wonder no more: here’s a rare behind the scenes look at switzerland:

now you know the true story…

oh, and you might have noticed, i’ve re-organized the site structure slightly, the blog is now directly at the root of the site.

• about 125g rucola leaves
• about 80-100g smoked salmon
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of whole-grained mustard
• salt
• lemon juice

cut or shred the salmon into little pieces. wash the rucola leaves in a colander and shake off the excessive water. mix the rucola, and the salmon pieces in a bowl. add the oil and the mustard along with a couple of squirts of the lemon juice. mix well. season well with salt.

add croûtons if you like.

the final “building blocks” of our pilgrimage are kells and the hill of tara.

after a short ride we get to the little town of kells and disembark. first stop: the large celtic cross that used to stand in the middle of a busy crossroads but has now been relocated a little outside the town center. it’s been damaged — whether that damage originates with that unlucky encounter with that “cumbersome schoolbus”¹ or has been inflicted earlier is hard to tell — but still interesting nevertheless.

from the cross we make our way up to the site of what used to be the monastery of kells and is now a normal church — a church with four high crosses and a replica of the book of kells, though!

next and last pilgrimage stop: the hill of tara — another site close to the river boyne. legend has it that tara was the seat of the high king of ireland, the árd rí na héireann. was is known as fact is that the hill of tara was the site of iron age hilltop enclosure as well as the site of a neolithic passage grave. the hill itself offers a nice view across county meath (including slane which we visited yesterday). its other prominent features are a tea room and two (2) souvenir shops…

the visit to tara concludes our pilgrimage, our next and final stop is dublin airport with most of our co-pilgrims flying back to frankfurt and düsseldorf in the afternoon, and with mrs d and i taking the aircoach bus into dublin as our flight back to zurich will not leave until tomorrow.

dublin airport is busy, and we just have moments to grab our luggage, say our “goodbyes” and then we are all of a sudden by ourselves again. after some initial trouble we manage to find the aircoach bus stop, buy a return ticket and are soon on our way into dublin city center. the ride takes about 40min (longer than the first time when we used that tunnel which the aircoach buses don’t).

our hotel, the o’callaghan davenport hotel is right around the corner of the marrion square north aircoach bus stop. the room is OK and we just drop our luggage off and make our way to trinity college to visit the book of kells exhibition.

we are, not surprisingly, not alone in our quest, lots of tourists (american but also german) along with bus loads of school kids. we manage to squeeze in and slowly make our way through the very interesting exhibition explaining the background of the book of kells but also how it probably was created. fascinating and well worth the money. also, a very nice closure of our pilgrimage

the library’s long room is nice but nothing to get really excited about: it’s a typical old library. i had hoped for more trinity college or even ireland related material to be on display but instead get treated to an exhibition about napoleon bonaparte. hmph.

after the cultural part we are in dire need of a tea and something to eat. following the recommendation of ms p we follow the signs in grafton street for the powerscourt shopping center where we have a very nice “high tea” in the old courtyard — any thoughts on returning for dinner are kind of squashed when around 17:15 the staff of the café start collecting the menu cards and closing down. on leaving we find out that 18:00 is closing time — worse than germany in the bad old days of the ladenschlußgesetz! and this is the capital or ireland!

our walk back to the hotel is interrupted and severely cut short by the onset of very heavy rain. luckily we do have our umbrellas with us, but by the time we reach our hotel we are still a bit wet.

being tired all of a sudden (anti-climax?) we decide to stay at the hotel for the evening and conclude our ireland adventure with a couple of pints of cidre and guinness in the hotel bar.

the weather has become rather irish: it’s raining when we set off for a walk in the boyne valley, and it’s treating us to several showers on the otherwise rather pittoresque walk. in contrast to the previous walks we are to go by ourselves in silence and since we return to the bus mrs d and i for once can walk as it pleases us instead of forming the tail-end. rather quickly the whole group disperses over the length of the path, and i rather enjoy the quietude and the breathtaking scenery.³

next stop is newgrange, or rather the brú na bóinne visitor centre and the knowth neolithic passage grave. mrs dr, who has so far been doing a fantastic job translating for our non-english speaking co-pilgrims, unfortunately is under the weather today and mr tambour inquires whether i could be of assistance. i agree on condition that i can make things up if i loose the plot — to which he laughingly agrees. so, to cut a long story short: i learn quite a bit about knowth and its history through the milleniums — our group is a bit surprised to learn that knowth and the other mounds nearby are in fact modelled after what science assumes to be advanced flying objects and probably served as intergalactic beacons similar to the lighthouses of the 19th and 20th century…

