Andermatt 14th November 2010

Another grim wet Sunday in Bellinzona was forecast so we hopped on the train to the North side of the Alps and went to Andermatt...again. Its becoming something of a regular stomping ground for a number of reasons but principally, we understand what's being said, everyone is a lot friendlier, it looks nice, the buildings aren't falling apart, it has huge mountains, its easy to get to and its not Ticino...We had been here the week before, this time there was a lot more snow, even some of the ski runs were open.......

Bob sleigh practice run

Practice bob sleigh. Where's the brake?

Machineery waiting for the snow to arrive.

Andermatt. Looking West.

Start of the new development.





This would be mountain bike heaven

Retaining wall and Meike

Skiing on the Gemstock

Some nice snow to walk in :-)

Avalanche barrier. Would make a good bivy

Oberalppass. Looking South

Andermatt from 1800m

Meike in the sunshine

Andermatt and the Gemstock beyond

Waiting for the Glacier express at Natchen





The Schöllenenschluch gorge, across which, legend has it that a bridge (the one on the left) could only be built with the aid of the devil. Hence the mural at the mouth of the tunnel.
The newer bridge must have taken some head scrathing too.



This isn't in the guide books......
Its the Suworow memorial to Russian soldiers who died in battle against the French in 1799 in the Schöllenenschluch gorge.
In the interest of neutrality, there is also a plaque remembering the loss of French life at the same site. 

Amazingly, this is carved out of the rock and constructed by the Russians during the Soviet era, hence the distinct appearance.
You can only imagine the joy the stone masons felt when they were told they were going on a jolly to Switzerland. Only to matched by the disapointment of the cost of vodka.

The memorial is actually Russian territory

Walking down the old coach road.

The "new" coachroad, this is so much fun on a motorbike.

Looking back up the vally towards Andermatt. Looking South. Note the "galleria" to keep the mountain off the road.

Haderslisbrucke has an intersting history. Brief synopsis....
Built 1649. Washed away after 338 years by flooding 1987. Rebuilt by trade apprentices in 1991.
The flow of the water is controlled at the head of the valley by a barrage and is only in spate during the spring.

Meike on the Haderlisbrucke.

Picture of the reconstruction of the bridge.... from the information board, I wasn't there.
I bet they didn't use glulam beams as formers in 1649.
I wonder what they did use?





Chocolate, Watches and Logs

Switzerland, to the uniniated, means chocolate, watches and trains etc.....

There was a lot of talk a few weeks about the Lugano Chocolate Festival.

There were posters on the side of the road, adverts in the papers, it was an exciting (ish) topic of conversation at work. 

So, last Saturday we thought we'd do the tourist thing and check it out because a festival of swiss chocolate just has to be very exciting.............

 The Swiss Chocolate Festival. All of it.
 It displayed all the same chocolate you buy in the convenience (and warmth) of a supermarket but at twice the price.
We did however buy some chocolate. It was very nice and came from Belgium.

Lugano is quite a nice shopping town as it has shops that open all day with marginally helpful and friendly staff  (by Ticino standards) and generally has a good vibe about it. There is also a huge amount of money......



.....the shop name should be in inverted commas as it's exactly what you say when you see the price of some of their goods...



"CHRIST"

Switzerland is also renowned for its engineering prowess and quite rightly too.

It's something they are very very good at. 

Often the simplest solution is the best but sometimes....

Simple = Scary

An expertly engineered log.
Lets hope there's no service ducts underneath it.
We avoid walking anywhere near this building but the locals seem oblivious to its potential imminent collpase.

Shoes

On a recent trip to Zurich I happened across a shoe shop. Nothing unusual in shoe shops, they have them in the UK too. There is however one staggering difference..... the price tag.



These tasteful winkle pickers could be yours for as little as £415




 

Or, you could part with £490 and be the owner of these horrors.







But the piece de resistance has to be these.
These will set you back a little shy of £1000 and can be accessorised with a matching belt from the skin of the same reptile. Nice.





SNOW !

Last weekend we had some more snow in Swissland.  On Saturday, it looked stunningly beautiful:

Shame, then, that on Saturdays we need to do the weekly shopping, as shops close too early in the evenings to shop properly after work, and shops are closed on Sundays.  We knew the forecast for Sunday was rain, but what can you do... Oh how I miss Britain where you can put off the shopping for the rainy day !

So having done the boring life-admin (shopping, laundry, cleaning the flat, ironing, etc...) on Saturday, we ignored the rain on Sunday and went for a hill-adventure in Andermatt.  This is what it looked like:

There seems to be a bear theme in Andermatt, they're on walls, roofs, bridges in the street and one on a GPz...Maybe he's a dispatch rider.




This snow's rubbish....its brown

 

Andermatt (1920m) is in for a shock as it is being developed by an Egyptian company. Building work has already started in the town centre and by the railway station. More info on the development can be found...HERE

The descent off the Overalppass looks fun.

Looking West towards Realp

A break in the clouds

 

No footprints of other people, just those of Yak. Yes really.

Yak?

Snow on Bench.
The metal and timber post behind the bench is an enormous crucifix, which doubles as a handy lightning conductor. Not a bench to sit on in a thunderstorm then...

I like snow :-)

  

Last time we were here there was a meter of snow and we tried something called skiing.
A novel pastime envolving a dangerous cocktail of speed, gravity, beer and the inability to stop.

Wolf tracks? Maybe. What ever it was had a huge gait on it.
Apparently there are over 200 wolves in Switzerland and now a number of bears.

Back below the tree line some good stump art (right)

Perfect timing to get off the hills as the weather closed in pretty quickly.

Fried apple, a coffee and a train ride home.

Cologne

Ok, so Cologne was great fun, but the weather was dull and grey, so we concentrated on spending time in our favourite outdoor shop (Globetrotter) and, of course, at the wedding.
Hence not really any interesting pics to share.

However, we did manage to go into the DOM (Cathedral), and were quite surprised by the very modern stained glass window:



No, not my camera playing up, it really DOES look like a test picture on TV !

 I also thought this - what is it ?  An angel? A gargoyle ? ... well, this THING was rather bizarre:

So back outside, in the REAL world: