Engelberg panorama

Engelberg panorama, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

Back in 2009, I posted here some attempts at stitching together a couple of panoramas from photos I took on our Luzern walking holiday (one here, griping slightly that the gimp plugin I was using didn't seem to be enabling me to line things up sensibly. Having now tried hugin (available for Linux/Windows and Macs) this makes things much simpler. Here's an Engelberg panorama and if you go to my flickr pages (click on the photo) you'll see 2 other panoramas - one of Fluëli-Ranft the other from last year in the Alpujarras.

Engelberg

A panorama from the hotel balcony in Engelberg
Joins between photos are still a bit ropy not sure why photos are different sizes, didn't touch the zoom!

Luzern Day 7

the last hotel
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Not a lot to say, a quiet day, but this is a view of the Hotel Central in Weggis. Lazed in the terrace of the hotel for most of the morning - didn't find Weggis terribly exciting. Thought about trying to find the Rachmaninov villa where he wrote the 3rd Symphony but idleness overtook me and we headed off to the boat to Luzern - were we collided with crowds going to the first event in the Luzern festival and then by train to Zurich and home. The photos I've uploaded to flickr so far are here though after reading Linux format on Tonido I'm tempted to try it rather than reviving the Photo section of my webserver. Flickr may well see a few more uploads to that set - there's some flower photos I took early on which still need sorting through.

Luzern Day 6

dawn
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Day 6 started early as we (more or less) rose to see the dawn. Spectacular particularly the sun on the Bernese Oberland and the slow increase in light..
A reading of Mark Twain's account of missing the dawn of Rigi is worth a read:

On our way up we met the crowd returning--men and women dressed in all sorts of queer costumes, and exhibiting all degrees of cold and wretchedness in their gaits and countenances. A dozen still remained on the ground when we reached there, huddled together about the scaffold with their backs to the bitter wind. They had their red guide-books open at the diagram of the view, and were painfully picking out the several mountains and trying to impress their names and positions on their memories. It was one of the saddest sights I ever saw.

But go and read the full account - I still remember this from the extract on a Geigy calendar of the 1960s!
We walked over to Rigi Scheidegg for lunch and then over to Rigi Kaltbad and the cablecar down to Weggis. The Hotel Central am See (a rather nice stylish website in spite of being all Flash) was a bit of a contrast to the more rural hotels of the last few days, beautifully situated on the lake - don't get too close to the terrace edge when the boats go past! Ate at the hotel - very well catered for - finding a good substitute off the package menu as Beth isn't keen on pork or fish. Another balcony overlooking the lake rather noisy but a return to civilization after the last week.

Luzern Day 5

heading up the Rigi
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Day 5 was first marked by tiredness - back by the lake the night was hot and we had a friendly mosquito or two...
Breakfast outside the hotel overlooking the lake and then by boat across the lake to Vitznau and then on the railway to the summit of Rigi. A pleasant day walking around the summits - unfortunately the clouds moved in so the views were not as impressive as they might have been. Snacks at the Rigi summit and then in the afternoon at Klöster. I'd recommend going to Känzeli earlier than we arrived when there was lots of haze -- it was also a tough final ascent to the Edelweiss Hotel - yet another Edelweiss - at Staffelhöhe. Very comfortable, room with a balcony where we could see the lake - this time well out of mosquito range. A quiet evening eating at the hotel

Luzern Day 4

Brisenhaus hut from afar
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Ah yes, day 4, this started badly the instructions had the wrong train times and in spite of the hotel giving us a lift to Engelberg station we just missed the train. Waited around for an hour to catch the next, the get-off point was a request stop and in spite of pressing the button the train failed to stop so we walked back from the next station to just miss the half-hourly cable car up the mountain to Niederrickenbach.
Having got there it was a steep but enjoyable climb up to the Brisenhaus SAC (Swiss Alpine Club) hut. I'd not been to one of these for many years - since a 1971 holiday in Arolla, there was a welcome soup and torte which we ate outside admiring the views. Then down to the Kluwenalp with wonderful views over Lake Luzern and a cable car ride down to Beckenried where the Hotel Edelweiss (another!) and a foot dip in the lake beckoned.
Beautifully situated by the lake with views from our room of boats and mountains. Good meal at the hotel though we began to flag as a result of the four course menu. Cold veal with tuna sauce was a bit of a surprise but I did enjoy it!