…ok, ok, just kidding i try my best to translate everything⁴ and seem to get the job done in a half-decent way.⁵ knowth is the largest passage grave site in the area and even contains over one third of all megalithic art in all western europe! it’s also quite special in that several different cultures made use of it through the milleniums. fascinating stuff. as is the fact that knowth predates the pyramids by about 500 years! i quite enjoy the visit to knowth and the brú na bóinne visitor centre and am quite impressed by it.

after lunch at the visitor center we are on our way once more — the weather is becoming increasingly more friendly — and, with a short stop at the site of the battle of the boyne, visit monasterboice and the hill of slane.

monasterboice is most famous for its high crosses and has a couple of rather well-preserved specimen. it’s also a “living” grave-yard: “living” in the sense that it’s still in use today.

the last stop today is the hill of slane where st patrick supposedly lit the first easter fire. today it’s a ruined church with a churchyard and no fire — but lots of rain all of a sudden gushing down on us and we rather hastily beat a retreat to our waiting bus.

all in all a rather interesting day, knowth impressed me the most, i’ve to say.⁶

we don’t just go to navan directly but instead take the scenic route. our first stop is at burren national park, the smallest of the 6 national parks in ireland and part of the larger area the burren: a karst landscape exhibiting the typical karst limestone pavement and also host for a number of megalithic tombs and portal dolmens — rather impressive. after some time to our own we continue through the rather barren looking landscape — mr tambour cites edmund ludlow, an english parlimentarian, who is supposed to have said during counter-guerilla operations in 1651–1652:

a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him
— [h2g2, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy]²

we stop at burren house near ballyvaughan for a tea, some shopping,³ and some decompression. it’s the last chance to see the atlantic on our pilgrimage as from now on we are going to go east again.

aside from a short lunch stop in one of the little towns on the way east we stay on our pilgrimage bus until we reach the monastery of clonmacnoise in the afternoon.

the monastery of clonmacnoise was founded by st ciaráran in 545 AD. it was strategically located on the main east–west land route through ireland at that time. by the 9th century it had become the center of religion, learning, craftsmanship, and trade in ireland and was in fact a european academic focal point at the time. it’s not hard to imagine that from places like clonmacnoise western civilization was indeed brought back to the continent (and, thus, saved) as thomas cahill writes in his book how the irish saved civilization.

after an audio–visual about clonmacnoise in the visitor’s center we go and explore the ruins of the monastery.

it’s in the early evening when we arrive at our hotel in navan, the newgrange hotel — which despite looking rather old is supposedly only three years old! interesting.

at dinner we are joined by mr kleemann, the owner of the travel agency that arranged the hotels and our bus. it transpires that mr kleemann is originally from franconia in northern bavaria. he seems rather excited to see us — unfortunately that excitement doesn’t carry over to sponsoring the drinks oh, well, it was worth a try

after dinner we invite ms r for a pint of guinness — it’s been, after all, my birthday

p.s.: navan is a rather special city name: it’s one of the few places having a palindromic name!

after breakfast mrs d and i pack our stuff and join the rest of the pilgrims in our pilgrims bus. the first stop today is in listowel — apparently the literary capital of ireland. our stop is short: mr tambour, our pilgrimage guide, as always, is extremely well prepared and we learn quite a bit about listowel and its literary sons and daughters — but also take a look at listowel’s racetrack during the bus ride from tralee to listowel a co-pilgrim mentioned that apparently writers with a residence in ireland would live tax-free: might that explain the relatively high percentage of writers in relation to the total population? oh, one other thing that’s worth mentioning about listowel: the pedestrian crossing at the newsagents on the main square has an absolutely cool sounding free-to-walk alarm…

it’s a short stop only as we need to catch the 10:00 ferry from tarbert across the river shannon and after 20min or so we are on our way again.

the ferry across the river shannon is a double-ended, open top type of ferry with integral ramps which just drop down to the concrete ferry slips. we do make it to tarbert with about 10min to spare and take the opportunity to have a look across the shannon estuary. the crossing itself is fairly eventless (ignoring that strong shower just before we reach the other side of the river shannon) and we are soon on our way through county clare to lahinch with a short stop at kilkee to have a look at kilkee cliffs.

