Be patient, be grateful, and open to taking each day as it comes. Do the little things that bring joy each day, and be fully present and engaged in each moment, there will be nothing to regret.
7/24 (D6): 今天去Ebenalp坐纜車上山, 然後走一段路去看國家地理雜誌報導的一家延著山壁蓋的餐廳Äscher, 並在這裡享用一頓意外美味的午餐 (Homemade cheese tart with Appenzeller cheese, leek and onions, AND Creamy barley soup with dark bread, stripes of air-dried meat); 一個很特別的山洞, 然後去Appenzell, 一個很有趣的小鎮.
In 1978, the Swiss Open-Air Museum Ballenberg finally opened its doors and was presented to the public during a three-day celebration. After opening with 16 buildings, there were already 25 two years later and a total of 61 in 1985. Today, there are over 100 houses and other secondary buildings at Ballenberg. The basis for the academic concept of the Open-Air Museum Ballenberg was the work done by farmhouse researchers in Switzerland. It was fundamental in ensuring that there was a wide choice of the most important, typically characteristic forms of houses, farmsteads and settlements in this country.
The Swiss Open-Air Museum Ballenberg is not only an important cultural, research and tourist institution (although it does attract about 200,000 visitors from around the world every year), but with almost 200 workers at the museum during the season, from the middle of April until the end of October, the museum ranks as one of the most important employers in the area.
The Giessbach funicular was the first railway in the world to have a passing loop in the middle of the route, which was built in 1879, is the oldest in Switzerland still in operation.
Grandhotel Giessbach was built in 1873/74 by French architect Horace Edouard Davinet for the Hauser family in Zurich. By the time war broke out in 1914, the Grandhotel Giessbach had become the meeting point for high society. The hotel closed its doors in 1979 after two world wars with years of decline. There were plans for demolishing the entire original complex and building a modern concrete building, in the style of a “jumbo style” chalet, in its place.
Luckily, in November 1983, internationally renowned Swiss ecologist Franz Weber succeeded in buying the 22-hectare Giessbach estate and placing it under protection. In 1984 he reopened the site with a new restaurant, the “Park Restaurant”, and a small number of unrenovated rooms. Renovations took place over seven stages each winter until the hotel’s structural level had been entirely renovated and the edifice once again took its place among the most beautiful and renowned buildings in Swiss hospitality.
Franz Weber died this year in April, was 91 years old.
All the Trümmelbach Falls, except the lowest, were invisible to human eyes, and unapproachable, from the last Ice Age about 15’000 years ago until they were first rendered accessible in 1877. They were hidden inside the mountain, which is why the name “Trümmelbach” does not convey a visual impression, as is the rule with waterfalls, but an acoustic one. “Trümmelbach” comes from “Trommelbach” meaning a stream that sounds like a drum.
The amount of water in the falls varies greatly. From December to March there is just a little stream trickling down under thick sheets of ice. After frosty nights in April and October the flow of water measures only a few dozen liters a second. But between April and June, when the snow melts, and between June and September, when the glacier ice melts, as well as after heavy rain and thunderstorms, as much as 20’000 liters a second may come thundering through the rocky defile. The little stream becomes a mighty river.