Duomo (part 2) – an Italian bride

As we were descending, a large wedding party was climbing to the highest part of the roof.

Duomo (part 1)

On Saturday, we visited the Duomo, Milan's gleaming white, gargantuan cathedral. The interior is dark and filled

with art, tombs, and tourists. This is a view of the lower part of the roof, which you reach after paying five euros
to climb ten flights of stairs.

Milan week: the Naviglio Grande

After a 2.5 hour journey through two long tunnels under the Alps and alongside Lake Maggiore, we arrived

in Milan. We walked from our hotel on the Via Giorgio Washington south to the Naviglio Grande to find

dinner. Afterwards we strolled up the popular canal before finding a gelato shop and heading to bed.

Spiez castle

On Friday, we scheduled a two-hour stopover in Spiez, just enough time for a picnic lunch and quick tour of the town's castle, which sits on a narrow strip of land jutting into Lake Thun.

Alpine flora

 

Zak and I took a long hike over the hillside above Kleine Scheidegg after descending from the Jungfraujoch. 

The snow was still melting on the lower elevation trails, but a large variety of plants were already showing

spring growth. These fuzzy Alpine anemones (Pulsatilla vernalis) were particularly charming and abundant.

Animalwise, we saw six marmots and two pairs of rock partridges.

Alpine trains

On Thursday, we took the train to the Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe at 3454 meters above sea level.

Alpine train tracks consist of two smooth rails and a center climbable rail. The track to the Jungfraujoch runs through 

a tunnel dug into the Eiger and Mönch mountains. Construction on the tunnel began in 1896 and was completed in 1912.

Wengen

We spent two nights in Wengen, a small town of ski chalets. Gimmelwald, the village we stayed in in January,

is down the valley and on the other side of the divide.

 This is the summer map of the area we visited. Wengen is about in the center of the map, with text in black.
The Jungfraujoch is in red at the top. Clicking on the map will make it larger.

Heiliggeistkirche Bern

We headed south last week for a trip to the Bernese Alps and Milan, with short stops in Bern, Spiez, and Stresa

along the way. This is the interior of the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church) in Bern. There was a lunchtime

music concert in progress.

Geraniums

Geraniums at our local botanical garden. We return from our trip to the Alps and Italy this evening.

Lord Byron, tourist

Byron was one of many tourists to leave his mark at the castle. He wrote a poem, The Prisoner of Chillon,

after his visit, inspired by a man who was imprisoned in the dungeon of the castle for six years.

Château de Chillon

The Château de Chillon sits about four kilometers south of Montreux. We walked along the 

beautifully landscaped lake shore, stopping along the way for a picnic lunch.

View of France from Montreux

Montreux sits on the eastern end of Lake Geneva, facing France across the lake.

Morat wall

A view of the medieval defensive wall of Morat/Mürten from one of the towers. Rain began to fall just as we got

to the wall, and we stayed up there for half an hour enjoying the stormy atmosphere.

Poppy field

We often walk along this path on Sundays. It's up by the abbey and close to the fields where the sheep graze.

Avenches graveyard

Near some of the Roman ruins, we came across this graveyard. I was surprised by the variety of headstones.
There are watering cans and a water spout in the center of the graveyard for tending the small garden plots.

Avenches

We revisited Avenches on Saturday. Another view of the Roman amphitheater with the chateau and older

part of town in the background.

Bubble man

Toward the end of our hike, we encountered this guy, making enormous soapy bubbles on a bridge over the ravine.

Areuse Gorges

We hiked down the Areuse Gorges today from Noiraigue to Boudry along the Areuse River.

Watch museum (part 2)

 

The lobby of the museum had lots of modern Swiss watches on display.

Watch museum

We visited the Musée International d'Horlogerie, the watch making museum, in La Chaux-de-Fonds today. This was
part of a temporary exhibit about the American clock making industry in the late 19th century. Most American
timepieces were made of wood back then.

Cat grass

I planted some "cat grass" for Freddie five days ago. It often has little globes of liquid on its leaves
in the morning, as can be seen on the third leaf from the left.

New paintings

Another post for Julia: two small paintings we recently purchased from Shelby Dillon, an American artist
living in Singapore. They are part of her series of 100 paintings of shop houses in "Little India."

Lupines

 

The view of our house from the lupine patch in the garden. We live on the lower floor, and have been spending lots of time on the balcony.

Centre Dürrenmatt

A sculpture at the Centre Dürrenmatt, which sits on a hill, high above town.

Milk cow

There was a milkable paper-mache cow standing out in the sun, and a couple real cows lying in the shade 

of their trailer, in the market a couple weeks ago.

Quilt top

Zak laid the new quilt top out for me on a dry, sunny day last weekend and I took a photo from our balcony.
I hope to find the fabric for the back on our trip to Milan in a couple weeks.

I could use some input from the sewers and quilters out there. Would you quilt this vertically along the 25 longways stripes, or horizontally along the color bars? My preference keeps alternating.

Crêperie

The Bach et Buck Crêperie last Sunday night.

Chestnuts in blossom

 

The horse chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) are in blossom with long conical stalks of flowers.

Sheep pasture

The sheep of the Abbaye de Fontaine-André graze in a pasture above town.

Flour tortillas

Mexican food, a staple of our diet, has been hard to come by in Switzerland. A few weeks ago, Zak 

got recipes for flour and corn tortillas from a friend in California. Delicious!