Lost in Switzerland ~ A Foreign Adventure: Adventure 3.0: Luzern

Saturday, March 12, 2011

For those that want the short version:

- Luzern is beautiful. A city surrounded by snow capped mountains.

- I finally get Picasso after seeing over 50 of his paintings.

- Farmers market with cheese vendor, glorious cheese!

- Walking around the lake is a must do! It offers amazing views

- The Swiss transportation museam is huge and well worth the time and money.

Now for the rest of the story:

"On a train bound for nowhere"....er Luzern. "I met up with a gambler..." I digress.... It took about 2 hours to get to Luzern by train and I arrived at 10:30. I found a starbuck's and yet once again I paid 8.70 CHF for it. This may turn into a Saturday luxury. I walked around the farmer's market. Oh how I wish I was closer to home, I would have bought lots of cheese. Just look at this yummy cheese!

I discovered that my debit card won't work in the MAC machine. I have used it to make purchase, but this is the first time I've tried to get money. I had to ask some lady what the screen said. She says "it says you can't get money. Do you have money in there she says." Yes I had money in there. So the rest of the day I had to use my card as people scowled at me for using it. The Swiss always use cash for everything. American could learn a lot in this situation! But let us not get into that.

My first stop was the Rosegart Collection. The Rosegart's were personal friends of Pablo Picasso and they have over 50 of his works plus a collection of rare photos of Picasso in action. I strolled through the first room thinking "this guy was a nut. His paintings are all weird." But by the end of the first room, I discovered something. I held the brochure over 1 eye and covered up 1/2 of the painting. What I saw was a profile portrait. I switched eyes and what I saw was a straight on portrait of the same face. Picasso put multiple perspectives in the same image! Now some of you may be thing "duh!" But I didn't realize this before. As I continued through Picasso painting, I spent more and more time analyzing them for their beauty and his perspective. Fantastic! Next I went down stairs to see Paul Klee art. I previously did not know who he was, but in about 1/3 of his art I saw a draftsman at work. Some of his pictures played tricks on your eyes and they were marvelous. Now I'm not keen on some of his more famous pictures, but he was a good draftsman.

Next, I strolled across the famous Luzern Bridge with the chapel on it. I was heading to the Gletschergarten. Here in 18-something a guy discovered glacial potholes and some fossils. It was neat, all outside, and it explained how these formations got there in quick, brief statements. Which meant that I didn't have to spend hours reading to figure out how a glacial pothole was created by a glacier melts and the water hits the same spot over and over. The water starts are whirlpool, which has a rock in the middle of it. The rock spins in the water and essentially drills a hole. This was a good museum and it was free to me because of my bank. Sweet!

Then I strolled around the lake, watched some people play a game that looked like a cross between Quidditch and the shot put, and had a chocolate and banana "Swiss" crepe and headed for the Verkehrshaus der Schweiz. Dad would love this museum! The first area I enter was the evolution of the train. The next section was the evolution on the car, which by the way the US rocks in inventions for this in the past century. Next was all by sea and finally by air. Then there was the ultimate Rube Goldberg style project (see picture below and if you don’t know who Rube is go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg). Excellent museum! Again these museums cut to the chase in descriptions, are in 4 languages (including English), and offer vast useful knowledge. Other museums could learn a lot from these one!