Escalade!

My good friend, Stephanie, and her beau, David, visited from South Carolina on the weekend of December 10.  Their visit gave us an opportunity to revisit a few places we had been before, sharing them with folks who had not yet experienced Switzerland.  But each place we revisited had new sights and experiences in store for us as well.

Enjoying Vin Chaud (mulled wine) in Lausanne's Christmas Market

On their first full day in town, we visited Chillon Castle, in Montreux.  We had been to Chillon before, but this time the castle was filled with people in medieval dress.  Some were playing medieval instruments, others were practicing medieval crafts, and still others showed us how to play medieval games.

Quick quiz:  Why is Montreux famous in rock and roll history?

Lunch at Chillon Castle

After lunch at the castle, we took a bus into the center of town for the Montreux Christmas market.  Many Swiss towns and cities have Christmas markets, but the one in Montreaux is one of the biggest and most famous.

On the ferris wheel at the Montreux Christmas Market

Quiz Answer:  Montreux is famous in rock and roll history for two reasons.  First:  In 1971, Deep Purple was in Montreux to record an album.  Frank Zappa was also in town, and a fan at Zappa's concert fired a flare, causing a major fire.  The Deep Purple band members watched from their hotel room as the fire raged and the smoke spread across Lake Geneva, inspiring their song, "Smoke on the Water," which starts, "We all came out to Montreux . . ."  Second:  Freddie Mercury, Queen's lead singer, lived here for a time and owned a recording studio at which his last album with Queen, "Made In Heaven," was recorded.  There's a statue of Mercury by the lake.

We went to Geneva on Stephanie and David's second full day in town.  We had been to Geneva before, but this was a special day.  They were celebrating L'Escalade.  L'Escalade celebrates the night of December 11-12, 1602, when the people of Geneva successfully fought off the Savoy's surprise attack on the city.  The Savoy attack was foiled because an alert watchman saw the Savoy advance party scaling the city walls, intending to open the gates and let their comrades enter.  The watchman sounded the alarm, and the Savoy were beaten back.  The names of the 16 Genevans who died that night are still read out loud as part of L'Escalade celebrations.

Geneva's old city was filled with people in period costume, leading tours, marching in formation, firing muskets and cannons, and playing fifes and drums.  This visit was even more fun because our friend Christophe (who lives in Geneva) organized the day for us, meeting us at the train station, guiding us from site to site, and explaining the history to us.  Thanks, Christophe!

One of the many reasons L'Escalade is interesting is that it is an example of a celebration that is very local in nature.  For the people of Geneva, this is a big and important event.  But it is a Geneva event, not a Swiss event, and there are many such local events in towns and cities across Switzerland.   The local nature of these events is so pronounced that people in other towns and cities may never even have heard of them.  Some of our Swiss friends who live in Lausanne, for example, had not only never been to L'Escalade, they had never heard of it.  This seems sort of like people who live in Baton Rouge, say, never having heard of Mardi Gras because, after all, it's a New Orleans tradition.  This local emphasis seems to characterize Swiss culture and society more generally.

Anyway, here's some photos from L'Escalade:

Matthew and Christopher even got to ring the bells of the Geneva Cathedral.  This is the only day of the year that the bell tower is open to visitors.

Ringing the same bells once used as fire alarms for the people of Geneva. 
Different sounds told the fire fighters which part of the city was burning.

One of the charming surprises of the L'Escalade was the walk through the Passage de Monetier, open to the public only during this festival. This passage takes visitors along the base of the old fortification walls under the Cathedral. It's a very narrow passage through which only one person at a time can (barely) fit through.

Mark in the Passage de Monetier

The climax of the day's celebration is a parade.  Thanks to Christophe's careful planning, our group (now also including his wife, Annick, and son, Leon, who joined us later in the day) was lucky to grab a primo spot at the main square in the old town.  It was very, very crowded, but the procession was spectacular.  Kind of like being in Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Us with Christophe, Annick and Leon on a Geneva bridge.

After the parade we headed to the train station to catch our train back to Lausanne.  We did not know it, but the celebration was not quite over.  Christophe had brought with him a chocolate pot.  For the people of Geneva, the chocolate pot is a special symbol.  Legend has it that a woman helped to defeat the invading Savoy by pouring a pot of boiling soup on them as they tried to scale the town walls.  In celebration of this act, one of the Escalade traditions is to make a pot out of chocolate, decorate it in Geneva's colors, and fill it with marzipan vegetables. The custom is for the oldest and the youngest in the group to join hands and smash the chocolate pot, after which everyone partakes of the chocolate and the marzipan.

Thanks to Christophe, we ended our day in Geneva by participating in this special Genevan tradition.  As we smashed the pot and ate the pieces with our Geneva friends, there on the platform as our train pulled into the station, it was hard not to feel a little bit Swiss -- or, maybe, Genevan -- at least for a moment.

Our guys and Christophe's son, Leon, getting ready to smash L'Escalade chocolate pot.

 Truly a wonderful day shared with our friends, old and new.

Visitors!

Like most, maybe all, Americans living abroad, we were facing the question of what to do for Thanksgiving.  There were no turkeys to be found in the stores. No long weekend with extra days off work and school.  Neither ignoring the holiday nor celebrating it by ourselves (after the boys got home from school) seemed particularly attractive options.

Fortunately, we were saved from having to choose between these options by a much anticipated visit from my brother Rick, his wife Eileen, and their kids, Graham and Annie.

And we had a wonderful time.

They arrived on Wednesday afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving.  For dinner we made sausages, rosti, and a Swiss-style salad (meaning a salad plate with little separate piles of lettuce, grated carrots, beets, and corn).  We thought we should welcome them with an official Swiss meal.

On Thursday (Thanksgiving day), the boys went to school, but Mark and I took the day off to show our guests around Lausanne: the Cathedral, a walk through old town, lunch by the clock.  And we even did a little shopping.  On Thursday night, the adults went out to dinner and the kids stayed home and watched a movie, with 14-year-old Graham in charge.  This was the first evening Mark and I had gone out without the kids.  Fun!

On Friday, we took the boys out of school and had a real Swiss adventure.  We drove to Les Diablerets, a large mountain peak about an hour from Lausanne.  At 3000 meters, it is pretty impressive.  And there was snow!

It took us an hour to get to the town at the base of the mountain, and it took us another hour to find the gondola that would take us to the top.  It turned out that the in-town gondola stop was closed, and the only one currently in operation was outside town in a little spot called Col du Pillon.

Hanging out in Les Diablerets

Christopher, Annie, Graham and Matthew on the gondola

Great views from the top of the mountain!

We took a chair lift (a first for our family!) from the peak down to a glacier on which people could ski and hike.  We hiked.

Nagle-Deamer Family on the chair lift to the glacier

Hiking on the glacier

Fun in the snow!

Nice balance!

We even had a delicious fondue lunch at the restaurant at the top, looking out at the Alps.  Now that was a real taste of Switzerland!

On Saturday, our last day together, we went to Martigny, a town we had visited before and enjoyed very much.  We knew it offered a nice combination of activities, so we were happy to visit again.  This is the town beneath the St. Bernard pass through the Alps.  As on our first visit we went to the St. Bernard Dog Museum but, this time, we were there to see the dogs more than the museum.  We also visited the ancient roman amphitheater next door to the St. Bernard Museum.  Here the kids did a dramatic re-enactment of a gladiator battle.

Then it was time for a picnic lunch.  We had planned to eat by the amphitheater but that side of town was in the shadow of the mountains, which made it too cold to eat outside.  So we hiked across town and up to the local castle, which was in the sun, for our picnic lunch.

The whole gang after our picnic lunch outside Chateau Batiaz

We didn't have any turkey, but it turned out to be a wonderful weekend.  We were grateful for the Nagle-Deamer visit, and much else besides, which made it a real Thanksgiving Weekend, and one to remember.

Bern: Switzerland's Capitol City

We had been planning for a while to take a trip to Bern, the Capitol of Switzerland.  While it is only one hour by train from Lausanne to Bern, we decided to make a weekend trip of it.

A friend back in Durham had connected us to her sister who has lived in Bern for a number of years (thanks Barbara!).  We had several lovely email exchanges with our friend's sister (Carol) and had hoped to meet up in Bern.  Alas, the only weekend available to us was a weekend she and her family were going out of town themselves.

While we did not get to meet Carol, she suggested several places and sights for us to visit in Bern.  We followed her suggestions and had a wonderful time. Thanks, Carol!

Our hotel was right on the edge of old town.  This was a funky little place, housed in a former brewery, with an ancient elevator that could hold a maximum of three people at a time.  The kids really got a kick out of working the old fashioned doors.

Going up?  Guys in old fashioned elevator.

  As only three could fit in the elevator at time, and since we were too impatient to take two elevator trips, one of us had to walk the five flights up to our room each time we returned.  A little grueling, but at least it was good exercise!

