Lucerne

On Monday 27 November 2006, after seeing the children off to school, the four of us (Pierre, Ronel, Willem and Leta) drove to Lucerne, only about 40 minutes from Oberägeri by car.

Lucerne (German: Luzern) is the capital of the canton of Lucerne. It lies on the shore of Lake Lucerne (German: Vierwaldstättersee) within sight of Mount Pilatus and the Rigi. The lake covers 114 square km and has a maximum depth of 214 m.
The city grew from a small fishing village of ancient origins on the shores of Lake Lucerne with the founding of the Benedictine monastery of St. Leodegar in around AD 700.

Since the city straddles the Reuss River where it drains the lake, it has a number of bridges. The most famous is the Chapel Bridge (German: Kapellbrücke), a 204 m long wooden bridge originally built in 1333, although much of it had to be replaced after a 1993 fire.

Partway across, the bridge runs by the octagonal Water Tower (German: Wasserturm), a fortification from the 13th century. Inside the bridge are a series of paintings from the 17th century depicting events from Lucerne's history. The Bridge with its Tower is the city's most famous landmark.

Here is a beautiful old wrought-iron bridge over the Reuss. Old Town Lucerne is located just north of the Reuss River, and still has several fine half-timber structures with painted fronts.

This building had a whole family tree painted on its wall.

The City Tower (German: Zytturm) in the centre of Lucerne's Old Town.

These beautiful wooden doors front onto the Kapellplatz in the centre of the Old Town.

Leta and Willem in Lucerne (photo by Pierre), and detail from a fountain. We loved the dragon!

Another fascinating fountain, this one painted in merry colours, complete with medieval soldier at the top, holding a sword and the city flag. This image we came across again later the same day, at the old town wall.

The Old Town boasts many buildings richly decorated with old and beautiful frescoes.

Here is yet another bronze fountain, this one depicting a medieval guy with a goose under each arm. Dinner, perhaps?

A splendid example of the Swiss wrought-iron building signs. This one on the left has the head of some fierce bird at the top, with a prancing stag hanging below.

The painting on the side of this inn says "J. Wolfgang von Goethe logierte hier 1779", which means that Goethe stayed here in 1779. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 –1832) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, theorist, humanist, scientist, painter, and polymath.

The fresco on the building housing the Restaurant Fritschi must have been fun doing! It is obviously a modern work of art.

From the lower parts of the Old Town we climbed the hill to the medieval city ramparts, also known as the Museggmauer, or Musegg Wall, complete with nine tall watch towers. We passed the first of the towers quite close to the river without knowing what it was. Afterwards we learnt that this was the Nölliturm.

The next watch tower came into sight while we were still close to the Old Town at the foot of the hill. This is the Männliturm (literally the "man tower"), named after the statue of a guard with sword and flag on top of the tower.

As we walked up the hill, the next tower we saw was the Wachtturm (guard tower). The small chapel in the foreground in this picture stood in the garden of a house and is literally the size of a doll's house.

At his point we were quite close to the top of the hill and here we stopped to take some photos of the most magnificent views over the city. We reached this point at exactly 12 noon and as we stood there we were entertained by the church bells of the multitude of churches and chapels jubilantly chiming the hour. That was a truly awesome experience!

Here we were directly opposite the Zeitturm, or Clock Tower.

A little way further up the path we stopped again for another look at the view over the city. The white streak in the top left-hand corner of the picture is the vapour trail of an aeroplane. We often noticed these vapour trails across the sky while we were in Switzerland, more here than elsewhere in Europe.

We only went as far as the Schirmerturm. The building right next to the wall seems to be a university for music studies and so there were students coming and going while we were up there.

At the Schirmerturm, the gateway tower, one can pass through to the outside of the ramparts.

This is the coat-of-arms of the Schirmerturm.

Willem decided to take a break while the rest of us explored a short distance furhter up the hill.