lahinch means lunch-time! we get dropped off at the sea promenade and mrs d and i do find a nice pub-cum-restaurant, the shamrock inn where we have a rather nice little lunch. it’s a popular place with the locals it seems and service is very friendly and prompt. the food is excellent (as is my pint of guinness )

at about 14:00 we reconvene at our pilgrims’s bus and are off again. next stop: brigid’s well — yep, there’s another one!² this one, in contrast to the other wells we’ve seen so far, is located directly next to the main road and sits to the side of a pub and below a cemetery. interesting combination that. the highlight of our visit is another story by our master story teller, ms k, about the celtic goddess brigid.

of the three places, cemetery, well, and pub, we unfortunately only get to see the well and are soon on our way again to the cliffs of moher!

now, the cliffs of moher: a name that seems to have jumped right of the pages of the hobbit, conjuring up images of wild, remote, difficult to reach cliffs…

well…

…not exactly. if there are any links to hobbit land, then it must be the sticky spider’s web of the black forest of mirkwood which trapped bilbo’s dwarf companions — the cliffs of moher are one gigantic tourist trap. the scenery is nice, what with dramatic cliffs and views west.³ that is true — just don’t look at the king-sized cafeteria, the exhibition center⁴, and a large shopping area selling all the kitsch ireland can throw at you — plus several smaller shops (more kitsch and even more kitsch). mrs d and i speed up to the cliff tops on either side, take a peek at the tower on the north cliff, decide to not pay the entrance fee for the tower, and fight our way back down to the cafeteria — the wind is blowing strongly today — and have a cup of tea, take a look at the kitsch on sale, and settle down to enjoy the sun.

from the cliffs of moher tourist trap our pilgrimage continues towards doolin. instead of going there directly by bus, we get to do a little walk today and approach it from lough north, a nice little walk taking us through the west irish coastal scenery.

our hotel in doolin, hotel doolin, is a newly build hotel in a modern, contemporary style, quite nice. dinner is is the adjoining pub–restaurant, a bit relaxed and not as speedy as the busy ballygarry house hotel, but i quite like it. the food is excellent!

after dinner we split up into little groups and swarm out into the scattered village of doolin to visit the pubs — tonight is “irish pub night”! mrs d and i opt for the “original one”, gus o’connors, founded in 1832.

when we arrive at about 21:45, the live music is already playing (a bit slowly still, but picking up steam [literally] as the night progresses). we settle in with a pint of guinness and cidre and enjoy the music and also the chat with our co-pilgrims.

quite a day

the weather is billed as “damp all day” — which translates into all-penetrating, fine strong drizzle rain all morning. i realise almost too late that that kind of rain is as effective at soaking my stuff as a strong shower…

first stop today: brendan’s chapel west of tralee for a moment of quiet and reflection. brendan’s chapel is a rather modern building with nice clean architectural lines inside — i quite like that little church and enjoy the prayer, reading a psalm, and the moment of quiet.

next stop: an daingean aka dingle for about 2 hours of sight seeing and some shopping: i need super glue to fix my glasses which have developed this nasty habit of just falling apart at the center piece at the flick of a finger i do finally find a tube of that stuff at the eurospar in an daingean and together with mrs d first locate the post office (two stamps for postcards to the continent) and then the nice little an cafe liteartha hidden away in the back of a bookshop which itself is hidden away in a little side street of an daingean.

at 12:00 we reconvene in our pilgrim’s bus and the whole band of pilgrims is on its way to slea head again to take some “rainy day” pictures, the real target though is the gallarus oratory, a square chapel dating from around 500AD build in the “classical” celtic style: layers of stone slabs, each slightly tilted with the inner edge ending up a bit higher than the outward facing edge, thus, preventing the rain from getting in. our pilgrimage’s guide, mr tambour, buys the tickets for the group and we make our way through the café-cum-souvenir-shop-cum-ticket-counter out to the other side, then follow a gravel path slightly up the hill through a gap in the enclosing wall and end up a the oratory. the chapel has a doorway facing west (i need to duck to get through) and a small-ish window opening towards the east. wanting to get a “feel” for the place, i wait patiently until most of the group has been inside, taken a picture (flash, flash, flash), peeked out through the window opening, peeked into the oratory from the outside through the window opening, collided with me¹ — and manage to catch a minute or so to myself.²

while the rest of the group is still lingering around the oratory i retreat to get away from the hustle & bustle for a bit — and to take a leak. when i approach the outbuilding hosting “the facilities” my ears pick up what sounds like a race track commentator. entering the gents section it turns out to be a live radio feed carrying some running commentary of a horse race being piped into the gents toilet (the radio feed not the horse race, that is)…

we make our way back via an daingean and inch strand — where ms r-w surprises us all by making a run for the beach and taking a bath in the atlantic. to each her own.

