Saturday, April 22, 2017

March for Science (4/22/2017)

Saturday, April 22, 2017
We took the Rapid to downtown Cleveland, except that it was a replacement bus today. It was standing room only, and Kent actually knew another passenger, a former co-worker all the way from Hiram, OH. Most of us were headed to the March for Science, starting in Public Square.
A couple creative signs
The crowd in Public Square
A brain hat
"Future Scientists"
And there they go...
We were there!
A dog marcher
"I'm a Hydrogeologist: Don't take me for granite!"
A young marcher, and
"Disease has no political affiliation"
I hope these marches are not just preaching to the choir...

Friday, April 7, 2017

Paris to Swiss Alps: Zürich II (4/4/2017)

Tuesday, April 4, 2017 (continued)
Our walk took us to the main train station.
Hauptbahnhof/Main Railway Station (1871, designed by
Jakob Friedrich Wanner in Neo-Renaissance style)
Look at that sky! We were planning on taking a train up to Uetliberg and hiking. But clouds covering the hills and sprinkling rain deterred us.
McClean, the railway station restroom
L’ange protecteur/Guardian Angel (1997, by Niki de
Saint Phalle, whose husband was Jean Tinguely) (KSS)
Enormous schedule board in the main railway station
Instead we took the tram back to Zürichhorn Park, and walked in the opposite direction to the one we took yesterday with Bill and Elaine.
A large enclosed playground (we are peeking through the gate)
Sheep Piece (1971-1972, by Henry Moore, donated 1976),
located on a meadow where once sheep grazed;
behind it is the Pyramide Klinik am See,
a private surgical hospital
Klausstud/stone pillar (1812) named for St Nicholas,
patron saint of ship captains and sailors, which
marked the boundary in which citizens were
free to fish; the original stood in the waters of the
lake before land reclamation of about 100m/328'
The stone pillar also marked the point at which pilgrims headed to Einsiedeln Abbey would respect the Protestant city of Zürich by lowering the volume of their prayers and singing.
Makeshift memorial?
Wrought-iron and stained glass balconies,
on Feldeggstrasse
Close-up of the balconies
Took the tram back into the city, and then the Polybahn/funicular up to Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich/Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, alma mater of Albert Einstein, and the Universität Zürich/University of Zürich.
Not quite the view to be seen from Uetliberg, but a view
of the Altstadt/Old City of Zürich
Interesting chimney caps
Main university building (1911-1914, designed
by Karl Moser) was the first high-rise in Zürich
The Polybahn arrives at the upper station
Heading back down, we are ready to
pass the other funicular car
Painted façade of the Schweizer Heimatwerk/
Made in Switzerland shop in Zürich
What a low, flat boat, seen on the Limmat River (KSS)
Oh, that's why! (KSS)
Netta rufina/Red-crested Pochard ducks
A fountain (2003, by Arnold Amsler)
inside the main railway station
The ceiling of the Brasserie Federal
in the main railway station, where we had drinks
Art installation at Escher-Wyss-Platz, on the way back to the hotel;
to acknowledge the industrial history of the area, the brick pillars
seem to mimic different screwdriver heads; and the orange benches?
Our hotel room at the Renaissance Tower Zürich Hotel
It seems every room has an accessible shower
For dinner, we walked up Pfingstweidstrasse to the Migros store, but it was closing. Across the street we found an Italian deli, and shared an "Italy" panino.
Anne-Sophie, a 5m/16' tall chrome steel figure
depicting a student, in the square in front of
the 25 Hours Hotel on Pfingstweidstrasse
Pedestrian bridge over Pfingstweidstrasse
The Renaissance Tower Zürich Hotel on the right
A view from the hotel room down on the
pedestrian bridge and a children's soccer field
taken over by grown men
Just to show how the men dwarf the soccer goal!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017
After breakfast at the hotel, Viking transferred us to the Zürich airport where we began our journey home, through Amsterdam, Detroit, and finally Cleveland!
As you can see, we never reached the Swiss Alps. Viking needs to come up with a different name for this cruise. One could get to the Swiss Alps either through an optional tour from Basel, or a land extension. However, Kent and I practically met in the Alps (in 1983)!

