Zermatt... again

After going to Zermatt and failing to see the Matterhorn on Monday due to such crappy weather, when we woke up yesterday morning and saw it was a clear day we decided to head back and try again. It was a 3 hour train ride to get there and when we got there we realized we had done just about everything there is to do in Zermatt on Monday. So we found a nice shady spot and I sat and drew until my pen ran out of ink and then went back to the restaurant where Whit got the Vegetable Lasagna she regretted not getting before and I got the same pizza that I got before. And that was it. But now we've seen the Matterhorn so we can mark that off our bucket list.

Today was really relaxing. We went to church and then went back to the Cathedral there in Sion to photograph some of those stained glass windows again. Whit assured me that it was the last time we would do that. I approached it differently this time, taking smaller, more detailed shots and letting photoshop stitch them all together. This one is still somewhat distorted but I'm not going to mess with it until I get home and can work with the RAW files. Of all the stained-glass we've seen here these have been my favorites. I love the geometric style. It actually reminds me somewhat of the covers to the Harry Potter books. But I love how much story there is in all of them. And can anyone figure out what the story is in the lower left corner? It might be part of the Garden of Eden, I mean, they are naked but who's the guy with the triangle around his head. Then there's that little rainbow that got me thinking that maybe it has something to do with Noah? I really don't know and any input would be appreciated.

Tomorrow we're probably going to go to Interlaken and Grindelwald. Later.

done with "class"

Well, I didn't get a chance to write yesterday due to the fact that today our sketchbooks, which I've been pretty on top of, and our European Visual Culture writing assignments, which I haven't been as diligent with as I should have been, were due today. That marks the end of the "class" period of our trip and from now on we will be on our own. Another good thing is early tomorrow morning our roommates are leaving for Austria which means Whit and I might get a late start on the day.

Aside from all the catch-up I've been doing, the past couple days have been pretty relaxed. Yesterday took a nice downhill "hike" from Murren to Gimmelwald. It was a hike that could have easily taken 1 hour but we made it take 4. The highlight of it was actually leaving Gimmelwald on the tram. For about 50 feet you are only maybe 20 feet of the ground and then you go over the edge of a cliff. You look at the cables holding up the tram and they look like they are going straight down. If only it let you freefall for a second or two. That's really the main difference between the mountains and valleys here in Switzerland and in Utah. Logan is actually a higher elevation than we were there but while the tops of the mountains are comparable to the mountains in Utah, the bottoms of the valleys are much closer to sea level.

Today was the chocolate factory day. Truth be told I did have images of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory in my head before going. I could picture myself grabbing bars of chocolate and stuffing them in my mouth whole, drinking from a chocolate river and an incredibly eccentric tour guide. When it came down to it I was actually quite bored. It started off with this movie that reminded me somewhat of the Dick van Dyke show, then we had a tour guide tell us about the difference between white and milk chocolates and then we went to the tasting room where after about 10 small morsels I started to feel nauseous, a feeling that continued on for the rest of the day.

From there we went to Gruyeres, a quaint little town that is home of the H.R. Giger museum, which was incredibly disturbing. It was nice though, while I was sitting on a shady bench drawing, a band started playing those long horns that you always picture when you think of the Alps. It was really a very nostalgic moment.

Oh, and check out this kid we saw at the chocolate factory. It's not often that you see a black kid with a mullet. Who does he remind you of?

Bern

Today we went to Bern. We started the day at the SBB's poster archives which was pretty cool to see some of there really old posters and hear about the different campaigns. From there we went to the Communication Museum which was pretty fun. Whit really liked it. They had a lot of interactive displays and we ended up spending most of our day in there. And, that's about it. We also saw 3 H&Ms on the same street! It was crazy. But it's a pretty good store so we were happy enough about it.

Well, I really need to get in the shower.

Nothing really to write today.

Today we went to the Oberhofen Castle and then to Thun. That's really about it. I really want to go to sleep and my legs are killing me. Later.

