We could also title this post “37 Views of the Matterhorn,” because these should be the last 37 views of this beautiful mountain that you’ll see for now. I arrived in Zermatt after dark on the 30th of October and posted my very first Matterhorn shots the next morning, so today is precisely three months from when I posted the first of many Matterhorn shots. I did many long and wonderful walks / hikes during my three full days in Zermatt, as well as sitting on benches drinking tea in the morning while waiting for the sun to peek around the facing mountains to shine directly onto the peak on at least one morning. So these show the mountain as seen from various directions and elevations. I’ve edited out quite a few, but find these that remain so lovely each in a slightly different way that I’d feel I’m failing to share the joy of beauty if I didn’t post. And Steve always reminds me that folks can glance quickly and then move on if they want. Hugs & may the coming month bring love, joy and some mountain tranquility to your daily life.
So after all that talk of Swiss history I thought I’d finally show you the few salvageable images I took while the train was heading north from Bellinzona to the Gotthard base tunnel en route to Zurich, the day after all those castle shots. I expect that highway bridge you see below is carrying traffic up to the car part of the same pass we were heading for, but can’t be certain. Sorry for any of the train-motion and window-blur effects that linger after my cropping and retouching.
Et voila, that Tibetan hanging bridge across a gorge in the hills northwest of Bellinzona (en route to Locarno) that I’ve been promising to show you for more than two months. There’ll be one or two more of this location, likely in a different series you can guess.
Welcome to Bellinzona, which is the capital of Ticino, Switzerland’s southernmost and only predominantly Italian-speaking canton. Its importance derives from its pivotal role in ensuring the Swiss Confederation took all this land south of the alps away from various Italian ducal cities which had claimed it.
Yes, it’s not coincidence that Switzerland has this large canton almost entirely south of the alps whose sole official language is Italian: three key central-Swiss cantons and founders of the Old Swiss Confederacy back in the 14-1500’s each built a castle strategically positioned to both protect the Gotthard pass – it’s north and east of the mountains on the far side just above and has since history began been the main pass through the alps – and to secure claim to the lands that are now Ticino. Turns out at one point they’d conquered land all the way down to Domodossola, which was the one place they were required to give back in the Peace of 1516. Who know the Swiss were once so expansionist?
This photo immediately above shows you Castello di Sasso Corbaro at the top, seen through the crenelations on a turret of Castello di Montebello. We shared a glimpse of Sasso Corbaro in an earlier post, taken as I hiked up the other (western) side earlier this day, before walking and bushwhacking back down the east side to get to Montebello. (All of this was necessary because construction was blocking access to the main foot path from town up to this one.) The top picture shows you Castelgrande, the only one I didn’t get to, because after the bushwhacking etc. between these two castles, I chose the Tibetan hanging bridge at sunset instead, as noted in a prior post more than two months ago … in which I promised both to show & tell you more about Bellinzona (promise now fulfilled), and show you the Tibetan hanging bridge (promise still outstanding). The first photo in the gallery below should be showing you both Montebello (closer) and Castelgrande (farther) as seen from Sasso Corbaro. Enjoy these views of the most historically important of Ticino’s lovely cities.
We’re in the hills above Bellinzona, walking toward Castello di Sasso Corbaro, which you can see at the top. It’s one of the three castles guarding three key passes into this valley which gives access to Lake Lugano, into which this stream above and below will flow. (More about all that, quite soon.) Below, you’re looking pretty much west to where you can just make out Lago Maggiore’s northeasternmost arm.
Schaffhausen’s pre-Christmas town center at dusk. That’s me drinking my first-ever mulled white wine in the town square with that … interesting … fountain. The Rhine Falls (Rheinfall) visit and this short exploration of Schaffhausen city center were all a wee excursion out from Zurich where’d I’d dropped my luggage in a locker upon arrival, so as to make use of the last daylight before returning to Zurich later that evening. (Btw just tap or click on any photo that the automatic gallery has cropped if you want to see all of it, e.g. all of my face but they’re all auto-cropped, rather annoyingly tbh.)
I was delighted enough with the way this photo captured the water from this downtown-Locarno fountain that I decided we’ll try yet another new series, and I’ve been pondering what to name it in the months since I first took this image. Living water? Moving water? It’s Alive? Almost went with the last, but it sounds too much like a horror film. Vote your pick below, if you wish. I did promise a few new things in this new year, and unlike a few politicians I’ve experienced, I tend to keep promises 🙂
Just a few of Sigmar Polke’s remarkable 2009 windows in what was apparently the birthplace of the Swiss-German reformation, Zurich’s Grossmünster. New year, another new series which smw, slt certainly hopes hope you’ll enjoy. Much love to Andre for ensuring I saw these :-).
These are all from my first evening ‘living’ if only briefly in the village of Bissone on the southeastern shore of Lake Lugano. Curious about the Italian exclave, and noting that it was a short walk past the nearest grocery store where I’d be buying my dinner fixins and breakfast supplies, I walked on up the narrow road without decent sidewalk and caught these views, some of Campione d’Italia and others looking more south. In the gallery below is another image similar to the one above, which I’m sharing b/c it lets you better see the causeway that made overland travel possible between Melide and Bissone, early in the last century. John (and possibly others equally curious), you’ll be interested in the Wikipedia article on Campione and how it came to exist, and this arch, and the the boundary marker I showed in my last post from Campione.
All these shots come from the viewing platform at the top of the building into which the gondolas arrive, and from which skiers ski down year ’round, because indeed up here there’s year-round skiing, though when I was there only as far as the middle station. In the right-hand shot with me just above, I’m pointing at a mountain I sort of thought might be Mont Blanc because of how big it is both in height and mass. I couldn’t get anyone to solidly confirm or deny my idea. And yes, that pyramidal mountain on my other side is the Matterhorn seen from the southeast and not too far below its peak. On the left, notice the sign showing which mountains are which. As I recollect, the similar sign on the other side was weather-worn enough that one could not definitively confirm or deny my hypothesis.
Honor between blogger and reader: I might have given you the impression that you wouldn’t see more mid-air photos from the gondola ride between Zermatt & the top. I just re-read that post and I did, fortunately, tell you I was posting the last photos taken during the ride from Zermatt up. Which was true: I don’t have any more planned from the ride up! So if you go to that last post, you will see a similar photo to the one just above – but with noticeable differences linked to the fact that, just above, I’m nicely positioned at the very front of a gondola that’s just begun its descent from the top to the middle station. You’ll see probably one more post, from the middle heading down.
Gosh, I told you about my delighteful walk from the lovely town of Gandria back to Lugano in a prior post…but I haven’t shown you the town itself yet! Do note the way furniture is delivered, by carefully viewing the very last photo in the gallery below, just next to the photo of Gandria’s town hall aka Casa Communale.
These are all from my first evening ‘living’ if only briefly in the village of Bissone on the southeastern shore of Lake Lugano. Curious about the Italian exclave, and noting that it was a short walk past the nearest grocery store where I’d be buying my dinner fixins and breakfast supplies, I walked on up the narrow road without decent sidewalk and caught these views, some of Campione d’Italia and others looking more south. In the gallery below is another image similar to the one above, which I’m sharing b/c it lets you better see the causeway that made overland travel possible between Melide and Bissone, early in the last century. John (and possibly others equally curious), you’ll be interested in the Wikipedia article on Campione and how it came to exist, and this arch, and the the boundary marker I showed in my last post from Campione.
(so much world, so little time....) 