BERNER OBERLAND

KLEE AND THE ALPS - OCTOBER 2006

My first time in Bern was in 1975, just married! Don't know whether this had any influence, but I think the Bernese Oberland is surely one of the most wonderful regions of Switzerland, which has a lot of them! The snow-capped mountain peaks are stunning and the lush green hills will fascinate anyone around! This time, however, the main reason to visit was a different one!


"WHAT IS THIS? Any idea? Looks a bit weird..."


"THE OTHER SIDE! With a highway just below..."


"CLOSER LOOK"


"FINALLY THERE - The Paul Klee Zentrum is a museum dedicated to Klee, featuring about 40 percent of Klee’s pictorial works. In the summer of 1997, Livia Klee-Meyer, Paul Klee's daughter-in-law, donated her inheritance of almost 690 works to the city of Bern. Together with additional works donated and loaned by the family and the Paul-Klee-Foundation as well as with 200 loans from private collections, it makes the largest collection of Paul Klee's works. The museum, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano and taking the form of three undulations blending into the landscape, was completed in Schöngrün in 2005"


"KLEE - Paul Klee was born from a German father in Münchenbuchsee (near Bern). He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and after travelling to Italy and then back to Bern, settled in Munich, where he met Kandinsky and became associated with Der Blaue Reiter. He died in Muralto, Switzerland, in 1940, at the age of sixty, with at least 8926 works of art created and without having obtained Swiss citizenship. The Swiss authorities accepted his request six days after his death"


"RESTAURANT SCHÖNGRÜN - A wonderful place for a lunch break (fill the wallet or bring the cards...)"


"ROSES!"


"A WONDERFUL MEAL - Amuse-bouche, scallops, amuse-bouche, chocolate dessert..."


"SCULPTURE IN THE PARK, behind the restaurant and close to the parking lot"



"ALPS - «The Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn region is the most glaciated part of the European Alps, containing Europe's largest glacier and a range of classic glacial features, and provides an outstanding record of the geological processes that formed the High Alps.» This is one of the reasons why it has been included in Unesco's World Heritage List. The Eiger (3970 m, the Mönch (4105 m) and the Jungfrau (4158 m) dominate the Bernese Oberland"


"BERN AND THE ALPS - From left to right (hopefully correct): Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn, Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau!"


"SUNSET at Lake Léman (Lake Geneva)"

IN CALVIN'S LAND

OLD TOWN GENEVA - OCTOBER 2006

A 2007 survey found Geneva to have the second-highest quality of living in the world. If it's true, it's excellent!


"RUE CORRATERIE - Swiss and Canton flags along the street. Switzerland and the USA are probably the two countries where national and state flags are more often displayed..."


"CONSERVATORY - The Byzantine-style building located on the Place Neuve was constructed between 1856 and 1858, with two wings added in 1920 to expand its facilities"


"THE GRAND THEATRE was inaugurated in 1879, but on May 1, 1951, was reduced to ashes. Actually, during a rehearsal of Wagner’s Walkyrie, when Brunhilde is encircled by flames, the stage and the rest of the theatre took fire. It took ten years to restore the building"


"THE RATH MUSEUM, built as a gift to the people of Geneva by the two Rath sisters, Jeanne-Françoise and Henriette, was inaugurated in 1826 to be the first Swiss museum devoted to the fine arts"



"POST TENEBRAS LUX - The 100 meters Reformation Wall, backed against part of the ancient defensive walls that surrounded the city until the middle of the 19th century, started to be built in the Bastions Park in 1909, the year which marked the 400th anniversary of the birth of Jean Calvin. It covers 450 years in the history of Protestantism and has, at its centre, the four great figures of the movement: Guillaume Farel, Jean Calvin, Théodore de Bèze and John Knox"


"UNIVERSITY - The second largest university in Switzerland, plays a leading role in diplomatic and international affairs studies, and it is also considered among the top scientific research universities in Europe on planetary science and genetics"


"CALVIN'S COLLEGE was created in 1559. It had a busy schedule: ten hours a day, six days a week was the rhythm imposed by Jean Calvin. Initially a theological seminary, it also taught law. An academy was added later, and Théodore de Bèze became the first rector. The academy became the University of Geneva in 1872. For many years, the Calvin College was the only school building in Geneva"


"ART AND HISTORY MUSEUM - Constructed between 1903 and 1910, it was designed as an encyclopaedic museum to cover the whole of western culture in three main sectors: Archaeology (prehistoric, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman); Fine Arts (paintings from the Renaissance to modern times); and Applied Arts (objects from the Middle Ages to the 20th century). Henry Moore joined later..."


"KINETIC ART - Jean Tinguely (born on May 22, 1925 in Fribourg, and passed away on August 30, 1991 in Bern) was the creator of some astounding sculptural machines in the Dada tradition"


"LEDA AND SWAN - According to Greek mythology, Zeus took the form of a swan and raped or seduced Leda on the same night she slept with her husband, King Tyndareus. Result: Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta..."


"RUSSIAN CHURCH - Consecrated in 1866, after three years of construction, the Church of the Orthodox Russians living in Geneva is a masterpiece in the Byzantine Muscovite style. The financial contribution came from Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna Constancia, sister-in-law of Tsar Alexander 1st and aunt of Queen Victoria and Prince Consort Albert. The superb gilded cupolas were restored in 1966"



"ST. PETER'S CATHEDRAL - The first phase of the cathedral’s construction dates back to the year 1160 and lasted nearly a century. After that, many restorations and reconstructions took place, modifying its original design. Furthermore, with the advent of the Reformation, all interior ornaments were removed and the coloured decors whitewashed, sparing only the stained glass windows"


"CHURCH"


"PLACE BOURG-DE-FOUR - The oldest square in Old Town Geneva was magnificent. 26º degrees Celsius on October 27, 2006 in Geneva... of course there is global warming!!"