Our first evening in town we went to see the laser light show that was projected on the Parliament Building on weekend evenings in November. We did not know what to expect, but we had been told this was a "must see."  We arrived a little early, about a half hour before show time, and were surprised to find no one in the square.   After a quick stroll and the purchase of a few sandwiches for dinner at a nearby deli, we headed back to the square.  Now at 10 minutes until show time, the place was packed!  Mark estimates that there were about than 3,000 people standing in the square outside the Parliament building on what was a very chilly night.

In front of the Parliament Building

The show was amazing.  I wish we had taken some photos, but I suspect a photo would not have done the performance justice.  The building came alive with laser-created animation and whimsical characters that told some of the story of Switzerland's history--using the building itself as a character.  A really unique experience.

On our first full day in Bern, we took a walking tour of old town that was suggested in our guide book.  While we were walking, we encountered a ton of bikes.  Interestingly, the bikes were parked and we didn't see too many people riding around town on their bikes.

Bernites like their bikes!

We walked through the old streets and markets.  Bern's old town is known for its multiple fountains, dating from the 1500s.

Boys in front of the Zahringer Fountain

This walk also included a stop at Bern's famous clock tower.  The bells and moving characters that come alive every hour have been in operation for centuries.

The Zytgloggeturm Clock Tower

We were surprised to learn that Einstein had lived in Bern for several years, where, after failing to secure an academic position, he finally landed a job in the patent office.  And it was here in Bern that he wrote his most famous papers, including his paper on relativity.  We toured his apartment and learned about his life in Bern.

Guys in front of Einstein's House

We then walked to the far side of old town to see the famous Bern bears.   The city of Bern is named after the bear and bears have resided in this city park since 1480.

After a picnic lunch in the park by the bears, we made our way to the Cathedral of St. Vincent.  This cathedral was built between 1421 and 1573, though the spires weren't erected until the 19th century.  We walked all the way to the very top of the spires -- 370 steps up!

At the very top of St. Vincent's Cathedral

Bern is situated in a bend Aare River, and there are several bridges across the river.

Guys on one of Bern's Bridges.

Late in the day we made it to the Natural History Museum. The museum was interesting, but we were all tired by this point in the day, and most of the signage was in German, so we didn't get as much out of this visit as we had hoped.

Day two:  The Bern Adventure Continues.

After a good night's rest, we were ready for day two!  We started with a little play at a park near our hotel.

Kids climbing on a monument dedicated to the postal service.

Fun!

There are outdoor chess sets at various places around Bern.  After the park we stopped at one for a game.

Chess in the shadow of the Parliament Building

Enough play! Time for an educational activity! We decided to tackle the History Museum first.

The Bern History Museum was great.  It had a large exhibit dedicated to Einstein.  This was particularly interesting as it interwove Einstein's personal history with the history of the time -- first world war, second world war, etc.  This gave us many opportunities to talk with Christopher and Matthew about important historical events.  Challenging, to be sure.  Try explaining devaluation of currency after World War I to a 6 and 9 year old.

From the History Museum we walked a couple of blocks to the Bern Communications Museum.  This was Christopher's and Matthew's favorite place in Bern.  It was a hands- on museum which provided them lots and lots of opportunities to try things out.  For example, typing on an electric typewriter. (Matthew asked “What is a typewriter?"  I am not kidding.)  And they got to make a call using a rotary phone.  It was funny to see Christopher pick up the receiver and stared at the dial.  He had no idea that you put your finger in the hole and turn.

All in all, our visit to Bern was full, fun, and diverse.  And both boys have added electric typewriter to their Christmas lists.  How's Santa going to secure that?  I guess he'll have to stop at an antiques store.

Sion

We are getting to the bottom of our "must see" list for Switzerland.   We are lucky.  We really have done and seen a lot.  And there are still a few highlights left.

This past Saturday (11/12/11) we went for a day trip to Sion.  Sion is the capitol of the Canton of Valais and about an hour away by train.  We had heard there were some great hikes and castles.  We were not disappointed!

From the train station we headed to the Information Office to load up on maps and other pertinent info. Here we discovered that there is a nice walking tour of Sion that would lead us past local landmarks and up to the hilltop castles.

Part of the walking tour took us through Sion's old town, filled with lots of cute shops and restaurants.

Walking through Sion

The old part of town has a large, pedestrian friendly street running down the middle called Grand Pont (Large Bridge).  Here a river used to flow and there was a large bridge that spanned the river.  That river was diverted underground and this street remains.

