Mothers weekend

That very Freitag friday (?) my Mum arrived from England for the weekend to find a new husband with riches beyond her imagination, however most people assumed I was her toyboy.
In true English spirit I will describe the weather conditions first. The freiday was a sweltering introduction, the saturday a temperate affair, sunday began cloudy AND misty but brightened in the afternoon, monday was a miserable bastard.
So as sson as She steps from the plane she is taken against her will to the Freitag party, she would have sat outside in protest of their prices had it not been so hot. We took in some fine argentinian barbeque and a train trip home to Luzern, past an inferno of burning tyres, which were trying to blot the sky out, it was like an Iraqi oil field.
We had a leisurely start on saturday and took in the local market and various other tourist must do's (chocolate shops, Swiss army knife shops, jewellers etc), I think the sites and sounds their usual hypnotic effect and she feel in Love with the town.
Sunday we took a boat trip across the lake to Vitznau. Our boat chugged along at a healthy pace scaring swans and the like, stopping here and there at various harbours sometimes in the shadow of a cliffs and also into harbours with carribean festivals. The boat had a deliberate and consistent sound, which made me sleepy. Vitznau has little to offer in terms of tourism, aside from the fact that is a pleasant suburban village on the lake with a harbour guard with an astonishing moustache. We took a private cable car about a quarter of the way up Rigi (a mountain) and took in a local restaurant. I say restaurant, it was more liek a bar/socila club. It was diffeicult to imagine people living at this height in these remote conditions with such an amazing backdrop, but here they were playing cards and drinking beer as old friends. The cable car is 10 times scarier on the way down, launching over gulfs and over houses and trees, we can't take photos quick enough. Every new place I travel to provides novel views and dramatic scenery each as breath-taking as each other. Our trip home is on a paddle boat, two gaint wheels thrash through the water at high speed, its engine room exposed to the publics scrutiny.
Monday is a quiet walk around town in the grey light and persistent drizzle, its a sad way to finsih her trip, but at least she has the whoel spectrum of Swiss weather. I only hope that she had as much fun as we did.

Freitag Birthday Zurich

So on Friday the 25th of May it was the one year anniversary of Freitags zurich store. They had a party, and if you're an exclusive member like myself then you were invited along to smaple some of the wares they were hawking. I was going in high hopes of discounted bags and what not, perhaps free posters or postcards something anything, anything free, my hope was sadly misplaced. They did have a barbeque and drinks, but where my discount dammit.
On the upside their building is something worth seeing. They have a nine story buidling made from metal storage containers (which Ben informs me are called gaylords, I don't belive him at all). The shop only spans three of these in height but it is full to bursting with recycled bags, ipod holders, laptop cases, wallets et al, a very handsome building. Hiromi and I climbed to the top to the observation post. As you climb and other people descend next to you, you can't help but notice the building sway ever so gentle with the motion. The top yields a 360 degree view of town, its not a great view but you are up high.
One of the two Freitag brothers was behind a bar dolling out drinks, looking shabbily well presented in mock overalls.
I take my hat of to their concept, take some second hand truck tarpualin, bike inner tubes, and car seat belts fashion into handsome products and sell at high prices, genius. They are now branching out into punch bags, footballs, seating and more, you can also go to their website and with the aid of the 'F-cut' cut out your own bag from a selection of tarps for assembly and delivery for an extra 20CHF on top of the usual price. What are you waiting for?

Interlaken

I have been here for almost two months now, the novelty hasn't worn off, but I couldn't help but think that I had, had the measure of the place = Efficient public transport, good education, wonderful architecture, cheese fixations, Mountains and the like. Infact most of these things are still true, but today we went to Interlaken and then Grindalwald, perhaps the epicentre of Swiss-ness. Interlaken lies two hours (by train) south east of Luzern, its a small tourist town full of Swiss army knife shops and "kiss me I'm Suisse" type T-shirt shops. The journey here requires you to push your face up against the glass and take in the wonder of the landscape. You can tell who is Swiss in your carriage, because they're are all sitting down immune to the effects of the countryside. We barely sit down the whole way to Interlaken, around every turn is a photo oppotunity (eventually my battery runs out before we reach Grindalwald, after 120 photos).
The town is fringed with overbearing cliff faces, almost sheer covered with Pine forests. We arrive around 11.00 and its already bustling with multinational tourists, I hear more english voices here than at any other time so far. We amble around the streets, yo-yoing in and out of shops, theres not a great deal to see shop-wise. The sky is blue and we sit in the shade watching around twenty paragliders sit on the thermals above the town, as we wait 4 or 5 descend intoa field next to our bench, sprialling down as a tandem or solo, their shadows dart across the few tall buildings here. We find a quite little Japanese restaurant and sample their excellent gyoza, and Hiromi enjoys the small talk of speaking in Japanese. The town sits between two ridges toweering hundres of meters above us, on one side this breaks in the middle, which gives view to a snow capped peak in the distance that lays in Grindalwald. Its snow is perenial, it looms ominously in the distance the sun glancing off its sides. Interlaken is a rich town full of hotels (expensive hotels) and a casino, the tourists look distinctly wealthy here. We however dine on kebabs.

More Interlaken

Some cute Photos of Hiromi, and thanks to Hiromi's photographic prowese, a Spaky Photo of me eating rice.