dinner is a bit earlier today: we are going to the siamsam tíre theater tonight for a performance of tearmann:

[...] a moving journey to the poorhouse and the Great Irish Famine. Many of those who perished during the famine carried in their folk memor an unknown library of music, song and dance. For some, the last refuge was the Poorhouse. As the drama unfolds, a pair of dance shoes becomes the embodiment of not only all that was lost, but everything that was saved, everything that is still cherished in Irish folk traditions. The dance shoes come to symbolize this wealth of culture – these are magical shoes, they have a life of their own… [siamsam tíre]

and it is a very impressive performance, telling exactly that story with very few words but lots of music, (step) dance, and expression. enjoyed it very much.

today’s program: by bus to the starting point of the pass up to the gap of dunloe, walk from there over the gap of dunloe and down to brandon’s cottage for a cup of tea, followed by a boat trip across the lakes of killarney to the town of killarney.

we are off at 9:00 on the dot and get to our starting point by 9:50. the pass road is restricted to horse-drawn coaches, walkers and business and commercial access. horse-drawn coaches are about €30 per coach each and apparently in high-demand at times as there are quite a few of them along with the required horses around. as we start on our walk we witness two coaches (gigs, really) taking off with the drivers flogging the horses quite severely several times. guess they lost any potential customers in our group.

the walk up to the gap of dunloe is what turner and company would call pittoresque — wild landscape rising up to each side, a succession of little lakes, a winding road up to the pass. again, mrs d and i bring up the rear of the pilgrim’s train and are joined today by mrs c. the higher we get the stronger the wind blows up towards the pass — fantastic! we are occasionally overtaken by a horse-drawn gig, sometimes by cars¹ and once or twice by folks on bikes, some more, some less skilled in the art of cycling. the weather puts on a dramatic show, but stays dry until we have passed the highest point, the gap of dunloe. the pass down into the valley on the eastern side reminds me of the eastern snowdown pass topology: the same north–south valley formation almost.

after a lunch break just beyond the pass summit we are on our way down to brandon’s cottage, a self-serve “restaurant” operated on behalf of the national park. the scenery is still breathtakingly beautiful.

after a coke (me) and a cup of tea (mrs d) along with two slices of apple pie with cream we enjoy the view until our boats across the lakes of killarney depart.

the boats turn out to be, err, boats, wooden ones with a little outboard motor. each boat seating up to 12 people. after a bit of engine trouble we depart from brandon’s cottage and are on our way across the three lakes and two rivers.

tranquil is the word that describes the first part of our ride — tranquil is not the word that i’d choose for the second part. where the first part was just gliding along on the calm surface of the upper lake and the connecting river leaving it, once we reach the three-river-meeting point we first need to pass across a bit of white-water (necessitating a re-balancing of the boat by having us all shift forward). from the three-river-meeting point onwards we enjoy a bit of smooth “sailing” which turns out to lull us into a false sense of security: once we leave the third lake and enter the last one, the largest of the three, we literally hit rough sea. the wind is blowing and has been blowing long enough today to really cause quite a bit of wave action. after a re-reshuffle (all move towards the back of the boat) we tackle it stern-on. splash, splash, splash summarises the next 15min as we crash through one wave crest after the other. fun

unfortunately, about half-way down the lake we need to cross the lake to get to ross castle — meaning we are now moving in parallel to the waves, also meaning our little boat is rotating back and forth along its longitudinal axis, fun…

we do make it to shore, and get together, with a cup of tea, to have one more story told by our resident master story teller: this time it’s about a blind bagpipe player, and the castle in the lake of killarney. again, i’m fascinated by her story telling talent and enjoy the story tremendously.

then it’s back to the hotel again — one photo-op stop to have one final view across the lakes of killarney — to take a shower, change into fresh clothes, and dinner at 18:30 today as we are going to visit the siamsa tíre theater here in tralee! looking forward to that one!