The end of the world

The end of the world
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

(End der Welt) in 55 minutes (this was a few weeks ago now!) From a signpost in Engelberg - we didn't find our way there, I guess it was the end of the valley. Photo no 666 on my camera's SD card...

Fluëli-Ranft panorama

Here's the view from our balcony at the Pax Montana - I've stitched 3 photos together using Gimp's Pandora plugin. I'm a little suspicious of some of the skyline but everything else seems to line up?
Click on the image to get a larger version!
That chain doesn't line up though - I think I need more investigation!
Much later (Sept 2011) I've used hugin on the photos and the panorama is immensely improved:

maybe I lacked patience with the gimp plugin?

Luzern Day 3

DSCF7636
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Day 3 was fairly gentle - cable car up to the Trübsee and a walk down. The day belonged to the flowers - and I've added a few to the holiday flickr set. Engleberg is probably not good at a weekend and we did this walk on a Sunday, queues for the cable car - we were amused at how the leader of a group came in the cable car with us rather than his group in order to take a break. The Trübsee station is a bit of a building site at the moment but once away from it peace descended and we followed the Alpine flower route, a steep descent and then to a nicely placed restaurant for some Apfel Torte! Unfortunately the end of the walk was marred by a bike race which prevented us using the walk we wanted.
Delightful dinner at the Hotel Engelberg, I had the fixed price menu - real Swiss hospitality and food, a group then arrived in national dress for their own dinner - between courses they went into the street and sang something appropriately Swiss! (see set for photo!)
(need identification for the flower photo!)

Luzern Day 2

Back to the valley
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

This was the walk back from Fluëli-Ranft. towards Luzern - we walked along the Bruderklausenweg a pilgrim's way - part of the Compostela route. A longish day but a gentle walk with eagles never far away. Started the day with a little rain but it vanished and didn't reappear for the rest of the holiday. Once in Stans, we took the train to Engleberg which became a rack railway and arrived at the Edelweiss Hotel. We were booked in only on a bed and breakfast basis but the hotel does have a restaurant. We felt like sampling Engelberg's Swiss restaurants and ended up having a cheese fondue at the Alpenclub a very atmospheric restaurant and confirmed from their website clearly rather old. We were in the part alongside the road so we could watch the Swiss traffic pausing, turning round and generally getting lost!
PS (a lot later) the last bit of the walk into Stans is next to a clay pigeon shooting range - well I hope they weren't shooting at us - you may need steady nerves and ear plugs!

Day 1 of Luzern

Pax Montana
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

(well the first full one!) We started gently with the train to Sarnen and a walk to Fluëli-Ranft via the highest wooden bridge in Europe - I didn't find it terribly vertigo inducing as the walking notes threatened. As you see we had a bit of rain that day - started just when we'd arrived in Fluëli-Ranft. The village is a centre of Roman Catholic pilgrimage it being the home of Brother Klaus (Nicholas of Flüe). I will remember the eagles from that day one swooping only around 30m from the balcony of our room! Also eating dinner watching the sun through the clouds lighting up and then dimming the valleys opposite.

Luzern evening

Restaurant Fritschi
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

As you may have gathered we've been away on another of Inntravel's walking tours. This time around Lake Luzern. Evening meal wasn't included so we wandered around town and found the Restaurant Fritschi with this amazing exterior and inside wonderful painted wood panels. Raclette and rösti with a Swiss wine were enjoyed, service was rather glacial (pre-global warming) that evening but with the ambience it allowed us to settle into the environment. Stayed at the Wilden Mann ready for a week of walking!I'm putting other pictures from the week here only a few there at the moment, I hope to upload some more this weekend!(and I've now put them in a flickr set here

from the Pax Montana

from the Pax Montana
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

.. back home from Switzerland with lots of photos which need looking though. In the meantime here is a memory of a special evening at the Pax Montana hotel in Flüeli Ranft watching the sun set