Grindelwald

What a great name, my favourite Swiss name, it just like a girls name from a brother Grimm tale. Pronounced Grin del vald.
Interlaken had some great scenery, but just a twenty minuute train journey away lies EVEN MORE POWERFUL views. Grindelwald is quite tiny, its more of a village than a town, but due to its unique location it is elevated to soaring heights of tourism, although it does have a great crazy golf course too, to be fare. Its a little scary being in Grindelwald, I felt as though I was going to be crushed by the mountains at any moment, never have I felt so small, the mountains look twice as tall as the ones in Luzern, perhaps because they are so sheer. They are big, they are snow capped, they are surrounding the village. We wander through the one main street and take in the same old shops, what we are looking for is the longest fernicular (mountain train) in europe, it is a two hour journey to the summit, its costs about 160 CHF= £65.00 to ride. We um and ah about the cost and then some shop keeper tells us its already closed for today, we'll have to come back tomorrow, which isn't an option really. There is however a fun size cable car that takes you up about 300 meters. The four of us hop on and we are away. Unlike the Pilatus cablecar this one starts ascending straight away and about half way up I decide that in the interests of science I should spit into a river some 150m below, it takes about 7-8 seconds to hit the ground, which when I report makes the other quite nervous, I just thought that was cool. I wasn't too bothered about riding up to see the view down but now we're climbing it is beautiful, the elevation describes the valley bellow and everything come into perspective. We reach the top in about 5 minutes, the view is spectacular, it really doesn't look real. The valley is dotted with Alpine huts and houses crawling over the hill sides, the ground looks crafted like a golf course, every tree thoughtfully placed. Its 9 CHF for the trip, which was well spent. Now we're here its time to sample the 750m Tabogan run, needless to say I didn't die, but there were some moments when I wasn't so sure, Hiromi shrieks here way around every corner and Ben goes first to let of some acceleration steam. Frolicking done we start to amble back down. We decide to walk down by one of the many paths, it take considerably longer than we expect. The Swiss have left the mountain au natral, which translates as no helath and safety. the path edge plunges drastically in places with death waiting at the bottom, we are rained on from above by water seeping out of the mountain, streams trickle across our path, helicopters fill the air buzzing back and forth. We pass through forest and meadows and then pass houses with steepled roofs and homely eaves the side of buildings are fortified with wood for the coming winter. All in all its an hour and a half beofre we reach civilization, we covera very insignificant portion of the hillside as we peer back up. You can watch paragliders lazily hover thousands of meters above, even higher than the mountain itself, barely moving, it must feel sublime. This is without a doubt the most majestic of places.

More Grindelwald

Photos courtesy of Mr Ben Hamilton.

Lausanne

Saturday the 5th of May.

Today we are heading for the town of Lausanne. Its a miserable day, the wind is blowing the rain is falling, we are running to the train station because we're running late. Six of us are going today, the three of us representing Baths pa, and the three Germans, Anne, Florian and Felix. We hop on the train, and it leaves exactly on time. We settle down for the two and half hour trip, I didn't think Switzerland was big enough to have such a train journey.
We dash through the countryside, through the gloomy weather through hills and mountains. There is an odd mist floating in patches everywhere, it gives the impression of great forest fires hissing in the rain. I take out my camera to immortalise the scene, it feels strangely light. Only then do I realise that in my joy of remembering to charge my camera battery, I have forgotten to put it back in my camera.
We are traveling today with purpose, we are going to see a gallelry, it celebrates a movement called 'Art Brut' or 'Outsider art'. This basically means rough art, or art outside the official norms of society. The majority of the artists we view are obsessive in nature, often detached from society or have experienced mental illness or traumatic upbringings. These people made art because they 'had to', they usually feature one theme, which is repeated until they died, much of the work was only discovered after their deaths. This work wasn't made for an audience or made to measure, in its purist form its an act of self expression with no other aim.
The largest collection they had was of a Russian deaf and mute man named Lobanov. Lobanov had an intensefixation with guns. Hundreds of his drawings feature fire arms, people hunting, in heoric positions, in type faces. He was often the centre of these images, he worked in collage too, staging elaborate facias, and cardboard guns painstakingly crafted in order to be photographed. After viewing 30 or 40 sketches you reach a saturation point and they begin to blur. Henry Darger was another prominent feature, he constructed an illustrated novel over three volumes and 50,000 pages. His work chronicled a race of strange children (all female), naked, some with Horns and tails, and their struggle aginast soldiers, cowboys and other adult male figures of aggression. Bizarre imagery using collage, copying, paint and pencils, over large formats. very intense and innocent/dark. There were perhaps 20 artists represented, all of them with a story and fascination, all a little sad but pure.
We also visited the Museum of deisgn and applied arts. They were hosting an exhibition celebrating Swiss design and innovation. From your typical Swiss army knife, Freitag bags, and time pieces to industrial design. It seems they hav eplayed a significant role in the evolution of most areas of design. The exhibition wasn't so big, but they had a great collection of design journals and a cute shop.
Laussane itself is a hilly town, everywhere we went was uphill and down dale, the architecture differed from Luzern and you could tell you were in aFrench speaking Kanton. We ran into a wine festival too, it featured all the kantons of Switzerland, Hirromi was able to get her face airbrushed (no, not all of it), after queueing up with the other children she asked for a small design for her check, she received a sizable shooting star in white pink and purple.
The shitty weather prevailed and we found ourselves dashing form shop to shop we took ina cafe and a bavarian pub before running for the last train home.
As we visit various institutes, we seem to gather an impressive collection of fliers and posters, here are some we picked up from Lausanne.