Gruyeres and Chateau de Gruyers

Before I start, the whole Chateau/St. Germain (Castle) shares the same name, in this post I'm referring to the Chateau as the whole area and not just the Castle itself.......

Ness on the Ramparts of the Chateau

Entry archway into the Chateau

The main street and old well (now a fountain) of the Chateau

The main street of the Chateau

The main area of the township Gruyeres viewed from the Chateau

Chateau de Gruyeres

Gruezi one and all,

Twas a rare occasion, but Ness managed to get this Tuesday off work and we decided we would head out to Gruyeres. It was very nearly our own planes, trains and automobiles moment (Our thoughts go out to Bone and Alwyn who have had to deal with rail stoppages across Europe). After several modes of transport, changing from buses to trains etc and some 2 odd hours later we made it to Gruyeres. At the outset I really only wanted to see the H.R. Giger museum there, how wrong I was. My wildest expectations were surpassed in every sense. Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me lay down a few facts for those of you that are interested -

Gruyeres itself is a town in the Fribourg region of southern Switzerland nestled at the foothills of the Alps (somewhere around 800 metres above sea level). The crane (in French: "Grue") - its heraldic representation - inspired the name Gruyeres. Some of you may know the name as it is a cheese, and yes, it is made here funnily enough. This is the French speaking region obviously very near to the French border. The Chateau de Gruyeres is one of the most prestigious Castles (my previous spelling, Castel, is the German) in Switzerland. Constructed between 1270 and 1282, this grand structure is not just a Castle but a whole fortified village. Cobbled streets, stone walls, towers and ramparts - a true journey back into a time long gone. Again I add that a place such as this can never be done justice in a sentence or paragraph - it is just not possible to describe the feeling of awe walking the hill into this understatedly amazing place.

As I was saying earlier - The Giger Museum is located in the Chateau, along with the Giger Bar, several small restaurants, craft, souvenir and cheese shops. There are actual residents of the Chateau (not the Castle itself) going about their daily business, but the slack-jawed tourists clearly outnumber the residents. Luckily we didn't really stand out as tourists (despite constant use of camera), being Ness speaks French, we managed really well - more so than we do here in Zurich. Just wandering the streets was a brilliant experience which brings me back to H.R. Giger.

Many times I have seen his works, but never to stand in front of them: Sculpture, painting, furniture, etching, mediums that defy description, even a private collection of works that have inspired or been dedicated to the man himself. I'm not going to try and describe the style of art, if you don't know who I am talking about chances are you probably won't like Giger's very distinctive style. I spent nearly two hours wandering through these works with my jaw firmly attached to my chest. The experience was emotional, grotesque, inspiring, moving and a mind fuck all in such a fleeting moment - an opportunity I thought I would never have in my lifetime. The Giger Bar was just as incredible, the decor design was like a cave of ribs and skulls stretched across a bloody circuit of canvas (and they sold beer too). Furniture of bone and flesh melting into the mechanic as only Giger can. I could go on and on and on. You may have guessed by now that I relished the experience.

The Castle was truly magnificent. Walking through the main entrance into the courtyard was nothing less than spellbinding. Towering walls, timber older than the colonized nation of Australia, ramparts, wooden galleries overlooking the courtyard, Baroque and Renaissance artworks, even a Pianoforte constructed in 1835 by J.W. Braschoss for Franz Liszt. The grandiose Knights'room, painted between 1852 and 1862 by Henri Baron, depicting the history and legend of Gruyeres dating back to the year 400. There is way too much to describe so it is a good thing we have plenty of photos to bring back with us. You can feel the history, literally and figuratively, everywhere you look. One memory forever etched on my mind is the image of a lone Knight crudely etched into one of the white-washed walls, the date 1541 scratched in along side of it (and yes, it was authentic).

This day was the greatest experience I have had here in Switzerland, and quite possibly all of Europe, but of course there is still plenty more to see. For now I shall bid you all a very fond Auf Wiedersehen, very very soon I will start posting some photos of our trip to Gruyeres so keep checking back because there will probably be a fair few of them. I will also put up a few of the photos I was able to take of the Giger Bar and Museum. Until next time, my friends, I shall leave you with words from the man himself:

"The more famous I get, the more I am tolerated, albeit with some head-shaking." H.R. Giger.

'Well, at least I'm big in Europe.' L.J. Barnes

Regards,

Jimi and

The Castel on The Hill.....

Gruezi, again,

Just a quick note - in the most recently posted photos I referred to an area called Fortunagasse, I need to make a correction. The actual place we visited is called Lindenhof. Situated in what is known as the Old Town of Zurich, Lindenhof is what remains of the excavated Turicum - the Roman Castel. An original freemasons lodge also stands on this site. The view down into the city is of the right bank of the river Limmat. Truly you learn something new every day.

Until next time,

Auf Wiedersehen

Water views of the good kind....

