There were two dozen at St John's for the Sunday Eucharist. When all but the Church Wardens had departed, Church Warden Neil, took the Church House router and attached it to a socket in the wall of the meeting room next door, to check this was an operational fibre-optic connection, which it is. He's very pleased with this, as it'll be possible to have a wireless router there and use the signal in the church social area to stream UK video broadcasts to a TV or projector on special occasions of interest, as well as hold film nights using Netflix. Properly promoted, this could attract members of the wider community to visit and socialise in Church, and kindle interest in worship.
After Neil and Jane took their leave, it was time to lock the church and take the stopping train to Lausanne, from the station across the road, then the Inter-Regio to Zurich, another train to Sargans and finally the local train to Buchs, where our old friend Heinz met us at the station and walked us back to the rooftop apartment where he and Maria-Luisa have made their home in retirement. It's just a year since we last made this journey to seen them, and it was marvellous to relax and catch up over an evening meal.
After a leisurely breakfast on Monday morning we went by train to Bad Ragaz, further south in the Rhine Valley towards Chur. The mountains to the east of the Rhine at this point are the setting for Johanna Spry's children's novel Heidi, so the region is well visited by foreign tourists for this reason alone. Bad Ragaz however, is an elite Swiss spa and golf hotel town, whose development dates from the Grand Tour era. Its 18 hole golf course hosts the annual Swiss Seniors Open Championship, but also a triennial open air Festival of Sculpture.
The area around the town and within contains permanent exhibits, but at festival time it claims to be Europe's largest sculpture park, occupying key sites on the golf course, as well as the town's streets and hotel precincts. The number of exhibits is said to rise to 400, attracting an international range of contributors. The walk around the course and into the village took an hour and a half, with frequent photographic stops. The majority of exhibits in the public domain are abstract, with just a few with human form. The placement of many of the sculptures has been chosen carefully, with colour and form in mind. I found that observing and photographing them was a stimulating mental exercise, as consideration of the meaning or theme of the piece was of minor importance to appreciating their form and setting. One of the values and purposes of art is to challenge viewers to look at everything from a different perspective. This, I felt was true for me. My photos are here.
We enjoyed a regional dish from nearby the Grisons region, eating lunch in the Central Restaurant in the main street, opposite a municipal building that started life as a spa. There's still a fountain in the porch opening on to the street, where warm spa water can be drunk, apparently good for one's health. Outside was an ice cream stall, with a 1.5m plastic ice cream cone advertising its wares on the pavement beside it. It's an everyday sight in many holiday resorts. For me, what comes to mind is the question of how to distinguish between a mass marketing artifact like this and an intentional sculpture which may use the same materials, shapes and colours even. Context counts a lot I guess.
We returned to Grabs to escape the intense afternoon heat, and only ventured out again as the sun was setting. We walked to the Alte Stadt, about half a kilometer away, a well preserved collection of mediaeval wooden houses, said to be the only one to have escaped being burned down over six centuries after supper on the terrace. This quiet corner is still a residential area, not holiday homes. It sits at the bottom of a rocky 50m outcrop, on top of which is the fine Schloss Grabs. Its slopes are covered in vineyards. Well, it's still the Rhineland, after all. It was dusk when we walked back around the small like next to the Alte Stadt. Enchanting! My photos are here.
Today, we bade farewell to Heinz and Mari-Luisa mid morining, making the return trip with the same itinerary, just enough time to make each of the four changes of train comfortably, without any delay. We got off in Montreux, did a lot of food shopping, then caught the trolley bus to Terriet, as we had a go-anywhere day ticket - CHF49 with the abonnement demi-tarif. What a bargain, and what a lovely outing!
The area around the town and within contains permanent exhibits, but at festival time it claims to be Europe's largest sculpture park, occupying key sites on the golf course, as well as the town's streets and hotel precincts. The number of exhibits is said to rise to 400, attracting an international range of contributors. The walk around the course and into the village took an hour and a half, with frequent photographic stops. The majority of exhibits in the public domain are abstract, with just a few with human form. The placement of many of the sculptures has been chosen carefully, with colour and form in mind. I found that observing and photographing them was a stimulating mental exercise, as consideration of the meaning or theme of the piece was of minor importance to appreciating their form and setting. One of the values and purposes of art is to challenge viewers to look at everything from a different perspective. This, I felt was true for me. My photos are here.
We enjoyed a regional dish from nearby the Grisons region, eating lunch in the Central Restaurant in the main street, opposite a municipal building that started life as a spa. There's still a fountain in the porch opening on to the street, where warm spa water can be drunk, apparently good for one's health. Outside was an ice cream stall, with a 1.5m plastic ice cream cone advertising its wares on the pavement beside it. It's an everyday sight in many holiday resorts. For me, what comes to mind is the question of how to distinguish between a mass marketing artifact like this and an intentional sculpture which may use the same materials, shapes and colours even. Context counts a lot I guess.
We returned to Grabs to escape the intense afternoon heat, and only ventured out again as the sun was setting. We walked to the Alte Stadt, about half a kilometer away, a well preserved collection of mediaeval wooden houses, said to be the only one to have escaped being burned down over six centuries after supper on the terrace. This quiet corner is still a residential area, not holiday homes. It sits at the bottom of a rocky 50m outcrop, on top of which is the fine Schloss Grabs. Its slopes are covered in vineyards. Well, it's still the Rhineland, after all. It was dusk when we walked back around the small like next to the Alte Stadt. Enchanting! My photos are here.
Today, we bade farewell to Heinz and Mari-Luisa mid morining, making the return trip with the same itinerary, just enough time to make each of the four changes of train comfortably, without any delay. We got off in Montreux, did a lot of food shopping, then caught the trolley bus to Terriet, as we had a go-anywhere day ticket - CHF49 with the abonnement demi-tarif. What a bargain, and what a lovely outing!
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