Yes, lovely photo art. Funny how the light differs in different regions. Because of the tall mountains which cast long shadows, our topic, the Alpine region, often has a lovely melancholic light in the afternoons and evenings in my experience, when the dark mountain slopes contrast with the last glitter of the evening sun on the peaks.
I totally agree with you that Bavaria shamelessly and quite wrongly has adopted an Alpine identity it's hardly entitled to. Garmisch-Partenkirchen (home of Germany's highest mountain, 2.962 metres tall Zugspitze may have a Tyrolean identity with yodling and lederhosen, but that only applies to a very narrow string of Bavaria along the Austrian border. But Bavaria has cultivated an Alpine image of itself for a long time, and it was no doubt immensly enhanced by mad King Ludwig II's megalomanic Alpine retreat, Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for Disney's fairy tale castle:
But in fact the scene is highly un-Bavarian. Only the hills behind are Bavarian, the mountains are Austrian.
The background in the more Bavarian view from the opposite angle doesn't look as grand:
Although both Austria, France, Italy and Slovenia are Alpine countries, I kind of see Switzerland as the quitessential Alpenland. Not only because of sheer geography, but also because of the ambience. In Switzerland you can stand in the streets of bustling international metropolises and still breath fresh, crisp mountain air and gaze up at almost vertical mountains.
And the Alpine heart of Alpine Switzerland must be the one canton that often is described as a Switzerland en miniature and a world apart: (Ge.) Graubünden, (Fr) Grisons, (It) Grigioni, (Rumantsch) Grischun, Switzerland easternmost canton and home of Heidi. Its not only highly Alpine because of its mountainous and confusing geography, but because its the meetingplace of languages (both German, (Rhaeto-)Romansh and Italian are spoken there) and the contrasts between isolation and transit that are so typical of the Alps.
Graubünden's capital and the oldest Swiss town, the old Roman city and present railway hub of Chur is typical and a city I liked very much when I visited it. Note the snowy vineyards - contrasts examplified:
_________________ Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen. = Those who don't know foreign languages, know nothing of their own. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:39 pm Post subject:
In summer 1980 a dance company I was in had a teaching/performing residency in Switzerland. Our first week was spent in Graubünden / Grisons / Grigioni / Grischun, more specifically in the area called the Engadine, and even more specifically in the town of Zuoz. We stayed in the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz, a prestigious, exclusive preparatory school
Here’s a map of the Engadine. Zuoz is about in the middle:
Last year, I went by train from Nürnberg to München, and later from München to Saltzburg. For some reason, I had expected both journeys to offer spectacular mountain views, but was disappointed to find that the scenery actually bore more resemblance to the Netherlands or East Anglia — a lot of rather flat green fields.
Not only because of sheer geography, but also because of the ambience. In Switzerland you can stand in the streets of bustling international metropolises and still breath fresh, crisp mountain air and gaze up at almost vertical mountains.
Yes, compared to its size, switzerland is surely (proportionally) the "most alpine country". But said that, to the starting subject which consisted to claim that the alpine imaginary was associated in the mind of many people with german-speaking regions. It is interesting to see that a big part of the German-speaking switzerland (the most populated around basel, bern and Zurich) is in fact quite flat and un-alpine.
basel
zurich
Bern
I just came back from holyday in the south of France. I went to Isola 2000, a ski station situated at Italian border about the same latitude than Firenze, Tuscany.
The Alps seen from the mediterranean coast, near St Tropez :
from the other side of the chain, From Turin, Italy, the view over the alpine chain is often impressive (when the sky is clear), which is quite rare in the po plain.
Really dreamy pictures from everyone. Are the landscapes as perfect as they look? _________________ Hillary Clinton is an acquired taste which I have clearly yet to acquire.
Really dreamy pictures from everyone. Are the landscapes as perfect as they look?
I think yes. High Mountain are really beautiful landscapes which give a feeling a being just a little human being in front of nature.
But it is also true that the Alps are surrounded by many very populated regions (and industrial), and are very touristically frequented. A lot of cities lie in the valleys, and modern skifacilities at top bring many people, pollution and so some "shadow" in the ideal image of the wild mountains.
The pyrenees are the other tall mountain range of Europe (excluding Caucasian mountains), they cover a less big area than the alps, are less internationally famous and a bit lower, but generally much more wild (they still have some bears, 5 I think) and as much beautiful (if not more).
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject:
fab wrote:
The pyrenees are the other tall mountain range of Europe (excluding Caucasian mountains), they cover a less big area than the alps, are less internationally famous and a bit lower, but generally much more wild (they still have some bears, 5 I think) and as much beautiful (if not more).
However, the 1st, 3rd and 5th highest mountain peaks in mainland Spain are in the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain. (The highest Spanish peak is the volcanic Teide, on Tenerife.)
Yes, Deborah, the Sierra Nevada has higher summits than the pyrenées, but they are very limited in area, and doesn't relly represent a wide area of high altitudes, nor a real mountainous geographical entity, but a more or less isolated mountainous spot, contrary as the pyrenees or the Alps.
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:08 am Post subject:
Another mountainous region of Spain that I think is very picturesque (from what I’ve seen of Spain on TV)
is the Cordillera Cantábrica, on the north coast. Although the peaks are all lower than 3000 m, they can
be impressive because of their rapid rise from the coastline. The
cordillera includes the Picos de Europa:
Another mountainous region of Spain that I think is very picturesque (from what I’ve seen of Spain on TV)
is the Cordillera Cantábrica, on the north coast. Although the peaks are all lower than 3000 m, they can
be impressive because of their rapid rise from the coastline. The
cordillera includes the Picos de Europa:
I drove through Cantabria twice. It's really magnifique !
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