There are two large hills above Sion.  On the hill to the left of the main path (Chemin de Chateau) are the ruins of Chateau de Tourbillon.  We headed there first.

Mark and the boys on the way to Chateau de Tourbillon

It was a very steep hike.  Of course, Christopher and Matthew ran almost the entire way while Mark and I stopped to take a rest now and again and marvel at their energy and strength, not to mention the views.

About half way up the boys stop and wait for us to catch up

While Chateau de Tourbillon is a ruin, it is still very impressive.  Chateau de Tourbillon was built by a 13th-century bishop to defend Sion against the House of Savoy.

Lots of fun places to explore inside the walls of Chateau de Tourbillon

We had a picnic lunch at Tourbillon, inside the castle walls.

Picnic in the castle courtyard. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves!

The view from Chateau de Tourbillon. In the background is Valere, the other hilltop castle in Sion.  That's our next stop.

At the base of Tourbillion is another path leading up another steep hill and Sion's other hilltop attraction, the Chateau de Valere.  The foundations were built as a fortress by the Romans.  The basilica, which was built in the 12th and 13th centuries, is still an active church.  (The Canton of Valais resisted the Reformation, remaining heavily Catholic to this day.  It is one of the most religious cantons in Switzerland.)  Inside the church is a 14th century organ that is thought to be the oldest playable organ in the world.  It remains in regular use.

Under the old organ. It would have been really something to have heard it played!

At Valere there was also a museum which told (and displayed) the town's history from the neolithic period to today.  Our trusty museum pass got us in for free.  It was a great museum filled with artifacts from every age.  And we were literally the only people in the museum for the duration of our visit.

After a long day, we headed back down the hill and through town to catch the train to Lausanne.

Hard to believe that near the bottom of our "must see" list is this fascinating town with major ruins, great hikes, and the oldest playable organ in the world.

A Day in Martigny

We had not heard of Martigny before we arrived in Switzerland, but our day trip there last Saturday has made it one of our favorite places.

Martigny (located about an hour from Lausanne) is in the valley just below the Saint Bernard pass, a famous and ancient pass through the Alps.  Both Julius Caesar and Napoleon crossed here.  The pass also is home to the Monks of Saint Bernard and their famous dogs.

The monastery up in the pass is not accessible to visitors at this time of year, but in Martigny there is a museum honoring the history of the Saint Bernard Monks and their rescue dogs.  Here they have all kinds of interesting artifacts and displays about mountain climbing, the Monks, and rescues in the Alps.  But the best part of this museum is that they have eight Saint Bernards on site.

Christopher and Matthew love dogs, so visiting the Saint Bernards in Martigny was a trip we were all looking forward to.

These dogs were incredibly large, incredibly cute, and super friendly and gentle.  If not for the slobber, maybe there'd be a Saint Bernard in our future.



We didn't know what else Martigny might have to offer beyond the dogs, but after a long visit at the museum in the morning, we decided to walk around town just to see what might be there.  This being Switzerland,  we wound up exploring more Roman ruins, climbing to a medieval castle, and, the biggest surprise of all, stumbling on an amazing exhibit of Monet paintings in the town's art museum! 

The Roman ruins were located adjacent to the St. Bernard museum and kennel.  There was a large amphitheater, and some homes and baths.  We read an account of the famous battle of Martigny, a battle in which the locals almost succeeded in chasing a Roman garrison out of town, but the Roman army prevailed in the end.  (Our Latin wasn't quite up to reading this account in the original language of the contemporary historian who wrote it, but there was an English translation alongside the French and German translations.) 

It's perhaps a sign that we've been here long enough to have grown accustomed to certain aspects of Switzerland that it didn't even occur to us to take pictures of these ruins, not even of the large and nicely restored amphitheater.

After lunch in a cute little cafe, we climbed up to the castle ruin (Château de la Bâtiaz). We didn't know about this castle before arriving in Martigny that morning, but this imposing structure can be seen from every corner of town, so we decided to find our way up to it.

Château de la Bâtiaz

After a healthy hike we got to the top of the hill.  While we were able to look around the grounds, we could not go into the castle.  It was closed for a private party.  Yes, you can rent this castle for your next shindig.  Something to think about!



On the way back down, we crossed over this wonderful covered bridge that spans the Dranse river.  The bridge was built in 1820 and is the only covered bridge in Switzerland that is still open to car traffic.

