From gigli.saw@dplanet.ch Mon Jul 1 09:55:37 2002 From: gigli.saw@dplanet.ch (Vance Roy) Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 10:55:37 +0200 Subject: [Culturechat] Puffing along on Lake Luzern Message-ID: <50017D70-8CD0-11D6-A567-0003936A3F2E@dplanet.ch> In German, the word "Puff" means bordello. A recent article in a newspaper here announces the first floating Puff on the lake at Luzern. it seems that two enterprising housewives have established the first floating bordello in CH. They even have a website . These ladies of the night begin work twice weekly on their power skiff at 8:30 in the evening and "welcome male visitors who seek a special erotic experience". The tariff is 1450 CHF (970.50 US$) for a "few hours" on board. There is a three client maximum. Up to five ladies can be made available. It seems that business is booming, and they are considering putting a second boat into service. Apparently, this is the only such enterprise on all of the lakes in CH. You can't say that central CH isn't on the cutting edge. As far as I can tell, the Swiss Pass doesn't cover this transportation yet. Vance Roy gigli.saw@dplanet.ch From gigli.saw@dplanet.ch Tue Jul 2 07:29:08 2002 From: gigli.saw@dplanet.ch (Vance Roy) Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 08:29:08 +0200 Subject: [Culturechat] Luzern City Festival Message-ID: <0383BC78-8D85-11D6-9A31-0003936A3F2E@dplanet.ch> A few days ago, the Luzern City Festival held its annual shootout. This event features a day long party beginning with coffee and croisants and ending in the wee hours. This year there were some 16 different stations with food, music, and other entertainment. The music ranges from classical to heavy metal with many different groups at each station throughout the old part of the city. The food varies from hamburgers to typical Swiss dishes. Drinks from Champagne to Coke are plentiful. A nice way to spend what was a beautiful day. Pics on the way. Vance Roy gigli.saw@dplanet.ch From gigli.saw@dplanet.ch Sat Jul 6 18:15:29 2002 From: gigli.saw@dplanet.ch (gigli.saw@dplanet.ch) Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 10:15:29 -0700 Subject: [Culturechat] You've been invited to an album at Sony's ImageStation! Message-ID: <200207061715.KAA09602@www4.imagestation.com> --boundary42xyfdfdfd9erer456cv3 Content-type: text/plain You've been invited to an album at Sony's ImageStation! It's called "Swiss Expo 2002". Click on the link below to see the ImageStation Album. http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291651785&code=3075063&mode=invite If the above text isn't clickable, just cut and paste it into the address bar of your browser (see the instructions at the bottom of this message). Thanks for using ImageStation! ----------------------------------------------------- Stay in touch. Save time. Protect your memories. Visit http://www.imagestation.com. online photo albums and greeting cards. ----------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you by Vance Roy. Need Some Help? Please See Below: If your E-mail program does not recognize the above Web address as an active link, you can copy and paste the Web address into your Web browser. Here's how (very easy): 1. Use your mouse to highlight the ENTIRE Web address above 2. Select the EDIT menu and choose COPY 3. Go to your Web browser and CLICK inside the window where you normally type a Web address to visit 4. Select the EDIT menu and choose PASTE 5. Now hit ENTER on your keyboard to take you to the Web address If you would like further assistance please email us at support@imagestation.com --boundary42xyfdfdfd9erer456cv3 Content-type: text/html

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Swiss Expo 2002
by fredch


From: Vance Roy (gigli.saw@dplanet.ch)
To: culture chat (culturechat@untours.com)
 
You've been invited to an album at Sony's ImageStation! It's called "Swiss Expo 2002".
 
