Saturday, 6 July 2002
Despite the
overcast sky, we ventured by train to Canton Fribourg in the Western, French-speaking
part of Switzerland known as the Three Lakes Region. This area is hosting the Swiss National Exposition (Expo02), a
multi-billion dollar event to enrich the cultural lives of Swiss and world citizens. David hesitated to take a 6:34 a.m. train,
so we caught the 8 a.m. train and arrived at the area around 10 a.m. to check
out the little towns of Fribourg and Estavayer-le-lac. Fribourg is known as the Town of Bridges,
and for good reason. This village is
built in the hairpin loop of a river that cuts into steep cliffs and creates a
town of many elevations. We happened to
visit this traditional town on the one day every three years that the Swiss
gather here to display those not-so-cosmopolitan skills of alpine horn playing
and yodeling. Talk about the true Swiss
experience.
Fribourg – View
from the old town looking over the Neuveville (New town). This picture fails to capture the depth and
variation in elevation of the town. The
cliff is very steep. It’s so steep that
they built a funicular (trolley built for steep hills) that travels up and down
the cliff and connects the two halves of this town. The funicular is powered by channeling raw sewage from the upper
city to pull the lower train up the cliff; this is without a doubt the smelliest
ride in all of Switzerland!
Crypt of Fribourg
Cathedral
Fribourg is a town
that has resisted many changes. It is
the only town in Switzerland that has remained Catholic despite the many
Protestant rebellions. The cathedral
here is very impressive, but the real treasure of the church is tucked away in
a crypt. This collection of life size
wooden figures depicting the entombment of Christ is serenely beautiful
These are two of
the bridges of Fribourg: the one in the right foreground is the original wooden
bridge that leads to Bern. The bridge
in the background is obviously a little more contemporary.
The little wooden
bridge to Bern.
We watched the
alpine horn competition from the fountain by Jean Tinguely, with whom we became
acquainted in Basel.
This moving
cacophony of a fountain contrasted starkly with the alpine horns and
traditional garb of the musicians in the background. The ladies wear full skirts with tied corsets over ballooning
blouses; they accessorize with a little rose corsage tucked into their corset,
white lace stockings, stark black shoes with gold buckles, and colorful floral
print aprons. (David would like to
point out that he had no part in the composition of that sentence.) The dudes are even better! They wear leather overall shorts (lederhosen),
with knee socks and black shoes, and colorful short sleeve jackets over long
sleeved white shirts.
From Fribourg we
hopped on a train to Estavayer-le-lac, a town that is still navigable with a
map originally drawn in the 1500’s. The
thing that drew us here was the hype about a Frog Museum. A former Swiss Guard devoted his time (130
years ago) to embalming frogs and displaying them in scenes from the daily life
of the 1800’s. Slightly grotesque and
macabre, but overall, we were highly amused.
The detail is fascinating
.
L’ecole, the
school.
For Dad (LJS).
Giddyup! This one cracked us up!
The museum also
has an impressive collection of Swiss train memorabilia. (Don Jacobs, this one’s for you.)
This is the church
in Estavayer-le-lac. Also shown is the
dreary, rainy sky that kept us in cafes most of the afternoon! (David claims that one more cup of coffee
and he wouldn’t have slept for a week.)
Us in front of the
church in a little alcove, trying to keep dry.
This town is full
of fountains that are hundreds of years old.
Every one that we came across has been modified with these colorful wire
and bucket contraptions that use the waterspout to turn wheels and animate
birds and butterflies and everything thing else! These fountains are a bright and happy contrast to Jean Tinguely’s
dismal pieces.
This street has
been strung with birds made out of aluminum cans. Hundreds of them!
After our moisturizing
sightseeing tour of the town, we met our friend Ralph from Zurich. Sara booked rooms for the gang on a website
recommended by Expo02; one hotel advertised bed and breakfast for 35 CHF… not a
bad deal. However, due to lack of German
language skill, she neglected to notice the directions, which roughly
translated, said “After the café, turn into the first barnyard on the left”. David and Ralph had a hey-day on our way to our
rustic retreat. “Honey, could you ask
the cow to roll over… he’s snoring.”
Combremont-le-Petit
is a tiny village a few kilometers away from the Expo, but it is a world away
from the urban life to which we’ve become accustomed. The aroma of hay and pigs fills this little town;
our hotel turned out to be (surprise, surprise) a farmhouse. The landlady (who speaks only French) rents
out rooms in the upstairs of her home.
Despite the pessimism of the boys, this farmhouse turned out to be a
lovely place to stay; like sleeping at Grandma’s for the night.
Sunday, 7 July 2002
Swiss National
Exposition (Expo02)
After our
breakfast of homemade EVERYTHING (bread, butter, apple juice, preserves) and of
course, cheese from the local fromagerie, we packed up and headed to the Expo.
Our bedroom for
the night, complete with the wallpaper and drapes you’d expect to find at
Grandma’s! (Once again, a lone
observation by Sara.)
Our little
farmhouse hotel.
The Swiss
countryside around Combremont-le-petit.
David forced Ralph to pull over so he could take some photos of the
countryside.
View of the lake
and countryside around the Expo.
Each of the five arteplages
(exhibition areas where various themes are explored in various artistic media) of
Expo02 has a main structure and theme.
We visited two arteplages during our whirlwind day. The first, in Yverdon-les-bains, is centered
around a man-made cloud that sits on top of the lake. The steel structure is laced with hoses spraying mist into the
air. With the help of light breeze off
of the lake the entire bank is engulfed in a low flying cloud.
The mist from the
CLOUD pouring onto the shore.
David and Ralph,
in their sky-inspired ponchos, trying to stay dry.
Nifty lighting
created by the cloud.
The man made cloud
of Yverdon-les-bains.
This exhibition
juts out into the water for optimal cloud viewing. (Yes, that’s David attempting to take an artsy photograph.)
A swan has picked
this shore to build her nest and raise her 4 swanlings (plus one more egg to
go). People hung over the railing to gawk
(Sara did her fair share of gawking).
Mama swan and one
of the ugly little ducklings
Mid-day, we moved
up the lake to Neuchatel, where the arteplage is symbolized by three enormous
synthetic pebbles, laying in an artificial reed bed. (No, we’re not making this stuff up. Check it out below and keep in mind, the Swiss have spent
BILLIONS on this.) IT’S ART! (David claims that he would have written a
few “strongly-worded letters” were he a Swiss taxpayer.) We were very impressed by the dude who
entertained a crowd by balancing rocks on top of one another off shore. Talk about unstable equilibrium! It takes him 15 minutes to get each rock
just right, but the rocks stay perched, defying gravity.
The Neuchatel
arteplage with the Amazing Rock Balancer!
Afternoon view
from the Neuchatel arteplage. From
underneath, the “pebbles” kind of gave you that “extraterrestrial” feeling.
Expo fun-park with
artificial reeds in foreground.
In general, we preferred
the exhibitions in Neuchatel to those in Yverdon-les-bains, although the
artificial cloud was an appreciably novel idea. Being engineers, we found the artificial intelligence and
robotics exhibits in Neuchatel the most entertaining with a respectable depth
of content. Likewise, other exhibitions
claiming to “explore the fundamental questions of human existence” were a bit
fluffy and esoteric for our taste. There
was certainly something for everyone, even a Ferris wheel for the kids. We were still flabbergasted at the amount of
public funds “invested” in the production.
Next weekend we’re
heading to the Alps with Mom and Dad Earley who arrive on Friday. Stay tuned…