Trans Swiss Trail - Memories of past Times

"Movement is an elementary form of thinking," the Geneva-based developmental psychologist Jean Piaget claimed.

I don't know if this argument is correct, as my thought processes are rather focused on the obvious. Or is that exactly what is referred to? After all, the brain is an association machine, connecting elements, saving them, recognizing patterns.

This is a tremendous achievement of evolution, perhaps the most important.

But perhaps he was referring to something else, namely that in motion you have a lot of time and thus come up with thoughts that normally evaporate as soon as they push their way to the surface. One discovers unawares connections, and out of that occasionally arise admissions of all kinds of forgotten or repressed aspects.

Well, the walking and thinking continues, hopefully to new insights. And acknowledgements.

A lakeside promenade along Lake Lucerne leads from Beckenried to the imposing Risleten Gorge, where ancient dinosaur footprints can be found. After a steep climb, a romantic mountain path towards Seelisberg. The green-blue lake shimmers far below.

 

 

The lake, all blue

The innkeepers are indeed waving me goodbye, apparently I left a positive impression.

I have to remember that.

The path instantly takes me out into the greenery, up, down, past farms and cows, the sky is blue, the legs rested, the mind freed from all the garbage accumulating and waiting to be disposed of. Today is one of those days, at least I hope so.

After Buochs, nothing particular, but located on Lake Lucerne, there is only me, the blue lake and, stupidly enough, a road that runs parallel and that I apparently can't avoid today.

One last look back, the Stanserhorn once again resembles a volcano that has just erupted, but it's just clouds that have thought up a particularly unusual shape for today. It seems that in this area they try to offer something special for the tourists, even if it's just some whimsical clouds over a mountain peak.

 

As mentioned, just the lake, adorned by low hills with a few scattered houses or villages, accompanies me on long paths, today leading towards the east. Tomorrow the direction changes for the last time, then it definitely leads to the south, the final destination. But that still seems to be very far away.

According to Japanese wisdom, one is happiest in places where one has never been before, or in other words, in places of whose existence one had no idea. Even if this is not true for today, I feel happiest right here and right now, although I don't know exactly why.

Even if it looks like a repetition of the same thing forever, at worst it would be the repetition of something that can always be experienced again and again.

Maybe it's the sweet air celebrated by a little breeze around the nose. Or the smell of water or trees and grass. And, of course, exhaust fumes that complete the picture, so to speak.

And so I walk, one step at a time, sometimes sitting down on one of the very welcome benches, or getting distracted by unexpected works of art on the shore, suggesting that art is being given its place in combination with nature.

 

Apparently, the modern way of moving on the water, called stand-up paddling, has also arrived in central Switzerland. It somehow looks unnatural and elegant at the same time. I would try that out if my water phobia wasn't so pronounced.

 

 

A long time ago - dinosaurs on the move

Eventually the nuisance with the passing cars is over, the path finally rejoins a normal trail, though still along the lake. It heads towards Risleten, where not only a quarry is waiting, but a quarry with dinosaur tracks.

It's strange how much memories of dinosaurs, extinct 60 million years ago, fire the imagination.

As soon as children reach an age where their brains open up to new possibilities, the teddy bear is put aside; now the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops with his mighty horns, the Brontosaurus, one of the biggest, and of course the velociraptors, my special favourites, take over. Is it the size, the looks, or just the comforting realization that these nightmarish creatures no longer exist?

Anyway, it takes some patience and good eyes to really spot some deep imprints on the steep wall.

The imagination mechanism begins to turn, you try to imagine the scene. How one of those mighty animals waddled through this place millions of years ago, of course still on flat ground, the folding of the mountains took place later.

Maybe together in a group, together with young dinosaurs, just smaller, but just as scary. One imagines the roar that no one knows what it sounded like, but was developed by Stephen Spielberg in Jurassic Park in an impressive way.

 

 

The Risleten Gorge

Apparently, the Choltalbach from Emmetten down to Lake Lucerne represents the last unobstructed torrent. It has dug itself into the rock over the millennia and formed the Risleten Gorge in the process.

Strangely enough, this waterfall, impressive in its wildness and its roar, has no name, which is rather unusual for this area. Of course, it's only a tiny brother to the Iguaçu Falls in South America, but it tries hard to put on the most imposing demeanor possible.

It roars and rumbles and gurgles, leaving foaming waves on the small pond at its foot. Despite its relatively small size, you don't want to come near it, let alone take a bath in the pond.

 

 

The steep mountain

Basically, it's just a small hill that has to be conquered if you want to ascend to the altitude of Seelisberg, today's destination. However, the climb is arduous, steep and exhausting. At least the necessary breaks to catch one's breath allow for magnificent views of the surrounding area.

In the distance, the two Mythen greet, with proudly raised heads, of course, but broken, once magnificent trees set a counterpoint in their pitiful last stage. But well, I gasp and sweat and curse once again, although I have chosen all of this for myself.

 

 

Planning stupidity

Sometimes you think you are traveling without a purpose.

This happens whenever the path seems endless, when one turn, one climb follows the other, when the desperate look upward sees no light indicating the summit or the ridge. But at least there's a spot here and there where you can take a welcome break, just like on this darn climb.

You get into conversation with fellow sufferers, you tell anecdotes about similar events, you laugh and chat and relax.

That is also part of it. And makes everything a little easier.

Anyway, eventually I reach the altitude, the path leads along the slope for quite a while, until the trees give way and I find myself unawares on an unusually wide asphalt road. The brow frowns by itself, the road looks somehow surreal, it's something that doesn't belong here, not on this scale. I am later informed at the hotel what it is all about.

I quote from one of the newspaper articles from that time:

"The number of those who will drive on the new road to experience the unique lake and mountain landscape, will be high. And the road leading through Seelisberg would be a revelation.

The view from the high ground of Beroldingen down to the Lake of Uri lying in the deep and the snowy mountains closing it might soon become one of the most famous views in the whole of Switzerland. And then the road might allow the long-missed round trip around Lake Lucerne, which would probably become one of the most beautiful vacation and Sunday pleasures even for the Swiss."

Later development proved this view wrong: in 1980, the Seelisberg Tunnel was opened, which at that time was the world's longest double-tube road tunnel with a length of a good 9 kilometers, running from Rüttenen near Beckenried to Seedorf in the canton of Uri beneath the Seelisberg mountain massif.

The funny (but quite expensive) thing is that a section of the planned road was built, even before the planning had been completed. This is exactly the part of the route on which I am now heading towards Seelisberg. One, two tractors cross my path, they are probably the only vehicles on this road.

Well, dreams are shadows, and wrong planning is based on wrong assumptions.

 

And a really great farewell

Seelisberg welcomes me with a smile, or maybe not, because far and wide there is not a human soul to be seen. However, a few guests are sitting in the garden restaurant of the Hotel Montana, giving me puzzled looks. Do I really look that strange?

Anyway, after checking in, the hostess informs me that within a few minutes a real delight is going to be celebrated, and for free. It's about the sunset.

Well, I do have some experience, in Laos. or Vietnam or Myanmarthere is no shortage of impressive sunsets.

However, this evening's sunset is a real option. I'll let the pictures and the videos speak for themselves.

 

With the last, as ever melancholic thoughts, after the orange globe has finally slipped behind the horizon, I bid farewell to a truly memorable day, sometimes arduous, sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes puzzling, just as our existence is day in and day out.

 

Matching song: The Edgar Broughton Band - Evening over the Rooftops

And here the trail continues ... finally towards the south