Gruezi everyone,

Firstly - We've been getting news and footage of the dramatic situation back home in Newcastle and area. Not often we make world news and are broadcast on CNN. Our thoughts are with you all and hope that you remain safe. News is slowly filtering through to us and we are relieved that most of you have come through the events of the past few days relatively unscathed. Al - Stay safe out there my brother. Just know we are thinking of you all.

The weekend for us here in Zurich has been simply relaxing. We spent most of Saturday lazing by the lake, kicking back with cheeses and beers just watching the world go by. How's the serenity. Nothing too exciting to report but we are heading out of town next weekend, I hope to get to Gruyeres so we can see the Giger Museum. Well, we're about to head down to the 'natural' lake again to soak in the atmosphere and enjoy the spectacular sunny day here. We'll leave you with a few more photos of this beautiful city.

Zurich by night

Ness and I looking over Zurich from Fortunagasse

View from Fortunagasse

View across the lake from Mythen Quai (the opposite side of the lake to us)

Painting on a building on Strehlgasse

Once again, we simply hope you all remain safe, especially those of you in the Maitland area.

Good luck and good wishes,

Jim and Ness

Sprechen sie what?

Gutenmorgen jeder,

Ness and I have just spent our 1st weekend in a rather wet Zurich. It had been raining since Thursday and the sun finally shone through on Sunday afternoon. Although the weather wasn't fantastic we still managed to wander the central city of Zurich on Saturday and also made our way out to Sihlcity which is only about 10 minutes out of the central city by tram. Sihlcity is basically a very modern shopping/entertainment area - shops, bars, cinemas, restaurants etc. The one noteworthy thing to mention is at Sihlcity is a small museum that is currently holding an exhibition on the great Stanley Kubrick - the exhibition also features screenings of his works. I of course plan to see this but am timing it to coincide with the screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I have never seen on the big screen before.

So far as Zurich city goes, we have seen the most part of the main area and now plan to start making our way to the nearby museums and sights in the weekends to follow.

There is just so much money here in Zurich, a freakin' ridiculous amount in fact. Ferrari's are as common as Commodore's, at least half of the city's shopping area is filled with places like Cartier and Armani. There is a certain air of snobbery about it, especially when you see the rich wives wandering the shops sporting their mink and carting their preened poodles in handbags that are only just less expensive than what they paid to have their dog's hair styled.

On the street level though, most regular people seem to be quite friendly. There are naturally some communication difficulties here, it seems there are not so many English speakers - the language is primarily German but has a bit of French mixed in as well, but we are managing pretty well.

It is definitely a different experience and feel here to what we became used to in Amsterdam. Not that you can really compare one to the other. But for now I shall leave you with a few photos of Zurich.

View of Zurichsee (which you'll probably see a lot of)

The river Limmat flowing into Zurichsee

Some of the friendly locals

Our little apartment (bottom floor) on Gletscherstraase

Us down at Zurichsee

Part of the main shopping area in the city centre, the largest clock face in Zurich in the background.

Plenty more happening soon, should be a very historic weekend coming up, so until next time, Auf Wiedersehen.

Jimi and Ness

Switzerlanded....

A hoy hoy,

Well here we are, we have made it to Switzerland safe and sound (well we made it here on Wednesday around 1pm - but finally have the internet up and running in our apartment). Our little apartment is at 6 Gletscher Straas - someone else actually lives here but is working out of town for the next few months so we're more or less house sitting. Ness is already working hard once again (the new Scenic office is located in Zug, around a 40 minute train ride away) and for the moment we're just trying to get our bearings and settle into our new home for the next couple of months. We haven't seen all that much of Zurich yet but it is a really beautiful city. It's a fair bit smaller than Amsterdam but much more picturesque (you'll see what I mean when we post some photos). Like most other places in Europe, you can swing a Toblerone and hit something of some historical significance (Useless fact - The shape of the Toblerone is supposed to represent the Matterhorn in the Alps). We're only about 5 minutes stroll from Lake Zurich and right on a tram line into the middle of the city which is only about a 30 minute stroll away. On a clear day you can even see the snow capped Alps way off in the distance.

Once again there are many museums and places of note in Zurich city itself but there are plenty more places out of the city that we would like to get to see. Within in our time here we hope to make it to Avignon to see Ness's family, my highlight here is to get to see the H.R. Giger Muesum in Gruyeres (and yes, that is where the cheese comes from - although there is cheese everywhere here).

Just a short one for now, should have some photos to put on the blog soon so keep an eye out.
Hope everyone is doing fine and well back home.

Peace and Regards as always,

Jim and Ness

{Just when you think it's safe to blog - In Amsterdam, for some reason, Blogger wouldn't revert back to my default English [FFS], now I'm blogging in high German - or more correctly I'm Veroffentlinchen}

[What's funnier than watching a bad Jean-Claude Van Damme movie? Watching it badly, really badly over dubbed into German!]