Created: 07/26/09
Links:
– Newest DaDane
– Previous DaDane
– Archived DaDanes
– Copyright Policy
Available
now
DaDane of DaWeek
T-shirts & Sweatshirts
Coming soon...
DaDane Notecards &
Prints
|
— Back Online; Swiss Alps —
July 26, 2009 – The failed motherboard on
my MacBook Pro laptop computer was just replaced, so now I am back up and
running. Yay! The warranty had recently expired, but Apple authorized
the repair at no cost. How nice was that? The staff at the Gravis Store in Bremen,
Germany (where the unit was repaired) spoke good English (as opposed to my atrocious
German) and they were very nice to us. Thank you, all.Okay, so here are some photos from the Swiss Alps. Most shots were taken on hiking trails above the Schatzalp Hotel:
View from the front of the Schatzalp Hotel
View from the back of the hotel
Tourists in front of the hotel
This is what they were looking at
Nearby, a hungry European Nutcracker
(Nucifraga caryocatactes) watched, hoping for a hand-out; some people were giving him peanuts, his favorite, while I fed him pieces of bread
The Nutcracker's winter
diet consists of seeds from the Swiss Stone Pine (Pinus cembra)
Another view near the front
of the hotel, an erosional landform (a cirque) created by glacial scouring
It's where
the snow and ice forming the glacier first accumulated, but the glacier is long
gone
Okay, so now let's go hiking
behind (and above) the Schatzalp
Hotel
One of
many waterfalls in the area
A trail marker; these are certainly
helpful
Alpine vegetation, moss and
lichen
Here's where we are now
Not such a bad view, huh?
An old shed, probably still
in use because there are farm animals roaming these hills
You can hear the cows well before
you see them; they all wear big clanging cowbells
And they aren't always happy
to have strangers in their summer pastures
Although they seem fairly relaxed
about it ...
... meaning they won't run off
when they see you, but they'll quickly leave if you get too close
Back on the trail
This is ski country
Although the terrian is rugged, wild flowers are scattered everywhere
Alpine trumpet gentian, so brilliantly blue, is in great abundance
European blue lupine also makes
a showy appearance
Here's a close-up
and the lupine provides a nice border to shoot through
Am not sure what this is, other than pretty
Some hikers passing by on the
way back down
Now we'll make a quick vist
to the Rinerhorn for dinner, via the Bergstation skilift,
courtesty of the Goldschmidt Conference
The evening light up there was
very dramatic
While the scientists
were enjoying their pre-dinner drinks, I ducked outside to shoot
My dinner companions
were rather amused by this
Meanwhile, a brief squall was
moving in and it was starting to snow
Somebody else came out to shoot;
we were the only ones out there
After a wonderful dinner, it
was time to head back down
I've put together a slide show that contains about twice many photos as you've seen here. If you're interested, please click to view. Next stop, Finland ©2002-2008 by Ginnie Saunders. All rights are reserved. No part of this web site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system — without written permission from Ginnie Saunders. To learn more about copyright issues on the web, visit the Web Law FAQ.
|
