up to play while some of the others were playing a type of roulette handball which I joined in. It was great fun.

The kids then had another class as did Karin so we walked back to her parent’s place to catch up with them which was nice before Karin returned.

We drove back to Buochs over the Klausen Pass which gets up to 1,900 metres. There were some great views and still a bit of snow higher up. Some of the houses are built with a hill behind them so when an avalanche hits it just flows over them. We stopped off at this waterfall which was lovely. We then stopped in Altdorf which is in the canton of Uri (one of the first cantons in Switzerland and where Karin’s dad is from) to see the William Tell monument.

William Tell is known throughout the world. He’s the man who in Altdorf, under duress from the Habsburg Vogt Gessler, shot an apple from his son’s head with a crossbow and, with the second arrow, killed Gessler in the Hohle Gasse. But did WilliamTell really exist?

The answer is that there are no historically proven sources confirming his existence. Tell is a mythical figure, a freedom fighter and tyrant killer who is said to have lived in the 13th and 14th century. Tell-like figures also existed elsewhere. The legend of the apple-shot and tyrant murder first appeared in Denmark in the 13th century. Similar stories are well known in England too. The fearless, courageous man of the mountains achieved world wide fame as the eponymous figure in Friedrich Schiller’s 1804 drama “William Tell”. Since the end of the 19th century William Tell has been recognised as Switzerland’s national hero.

Today we went up the Stanserhorn Mountain – it is 1,898 metres high. Firstly we took a funicular and then an open top cable car. It was a fantastic morning and the views all around were great. We had breakfast up there at the revolving restaurant. The open top cable car or Cabrio was amazing and the ride was quite exhilarating especially when it went over the four pylons that house the structure that powers it up and down the mountain.

The Stanserhorn mountain is located in the canton of Nidwalden close to the border with Obwalden, at 1898 meters above sea level.

In 1893 a funicular railway was built to transport people from the base of the mountain to the summit, with the upper section being replaced in the 1970s by a cable car. From the top, one can view as far as Alsace, France and The Black Forest in Germany.

In 2001, a revolving restaurant was built on the top.

On 29 June 2012, a new cable car CabriO was opened to the public, with a capacity of 60 persons in each of the two cars. Unusually, it has a double decker arrangement, and is claimed to be the first in the world with an open-air upper deck, which has standing room for 30 persons.

We had a good walk around after breakfast and then did a walk around taking in all the views. During the ride up and while you are on the top you have a great view to Mt Pilatus. Mt Pilatus is well known with the tourists that visit Switzerland – it has great views over Lucerne.

We also visited the Marmots. Marmots are large squirrels who mostly live in mountainous areas. Marmots typically live in burrows and hibernate there through the winter. Most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed. Marmots mainly eat greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots, and flowers.

After visiting the Stanserhorn we went down to Stans which is the capital of Nidwalden and visited the Catholic Church. It was originally built between 1641 and 1647. Elvis is a fountain of knowledge in many areas so it is like having your own private tour guide. He pointed out the things that you will always find in a Catholic Church – statues of Peter, Paul, Joseph & Mary and pictures of the 12 steps from when Jesus was condemned until he was taken down off the cross.

They also had a statue of Saint Nicholas who is considered the Saint of Switzerland. He played an important role in bringing together the three original canton’s in Switzerland with four other cantons in 1481. The three original cantons were Uri, Suisse and Nidwalden – these were rural cantons and the cantons wanting to join were city cantons so there were a few differences of opinion.

Outside the church there was a statue of Arnold von Winkelried. Arnold von Winkelried or Arnold Winkelried is a legendary hero of Swiss history. According to 16th century Swiss historiography, Winkelried’s sacrifice brought about the victory of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Battle of Sempach (1386) against the army of the Habsburg Duke Leopold III of Austria.

According to legend, the Swiss initially could not break the close ranks of the Habsburg pikemen. Winkelried cried: “I will open a passage into the line; protect, dear countrymen and confederates, my wife and children…” He then threw himself upon the Austrian pikes, taking some of them down with his body. This broke up the Austrian front, and made an opening through which the Swiss could attack.

We then walked up to the college that Elvis went to – this college was run by the Monks until 1987 when the canton took over it’s running and administration.

Karin & Elvis had planned a surprise for us on Friday night. We had an early dinner and had to leave for the train station by 6.45pm. We got off the train and saw all these people in Swiss hats, scarves etc… so thought we must be going to some sort of sport’s event. When we got closer to the stadium they told us we were going to see the Swiss Football team play Jamaica in a friendly match as part of the Swiss teams build up for the World Cup being held in South America from mid June.