at breakfast mrs d and i commit the faux pas of seating ourselves at one of the free tables as the large group table seems to be fully occupied. we quickly get told off by an apparently unmotivated, round-ish waitress who informs us that that table is needed for “other guests”¹ — not quite the “irish hospitality”. coffee and tea are just that, but also seemingly rationed: we only manage to get 2 cups of each each.

today’s part of the pilgrimage takes us to brandon’s well² which is a bit outside tralee. the actual well itself, the water hole in the earth, is a bit on the quiet side³ but otherwise a nice little area enclosed by a dense hedge. we read a psalm, listen to some thoughts of mr tambour on john 5:1–15 (the story of the healing at lake bethesda), and conclude with a prayer and song.

the next part takes us through an daingean (aka dingle) — replenishing our proviant at the local supervalu [sic] (i use the opportunity to frequent the pharmacy next to the the aforementioned supervalu to acquire some midge repellent and antihistamin: those little buggers have really taken a fancy of me, i must have about 30 midge bites on my arms, neck and head) — along the dingle peninsula. about 2.5 hours walk from slea head we are released from our pilgrimage transporter and get a chance to walk to slea head. the weather is at its best: in contrast to the forecast of the irish met office we have pure, unadulterated sunshine! over the ring of kerry we can see cumulus congestus clouds piling up, some looking like they are severly tempted to turn into cumulus nimbus clouds — we only have rather innocent looking straits of cumulus humilis clouds coming our way. perfect.

while on tuesday, on kevin’s way, mrs d and i sped ahead, quickly leaving the bulk of the group behind, we decide today to stay at the end and “bring up the rear”, so to speak. mr tambour seems strangely relieved by that — i can’t figure out whether he’s relieved to have experienced walkers at the rear of the group or whether he is relieved that we are not chasing ahead again. in any case we stay back and have a couple of quite interesting chats on the way.

the scenery is fantastic: in front of us the wide open sea, framed on both sides by mountain ranges and outlying little isles and rocks, dark clouds on the other side of the bay piling up in-lands, the sun casting interesting cloud shadows across the almost smooth surface of the sea. the path to slea head winds past dry-stone walls (lots of sheep), first up then down again. about 2 hours into the walk we break for a snack-lunch and enjoy the quiet and the views!

at slea head we have about an hour to ourselves which most of us spend at the café having a crumble and a pot of tea.

the way back to tralee is interrupted by a story telling session at the beach: one of our co-pilgrims is a practised story teller and really spins an enticing piece of yarn about a bloke called mccormack, an enchanted branch, and how he lost his wife, daughter, and son — and regained them later. i really enjoy that bit.

…well, almost. when mrs d pours her cup of tea we are both a bit surprised at how strong it turns out to be. that surprise is nothing, though, compared to the surprise of mrs d when taking the first sip: she pulls a face, looks quite a bit startled, then takes a peek at the contents of her tea pot — and laughs: apparently the breakfast crew is under quite a bit of stress and mistakenly filled her tea pot with coffee and threw in a tea bag. our breakfast waitress is as surprised as we and quickly remedies the situation.

at 9:00 we are all packed and ready to go. first stop today is brigid’s well in kildare. the weather has improved (it’s no longer raining) and we take this first spell of dry weather not only to learn about brigid but also to learn about each other: introductions! brigid’s well is in the middle of fields just outside kildare and consists of an enclosed well at one end being “fed”¹ by the original well at the other end of the garden. the front part is connected to the back part by a sequence of five stones (mini menhirs) each standing for a certain characteristic of st brigid. one sentence strikes a chord with me: “live in the here and now and all will be well”

kildare cathedral is next on the program and impresses me with its rather clean design and construction. not pompous at all.

a visit with sister mary of the centre for celtic spirituality concludes the morning: sister mary explains about the briget order, its history and, again, about celtic spirituality. rather interesting. and also located in an interesting loation: right in the middle of a residential area in kildare — which is, if you think about it, rather in-line with the credo of celtic spirituality: god around us, within us, above us, below us, in front of us, and behind us.

after a rather spiritually engaging morning we leave kildare and are on our way to the rock of cashel in tipperary. the trip from kildare to tipperary is not as long as it used to be (“it’s a long road to tipperary…”) due a new highway having just been opened. the weather has improved dramatically: the sun’s out and about, the rain of yesterday a faint memory.

