Two More Great Hikes!

Remember from the last post that I was going to mention more about my English conversation sessions with students/staff from ETH?  Well, I am thrilled that 4 people answered my ad.  I meet each of them once a week for about an hour.  Not only have I met Sandra (originally from Mexico) who gave us the excellent recommendation of the hike to Aescher Restaurant, but I've also met Josaine (from Brazil), Elena (from Switzerland) and Rama (from India).  I am helping them with English and I learn so much from them about their home countries and what it feels like to live in Zurich.

And there are more coincidences with Rama.  Not only did he participate in Miles' short course at ETH, but he also organized a full-day hike for the Mechanics Group.  Miles and I, along with 14 others (one other professor and family plus graduate students all who represented 8 different countries:  Italy, Spain, Russia, Hungary, Israel, India, Holland and Mexico) met at the Zurich train station and off we went on two trains, 1 boat and 1 funicular up to Seeliberg (Canton of Uri near Lucerne) and walked about an hour on the Swiss Path to Rutli meadow, the birth place of the Swiss confederation.


 Boat ride across Lake Lucerne



Original Swiss Parliment Building in Rutli (no doubt with modern improvements!)

 View from top of funicular--Seelisberg



Rutli meadow--the founding place of the Swiss confederation


Lunch time at Rutli

Meatloaf and mashed potatoes with fresh flower garnish

We then walked to a picnic area where Rama divided us up into 3 groups and we had a Fun Quiz on geography, history, movies and a bit of science.  As many of you know,  I LOVE quizzes and I am happy to announce that my group won the quiz. Yay for us!


 The winners of the Fun Quiz!

 
 Highland cow

We then went by boat across Lake Lucerne to Tellsplatte and visited Tell's Chapel with the four murals depicting the legend of William Tell.

William Tell mural (click on the picture and you'll see William's son
with the arrow through the apple)

A bit more hiking along the lake

We passed Switzerland's largest chime, consisting of 37 bells, built by chocolate manufacturers (no samples, unfortunately).  We arrived just in time to hear its music for about 10 minutes--sweet Swiss tunes.



We finally reached the town of Fluelen where we caught the train back to Zurich.

 An empty pool with miniature houses in Fluelen

Most of our group--great fun!


Two days later, Miles and I met up with Ondrej, a former student of Miles' from ETH, who took us on the Weissenstein mountain trail.  The Weissenstein peak (1284m) in Canton Solothurn is in the Jura mountain chain.  

We had fantastic weather, sunny and windless.  We saw the beginning of the beautiful fall colors.




Miles, me and Ondrej at a lookout (weather monitor behind us)


We continued to hike along the ridge.



What makes this hike extra special is that from here you can see a fantastic panoramic view over the the Swiss Plateau and the Alps from the Säntis to Mont Blanc.  In the following picture, the camera could not focus clearly to distinguish between the clouds and the snow capped peaks of the Alps above them.  (Click on the picture and you MAY be able to see the Alps!)

Barely visible peaks of the Alp range


No worries!  Everything else was crystal clear.  

We passed meadows full of Swiss cows with cow bells clanging.  Sorry, no audio!





On our descent, we looked back upon the ridge.



 
The view of Bellach, Ondrej's village

 
Last look at the ridge after the hike down











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