"TEUSCHER - The best chocolate champagne truffles you'll ever find and a lot more. A must before saying goodbye!"

BY THE SHORES OF LAKE LEMAN

GENEVA - OCTOBER 2006

Geneva is the seat of the European headquarters of the United Nations and of many other inter-governmental organizations. So, it used to be our destination for many years. In the intervals of the meetings, some time was dedicated to sightseeing...


"LAKE LEMAN - The crescent-shaped Lacus Lemannus of the Romans (Lake Geneva), on the course of the Rhône River, is the second largest freshwater lake in Europe, after the Balaton"


"LAKE LEMAN - Going up the hill?"


"HOTEL LES BERGUES, on the Rhône River and by the Lake, was Geneva’s first hotel when it opened in 1834. It was already a great hotel when I had the chance to stay there sometimes in the nineties; after 2005, as a Four Seasons Hotel, it's surely unbeatable as the place to stay in Geneva!"


"WATER JET - The most famous landmark in Geneva is the jet d'eau at the centre of the marina. This photo was taken from the island that in 1832 was given the name of the great Geneva-born philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Having served as a bastion for the city in the seventeenth century, the Island is now a (small) public garden, just close to the Mont Blanc Bridge"


"RAINBOW COLOURS seen from the English Garden. Originally a security valve for a hydro power generator, the jet d'eau became the symbol of Geneva"


"BEACH - «Bains des Paquis» is the popular downtown beach. The current jet d'eau replaced the former jet created in 1891. The exhaust pipe has been carefully designed so that the water jet is hollow and filled with microscopic drops of water, which ensures it remains opaque and white"


"JET D'EAU - The water fountain reaches a maximum height of 140 meters at a speed of 200 km/h and has been copied by many cities around the world"


"EVENING LIGHT - In 1951 the water fountain was provided with an autonomous pumping station, propelling 500 litres of water per second. At night, strong projectors light the fountain’s jet as it soars up in the sky"


"FLOWER CLOCK - Created in 1955 for the first time, redesigned in 2002 and located between the Mont Blanc Bridge and the Jardin Anglais (English Garden), it's composed of over 6,500 flowers and is one of 50 public clocks across Geneva. A symbol of the Geneva watch industry, the famous flower clock has the largest seconds' hand in the world (more than 2.5 meters long)"


"THE BRONZE FOUNTAIN at the Jardin Anglais was created in 1862 by Alexis André, a Parisian sculptor"



"SCULPTURES - Wooden at the Jardin Anglais, bronze at the Quai Wilson"


"SISSI - Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie (not Rosemarie Magdalena Albach-Retty a.k.a. Romy Schneider), Princess of Bavaria, married Franz Joseph and became Empress of Austria. On September 10, 1898, while walking along the Quai du Mont Blanc before boarding a steamship for Montreux, Sissi, who was then 60 years old, was stabbed in the heart with a needle by an anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. It seems that Lucheni wanted to kill an Orleans prince but could not find him and turned to Elisabeth instead. He reportedly said afterwards: "I wanted to kill a royal; it didn't matter which one!"


"THE BRUNSWICK MONUMENT - Charles II d'Este-Guelph, Duke of Brunswick, lived part of his agitated life in Geneva. When he died there in 1873, he left all his wealth to the city of Geneva in exchange for the construction of a replica of the Scaligeri mausoleum in Verona. The city used the money to create the golden gates of Parc des Bastions and the city's opera, the Grand Theatre, and built the mausoleum in 1877 in the gardens in front of the Richemond and Beau Rivage luxury hotels. It seems that Brunswick once said that, «were not for his enormous wealth, he would already be in an insane asylum». No wonder the mausoleum is so awful!"



"MONT BLANC - At 4,810 m, it's the highest mountain in the Alps and in Western Europe. It's not an easy task to catch it from Geneva, as one needs a very clear day, without any mist on the top. This was the best I could get..."


"OLD TOWN - Mont Blanc Bridge, Cathedral and the hills around town"


"SUNSET towards the Alps"

BACK TO LAKE LEMAN

EVIAN, YVERDON - MAY 2005

Those who have good memory will remember that the posts of the May 2005 trip started in Sugnens, Switzerland, near Lake Leman. After a long journey, we came back to Lake Leman, but on the French side!

EVIAN-LES-BAINS


"EVIAN-LES-BAINS is located on the south bank of Lake Geneva, opposite Switzerland, has 7,500 inhabitants and is built in tiers at the edge of the lake. Evian is an international tourist resort, profiting from spectacular surroundings between lake and mountains"


"CITY HALL - The Villa Lumière dates from the end of the 19th century. Works began in 1885 and the villa was to become the residence of a rich owner, who however died in 1887 while the building was still unfinished. In 1890, it was bought by Antoine Lumière, a portraitist installed in Besancon and father of the inventors of the cinematograph (Louis and Auguste Lumière), to become its summer residence. Since 1927, the Villa Lumière hosts the city hall of Evian-les-Bains"


"EVIAN is also the birthplace of Natural Mineral Water known throughout the world. Bottled at the source, Evian comes from the Cachat Spring located on the Southern shore of Lake Leman. On the right hand side, the building of the Old Spa is now a Congress Centre"

***

YVOIRE


"HOTEL RESTAURANT DU PORT - For half a century Yvoire played an important military role due to its strategic situation, on a point between the «small lake» and the «large», during the war between the Dauphiné and Savoy in the 14th century. Its role earned certain freedoms for its inhabitants in 1324. A later decline made it a village of farmers and fishermen, and now a tourist destination..."


"PORT DE PLAISANCE"


"TOO LATE - The last cruise ship to Geneva is already gone..."