Still on the outside of the wall, this photo shows, from left to right, the Zeitturm, the Wachtturm and the Luegislandturm.

In a garden next to the path there was a very pretty holly bush, flaming red with berries.

After our strenuous walk up the hill and down again we relaxed over lunch and a good bottle of wine at the Rathaus Brauerei on the riverbank before continuing our explorations.

Downriver the Spreuerbrücke or Mill Bridge zigzags across the Reuss. Here are some pictures of us at the Mill Bridge. Constructed in 1408, it is the oldest covered bridge in Europe and has a small chapel in the middle that was added in 1568. The bridge features a series of medieval-style 17th Century plague paintings by Kaspar Meglinger titled "Dance of Death".

Meglinger's paintings portray various conditions of men and women, priests and warriors, princes and men of learning, the young bride, the devout nun, the lawmaker, the hunter, the miller, even the artist himself, are all depicted at the mercy of Death, with his mocking smile and his ever-changing garb.

The twin needle towers of the cathedral of St. Leodegar sit on a small hill just above the lakefront (seen here at the extreme left of the picture). Originally built in 735, the present structure was erected in 1633 in the late Renaissance style. However, the towers are surviving remnants of an earlier structure.

Walking along next to the river we ended back where we started, at the Chapel Bridge. Once again there were swans in abundance on the river Reuss. Well satisfied with our explorations of the day we made our way back home to Oberägeri.

Zug

This map shows the main centres we visited during the week we spent in Switzerland. Besides Oberägeri we also explored Zug, Lucerne, the Jungfrau mountain and Zurich.

On Sunday 26 November 2007, after the walk at Raten Pass, we drove down to Zug for lunch at the Duomus, followed by a stroll through the old city and along the lake front.

We loved the chestnut trees in abundance along the waterfront and also enjoyed some piping hot, freshly roasted chestnuts sold on the spot.

The town of Zug (pronounced tsoogk), 22km from Lucerne on the north side of the Rigi, is the richest place in Switzerland, which makes it very rich indeed. Tiny Canton Zug has the lowest tax rates in the country, about half the national average, which attracts flocks of multinational corporations. The town's location on the crystal-blue Zugersee is very attractive, framed by the high wooded plateau of the Zugerberg rising 600m to the east and the peak of the Rigi on its south-west shores.

The striped-roof Zytturm, at 52 m the Old Town's tallest building, is situated on the Kolinplatz. (The Christmas decorations were a trifle annoying when trying to take a decent photograph!) Built in the mid-thirteenth century as a watchtower, it was renovated to its present shape in 1557, and endowed with a clock in 1574. The shields below the clock face are those of the eight Swiss cantons at the time of the tower's construction (from left to right, Zürich, Bern, Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus and Zug).

This is the shield of the city of Zug.

As well as the astronomical clock, there's a host of tiny details on the tower, including, under the archway, a beautiful late-Gothic wavy-haired angel. Just above the upper ledge there is a painting of a rat with an interesting history, thus the tale of the rat.

The story tells of how watchmen, holed up in the tower night after night, used to complain of the fat, long-tailed rats that scampered around them and stole their food. No way could be found to keep the rats away until a foreign scholar, passing through Zug on his way to Salerno, heard of the problem and advised the watchmen to paint a big, fat rat on the wall where the creatures got into the watch rooms. They did so, and the following night, when the rats appeared again, the watchmen saw them catch sight of the painting, sniff around it, and flee in fear. The painting stayed, and rats never plagued the Zytturm again.

Heading beneath the Zytturm brings you into the most atmospheric part of the Old Town with cobbled lanes lined with medieval gabled and balconied (and often frescoed) houses.

Intricate wrought iron signs proclaim the whereabouts of shops. We can only guess that "Zumhecht" must be the name of a fishmonger.

 

The architecture of the buildings in the Old Town is fascinating. The projecting bay windows add heaps of character to the facades.

