Switzerland

Location Description

Sub-locations

250 photos

The Virginia Tech villa. It was only mentioned in...
The baptistery across the street from the Villa. This...
My bedroom in the apartment -- the apartment was huge!
The kitchen, dining table, door to the living room (back...
Looking back towards the bedroom from the kitchen.
Living room.
More living room. I did nothing in this room other than...
Hallway down to the front door and the bathroom.
Bathroom - the one room that was quite small, which...
On our way to go hiking on Thursday afternoon. Who knew...
Carin (white shirt, left) claimed that the whole trail...
Looking down towards Riva.
This picture does not show this well, but these trees...
Maggie, a friend through Pittsburgh Penguins / hockey love.
Catherine at the first of two false-finishes to the...
Purty fleurs, as some would say. Kind of like lilacs,...
Sitting on a ledge overlooking the lake at false-finish...
Riva and the Villa are basically in the corner of the...
What is that I spy? A building of some sort?
Why yes! It is an old monastery at the top of the...
Sadly, it was super-hazy the day of our climb. The...
The monks, while not in any form of residence at the...
It seems odd that it could take both 1 hour 20 and 1...
One of the best parts of Switzerland: public fountains...
Beautiful roses outside the Villa.
Close-up of the roses.
The first bridge on our day of bridge-by-bus touring...
Sadly, Carin would not let us climb this ladder.
Looking through the bridge at some snow. Heading...
This, however, is the second bridge. Ridiculously, one...
If you zoom in on that googlemap, and switch it to...
This was one of the main piers of the bridge. 18 in....
Sadly, it started to rain at this point. We were...
Carin did allow climbing of the stairs on the second...
Zoomed in.
"Climb through me!" Sadly, those stair-steps got really...
Teeny eeny weeny columns.
A final look at Bridge 2.
Looking back at bridge 1.
Our first view of the Sunniberg Bridge, another Menn...
Looking up at one pier through the trees.
I had a lot of fun playing with my camera's settings by...
The river underneath was awesome. Like most of the...
I want to start a collection of pictures looking up...
This is actually from the other side of the same pier. ...
The curve is very apparent here.
Bigger bridge column for this one. No arch for...
Natural phenomena? The rivers also provided an...
I feel I could almost convince someone this is a picture...
Again, I hope out of all these shots, there is at least...
Better picture of the curve.
This little river was actually draining into the river...
That's the same little river.
An awesome view of the blisters in which each of those...
Black and white attempt.
Those mountains were so neat, but so hard to see in photos.
So I tried taking a picture of just them.
Final attempt.
This is when I discovered my camera has the ability to...
Sunniberg bridge from the top. The flare of the columns...
The Swiss do not seem to care about possible litigation...
This lax attitude allows for things like this. Fun.
For our bridge tour, we were driven around by Fabio, a...
Swiss version of "pick up after your dog."
If you zoom in, you can read the history of this next...
More info...
My view from my lunch spot. That's the bridge there on...
I don't think I've mentioned - this bridge was designed...
Odd to see reference to something American in Switzerland.
Robert Maillart: owner of the world's best professional headshot.
The bridge! It might not look too impressive, but...
Carin near midspan.
Realize as well that the bridge was designed so the arch...
Catherine + bridge = smiles.
Design details of the bridge. Another fun fact: it's a...
Did I mention this bridge was basically one lane wide...
Another great source of water. I never had to worry if...
We never did figure out what (or who) Chumm Sitz 'a'...
Maillart's Val-Teschiel bridge.
Val-Tschiel. Note how slender the arch itself is. This...
There was one house right at the joint of the roads to...
Here, I practiced more with the single-color focus with...
Much of the group on Val-Tschiel.
The boring new bridge.
Looking at the ground below and my boots poking through...
Again, Val-Tschiel is a one-lane bridge. Great for a...
Final view of Val-Tschiel. I particularly like that you...
As promised: Fabio, driving with cell.
Craziest public WC structure I have ever seen.
With the craziest toilet contraption I have ever seen...
Looking down once more on Nanin and Cascella as we head...
One of the things I really wanted to do, but never got a...
On May 23, 12 of us headed out on a hiking bridge tour. ...
A picture from the bus ride up to our bridge hike day -...
Nanin or Cascella (bridge 1) from above, as seen from...
All of the hiking signage was awesome, although I never...
There was snow around, which was fun, seeing as it was late May.
This particular town had its own ski lift. Sadly, it...
We passed by, on the bus, an area that is apparently...
Apparently this sign says something about "beware of...
Menn's Letziwald Bridge, built in 1960. This bridge may...
Another arch bridge; we're not sure who designed this...
More in context.
The whole road was awesome in that it took advantage of...
Our trail markers for the week... just about every trail...
Another Menn bridge that was difficult to get a good...
The river, near Crut. We stopped here and put our feet...
Happy farmer and his cow asking us to do... something.
Hiking down the staircase that was part of the trail. ...
Looking down on the more-raging river.
Tommy walking through a bizarre cattle-guard of sorts. ...
I forgot to record our starting elevation; I believe it...
Catherine, with Campsut in the background.
My attempt at graphically displaying "2-6", to mark the birthday.
This recess in the rock was so neat -- it has obviously...
What might, at first glance, look like another nice...
The river, a waterfall into it, and the stone wall on...
Looking at the river through one of the small arches on...
Group shot on the old arch bridge. From left - Dan,...
I wouldn't mind having a bridge like this on my property...
An attempt at highlighting the color of the river......