And then there's the art.  While we had made the trip to Martigny to see the dogs, and while we weren't all that surprised to find Roman ruins and a cool castle in town, we had no idea that we were in for a world class art exhibit.  All over town we noticed signs for a Monet exhibit at the Fondation Gianadda museum.  I checked our trusty Swiss Museum Pass, realized that the museum entry fee was covered (as was the entry fee to the St. Bernard museum), and we headed to see some major works of art.

Boys in front of the Fondation Gianadda Museum
(no photos allowed inside)

The exhibit was incredible.  There were 70 Monet paintings from throughout his career.  There were water lilies and cathedrals and train stations.  The museum was small and we were able to get up close to the paintings. So close that on many of them we could see brush strokes and layers of oil paint.  Wow! We were able to talk to the boys about Impressionism and what Monet was trying to capture and the differences among the paintings based on light and perspective.  I'm not sure they got the significance of it all, but being surrounded by Monets brought tears to my eyes. 

While our wonderful visit to Martigny had come to a close, our fun day had not.



From Martigny we headed back to Lausanne to see our first professional soccer game. 

Allez Lausanne!

The start of the game.  The professional players are accompanied by youth soccer players.
Lausanne is in blue, so Christopher and Matthew fit right in by wearing their Duke hats!

Our team is called Lausanne Sport. We are in last place in our league, and we were playing the first place team, Bale (which is how the French say Basel). So we were the underdogs.

But we scored first!

Lausanne scores and the crowd goes wild!

It was a super fun night. Lausanne played hard. We got to see five goals, a number of fouls and yellow cards, and the Lausanne Sport coach thrown out of the game.

In the end, Lausanne lost 3-2.  But a good time was had by all!



Switzerland isn't Ireland or Italy (where our first cab driver in Rome told us it wouldn't be safe to go near the soccer stadium that night during the game because of the potential for violence), but we did see more police presence (including several dozen officers standing by in riot gear) at the Lausanne soccer stadium than we've seen during our entire stay in Switzerland.  And the Bale fans were cordoned off in their own section that was fenced off from the rest of the stands.  There was no violence, and we also were thankful that, while the boys definitely have learned some French, they haven't learned enough French to be able to understand the rabid fan behind us who was cursing up a storm during the game. They could tell something was going on because the kids in front of us kept turing around and pointing at the guy, but they did not seem to be able to follow his foul-mounted diatribe against the players and the ref.  Whew!

Something about the combination of things we did today -- playing with St. Bernards, walking around a Roman amphitheater, hiking to a medieval castle, stumbling upon a Monet exhibit, and singing "Allez Lausanne" at our home team's soccer game -- encapsulates our experience of living in Switzerland.  It was a good day.

Fall Break Part I: The Eternal City

The kids' two-week (!) fall break from school just ended.  This is the first of three posts about our fall break adventures, which started with four days in Rome.

Inside the Colosseum

Arch of Constantine

Palatine Hill (where the Emperors lived)

With our guide, Guiseppe, at the Roman Forum

Walking up to the Pantheon

(Ami is in jeans and Matthew is in red pants)

We finished off the day with a run in the Circus Maximus, where the chariot races were held.  Well, the kids ran.  Mark and I walked.

And that was just day one!

On our second day, we visited Rome 3-D, an interactive museum near the Colosseum.

We'd fit right in to ancient Rome

The gladiator's life is spared!

Eating gelato (which we did a lot of in Italy) in front of a fountain at Santa Maria Maggiore

Learning how to be a gladiator at Gladiator School

Hanging out at Trevi Fountain

Whew!  That was a long day!  Onto day three.

We started day three visiting the catacombs.  No photographs allowed.

In the afternoon, we took the bus to another country: Vatican City.

Mark and the boys outside St. Peter's Basilica

Waiting on line to get through security at St. Peter's--where they confiscated my Swiss Army knife!  UGH!

Actually, rather than confiscate it, they allowed me to hide it under a garbage can near the security scanning machines.

Would it still be there after our visit?

Swiss guard posted outside St. Peter's Basilica.

He wasn't impressed that we were from Switzerland.

The knife was still there!  Yay!

Day four and it is time to leave Rome.  But there was still one more site on our list:  Michelangelo's Moses, which was located in a church (San Pietro in Vincoli) just up the street from our hotel.

We headed for the train station thinking that was the end of our Rome adventure, but at the station we encountered a loud demonstration, which we think (based on Google Translate) was a demonstration by railway workers involved in a contract dispute.

Arrivederci, Roma!