Another surprise the tourist often finds waiting around the corner is one of Zug's many bronze statues, some combined with fountains. This one of the boy with the fish seems of modern manufacture and purely decorative, but the most fascinating statue we came across was this one of the old woman carrying her husband in a basket on her back. She became tired of him always being drunk at the bar, so she piled him into the basket and carried him off home. It is quite clear that he is very intoxicated, singing merrily all the way, but what a brave (and strong) woman she was!

 

This timber-clad building was not all that common in the Zug Old Town, but is very typically Swiss, complete with flower boxes filled with blooming Geraniums.

Just behind the Zytturm is Zug's Rathaus, dating from 1509 and retaining much of its original woodwork, and a few steps north is the waterside Landsgemeindeplatz with its Swan statue.

We have come full circle back to the waterfront.

The white swans of Switzerland are beautiful, especially in our eyes, as we are from New Zealand where the swans are all black.

The view over the lake was magically misty.

Lake Zug (German: Zugersee) has an area of 38.3 square km and has a maximum depth of 200 m. Toward the south-west extremity of the lake the Rigi descends rather steeply to the water's edge. The titanic chunk of the Rigi, which rises to 1798 m, lies between the lakes of Lucerne and Zug, and has long been famous as a majestic viewpoint. It divides the two lakes, and is also called the "Queen of the Mountains".

Zug is famous for its cherries, which are processed into many varieties of local Kirsch (cherry brandy) and made into Zuger Kirschtorte, a delectably buttery almond tart saturated with Kirsch, but that does not have a single fruit adorning it. Sadly, we missed the opportunity to taste the Kirschtorte.

Oberägeri

On Friday 24 November 2006, our last full day in Sestri Levante (in Italy), the weather was a trifle dismal, raining on and off all day. We spent the day quietly, resting, recovering from the exertions of the previous day and only going out for casual strolls and lunch at our favourite trattoria, the Millelire, and dinner at the restaurant Il Brigantino.
After lunch on Saturday (yes, you've guessed it, at the Millelire) we caught the train to Zug. Since it was a direct route we did not have to change trains anywhere and nothing could go wrong. Thus we arrived at Zug station around 9 pm that evening. Pierre (Leta's brother) met us at the station to drive us to Oberägeri where the rest of the Durandt family were waiting.
It was lovely to see them again - Ronel, Jehane and Armand. Lizelle was still away on a school soccer trip to Italy and was to return on Sunday. Their home occupies the top two floors of this building.

This is the view from the balcony of their home over the Ägerisee. The Ägerisee is a lake covering an area of 7.3 square km. Created by glaciers, it has a maximum depth of 83 m. Since 1992 the lake has been used as a water reservoir.

The distant peak in the middle of the horizon on this view over the Ägerisee is the famous Rigi mountain.
Oberägeri, until 1798 simply known as Ägeri, is a municipality in the canton of Zug in Switzerland, located on the northern shores of the Ägerisee.
The municipality of Oberägeri came into existence in the 15th century. Around 1500 several chapels and the first government building were built in Oberägeri. In 1766 the governments of Oberägeri and Unterägeri became involved in an open fight during local parliamentary sessions, and the two municipalities split in 1798.
Sunday morning we went for a lovely walk at the nearby Raten Pass (elevation 1077 m, connecting Oberägeri and Biberbrugg). The pass area is a ski resort during winter and we could see the signs of preparations for the forthcoming ski season.

Jehane and Armand had some fun on the flying fox. We were very impressed by the snow shelter and neat firewood stacks along the mountain paths.

Here is Armand in front of a small chapel at the Raten Pass picnic area.

Willem, Leta and Ronel, with the children in the background, running ahead as children will do.

And on the way down the hill, with the Ägerisee and Oberägeri in the distance.

Here are a few more pictures of the Durandts and their home town in spring, to show you how beautiful Oberägeri is.

Lovely photos of Lizelle, Ronel, Armand and Jehane, taken by Pierre in June of 2006.