 
There are 21 pictures in this album
 
 
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--boundary42xyfdfdfd9erer456cv3-- From gigli.saw@dplanet.ch Sat Jul 6 18:17:01 2002 From: gigli.saw@dplanet.ch (Vance Roy) Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 19:17:01 +0200 Subject: [Culturechat] Swiss Expo 2002 Message-ID: <2F62A914-9104-11D6-842D-0003936A3F2E@dplanet.ch> Some of you know about the Swiss Expo 2002 being held from may until October this year. Yesterday, my Godson's class sang there, in what is a three day appearance, and I was happy to be able to see some of this exposition. We loaded into a really nice travel bus with about fifty other interested people from Sachseln at 6 AM for the three hour drive to Yverdon des Bains in French CH. The Expo is being held at four sites; Yverdon, Biel, Murten, Neuenburg (Neuchatel), plus a floating exhibit on the Three Lakes Region of the Lakes of Biel, Neuchatel, and Murten. It is possible to visit each site by means of motorized catamaran passenger ships on Lake Neuchatel. This would not be wise to try in one day, but we were able to travel between the sites at Yverdon and Neuchatel with sights at both places seen. Expo is hard for me to describe. It is not comparable to anything that I have seen. There are exhibits of superb technological complexity mixed with simpler and almost rustic sites. At Yverdon, there are nine different exhibitions. Since we arrived there first, we began our investigations there. After a walk through some ever changing hills of geraniums and lavender, we found "The Cloud". This is the most spectacular looking exhibit in Yverdon. We purchased rain ponchos, put the glasses away, and stepped into a cloud. There are thousands of miniature nozzles spraying a fine mist over this three tiered structure that sits out over the lake's edge. this makes it appear as a cloud floating on the surface of the water. It was not a really hot day, but I can imagine this would be the best place to be if it were really warm. Other sites that we found interesting were an exhibit on pain with a trip through a rendition of the nerve fibers in one's body while listening to descriptions of somatic pain by patients, a warm and humorous tale of love between two people in a place called "Swiss Love", a wonderful, almost out of body experience in "Wer bin Ich?" (Who am I?) which is a personal favorite of mine and was revisited by more than one of us. By far and away, the most educational exhibit here is "The Garden of Eden". Most of this is a work of Roche pharmaceuticals and is a slick and professionally run exhibit of genetic theory, practicality, and great multimedia interactive health education. There is a great deal more, but these are the high spots of Yverdon's presentations. For 20 CHF each way, we bought tickets on a slick motor catamaran for the 40+ minute ride to and from Neuchatel's Expo exhibit. This turned out to be a treat also. To me, the exhibits called the "Kieselsteine (Polished Rocks) was the best, but we did not have enough time there for us to see it all. The Rocks consists of seven different exhibits on an elevated huge platform over the lake surrounded by hundreds of thin rods each topped by a light and waving in the lake waves. There is a spectacular night time light show there, I hear. Because of the kids performance, we had to cut this visit short and return to Yverdon, but I think it could be another day's visit. As expected, there are lines in which one must wait. None of these waits was over 15 minutes, and the crowd management is at least as good as a Disney theme park (which I think is awfully good). We had fun speaking to the numerous school children anxious to practice their English on us. Throughout the areas, there are many personnel seeming to anticipate your questions, help with explanations in any language, and in general, keep things on an even keel. Of course, there are many restaurants from sit down with table service to stand up eateries. The variety of foods is abundant, and the prices are reasonable by CH standards. Public WCs are almost ubiquitous and the usual operating room standards of cleanliness apply here, as else where in CH. CHF and Euros, as well as credit cards are accepted. A ticket gets you a wrist band with admission to all sites of the Expo. There are few extras for which you must pay. There seemed to be little or no souvenir hawking. I expect if you are searching for a ball cap or a tee shirt, you will have to hunt a bit. I will admit to misgivings about Expo before I saw it. I think now, that it will be hard to make this be a paying operation, but I expect all who visit will want to return to see more. So far, the visitor projections are ahead of those needed to break even. I think that I do want to see more. Vance Roy gigli.saw@dplanet.ch From gigli.saw@dplanet.ch Sun Jul 7 05:18:17 2002 From: gigli.saw@dplanet.ch (Vance Roy) Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2002 06:18:17 +0200 Subject: [Culturechat] Re: [Idyllchat] Swiss Expo 2002 In-Reply-To: <002801c2253f$26b8ae40$80b2e80c@attbi.com> Message-ID: <9061315C-9160-11D6-B48A-0003936A3F2E@dplanet.ch> On Sunday, July 7, 2002, at 12:47 AM, Phyllis Van Ness wrote: > Sounds great but we were in CH last year and will not be back until > 2003. > Is this an annual exhibition or occurs every so many years? We would > enjoy > planning on it for next year. Sorry, Expos are about every 20 years. This one ends in October. Vance Roy gigli.saw@dplanet.ch From gigli.saw@dplanet.ch Sun Jul 7 16:32:37 2002 From: gigli.saw@dplanet.ch (Vance Roy) Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2002 17:32:37 +0200 Subject: [Culturechat] A trip to