Friday, April 7, 2017
Here we are after shoveling snow today!
Das Ende.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Paris to Swiss Alps: Zürich I (4/4/2017)

Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Well, since we were so far from the action, they had motor coaches to take us into the inner city, in four groups leaving 15 minutes apart. We were in the last group to leave at 8:45. We were dropped off near the lakefront, and fortunately for us, our group went immediately to board the lake cruise!
We had to walk past Bürkliplatz, built on reclaimed land
from the lake, with its market
Rebekka-Brunnen (1880 by Heinrich Gebhardt)
depicting the Bible scene where Rebecca gives a
drink of water to the servant of Abraham (KSS)
BMW C1 covered motor scooter (KSS)
Ganymede (1952 by Hermann Hubacher),
depicting the handsome Ganymede as Swiss,
appealing to Zeus (the eagle) to take him to Mount
Olympus, rather than the usual Greek legend where
Zeus turned into an eagle to kidnap Ganymede
to be his lover in Mount Olympus (KSS)
One means of transportation in Switzerland is by a lake boat that travels from town to town along the shores. They are used for commuting and for tourism, and we took the short round trip lasting about an hour and a half. It was hazy to the southeast in the morning sun, but clear looking back at the city.
Leaving the dock at Zürich Bürkliplatz
Guess what? One of the stops was Zürichhorn, which we visited yesterday!
The thatched-roof building of the restaurant Fischstube
was built as part of the Swiss national exhibition 1939
The waterslide, beach, and rotary platform at Zürichhorn
Another nude statue, this one in Zollikon (KSS)
Toro I (1968 by Franz Fischer) in Zollikon
The Swiss flag
What?! Which one is Tina Turner's house?!
Well, I managed to get the trees in front of her house in Küsnacht!
At Ehrlenbach we crossed the lake to head up the other side. The east shore is known as the Gold Coast because a) the wealthy live there, and b) the houses turn golden when the sun sets. The west shore is known as the Silver Coast, because a) the white buildings shimmer in the morning sun, and b) anywhere is expensive in Zürich.
Lounge chairs near the dock in Thalwil
A fancy private boathouse
Stacked apartment buildings in Thalwil
The Lindt and Sprüngli Chocolate Company in Kilchberg
The Silver Coast
Wollishofen and the clock tower (1935-1936) of
the Reformierte Kirche auf der Egg/
Reformed Church "on the corner"
Graffiti
Steamships in the transport company boatyard
Back on land, we crossed over to the other side of Bürkliplatz. The guides spent a good deal of their time explaining how to purchase tram tickets, and how to use them. This would not be the case if the hotel was more conveniently located.
Riesenrad/Ferris Wheel which is here for the
Sechseläuten/Six o'Clock Chimes, the traditional
spring festival celebrated the third Monday of April,
when bells will begin ringing each day
at 6:00 pm to signal the end of the workday
(in winter work ended at sundown)
Sechseläuten is also when they burn the effigy of winter (a giant snowman-like creature), which has his head filled with firecrackers; the faster his head explodes, the nicer summer will be.
We started the walking tour of Zürich, walking down the left bank of the Limmat River.
Schweizerische Nationalbank SNB/
Banque nationale Suisse BNS/
Swiss National Bank (c. 1921)
The Frauenbad/Ladies' Bath (1881-1887) was built by the
city government to give women privacy to bathe
The Ladies' Bath is still used, as a swimming pool for women, and in the summers a few nights a week, it is the Barfussbar/Barefoot Bar open to men and women.
Looking down the Limmat River at the Münsterbrücke/
Cathedral Bridge (1836-1838), and across to the Wasserkirche/
Water Church (1486) on the site where it is said that sibling Saints Felix
and Regula, together with their servant Exuperantius, were
executed by decapitation, only to miraculously pick up their
heads and walk a bit uphill to a place where they wanted to be buried,
where Grossmünster/Great Cathedral (the two tall towers behind
the Water Church) is now located
Stadthaus/Cultural Center (1883-1884 designed by
Arnold Geiser in Neo-Renaissance style, with a
Neo-Gothic façade added in 1898-1900)
It is difficult to translate Stadthaus. A Rathaus is clearly the city hall, and while Stadthaus may literally translate as city hall, it is usually where meetings, receptions, exhibitions, and weddings take place, but may also house the offices of some city departments.
Grossmünster/Great Cathedral (1100-1220
as a monastery church), where legend states it was
founded by Charlemagne when his horse fell
over the tombs of Saints Felix and Regula
Also across the Limmat River are, left to right,
the Rathaus/City Hall, and a row of guild houses
a