Sunday and Zermatt

Okay, I'll try to make this quick. Yesterday we went to the branch in Sion for Sacrament Meeting. The opening hymn was probably the closest I've ever felt to being at Hogwarts. They handed out English Hymns to everyone who spoke English (3/4 of us) and the rest had their French Hymnals, and then we all sang together. There wasn't anything even close to resembling a harmony. After that I went back to the cathedral there to take pictures of the stained-glass windows there. I took multiple exposures so I could mess around with the HDR stuff and overall I'm happy with the results, the pictures definitely turn out better if you can do it. The new pictures I took were really only slightly better than the old ones and I think I'm going to go back this Sunday. It was incredibly weird to walk over to the cathedral though. Last time we were there it was the middle of this street festival and the beginning of Euro 2008 so all the streets were packed. This time the streets were dead. Everything's closed on Sundays so nobody goes anywhere, it was actually really nice.


Today we went to Zermatt to attempt to see the Matterhorn. Sadly it was covered by clouds all day but the day was pretty nice anyways. We didn't have anything to do aside from take pictures and we had over 5 hours there so we just got to wander the streets and take things pretty easy. I've been going back and forth about getting a Swatch and after two weeks of debate and checking out every Swatch store I've seen I finally made my decision today. I'm really happy with the one I've got and I think I've figured out the whole cronograph thing.


Most of my pictures from the town didn't really work out, or will need some time in Photoshop to get them ready so the rest of the pictures posted are ones from the train.

This was taken in a tunnel that had slots along the side to let light in. If you looked straight at it there was this feeling of looking at a flipbook so I thought I'd see how the sensor in my camera would pick it up.

And this one I focused on the reflection in the window. For the first few days we were all so excited about the trains and constantly stared out the windows not wanting to miss anything, now it's just part of our life. The outside world is screaming by and we're busy sleeping or reading.

Lausanne and the Cow Fights

Well, our internet was down again last night so here's some pictures from yesterday. We went to Lausanne and made our first stop at the Cathedral there. It's in the process of being renovated but they had one area done which was very cool. It combined the old gothic architecture with new contemporary windows. I really like the way it turned out. For 2 franks a piece we were able to climb to the top of the bell tower to look out over the city and take some pictures. Well worth it. From there we had lunch, Whit and I shared another Kebab, but this time with the suggestion of Jackson we tried a chicken one. I wasn't disappointed but I do think I like the other way better. After that we went to the Olympic Museum and then Bob took us with his bad directions on what felt like a 20 mile walk. My legs are still tired from it. We went to an old Roman museum that would have been a lot more interesting had we been able to read French, but since none of us do we were all pretty much done in 20 minutes or so.

Today we went to the cow fights. It wasn't really what I had expected. I thought they would only stick two cows in a ring and let them beat the crap out of each other until one dominated the other. Not quite how it went. Instead there are about 50 cows in the ring, mostly grazing but every once in a while a tussle would start and end shortly thereafter. They say there is a method behind it, that by the end one cow would end up at the top of the hill and it would be named queen. It really didn't look that way at all. The herds tended to stay wherever they started out. It was exciting for about 10 minutes and then it got to be pretty boring. We did have a great BBQ there though. 1st course was Brats and the second was a marinated pork chop.
And tonight we're having stinky cheese fondue. Yum!

Basel

Today we went to Basel. It is found on the northern edge of Switzerland, bordering both France and Germany. It was a pretty cool place that we want to go back to. We went to a Paper Mill/Museum where we made our own piece of paper, which was the highlight of our visit there. It turns out that if you have taken Printmaking and/or know Mike Atha you've probably seen most of that stuff before. From there we went to a Homer exhibit that was a compilation of many works inspired by the Iliad and the Odyssey. We were lucky to have a really good guide that tied things into popular culture so it made it entertaining for us and easier to understand. Sadly it takes so long to get there and back that that was pretty much all we could do there so we're already planning on going back during our last few days.

We did have some time right after we got off the train to get some lunch. I got a Brat and Whit got a small margarita pizza and then as we were walking around we found me some new swimming shorts that are a really nice European style made of 100% Lycra.


Apparently Basel is one of the hottest place in Switzerland so to help cool the shoppers as they walk around old town they have these semi-transparent sunscreens hanging between the buildings. I love that they have been printed on too, instead of just picking a simple color or whatever. They're very concerned with the overall look of things.

Just a picture of my roommate Jackson while we were on the train leaving. I'm not sure why I'm so happy with how this one turned out. I think it might be the reflection of the sun in his palm. Both of us had our cameras out because as we were coming in we saw some rad graffiti and we were hoping to shoot it but didn't have much luck. The train was slowing down when we were coming in, this time it was speeding up.

