A Swiss Watch

I'm back home now...where crickets chirp and the forests drip with rain. In last week's essay I was in the North and West of Switzerland. This week we'll look South and East. I want to try to give my take on the local people rather than the tourists. The title of this essay describes much about the country...it runs like a Swiss watch...with precision. However there are strong regional differences...much like the US (despite it's smaller size). I'm no Rick Steves, but I'll also give you few of my travel tips. So if you would like, join in and take this last ride though Switzerland with me.

Last week we started at the top...the top of the Jungfrau. This week let's start from the bottom...the bottom of an ancient sea in the southern tip of Switzerland almost to Italy...
on Monte San Giorgio.

Monte San Giorgio is a mountain at Lake Lugano known for its marine fossils from the Mid Triassic Period. At that time (about 240 million years ago), the area had a tropical climate and a sea full of coral, fish, (long-necked) reptiles and turtle-like creatures. The fossils of these animals were found well preserved in what had been a sea basin. They tell the story of fish diversity and the evolution of lizards and reptiles.

When mines were dug at Monte San Giorgio in the 2nd half of the 19th century, to extract oil from butuminous shale, the fossils were discovered. Over 10.000 specimens have been found. They include large skeletons of vertrebrae up to 6 metres long. The quality of preservation is very high and a number of 'first discoveries' of species have been made here. They tended to float face down as you can barely see in this mirrored (top and bottom) exhibit.

The museum has excellent displays like this movie that showed the death of these creatures whose projection drifted down to a rock where their fossil was embedded.

To get to the museum you take the train to "Mendrisio" (about 30 min from Lugano) and then a wild mountain bus ride up to the village of Meride...which has an great old Europe feel.

Across Lake Lugano is Mount San Salvatore.

Traveling to the top of San Salvatore is an adventure too...

We like to stay near the train stations. Lugano is a big city, and we're country mice.

The train station is also the location of the funicular down to the lakeside city, buses to all the surrounding areas and hikes, and of course trains to nearby attractions. The day we visited San Salvatore, we caught the bus down for a lake side hike to the village of Gandria.

After our hour or two stroll, we had a beer and then caught the boat to Paradiso.

It was a two block walk to the funicular system to the top....it took a funicular change half way up to make it.

(We also had a double funicular plus a cable car to get to the top of Piz Nair above San Moritz).

Afterward we strolled the promenade back to the City to pick up dinner at a grocery store, and ride the funicular back to the train station and our room.

We did all that travel on our Swiss pass.

Still scraping the bottom...

No need to flip out...sometimes the bottom is on the top. In eastern Switzerland the Sardona region was flipped by the power tectonic plate collisions. Along the "Glarus thrust” line 250-300 mil.-year-old rocks moved over a distance of around 40km on top of much younger, 35-30 mil.-year-old rocks. The Glarus overthrust has one of the world’s largest and most dramatically visible sections through a tectonic thrust fault plane in the Earth’s upper crust. A system of stacked nappes and deep ancient rocks is visible at intervals over a distance of 50 km/30 mi, laid bare by glacial erosion.

a view from the spa...with the geologic unconformity in the background

The heat is still present in the Earth from these ongoing movements. And people have enjoyed hot springs since the time there were people. The Swiss transportation system makes it easy. We caught a train in the morning from Spiez to Zurich (an hour or so) for a train change. Then another hour train ride to Bad Ragiz. Got off the train. Stored bags in the station locker. Went out front and caught the bus to the Therme (hot spring) for a two hour soak before heading back, grabbing bags, and taking a final two hour (very scenic) train to Pontresina. The spa wasn't included, but again all the travel was on the Swiss pass.

I'm still trying to get to the bottom of things, and there's at least one more bottom of interest... Imperia. Her bottom is about all that is left to the imagination.

I discovered her in the Konstanz harbor on Lake Constance (the Bodensee). Imperia is a concrete statue of a woman holding two men on her hands. The statue rotates on its base every four minutes. The two men sitting in Imperia's hands represent Pope Martin V and Emperor Sigismund.

The statue represents a satire of the clerical morals, where Imperia seduces cardinals and princes at the Council of Constance and has power over them all. The story of Imperia was based on the life of an Italian courtesan who died in 1512, nearly 100 years after the Council met. The statue was created by Peter Lenk, and was installed clandestinely in 1993. http://english.konstanz-magazin.de/magazine/Imperia.php

“On the cusp” is about to boat down the Rhine, and last week I suggested I was to see the river's beginning at the Rheinfall. Well we did make it the the falls, but it is far from it's origin. In fact the Rhine flows through Lake Constance (the Bodensee) and past Imperia.

