During our visit to Switzerland, I took several series of photos for later merging into high resolution panoramas. This evening I completed the post processing and have posted my favorites here. The only way to appreciate these is by clicking on the images and then zooming in and scrolling about. Normally, I crop the final results into rectangles but left the raw borders of the one below unmodified since it followed the lines of the glacier so nicely.
Today will be spent returning home by way of Zurich where I will rendezvous with Jeanine at the airport. I left Friedrichshaffen on the 5:40am ferry bound for Romanshorn and then took a train to Konstanz (Germany to Switzerland to Germany). I checked my big backpack into a locker at the train station and gave myself a couple of hours to tour the city.
Rhine Falls is on the way to Zurich and my next destination. About twenty minutes and two trains into that journey I realized that I had left my large backpack at the Konstanz train station necessitating some serious backtracking. Even so, I had time to quickly visit the falls which far surpassed my expectations. The volume of water and sound was overwhelming. I continued to the Zurich airport where I reconnected with Jeanine with plenty of time before boarding our flight back to the states.
In addition to bicycles and e-bikes, the show featured an occasional hybrid vehicle of the three and four-wheel variety. It is my prediction that we will see more and more human/electric-powered hybrids like this replacing cars in urban environments. Small footprint, environmentally friendly vehicles are the only real near term solution to urban traffic congestion and I am glad to be part of an industry that will be addressing this global problem.
Pictured here are some of my colleagues attending the Eurobike trade show. Each evening we dined together and it was fun hearing stories about the early days of the company as recounted by the veterans. They reminded me a great deal about the early days of Truevision, the company I co-founded in my twenties.
Superpedestrian is exhibiting at Eurobike 2018, the largest bike show in the world. Our booth is located in the biggest hall of a twelve-hall Messe Friedrichshafen complex which was entirely devoted to electric bikes. This being my first bike show, my main objective was to familiarize myself with the players in the industry and to gather information useful to Superpedestrian. I covered close to 11 miles according to my step counter and tested several e-bikes throughout the course of the day. I took hundreds of photos documenting our competition as well as potential component suppliers.
The Matterhorn has a very unique profile and is regarded by many as one of the most photogenic mountains in the world. I whole heartedly concur and could not be happier with the photos I captured this morning. My first attempt was at 3am from the Fluhalp. When I walked outside, there it was in all its glory, illuminated by starlight. I set up my tripod and triggered a 30s trial exposure. I then adjusted the settings on my camera for the exposure I wanted and tripped the shutter again 180 seconds after the first shot. In that time, the entire mountain became obscured by clouds which rolled up in front of my camera position. I could not have been more disappointed and went back to sleep.
I got up again at 5am and walked down to the lake which was covered in clouds and set up for the shot I had pre-visualized the day before. At 5:30am I was joined by a group of Japanese who were also staying at the Fluhalp. Fog on the lake had lifted but the Matterhorn was still shrouded. I put up my drone and took a picture of the assembled group waiting for the magic to happen. It didn’t and they left for breakfast an hour later.
Thankfully, the clouds began lifting by 7am and by 7:30am the sky was clear and I went crazy, starting with the picture at the top of this post. The light was perfect and there was no wind making for an excellent reflection in the water. Satisfied with my images, I started hiking to the cable car station, stopping for a few more shots along the way.
I arrived back at the hotel where Jeanine was staying just in time to join her for breakfast before we departed Zermatt for Thun. The Thun Castle, pictured below, contains a really engaging museum and offers excellent views of the city from its turrets.
After a quick lunch, Jeanine and I boarded different trains. She will remain in Switzerland for the next four days while I travel to Germany to attend a trade show for work.
The Gornergrat (10,285 ft) is a rocky ridge of the Pennine Alps, overlooking the Gorner Glacier. It offers a commanding view of more than twenty 13,000 feet peaks and can be reached from Zermatt by the Gornergrat rack railway, the highest open-air railway in Europe. The structure pictured above was originally the Gornergrat Infrared Telescope and is now the Kulm Hotel. When we arrived early this morning clouds obscured most of the peaks but we did have a nice view of the glacier.