Wednesday

My apologies for not posting last night, the internet here at our hotel was down and then today I had to do a preliminary slideshow, a sample of 10 images from the photos I've taken so I had to get some ready. Now it's late and I'm tired so this will be a short post of just the highlights.

First off, I forgot to mention how excited I was the other day to step into the convenience store next to the train station here and find that Green Apple Hichew was sold there.

So yesterday we went to Nyon on the shore of Lake Geneva and went to a small museum that deals with the lake and then a couple of us went and got some Doner Kebabs for lunch which is probably one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten. From there we jumped on a boat that took us across the border into Yvoire, France. We were mostly restricted to the old town sector which is pretty small but known for all the flowers that are there, especially in the windows. Very pretty, but I've found that generally I like greenery more than flowers. The highlight of that portion of the trip was seeing this old lady sunbathing topless. Wow.

Today we went to two museums, one a stained glass museum and another was one devoted to the artist Eugene Burnand. He does some incredible work but what really caught my eye were his portraits done with pastel.

Oh, another highlight from yesterday was learning about HDR (High Dynamic Range). I've known about the concept of it for a while but never knew where to look for more information on the technicalities of it. Basically you use a tripod and take 3 pictures, one metered normally, one overexposed and one underexposed. Then this program takes different values from each picture and mashes them together into one. It creates an amazing amount of depth because it pulls more detail out of your shadow and highlight areas. Clouds are what really seem to stand out but it also adds a ton of texture.

Anywho, enjoy the pictures. I'm off to bed.

Luzern

We had a four hour train ride today to get to Luzern. When we got there we had an hour before our tour was to start at the KKL so a couple of us went into the old town area to check things out there. It was weird to be in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. We had just started to get used to hearing French everywhere and then it felt like being in a whole new country. I found a shirt at the H&M that I'll probably wear tomorrow, so I'll try to get a picture of myself and post it on here so you can all be jealous of it. Anywho, the KKL is so neat. It's this stark contrast from the rest of the old-towny buildings in Luzern because it's this incredibly modern building that houses a conference center, a multipurpose area and what it's truly known for, a concert hall with acoustics basically as near to perfect as can be achieved. Each section of the building is a different style but it's all held under one roof that juts out so far that you wonder how it can hold all that weight. It was truly an architectural masterpiece. From there we went to see this panoramic painting that was kind of boring and then went to see this lion carved into rock.

If you are familiar with the new library at Utah State you may recognize the lion from the basement where a reproduction of it is done in wood. For some reason it just doesn't have the same effect as standing here in Switzerland looking at it.


I'm off to bed. We've got another early morning ahead of us and I need to get some rest. Later.

Sunday

Finally a day off. We took advantage of it and slept in and then just kicked it around here until around 1 o'clock. Finally we started getting pretty antsy so we decided to head down to Aigle, just down the mountain and check out the castle down there. So many castles are in Switzerland that many of them have started to put museums inside or some other kind of gimmick to try to bring more people in, and this castle was no different. It is surrounded by fields and fields of grapes used to make white wine so the inside of the castle is mostly devoted to that, including a small museum/gallery of wine labels.

I've loved just about all of the food we've had here with very few exceptions. Dinner tonight was delectable. They took the same stinky gym sock cheese and would place the front of it close to a heat source. When a layer would get melty they would scrape it off onto a plate and we would then eat it with bacon, potatoes or bread. I just couldn't get enough and went back for a total of 4 times until I finally ran out of things to eat the cheese with.

Here are a couple pictures from today:
The fog finally cleared and we woke up to this view out our window.

Here's a view of the castle from one of its windows.

I really liked this wine label.

And for some reason I really like this room. It's in the process of being restored/renovated and there were a couple drawings on the walls.

Tomorrow we go to Luzern.