This one might be a touch better.
Old bridge + new bridge.
I just liked this shot.
This is the waterfall that was visible in the background...
We came upon an unfinished bridge on the trail. Going...
The path from which we came.
I don't know what happened to Girder #1...
Looking back from the far side.
The far side did have a small barricade indicating this...
This was, we figured, the aftermath of a large...
There was a chute through which we assume the debris fell.
If I take pictures of one bridge, I really should take...
Maggie demonstrating the problems with accepting a...
Looking down at Innerferrera, our final destination (or,...
The tunnel on the old road.
Walking through the tunnel.
A glu-lam (wood) arch bridge into Innerferrera.
Sad evidence of possible deterioration of the concrete...
The town of Innerferrera.
Looking back at the concrete arch bridge.
A giant wooden shoe that served as decoration on the...
If you look closely, you will realize that the boy...
Innerferrera!
More martini buses!
Tess refilling her bottle at another town water fountain.
Resting in Andeer while waiting for our bus (having...
Saturday night, before I could get my dessert (pineapple...
Happy Catherine with cake.
Time to dig in. If you look closely to the right,...
As such, it took a while to finish. And suddenly, I...
More pretty flowers, in the garden of the Villa.
Garden path, with the Villa in the background
Maggie reading under some very neat trees that had...
Back door to the Villa.
Reading area.
Neat trees.
Probably my favorite pictogram of the whole trip. I...
A street fair was taking place in Bellinzona. I guess...
The pony I wanted to take home. Unfortunately, that...
So instead, I petted this one for a while. He tried to...
In Bellinzona, we went to a soccer (football) match...
The police that were marching in front of the Zurich...
Zurich fans. This was the only picture I got before...
People-pusher car at the end of the parade.
More riot police.
The stadium. Again, for comparison, think back to the...
Zurich fans, contained to one end of the stadium, with...
Tess and Braxton (whose shirt was almost cool, until you...
Stephanie and Maggie.
Play in progress.
I had fun trying to interpret the various road and...
Hey! Hockey! There was a little floor-hockey rink...
Maggie showing off our cool tunnel-visiting outfits (and...
Maggie and Catherine
This was about as good of a picture within the tunnel as...
Post buses go everywhere! Also, hee, "extrafahrt". We...
Explanation of the tunnel. South is at the top. We...
What the tunnel cuts out for the trains -- see the climb...
Various parts of the tunnel.
The tunnel info center was really neat. The structure...
The roof of the building. The rock walls are in the...
Looking towards one of the rock processing plants.
An old, retired face to a drilling machine that was...
Schnappy the plastic gator (from a previous trip) meets...
Waterfall on the side of the Bellinzona train station. ...
The view from the bar near the Villa towards my...
Osteria San Giorgio -- the perfect bar for us,...
A road sign I never figured out. "Zone of stopping......
The day we headed to Zurich was quite windy, and the...
The beach I swam a few times. That hill in the...
I really wanted to find a postcard (or poster) of this,...
The really neat bridge just outside the spiraling tunnel...
Now the second.
And the third. I wouldn't have minded going around a...
Tommy, Tess, and Carin (the real professors on the trip)...
Mercedes taxis line up on the Bahnhofstrasse, the major...
We skipped Prada and Hermes, however, and went to the...
The wall of cuckoo clocks at the toy store. Note the...
Lego town in the toy store!
Giant ball-mover toy, multiple floors tall (see the...
I wanted to buy this, the concrete-mixer Lego truck. It...
This was not an uncommon sight: a row of cars, starting...
Meredith, Maggie, Catherine, and Stephanie. Unlike...
Grossmunster ("great minister"), one of two large...
Looking across the Limmat from the church plaza.
My room at the Hotel Walhalla. This was my favorite...
I did not, however, like the creepy cherub-with-lyre on the wall.
Calvin and Hobbes in German!
A Hilti truck parked in front of the mountains near the...
Hotel Walhalla! For some reason, this hotel reminded me...
The Swiss National Museum, as viewed from my hotel...
Zurich had probably the funniest pictograms, such as...
On the left: Do Not Turn Out One's Pockets. On the...
And finally, the only one that truly made sense: No...
Half the group stands on an unreinforced, unconnected...
The other half: Kacey, Jackie, Meredith, Stephanie,...
The crazy flying lady-angel in the Zurich train station.
Catherine and Stephanie hanging out by the river.
While I am confident the water was cold, the color made...
Very pretty bridge and water.
An awesome example of vortex shedding in the river. The...
A very pretty Georg Jensen necklace ($1500, or $1300 if...
The Limmat again. The vortex shedding picture was taken...
The Stauffacher-Brucke, or Stauffacher Bridge. This was...
The river below is the Sihl. While the Limmat flows out...
Stauffacher-Brucke!
A view from down near the river (Maggie and Braxton in...
Lamborghini, anyone? As Maggie was admiring it (a bit...
Apparently it is uncommon to be able to see the...
Ah, sailing.
Looking back towards the city from our ferry boat. The...
More mountains.
I would like a boat like this. Also, good wind like...
The Lindt Chocolate Factory! Had I known earlier that...
Optimists! There was something comforting about...
Looking bizarre with my collar buttoned up, yes.
Stephanie, Maggie, and Catherine on the ferry.
Delicious Swiss strawberries. Zurich was ridiculously...
There was a playground between a restaurant we went to...
Spinning! Somehow, I did not get a picture of the...
In the airport. Luggage carts allowed on escalators! ...
The visitor center from the front.
Most of the girls, pre-tunnel exploring. I am now...
Walking into the tunnel
Types of rock the tunnel cuts through.
How they cut through to form the tunnel using normal...
How they cut through to form the tunnel using the crazy...
I don't think they're quite ready for trains yet...
Model of the crazy boring machine.