Happenings

Luzern

I thought that the chapter system would be the best way to catalog Zurich, but as it turns out there is a bit too much repetition during the week to warrant such a technique, so it looks like I'll write more often about specific outstanding events as opposed to the daily things that have settled down into a routine with work. I will post something about what is going on at the office, but for now there have been a couple of highlights of late that are worth talking about.

But first, there is one part of the routine that is exciting. After work has been an opportunity to go to the Letten, which is the swimming spot along the river that runs through Zurich. Its a popular place in the city where it seems like everyone goes after work for a swim, drinks, and bbq. Its a really unique scene, a strange mix of urban and what I used to consider a strictly non-urban activity. The river through Zurich has a relatively strong current. If you swim against it at about 75% effort, you can remain in a the same spot for a bit, but it quickly becomes a workout to avoid drifting backwards. Everytime I get in the water I try to increase the amount of time I fight against the current, but the temptation to let it carry you down the river towards the swim platforms usually gets the better of me pretty quickly. Beside the platforms and the area where people lay in the sun there are two beach volleyball courts where you can find plenty of macho Swiss guys who are under the impression that there is a crowd of about 1000 people watching their remarkable athleticism. In reality, its only guys like me, who get there and wait the long wait for a slot in the courts. My roommate Stefan and I usually play 1 or 2 games and intersperse a swim or two in between during the waits. It stays light out in Zurich until about 10 pm, so frequently we'll be there until 9.15 before heading back home.

The ride back is on bike, which is the preferred method of transit for so many Zurchers. The drivers here are used to the presence of bikers, and I would say that I feel pretty safe going along the streets. There are plenty of bike lanes and a lot of times the routes that I take are on streets where there are few cars. Its certainly no more intense than biking through NYC. So when the weather is nice, I rush home from work, change into my trunks, and bike to the Letten. We get our spot in the lineup for volleyball and walk back upriver to the bridge, where you jump off and begin the 10 minute float. Then volleyball, another swim, and home. Its a great way to spend the evenings. The only holdup has been the unreliable weather that has prevented us from going as frequently as we would like.

Montreaux Jazz

This weekend had two highlights: The Montreaux Jazz Festival and a day hike to a mountain near Luzern called Pilatus. On Friday afternoon, Amanda's friend Luis who lives in Zurich and also studies architecture at the ETH called me saying that he had a spare ticket to the festival that night. I left work a bit early and got home just in time for a quick change and a snack. We began the 2 hour drive to Montreaux around 7 and ended up missing about an hour of the first show, but we caught 4 great tunes performed by the Swedish ACT All Stars, a collection of Swedish jazz musicians that I think are part of the recording label ACT. That night, they were lead by trombonist Nils Lungred, a fixture of the ACT All stars. The few tunes we saw were awesome and ended up being an important foil to the next show that we saw that night. The Swedish All Stars played a mix of contemporary feels but the connection to the jazz attitude could be found in each part. As I said, their music provided perfect contrast to the more hard rock and funk oriented wailing of guitar great Jeff Beck, who played with Vinnie Colaiuta, one of the biggest names in the drum world. What a treat; I had no idea that Vinnie would be playing the show, so when I walked in and saw his unmistakable setup I knew that I was in for a great drumming spectacle. They also had a girl bass player who stood about 5 feet tall and looked to be 17 years old. She was amazing; to play with the guys who were on stage with her is unthinkable--totally paralyzing, but she held her own and grooved on with impressive ease amidst the substantial virtuosity around her.

Swedish Allstars

The show was really a rock concert with funk and fusion inflections thrown in, mostly by the drummer, and I don't think Ive ever head-banged along with rock junkies at a concert as much as I did to Jeff Becks seriously epic electric guitar. At the same time, I also kept asking myself "this is a jazz festival...the famous and storied Montreaux Jazz Festival?". The knowledge that Prince was upstairs headlining the final weekend show in the main theater only added to the wonder. But I was hearing Jeff Beck in "Miles Davis Hall", so I soon realized that I was asking myself a dumb question. After the show we checked out the two clubs that come alive in the AM hours at Montreaux, which have a combination of DJs and live music and are free to all to enter. The atmosphere around the festival was easy going and lighthearted; even the overcool euro-dudes seemed pretty smiley, which was a shocker. I've found that they're usually too busy pursing they're lips to ever look happy. The hairstyles of these guys I still don't understand. Europe would be in uproar if a global gel shortage struck.