Aelggi Alp Message-ID: This is a trip most CH visitors will never make. If you are part mountain goat, you might climb up to this spot. Otherwise, you have to know someone in the Sachseln area who will take you. Since my good friend, Albert Greutert, is a member of the Sachseln men's choir, and they sing at the alp blessing each year, I was able to go up there some years ago. I have been back several times. Upon reflection, I'll bet there are comparable events all over the Heartland that are about the same. If you have a landlady/lord that knows of one, you might hit it lucky. Each summer about this time, a blessing of the alps takes place. Around here the most famous of these is up at Aelggi Alp. The geographical center of CH. Some years ago, the guys in Bern decided they needed to know where the exact center of this convoluted country was. They took a large map of the land and pasted it on some cardboard. Then they cut it around the borders. Then they took a piece of wood and put a nail through it. After that, they balanced the map on the nail until it was perfectly even. Where the nail came through the cardboard, was the geographical center of the country. Now, I don't know exactly how Kosher this is in terms of cartography, but it must have satisfied them. They built a monument on the site, and it is at Aegli Alp today. It turns out that Aelggi Alp has been there for a lot longer than the monument. people around here can remember going up there to camp with their families as children. Aelggi Alp is reached by non-mountain goats by way of a one way road, wide enough to get a car width up. On weekdays, it is Russian roulette; On weekends, up goes on the even hour, and down goes on the odd hour. This is the recommended method. To reach this place in winter would be a real task on foot, and when one got there, the snow would be very deep. After parking next to the family run hotel and restaurant, you can see that you are situated in a bowl with the mountains all around you on three sides. There are a half dozen or so alpine huts and barns in this bowl with a small chapel amongst them. To the west of this area is a large marker surrounded by a fence to keep the cows at bay. This is the exact geographical center of CH. The service of blessing is relatively short, attended by the locals, the choir sings, and the outsiders like me wonder at the whole place. Afterwards, the priest throws a wine party of sorts. In recent years, I have opted out of the party and hiked up to the lake known as the Sachseln Lake. As usual, the whole area is plain drop dead beautiful. Cow bells resound all around, and one can see those beasts very high up on the mountain sides eating away. The lake makes a good picnic spot. Our repast today was turkey and bacon sandwiches followed by a cheese and fruit course of a Granny Smith apple and some CH mountain cheese that never saw the inside of a retail establishment. One always finds some fishermen there, and I have seen some very large ones pulled in. Today we met four young men with 25 fish, all lake trout and all over a foot long with the biggest pushing 20 inches. One can continue the walk from there over the mountains into the Hasliberg plateau, but it is a steep and long way. After a picnic and walk back, it is time for a libation at the restaurant. Most of the choir members bring families and picnic too unless bad weather makes it unpleasant to cook out. Near the monument, there is a nice fireplace for grilling. All in all, one gets a view of alpine life here that is secluded and yet very pleasant. There will be pictures to come. Vance Roy gigli.saw@dplanet.ch From gigli.saw@dplanet.ch Sun Jul 7 17:10:01 2002 From: gigli.saw@dplanet.ch (gigli.saw@dplanet.ch) Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2002 09:10:01 -0700 Subject: [Culturechat] You've been invited to an album at Sony's ImageStation! Message-ID: <200207071610.JAA32636@www1.imagestation.com> --boundary42xyfdfdfd9erer456cv3 Content-type: text/plain You've been invited to an album at Sony's ImageStation! It's called "Blessing of the Alps". Click on the link below to see the ImageStation Album. http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291648669&code=3080364&mode=invite If the above text isn't clickable, just cut and paste it into the address bar of your browser (see the instructions at the bottom of this message). Thanks for using ImageStation! ----------------------------------------------------- Stay in touch. Save time. Protect your memories. Visit http://www.imagestation.com. online photo albums and greeting cards. ----------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you by Vance Roy. Need Some Help? Please See Below: If your E-mail program does not recognize the above Web address as an active link, you can copy and paste the Web address into your Web browser. Here's how (very easy): 1. Use your mouse to highlight the ENTIRE Web address above 2. Select the EDIT menu and choose COPY 3. Go to your Web browser and CLICK inside the window where you normally type a Web address to visit 4. Select the EDIT menu and choose PASTE 5. Now hit ENTER on your keyboard to take you to the Web address If you would like further assistance please email us at support@imagestation.com --boundary42xyfdfdfd9erer456cv3 Content-type: text/html

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Blessing of the Alps
by fredch


From: Vance Roy (gigli.saw@dplanet.ch)
To: culture chat (culturechat@untours.com)
 
You've been invited to an album at Sony's ImageStation! It's called "Blessing of the Alps".
 
 
There are 14 pictures in this album
 
 
Click here to View Album
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