We returned to Zermatt briefly to prepare for the longest hike of our vacation while runners from around the world prepared for the Zermatt Marathon to be run tomorrow.
The Five Lakes Trail covers nearly 10km and is generally hiked in the downhill direction. We chose the uphill direction which is considerably more work but far less trying on my knees.
Pictured above is the Bergrestaurant Fluhalp alpine restaurant and hotel. I will spend the night here while Jeanine returns to Zermatt. My plan is to photograph the Matterhorn at sunrise from nearby Stellisee Lake if the weather cooperates. Thus far we have yet to catch a glimpse of the iconic mountain which has been shrouded in clouds all day.
Yesterday afternoon we made a first attempt to hike from Grosse Scheidegg to First. When we arrived after a 30 minute bus ride up the switchbacks to the pass, we decided the weather was not a good match to our gear. This morning we made a second attempt only to find ourselves shrouded in clouds and a steady rain. We decided to forge forward on the 6km hike anyway. About an hour in, the clouds began to dissipate and magnificent views of Eiger’s north face came into view. Our time in the Alps has reinforced the notion that mountain weather can change abruptly and dramatically and that you should be prepared for every eventuality.
After descending by cable car back to Grindelwald we collected our bags from the hotel and began the long train ride to Zermatt transferring to a different line in Spiez were I had a few minutes to take the photo below of the Schloss Spiez (Spiez Castle) before the heavens opened up in a major deluge.
When we arrived in Zermatt we made a bee line for our hotel (pictured below) hoping we could get in another hike for the day. It proved to be too late so we settled for a walk through the opulent town and for dinner at a restaurant owned by the descendants of the first man to ever scale the Matterhorn.
The Schilthorn summit stands at 2,970 meters (`10,000 feet) offering a commanding view of the surrounding Bernese Alps including Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. It is the site of Piz Gloria, a revolving restaurant, featured in the 1969 James Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and our destination for this morning.
I shot the self portrait below by using the glass windows of the restaurant as a mirror which reflected the mountains surrounding the summit.
Mürrenbach Falls, according to a sign at the base, claims to be the tallest waterfall in continental Europe by virtue of a recent reclassification of the top section from a cascade to a portion of the falls. I have not been able to substantiate this assertion elsewhere but the falls are most impressive and beautiful in any case. They are located in Stechelberg where we descended from Schilthorn as did the many paragliders which launch from Mürren.
After collecting our bags from our hotel we took a train to Grindelwald where our stay coincided with an evening street festival featuring local food, entertainment and even fireworks in celebration of the 4th of July.
When I die, it is my wish to be cremated and have my ashes scattered in a place of beauty. A visit to the immaculately groomed Lauterbrunnen Cemetery this morning had me considering a change of plans. Each grave is artistically adorned with a micro garden of brilliantly colored flowers. Each marker is distinctively designed and speaks to the loved one who rests there. It is located at the entrance to a valley which most reminds me of Yosemite. Jeanine and I were amazed by the number of people interred here, mostly women, who lived past the age of 100, a testament to the healthy life style of the people of this region.
Traveling further down the valley we visited Trümmelbach Falls, a series of ten glacier-fed waterfalls inside a mountain made accessible by a tunnel-funicular, built in 1913, and a series of passages and stairways carved into the rock. The sound of 20,000 litres of water per second carving its way through the mountain was deafening and it was easy to imagine how this wonder of nature was created over the millennia.
Further still up the Lauterbrunnen Valley we boarded a cable car which took us to the quaint little town of Gimmelwald, easily the most authentic Swiss alpine village we visited.