The stadium holds 16,800 and there were 15,000 spectators for the game. We had these great seats 3 rows from the front and just along from the players and managers area. At half time we had to sample the Swiss sausages – I am not a sausage fan but I love Swiss sausages and mustard! I also had a Kaffe Fertig which is coffee with schnapps – another Swiss tradition when attending a football match.

Switzerland won the game 1 nil so the crowd was happy. Switzerland is ranked number 8 in the world and Jamaica is ranked number 82 in the world. A fun night had by all and an unexpected bonus on our trip to Switzerland. We even managed to get on the big screen – I took a photo of us up on the big screen – a new form of selfie – taking a photo of yourself taking a photo while on the big screen!

The weather forecast for the Lucerne area wasn’t very good so we decided to head south to the canton of Ticino which is in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. We went over the Gotthard Pass which was covered in snow and very low cloud. The Gotthard Pass connects the northern German speaking part of Switzerland with the southern Italian speaking part, along the route to Milan in Italy.

The pass played a significant part in Swiss history back in the 12th and 13th centuries when structures were being built to get across this pass and take control of the various areas surrounding the pass. There were various bridges built over the years but the terrain and conditions that these men were subject to made it quite difficult – one of the bridges crossing the River Reuss was named The Devil’s Bridge.

The legend of this particular bridge states that the Reuss was so difficult to ford that a Swiss herdsman wished the devil would make a bridge. The Devil appeared, but required that the soul of the first to cross would be given to him. The mountaineer agreed, but drove a goat across ahead of him, fooling his adversary. Angered by this sham, the devil fetched a rock with the intention of smashing the bridge, but an old woman drew a cross on the rock so the devil couldn’t lift it anymore. The rock is still there and, in 1977, 300,000 Swiss francs were spent to move the 220 ton rock by 127 m in order to make room for the new Gotthard road tunnel.

We stopped at the Devils’ Bridge to have a look – it was about 6 degrees with minimal visibility. As we came over the pass onto the other side blue sky and sunshine started appearing and the temperature rose markedly reaching 28 degrees after lunch.

We stopped at Bellinzona which is the capital of Ticino. We had a picnic lunch up on the castle.

We then headed south to Melide in Lugano which is also in the canton of Ticino to visit the Swissminiatur. Swiss Miniature is Switzerland on a smaller scale. There are 130 models of houses, castles and monuments in the open air, distributed throughout the 14,000 square meter park. The models have been recreated authentically – with great attention to detail – and are surrounded by thousands of plants and flowers.

The Swiss Miniature in Melide, which was opened in 1959, is the only miniature park in Switzerland. The detailed and authentic models include well-known sites such as the Heidi Village in Maienfeld, the castles of Burgdorf and Chillon, the Federal Parliament in Bern, and the Cathedral of Milan, the only model that can also be viewed from inside. Eighteen model trains travel between the buildings on approximately 3.5 kilometers of tracks. There are also operating rack-railways, cable cars, suspension railways and ships. Swiss Miniature is also a visual delight, since its models are surrounded by 15,000 flower species and over 1,500 trees.

It was really enjoyable and good to see some of the places that we had visited previously. Of course Karin & I had to take a ride on the miniature train : )

We then headed north again but this time we took the St. Gotthard Tunnel. The St. Gotthard Tunnel runs from Göschenen in the Canton of Uri at its northern portal, to Airolo in Ticino to the south, and is 16.942 kilometres (10.527 mi) in length below the St. Gotthard Pass. It is the third-longest road tunnel in the world after Norway’s Lærdal Tunnel (24.5 km), and China’s Zhongnanshan Tunnel (18 km).

In response to the automobile boom in Switzerland and the popularity of Italy as a travel resort, the Swiss government gave approval in July 1969 for the construction of the 16-kilometre Gotthard Road tunnel. The tunnel would be longer than any existing road tunnel, and would provide year-round road link between central Switzerland and Milan to be used in place of the Gotthard Pass.

The now widely used motorway tunnel was opened on September 5, 1980. It remains a single bore tunnel with just one lane operating in each direction. It has four large ventilation shafts and an additional side gallery between 10 and 18 metres from the main tunnel, having its own independent ventilation system in order to facilitate the cutting of a second tunnel, should future traffic levels require it.