Switzerland's City of Roses

This town is Rapperswill along Lake Zurich south of Zurich. According to guidebooks its moniker is the "City of Roses" so coming from Portland we knew we had to visit this place.

Since 1870 the local castle has been the Polish Museum honoring such luminaries as Copernicus, Marie Sklodowska Curie, Chopin and Joseph Conrad -- to name just a few. Amazing contributions, innumerable sufferings, and admirable national pride.

 

This is the official Rose Garden in Rapperswill. It reminded me of the rose gardens at Portland's Peninsula Park, the forerunner of the Rose Test Gardens in Washington Park.

Contemporary Tombstones

We discovered these tombstones when hiking through the outskirts of Zurich. 

I came away wanting to know more about this individual and the reason for the globe on his tombstone.

My two favorites. 

There is a cemetery up the street from us. Comparing these more contemporary designs with traditional ones from this area should provide some vivid contrasts.

The family just completed a visit to Paris where we enjoyed some of the local sites including a tour of # 6 in this Place des Vosges in Paris. Author Victor Hugo made his home here for 16 years. I had just finished Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame while on this visit. 

A number of boats line The Seine. Many appear to be permanent residences. 

On one of our lengthy walks we came across the Curie Institute. The museum featured the work of Drs. Marie and Pierre Curie as well as their daughter and son-in-law. This photograph shows their laboratory, restored and decontaminated. Their notebooks, however, are not on view since they remain radioactive! Coming across this find and visiting here was like a pilgrimage for me. I could barely contain my excitement and even purchased a biography in French. 

The Chinese Garden in Zurich is a gift from Kunming, its twin city in China, in gratitude for the "technical and scientific aid provided to develop Kunming's drinking water supply and municipal sewage system." (brochure). The garden has several ornately-painted buildings, koi-filled ponds, and numerous stones to represent mountains. 

In the same park are a number of sculptures including this one that Roger and Luke are enjoying. It whirled, clanked, and clinked much to their

 amusement.

Also in the park is a pond with stepping stones. Some of us were more wary than others. All pedestrians negotiated the path successfully.

A June 8 Sunday excursion took us to Schaffhausen, a medieval Swiss city that has the doubtful distinction of being the only town in Switzerland to be bombed by Allied aircraft in World War II.









Windows such as this one were often added later to provide the women of the household with a view to the comings and goings of neighbors and additional light for their fine handwork. Ladies of the prayer shawl ministry, this is where we would have sat.





The former moat of the castle has been filled and is now home to deer. We entered the castle, filed up the spiral walkway to a courtyard with three old cannons, a stellar view of the city's red-tiled roofs, and a yippy terrier who took an instant dislike to me -- much to the merriment of his German-speaking owner.

Here is the woman and the soup pot. She didn't make the cut on the previous blog entry.

The Euro Soccer Tournament is ongoing from June 6 - June 23rd. One of the venues is Zurich. In the Central Train Station here a display features a game huddle with players from each participating team. The players are five-stories high!

While waiting for a tram home we spied a 

street cleaner removing debris from the side-

walk. Notice the twig broom atop the sweeper.

Yesterday the Wollishofen Neighborhood held

a Craft and Produce Fair. One booth was selling

hand-decorated onesies! Do you imagine they

got the idea from the Montavilla Women's

Retreat?

This woman was selling soup. Her oar-shaped ladle

makes it possible to reach the bottom of the soup-pot, 

a surprising depth of 4' since the depth extends beyond

what appears to be a copper kettle.

This park is several tram stops from the apartment. In addition to an extensive iris garden, ornate flower patterns, and koi-filled lake with fountain, there is a "spreading chestnut tree." This is Irisgarten Belvoirpark where our visit -- from a gardener's point of view -- was perfectly timed.

To avoid the misunderstanding that there are no problems in Switzerland, here is a kite-eating tree.