at rock of cashel we have a late little lunch in granny’s kitchen then visit the castle.

it’s almost 19:00 when we reach our hotel for the next four nights, the ballygarry hotel in tralee — decidedly an improvement over the last one: very nice rooms, and dinner service actually delivers what’s written on the outside.

plus, it’s got working WLAN service

breakfast at the stand house hotel is, compared to dinner, a bit of a let down: the orange and cranberry juice suffers from a rather high concentration of water and introduces the gnawing suspicion that the breakfast staff have not yet grasped the concept that orange juice concentrate should not be used to dilute water but rather the other way round. the cooked breakfast is on the ok side of cooked breakfasts (we’ve had worse, but we’ve also had better), the waitress a charm that would work quite well inside a wood workshop, taking rough edges off…

while the sun is still shining we leave by bus for the first part of our pilgrimage: the eurospar at kilcullen (food always played an important role on pilgrimages through the ages).

next, through narrow, winding roads we aim for hollywood — and miss on the first attempt. after some tapping of local knowledge¹ we make it with take 2 and, a few miles outside of hollywood, start our walking part: we are following part of kevin’s way in the direction of glendalough.

the weather has turned sour on us, and alternatively treats us to dry and wet spells while we are still on the hard road part of the walk. once we reach the footpath along the river, however, it’s found its stride and just pours it out all the way to pass road for wicklow pass. d’oh.

the landscape is rather nice though and it’s kind of fun walking through the drenched scenery regardless of the rain. after about 2.5 hours we reach the pass road to wicklow pass and are rescued by our bus. next stop: glendalough.

at glendalough are the rather interesting remains of the old monasteric city. it was originally founded by kevin who intended to lead a solitary life as a hermit — that plan didn’t work out too well and kevin had to scupper it quite quickly as other folks like that idea of leading a solitary life in that spot of ireland, and…joined him.² a thriving community evolved around the monasteric buildings and quickly turned from a mere dwelling into a town.

what is interesting about glendalough is the way they lived a life that did not differentiate between worldly matters and spiritual matters but instead practised a holistic spirituality, the celtic spirituality: god is among us, around us, above us and below us and with us in everything we do and live — in contrast to the continental european theology which is mostly a kind of dualistic theology (god above in heaven, we down below on earth). there are parallels to dietrich bonhoeffer’s view that god is not a god of the boundaries or gaps³ but instead a god in our midst (and only makes sense as such) — a view that i’ve made my own ever since i encountered it and, thus, am pleasantly surprised to encounter it here again and also to learn that there is a long tradition supporting that view.

after we had made our way through the (heavily visited) ruins of the monasteric city we spent about an hour with dominican sister genevieve who explained to us the history behind and nature of celtic spirituality — a very fascinating hour!

dinner was a bit less organized than yesterday (the notion of drinks along with food was a novelty to the two waitresses this evening, but they quickly realized that it might indeed be a good idea), the quality of the food was good.

starting point is dublin airport which we reach by way of —- yes, unfortunately — plane to catch the 9:20 swiss flight from zurich to dublin, we take the 6:59 train from einsiedeln, necessitating getting up at 5:00, sigh. we make it in time and get to zurich airport, manage to get our failed web-check-in sorted¹, even manage to get two seats next to one another² — and have a punctual and fairly calm flight (big relief on my part).

we are the first part of the group to arrive in dublin. once we’ve had a coffee (me) and smoothie (mrs d) we position ourselves directly opposite the arrivals area and hold up our sign and wait…

and wait…³

and wait. finally at around 12:30 the first few folks of the remainder of our group trickle in and by 13:30 we are almost complete. it’s an, err, interesting mixture. our bus driver for the next 10 days collects us and after a small problem with luggage (luckily quickly resolved) we are on our way into dublin city center.

our pilgrimage’s guide, mr tambour from akademie st paul, evidently has done his homework and gives us a rather well-informed running commentary of the stuff we see already from the bus, and, once we are ground-bourne again, a tour of the temple bar district and, the highlight of the afternoon: christ church.

i’m not sure whether i’m cut out for this group travel stuff — i find that i need time for myself and, also, that i actually enjoy the immersive part of travelling alone (that is, either really alone or together with mrs d) and being forced to interact with the “natives” (so to speak) and take part (at least to some extent) in the culture that surrounds us. travelling in a group of germans takes that part away, it’s like travelling in a shell, in a bubble, a bit isolated from the country you want to experience.