So from top to bottom the geology and geography of Switzerland is amazing. The way the people of the country make use of it is equally interesting. Cows dot the landscape in most areas.

Dairy and cheese production is common.

They cut even yards for hay. There's a long tradition of gathering hay where one can.

Seems everyone with a yard has a garden. The country for the most part is neat as a pin.

Fruit trees are everywhere and apples were prolific this year.

Here's a still making apple brandy...

Vineyards and wine making is common all over the country.

The people are productive. They are precise like their transportation system. They are well educated. Most speak good English. They are happy, healthy, talented and respect privacy. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/switzerland_0_n_4038031.html

The library established by St. Gallen about 1500 years ago...

There are regional differences. In the South things are a bit more relaxed...trains are actually late sometimes. Looks like there's more poverty in the South too. It maybe they have more immigrants. We met a Hungarian immigrant on the train one day. She didn't get the minimum 3600 francs per month. She worked as a maid. She thought the Netherlands was a more caring and friendly country... where she had lived prior to following her husband to Switzerland. She found the Swiss people cold. As tourists, we found people usually friendly. The language regions - French in the west, Italian in the South, and German over most of the north each had their own vibe. They look you over, but don't really look you in the eye. However we noticed when we made eye contact and smiled, they did too. Perhaps that is human nature. In general, we found the Swiss to be industrious and competent people.

Nuts and bolts of travel...

When it's time to change locations or head home, it is easy to agree with my best travel tip – pack light - less is best!. We each have a carry-on bag and a day pack. We take fast drying clothes we can hand wash along the way. I pack my clothes in 2.5 gallon plastic bags (one for pants, another for shirts, and so on) that I sit on and seal. Carry clothes that are easy to layer to stay warm or cool. I also wear a vest with zip pockets to carry my passport, travel pass, money, maps, and so on. A vest is almost like an extra bag. It is easy to just take it off and run it through the X-ray machine when at the airport. My one extravagance is a coffee rig - kettle, coffee funnel, and cups (they are light weight collapsing silicone). I don't need it at every location, but I used our coffee rig at about half of our lodgings. I also take a small light fabric cooler that fits in my daybag. We buy groceries and make a picnic lunch most days. Every trip has it's own special needs. Often our first stop is a thrift or second hand store to buy goods we need, especially if we rent a car. This trip, the excellent transportation system made the Swiss pass a no brainer - meaning we had to keep it light to be on and off trains. Another advantage of a pass is the flexibility – pick trains, buses, cable cars, or funiculars on a whim.

Eating out in Switzerland is expensive. We normally manage our own meals, but we like to go to at least one restaurant in each town where we stay. Over our September trip we had pork schnitzel, goat with polenta, a shared fish platter on Lake Geneva, salmon and salad in a 500 year old cafe, several soups (including beet and horseradish), potato crusted trout with vegetables to die for, and the last night a bratwurst with rosti (fried potatoes).

For the most part all our travels were as efficient as the Swiss system. We had a few glitches on our travels home. Hey it is part of travel. You have to be flexible. The plane was an hour late. We stand in line to board, but are re-routed to answer some pretty dumb security questions. It's a nine hour flight back into Atlanta, and we arrive after 3 pm. They have the security facial recognition machines shut down since last Friday and the exit lines are huge. We make it to our car about 5 pm just in time for Atlanta rush hour. Took us 3 hours to drive home rather than the usual two. That's the way it goes sometimes. ..the price of travel.

Yet from top...

to bottom....

it was a great trip - beautiful, educational, and satisfying.

It is enriching and that is really what makes traveling worth all the hassles. It is a lens into the past, the present, and the future... and a means to connect all those realities. Travel causes us to grow...to evolve and find ourselves reflected in other cultures, ecosystems, and people. I wrote about a sense of place a couple of weeks ago. Well traveling provides a greater sense of place, and adds to our relationship with the planet and its people. Here's hoping you enjoyed a little of our trip, and you'll share some of your travel adventures below. And in the words of Dorothy - there's no place like home. Wishing you all a lovely Sunday!