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Last Updated: 03. Mai 2000
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Switzerland
Bern and The Alps
Basel
Bern
The Lauterbrunner Valley
Basel
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Our first stop in Switzerland was in Basel. Actually, it was at the Swiss border, to purchase an Autobahn pass for the year and also to get our Passports stamped. It was not necessary to stamp the passports but because we are crazy American tourists, we requested it. The northwest section of Switzerland speaks German and I was surprised by my ability to request a campsite in German. Also, I discovered why the Swiss cars are marked with the letters "CH". The official name for Switzerland is Confoederatio Helvetica. I knew that Swiss designers created the Sans Serif fonts, so hence the name, Helvetica, has Swiss origins. But where does the name Helvetica come from? It came from a tribe of Celtic people who were conquered by Julius Caesar in 58 BC. The Celtic tribe's name was Helvetii.
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Bern
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The next day we visited the Kunstmuseum, the Barengarben, and walked around the city of Bern to see the architecture of the city. At the Kunstmuseum, the number of Paul Klee paintings that the Kunstmuseum owned surprised me. Paul Klee is a Swiss-German artist and his foundation donated its collection of his work to the museum. At the Philadelphia Art Museum, I was able to see many Klee paintings but none of his etchings or drawings, so visiting the Kunstmuseum was a real treat. Paul Klee is really a wonderful draftsman. His etchings have a lovely linear quality - so squiggly and scratchy - a printmaker's delight! I was amazed at how much he influenced my undergraduate studies. It was a wonderful experience and a wonderful time to share my love and knowledge of printmaking with both Chris and Erika. Erika was fascinated with the explanations about etchings and lithographs. In fact, she wanted to send art postcards to her friends.
In addition to Paul Klee work, we saw a few Kathe Kollowitz's lithographs and woodcuts. Kollowitz worked immediately after World War I. The experience of World War I filled people with deep anguish but it created an even deeper anguish in Kathe Kollowitz's soul - because she lost her oldest son during the war. This experience made her an ardent pacifist. She devoted herself to themes of inhumanity and injustice. For this reason, Kollowitz was popular during the anti-war movement during the 1960's. Her woodcuts are intensely expressive and naturalistic - at times delicate and other times stark and strong. There is so much more detail in a print when you actually view the real piece rather than a reproduction of the print in an art history book. In the "real" print, it's possible to see the intricate texture of the wood or the plate. There is even a street in Kaiserslautern that is named after Kathe Kollowitz!
Max Pechstein was represented by a series of woodcuts for a book on the prayer, Our Father. It was fun translating the prayer from German to English and also looking at the pictures with Erika. We just started teaching her the prayer, so it was very appropriate.
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After the museum, we walked along the Aare River to the Barengarben. The Barengarben is a deep circular den in the center of town, where the bears have been kept since 1480. The bear is the heraldic animal of Bern and there are many images of bears used throughout the city, including the canton's coat of arms and "growling bear" trash cans. According to an old legend, Berchtold V of Zahringen, the founder of the city, named the city after the first animal killed during a hunt. It was a bear, hence the name, "Bern". To honor the bear, the city created a bear pit in the center of town. Residents of the city love to come to visit the bears and to feed them. So we purchase some figs and feed some very hungry bears. The bears were very amusing and they even begged by sitting and motioning with their front paws. After a stroll through the city, we stayed at a campground near the Aare River.
Close to the campground, there is a tierpark (or zoo). During dinner and through the night, we heard many animal sounds, even the bears growling! After a dry and successful morning of home schooling, we visited the zoo. First the petting zoo and then the main zoo. We feed the goats that were hungry and the oldest goat was truly a bully goat! Then we saw some wild cats that reminded us of Casey and also some very silly penguins. I now know why Richard and Florence Atwater wrote Mr. Popper's Penguins. We saw some shy brown bears as well as frisky wolves and playful deer. Since it was autumn, the animals were running and frolicking with each other.
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The Lauterbrunner Valley
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After the zoo, we headed down to the Interlaken area. We camped near the town of Lauterbrunner. We stayed at a campsite across from the Staubbach Falls. These famous and magnificent falls have inspired many artists and writers including Goethe and Schubert. The falls plunge down from an overhanging crag with a sheer drop of about 1000 feet. In the evening there is a floodlight that illuminates this cliff. The falls create an eerie feeling but it is also very stunning. The shadow of the falls look like smoke and it is very poetic. It moves the creative spirit to paint or draw in order to re-create the experience for others. Painting, drawing, or writing is the only way to re-create the experience because film or videotape will not be able to capture the subtle colors and effects. On the last evening, Chris and I were viewing the falls together as a fog creeped over the valley. The fog, the waterfall, and the floodlight created a subtle rainbow along the path of the waterfall. Unfortunately, it was so subtle; Chris was not able to see it. Of course, he started to tease me about my ability to see things or colors that most "normal" people cannot. My closest friends will probably remember my uncanny but natural ability to match colors. The rods and cones in my eyes are more tuned to the nuances of colors than the average person. So I will have to paint or draw a picture, so all my friends can see the amazing beauty of these falls.
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On our first day (Tuesday), the clouds decided to move away and we saw the sun, the blue sky, and the mountains. We postponed home schooling and climbed the mountains to Schilthorn via cable car. We are glad that we decided to go that day, because it rained the rest of the week. The cableway for this cable car is 22859 feet long and ascends 6900 feet in 40 minutes. There is a revolving restaurant with an observation deck on the top. After throwing a few snowballs, we had lunch in the revolving restaurant while waiting for the clouds to move away. This revolving restaurant was popularized by the James Bond movie, "In Her Majesty's Service". Unfortunately, the clouds did move but it resulted in a cloudier view. On the cable car ride down to the valley, we decided to walk from Murren to Gimmelwald because it was sunny and pleasant in the valley.
On Thursday, we visited the Swiss Open Air Museum. We saw a demonstration of blacksmithing and pottery. When I attended art school, I was required to take some basic sculpture class and also some craft classes. I discovered that I was not an artist who could create or even conceptualize three-dimensional work but I was exposed to the techniques of welding, metal work, and pottery. My exposure to sculpture was kind of like taking some basic biology or chemistry course for a nursing degree. Because of this background, I was able to explain how these craft people work. The "English" explanation made this experience much more interesting to Erika, so we had a successful "field trip".
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Also, on Thursday (since it was last day), we decided to hike to Staubbach Falls. Unfortunately, it was still raining, so we started our hike and, of course, we got wet. It's possible to walk under the falls because the path cuts into the mountain. We were in one of the little covered tunnels when the wind changed direction, So, at first we thought it really started to pour until we realized that it was the falls coming down around us. We were protected but "trapped" in the little covered tunnel. We did not know how long the falls would continue to track in our direction, so we decided to quickly run through the falls. Quickly, of course, is impossible with a six-year-old. So we got soaked! Some of our clothes were still wet on Saturday. Needless to say, we will remember those falls! After a wonderful cheese fondue dinner, we snuggled into bed for our last night of camping in the Swiss Alps.
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Die Fotogalerie von die Schweiz
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See you all later.
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