we get to our hotel, the stand house hotel by a 18:20 and have a bit of time to settle in (we are going to stay two nights here), then it’s a rather nice dinner followed by some blogging

let’s see how this all works out

almost makes you cry…

content.

yesterday evening i had tried to figure out how much the tickets would cost us — and had found out that entry was timed: you could only buy tickets for a specific entry time period. not fully trusting SBB to be as reliable as we wished it to be¹ we had decided to “risk it” and not bought any tickets in advance. guess, we were lucky: just 10 persons in front of us in the queue for a ticket and we don’t have to wait long either. getting in is a 3-step-process (not counting the ticket purchase):

1. london underground style barriers where you have to insert your newly purchased ticket (supervised by no less than 2 security ladies)
2. we are now in the main entrance hall where we can let go of all our belongings (no cameras, no mobile phone, no clothing…ok, made that last one up), at the end of which is check #2, where you have to show your tickets once more (and again 2 security persons)
3. in front of us is now a huge staircase that would do any temple proud, climbing that we finally end up on the second floor² where our tickets are checked once again.

we queue once more to rent an ipod each as the guided tours are already booked out for all of sunday. then we finally (ticket check #4) get to see vincent’s landscape pictures!

…and i’m really impressed by them. i especially like the ones where van gogh starts experimenting with complementing colours (the flower beds one), pictures from his paris period (like restaurant de la sirene, which unfortunately the kunstmuseum didn’t have as a poster) —

— but also the picture of the sailing boats in the mediterranean sea.

as usual with these kind of art exhibits i’m a bit irritated by the whole hoopla and “oh, this is so important” kind of affected behaviour, by the church of art exhibitions — very aptly summarized by mrs d: “the pictures are beautiful, the whole shebang surrounding it just gets on your nerves.”

we purchase three posters along with proper poster rails to hang them³ and after a late lunch sitting outside on the banks of the rhine are on our way back home. well worth the visit if you ignore all that high-priests-of-art stuff.

at biberbrugg i meet up with mrs d who has just been dropped of by fredi and is tired but happy from a fantastic day out. together we hop on to the train to einsiedeln and walk/hobble home

picture links:

• my pictures from today’s tour
• mrs d’s pictures from her tour today

we get to schwyz in time for the bus to brunnen, ship station and i get there with 20min to spare unitl the 12:50 steam ship to lucerne departs. from the south more and more cumulus congestus and cumulus nimbus clouds make their way north and i wonder what the weather in the gotthard area is like and whether mrs d can enjoy the panorama or is stuck in the clouds.

the steamship uri, an old paddle steamer, arrives right on time and departs right on time. i make my way up to first class and the restaurant, where i can share table with an elderly couple from nidwalden (as it later transpires). over lunch we chat a bit about living in switzerland, rüschlikon (he grew up there) and the beautiful lake lucerne area.

later i go outside and watch the scenery slowly go past. switzerland seems full of beautiful places.

sound of the steamship “uri” on lake lucerne

the post bus from oberiberg wound its way up the pass road navigating lots of curves and bends each time sounding its characteristic swiss post bus horn: dah-dee-doh-dah!

sound of the ibergeregg–schwyz post bus

right at the summit of the ibergeregg pass is a pub-cum-hotel with a nice terrace providing a fantastic view of the alps! i’ve got until 11:40 for the bus to schwyz and settle down for a cup of coffee and some mountain and motorbike watching: the pass road is very popular with both bikers and motor bikers and over the course of half an hour you get to see motorbikes of almost any shape and make: those tiny ones with barely enough power to make it up here — isn’t there a law against mistreating small mopeds — up to real monster bikes that threaten to eat the whole pass in one go, road, mountain, pub, the lot.

then there are the racing cyclists: mostly men in their late 50s (the younger ones are probably already at home again), sometimes accompanied by a younger woman, always in what appears to be the latest racing outfit, almost all happy to reach the summit.

next stop: schwyz.

instead of moapping around at home, however, i’ve planned a little mountain and lake tour myself — using only public transport i intend to go from einsiedeln via oberiberg to ibergeregg pass, have a coffee break there and enjoy the panorama, then on to the capital of our canton, schwyz. next stop is going to be brunnen where the plan is to switch to the steamship for lucerne. from lucerne it’s back by train via arth-goldau and biberbrugg to einsiedeln again.

lazyrelaxed.