Anyway, the Saturday after Montreaux was a recovery day because Luis and I drove back right after the festival and got back to Zurich around 4 am. On Saturday night I went to a housewarming party for one of Stefan's friends and met some nice people. It was there that I finally bit the bullet and decided to just go out and find a good hike. Stefan suggested Pilatus, which is the mountain right by the Swiss city of Luzern, located southwest of Zurich on the way to Interlaken and the Alps. I had learned my lesson from the week before and went home from the party with ample time to sleep and recover from a much wiser beer intake level than I had gone with the previous weekend.

Approximate beginning; I started down at the lake

About 1/3 up

On Sunday morning, I packed my backpack and rode my bike to Zurich central station, grabbed a ticket to Luzern, and enjoyed a bit of "Shantaram" on my ipod as the Swiss countryside flew by. The short train ride got me to Luzern around noon. After a quick stop at the grocery store for a cheap mountain lunch and some instructions for the trail location from the tourist office, I headed off to the trail head. I started at about 400 m elevation and hiked up to about 1500 m. The trail was a combination of gravel path and forest path. It wove in and out of the woods and offered some stellar views of the surrounding Swiss landscape, which can somehow be as flat as an undisturbed glacier lake, as graceful as a gentle green pasture, and as mountanious as the mind could ever imagine a place being all in the same moment. Even as you feel the hot summer sun on your back you're reminded of the amazing altitude changes marked on the horizon that is still dotted with snow covered peaks in the hottest of the summer months.

Almost halfway, channeling Winston

The hike continued and I spent about three hours completely alone in the quiet of the trail, with only a few other hikers passing by from time to time each absorbed in his or her own experience. My hike ended about 600 m from the 2100 m altitude peak, where there began another more difficult trail to the top. I elected to take the lift up to the top for time reasons, as I wanted to see the view with ample sunlight and enough time to comfortably get down and back to Luzern. The view from the up there was as one could imagine; I found myself up with those snow covered peaks, directly above the place where I felt that hot summer sun which had now been replaced in a matter of moments with a brisk cold wind akin to one atop a ski run in January. I bundled up and broke out my bread and cheese while enjoying the view and the the changing clouds that seemed to crash into the very edge on which I sat, breaking into pieces and reforming on the other side as the wind whipped around the rocky peak. Its fun to be alone on the top of a mountain with a sloppily made cheese sandwich and the quiet.

At the top

South

East

I took the cable car down to the base and then the train back to Luzern, where I did a quick tour of the city center and noted some of the architecture, per usual. I was sore and happy, covered in the salty remains of a day's hard earned sweat that's been frozen onto you by a cold wind. I resumed another 45 minutes of Shantaram on my ipod and once again watched the Swiss countryside zip by out the window. Back in Zurich, I made a quick dinner and settled in for a good night's sleep. The Phillies won their 8th game in a row back home, Philadelphia played hosted the US victory over Panama in the semifinals in the Gold Cup, and I was truly happy in Zurich. A great day.

Jean Nouvel's Culture and Congress Center in Lucern...

the coolest cantilever I've ever seen?

Addendum: Today, the Monday following my hike, was punctuated by some of the best weather I've seen in Zurich. I got out of work at a reasonable hour, stopped at the grocery store, dropped off the food at home, and headed straight for the lake by bike, where I locked up and went for a long run along the water. It was finally clear enough to see the snow covered peaks in the distance over the Lake of Zurich that stretches south towards the Alps and the Swiss Italian border. Work wasn't too great today, but I've got a stomach full of carbonara enjoyed on the balcony and the dying light from a beautiful evening in Europe to keep my morale where it belongs.