Sunday morning rain is fallin'...

Sunday, Aug 27:

Yep, our dreams of a sunny beautiful day in luzern were dashed, but there was still plenty to be done even with the muggy weather. The girls split with the guys early in the morning to go out on their own shortly after we all visted the chocolate store downtown. That left just my buddy Rex and myself to see what there was to see in the daylight hours in Luzern.

After wandering around the whole day, I imagine the city to be beyond words when it happens to be a clear and bright. It really is a sight to see even in nasty weather. The lake passing through the city leads to mountain ranges on each side--east and west, and were only barely visible through the fog and dense rain clouds. What we ended up doing though, was checking out the indoor marvels of the town, the native art and statues, and explored the glacier museum positioned just a little ways from downtown.

Our first stop was the Hofkirche, which in German means... Yard Church. Constructed in the Swiss Renaissance era, circa 12th century. It has to be one of the most elaborately detailed places I've ever seen--the altars are lined with gold statues and frames, and within and around them are these very dramatically colored sculptures and paintings.

Thats not all there was to it though. Even the outside of the church had its own unique beauty. The entrance had these amazing sculptures of Saints on the left and right, and above the hand carved wooden door there was a sculpture that looked like Mary Magdalene, but I'm not certain, and an angel slaying a demon a little above that. And, the courtyard separating the church from the city was lined with what I believe to be memorials of the families that have passed in the duration of the church's existence. Some were more elaborate than others, but it was still another beautiful arrangement that I couldn't help but marvel at.



There's plenty more pictures of the whole thing on my photo album link, Check it out!


After getting our fill of the church atmosphere, we walked down the street to perhaps the cities most attractive site (on a rainy day), the Lowendenkmal (Lion Monument). Its a gigantic sculpture dedicated to the Swiss Guards of Louis XVI of France. On August 10th, 1792, the guards defended the Palais des Tuileries, in Paris, when it was stormed by revolutionaries. Those who survived the attack were arrested and guillotined shortly after. The lion represents the soldiers who were wounded, killed, and abandoned, and the shield it rests on containing the fleur de lei symbol stands for the French they defended until they met their untimely demise. It's really a brilliant piece of art.



Then, after that we hit the Glacier Garden (Gletschergarten) next door. In that very spot in 1872, an unusual discovery was made in the course of building works after removing a thin layer of topsoil. It had exposed a rock with 32 large potholes formed by the action of water and stones that fell through the crevasses in the glacier that once passed through this portion of land. The garden was created to conserve the geological feature. Here is a picture of one of the deepest ones (using my shoe as a depth reference)



There was also a sweet funhouse at the garden, where we discovered that people really can levitate! Here's Rex displaying his new found power using a large mirror.



Mine didn't turn out so well, but it was still lots of fun to do nonetheless.

Those were the major highlights of the weekend trip. Soon after we got an afternoon train back into Riva, where we found the Architecture students had finally arrived!
One of my fraternity members, Maggie Headly, is included in that group, and it was really exciting and comforting knowing that there's now someone I know a little better around to talk to if things ever get shaky.

The rest of the week; Aug 28th - 30th:

Monday, I was invited to Denny Lane's (and Peter Smithers') house to help him move a bunch of his passed step-father's things around so that he could get ready to move to a different place in Europe. Now I'd like to think of this place as James Bond's house, because it lends much more to the imagination. Either way, the guy had some beautiful taste. He built the house himself over a creek/waterfall! the walkways within open to bridges that you can look down over the railing to see it running through the bottom of the house in amazing lighting. That, and the fact that his hobby away from work was floristry. There were huuuge blown up photos of his favorite flowers he created posted in the rooms all around the house. And, he seemed to have taken a liking to oriental furniture and decor, as that was the main motif I could get out of the layout. The coolest part of the whole experience is that Mr. Lane let the four of us who helped out pick out some of his step-father's old clothes and take it with us if we wanted, because it didn't fit him and he was just going to get rid of the rest. I amazed to find that I fit perfectly into his pant and shoe sizes, so I took two pairs of shoes a handful of pants back to Riva with me...now how many people in the world can say that they own James Bond's clothes?! Pretty exciting stuff!

Tuesday the 29th it was back to the normal grind. Studying a lot, about an hour in the lake, then back to studying. Wednesday was a bit more of the same, and Thursday (31st) was the Final Exam. That one was pretty rough...no 97 this time, but I'm still waiting on the final grade for the Marketing class, which should be no worse than a high B, so I'm reasonably satisfied with my performance, and anything more is a bonus!

Almost all caught up!

Love and Reese's Peaces,

B Ezie