Another cable car delivered us to Mürren, where we paused for coffee and snacks. An upscale and beautiful town with dozens of restored and modern hotels it was less appealing to us than Gimmelwald and after a brief tour we continued up to Allmendhubel where we began our hike of the Mountain View Trail to Grutschalp. Walking the trail normally takes 2 hours but with so much to see and photograph it took us closer to 3 hours.
Our hike ended with a symphony of cow bells by the happiest orchestra ever to play the instrument. If you believe nothing else about Switzerland, know that it is home to the most content cows on Earth.
Located in the picturesque Lauterbrunnen Valley, the city of the same name is home to some 2,500 residents and 72 waterfalls. It will be our base of operations for the next two days. Our hotel is located a stone’s throw from Staubbach Falls, the 2nd tallest in continental Europe with a drop of nearly 1000 feet. After checking our bags at the hotel, we set out for our first hike. We rode a cog train and then a cable car to ascend more than a 1.2 miles in altitude to the top of Männlichen. On the way up we got a close look at the avalanche fencing used to protect life and property below.
We also witnessed the arrival of a helicopter which made numerous subsequent trips, shuttling construction supplies between improvement projects. In the Alps, these are the equivalents of construction pickup trucks.
Snow at our altitude was still present in areas shaded from the sun. Jeanine posed me on a large mound for a nice portrait. I posed her in a field of wild flowers which were in abundance everywhere.
We hiked at a leisurely pace to Kleine Scheidegg enjoying magnificent views of the mountains and lakes along the way. Jeanine stopped to photograph every new wildflower she encountered (at least twenty by my count) and I for every gorgeous mountain vista. Although it was forecasted to rain all day, we were fortunate that it did so for only a short while. It started as hail before turning into the biggest raindrops I have ever seen. Click on the image below and see how many people you can find in the photo. This should put the scale of the mountains into perspective. Rain may not be so great for hiking but for someone who likes to photograph waterfalls it is a welcome thing.
Before we knew it the rain was over and the sun was out. Jeanine and I both love to be in nature and to exercise. It doesn’t get much better for us than hiking through the mountains in the midst of such grandeur.
After completing our hike we took a cable car down to the cute town of Wengen where we stopped at a bar for food and to watch World Cup soccer.
Jeanine and I arrived in Zurich, Switzerland just before noon and promptly made our way to Lucerne by train. There we hopped on a boat tour of the famous lake at the foot of the alps and learned about the history of the city and life in the region.
We tried to dine at a hotel overlooking the city only to discover it was booked for a special event. Nevertheless, we were treated to a fantastic vantage point from the hotel’s bar where we enjoyed a commanding view of the city as well as a World Cup match on their big screen television.
Although we were a little jet lagged, we managed to tour quite a bit of the city on foot before settling into our hotel for the night.
This evening Jeanine and I treated Kyle to dinner at Legal on the Mystic to celebrate his new job and the successful completion of his coursework in data science programming which made the former possible. Kyle is excited about the new job and the fact that he has a few weeks to himself before his start date. He plans to visit Europe during that time. Jeanine and I are also headed in that direction. After dinner, Kyle dropped us off at the airport where we boarded a flight for Switzerland. We will spend a week together in the Alps and then I head to Germany for a trade show while Jeanine spends another 4 days relaxing with the Swiss.
It has been less than a month since Kyle completed the online data science programming boot camp that he started last fall. Today he found himself in the enviable position of having to choose between two competing employment offers; one from DraftKings and the other from Cengage. He opted for Cengage primarily because he found their mission to be more socially responsible. The company has built a digital platform to deliver affordable educational content for the higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets operating in more than 20 countries. By contrast, DraftKings is based on fantasy sports and online gambling. We are very proud of his choice and his courage to enter a new field rather than continue in the financial industry which left him unfulfilled. The fact that his new career pays significantly better is just the frosting on the cake.
Synchronistically, we enjoyed a full moon this evening which could be interpreted as symbolic of the fact that all five members of our family are now fully employed.