Sion

We spent the day in Sion today. It was also the first day of the Euro 2008 soccer tournament so there were a bunch of fanatics on the street. So let's see, first we went to this church to see this altarpiece that is made of solid gold. It was cool to see but we couldn't get up there very close so I don't think most of us appreciated it as much. What was really cool were the stained-glass windows. The picture posted here is one of maybe 15 fantastic windows in the building that seemed to be glowing. I apologize for the the distortion, it was in an effort to show the picture a little better. Hopefully I'll be able to get back there sometime with somebody's tripod so I can get some better pictures of it all. From there we made our way through Old Town Sion up one of the two huge hills in the middle of the city to this church that houses what is claimed to be the oldest playable organ in the world where we had the opportunity to hear a half-hour private concert. When we were done with that we were left with the rest of the day to ourselves to roam and take pictures. One major highlight of the day was my first experience of a Kebab, which despite my preconceptions is not grilled meat and vegetables on a skewer. I was instantly converted.

We have the day off tomorrow, which feels weird. Even when we were up at the hospice and had quite a bit of free time we were forced to keep our eyes on the clock so we wouldn't be late to one of our many meals or informational meetings, whatever.

I Finally Understand Why They Put Those Wavy Stink Lines Over Cheese in Cartoons.

Ok, we got back from the St. Bernard's Hospice just an hour or so ago. It was actually really nice getting away from all the iPod's and computers and really not have to worry about anything. The trek up there was fun, the first two-thirds were hiked up the road and the last third was done with snowshoes. It is a requirement of the hospice that anyone who is to stay the night there has to make a pilgrimage, otherwise they'll just feed you and send you on your way. We got up there and we were soaked from the light rain that constantly fell as we were going up. So we went to our rooms to change and pulled our clothes out of our backpacks to find that in many cases they were more wet than the clothes we had on. Overall things were pretty open. Thursday morning a snowshoe-hike was organized for any who wanted to go (including Whit and I) and we went into Italy, a 5 minute walk from the monastery and went about half way up this mountain. I'll post more pictures of that later. It was really crazy because basically the whole time in Switzerland it was incredibly foggy, but as soon as we crossed the border it cleared right up.

We did have a couple assignments while we were there, just a simple writing assignment and a requirement to do a couple drawings but aside from that we relaxed a lot, ate tons of incredibly delicious food (including this cheese that tasted fantastic in soup but smelled like old gym socks), and heard one girl from our group give us some private violin performances a couple times. Anywho, I've got to get off and give Whit a chance to use the computer before dinner.

Apparently Snowboarding Isn't Allowed in the Train

These stickers were found on the ceiling every five feet or so on the train that takes us from Leysin to Aigle. Today we went to Vevey. It was pretty cool. We got there a little early so we walked around a farmers market for a bit and then went to a museum that actually had quite a few prints in it. It was cool to see some of Albrecht Durer and Picasso's originals, along with a couple Japanese woodcuts. From there we went down to a photo museum which was probably my favorite building I've ever been in (as far as the style of it goes). The buildings seem pretty typical of what you will see in Switzerland. It's such a great style that has so much character. Once you get inside this museum it's all very modern. The museum actually takes up segments of two buildings and is connected both underground and by a bridge on either the third or forth floor. Vevey is right on Lake Geneva and after that we got on a boat that took us to Chateau de Chillon, this big castle right on the edge of the water.Tomorrow we leave for St. Bernard's Pass where we are getting away from our normal lives in order to slow things down for a bit. What that means is that for the next couple days we will not have our computers with us, nor access to one. So hopefully in a couple days I'll have a bunch of cool pictures to post.

Day 1

After being on 3 different planes through Phoenix, Philadelphia and finally to Zurich, and then on a bus for 3 hours to our small town of Leysin, we're finally here. I'm blown away with how well thought out everything is and how well designed. I was also somewhat surprised to see how urban it was in Zurich. All the pictures you see of Switzerland are of the smaller towns and all the older houses surrounded by green and mountains. While everything is still very clean feeling it was somewhat comforting to see graffiti on the overpasses. We mostly slept on the bus but I did get a small taste of what small-town Switzerland is like while passing through. Leysin has the same feel as Park City to a large degree, only greener, smaller and more spread apart. This is a picture taken just down the road from our hotel. After getting settled and having lunch we went down and were shown where the ATM is (Swiss Francs are so cool), and a grocery store for our lunches, we went on a small hike up to a point where we could see the alps even better (hard to believe it can get much better than the view from our hotel window), and also Lake Geneva in the other direction. We're all incredibly tired and it's weird to me to look at the clock on my computer and see that it's only 1:39 at home while it's nearly 10 o'clock here.