Statue of Hans Waldmann (1937, by Hermann Haller);
Waldmann was a military leader and later was a
powerful and wealthy mayor of Zürich, known
for his aristocratic excesses so that when he tried
to impose higher taxes on the peasants, they
revolted and had him beheaded
So why a statue of Hans Waldmann? The Zunft zum Kämbel/Kämbel Guild, the guild of wine merchants and later other food dealers, wanted to rehabilitate the former mayor, who was also once a guild master of this guild!
Zunfthaus zur Meisen (1752-1757), the guild house of innkeepers and vintners
Fraumünster/Ladies Cathedral (dating to 853 CE)
was built as part of a Benedictine abbey
Since we had been to Zürich in 2013, we parted from the tour group and went off on our own. The main reason was that we wanted to see the Marc Chagall stained glass windows in Fraumünster. There was a 5 Swiss franc fee for each of us. No photos allowed.
Three Chagall windows (from The Lady Travels)
Marc Chagall created five windows (completed in 1970) in the choir, and a rose window (1978), when he was in his eighties! Augusto Giacometti created a large colorful stained glass window (1920s, installed in 1945) in the transept.
The founding legend of Fraumünster relates that the princesses Hildegard and Bertha followed a stag sent by God. The stag had burning lights in its antlers, and he led the sisters from their father's castle to the place where they had the Fraumünster built. They were the first abbesses of the convent, and lie in a niche in the church, under a mural depicting the legend.
Münsterhof/Cathedral Court, with more guild houses (KSS)
Old? New? Both? (on a 1647 building,
now the flagship shop of Confiserie Teuscher) (KSS)
Confiserie/Confectionery Teuscher window
Confiserie Teuscher interior, a wonderland
for chocolate afficionados (KSS)
Interestingly, Teuscher makes the Basel Läckerli/spice biscuits!
Time for lunch!
Zeughauskeller/Arsenal Cellar (1487 as the armory) where now the
weapons serve only as decorations
Everyone sat at communal tables. we sat
with two Swiss ladies and the teenage
daughter of our waiter
We had the local specialty of Kalbsgeschnetzeltes nach Zürcher Art/Zürich-style sliced veal in a mushroom cream sauce with Rösti, and a seasonal specialty of Hausgemachte Kartoffel Gnocchi mit grünen Spargeln/Homemade potato gnocchi with green asparagus, in a tomato and white wine sauce with Parmesan. Oh, so good!
We resumed our walk.
Juno-Brunnen/Juno Fountain (1872, with a replica
statue of Juno, the original is in a museum)
Peterhof (c. 1914 by the Pfister Brothers in
Neo-Gothic style for a department store)
Peterhof portal
A Toblerone bicycle! (KSS)
Augustinerkirche/Augustinian Church (1959
reconstructed to 1270 plans), a rare Catholic church
Florist girls on a break at the Münzplatzbrunnen/Coin
Square Fountain (1761) with a Statue of Temperance
Swiss flags on Augustinergasse/Augustinian Lane
Easter egg tree (KSS)
Amazonenbrunnen/Amazon Fountain/ (1430,
one of the first public fountains)
Stepped alley
A carved owl in the building corner
in Glockengasse/Bells Lane (KSS)
The former Conditorei zur Glocke/Confectionary of
the Bell  with 1925 Art Deco façade
on 1881 Neo-Renaissance building
Baker on the confectionery wall (KSS)
Painted façade of Zur Grossen Reblaube/The Big Grape Arbor (1260)
Another painted façade on Renn Weg,
which was the main street of the medieval town
Renn Weg with canton flags
Franz Carl Weber toy store façade on Renn Weg
Okay, there were so many, we had to take one photo of a Starbucks
Another one of 1,200 fountains in Zürich;
Herkulesbrunnen/Hercules Fountain (1732)
Wallace-Brunnen/Wallace Fountain, one of the
public fountains financed by Englishman
Richard Wallace, initially in Paris
This Wallace Fountain was used to open the 1982 World Convention of Water Experts in Zürich.
Pestalozzianlage/Pestalozzi Park with a statue
(1899 by Hugo Siegwart) of Johann Heinrich
Pestalozzi, a Swiss education specialist concerned
with a holistic child-centered approach to education
Now to the train station.

Next: Zurich II.