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| Lake Zurich |
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| Hans Waldmann |
After traveling about fifty km. in an hour, we reached Zurich, the financial hub of Europe, which
attracts big shots and the capitalists to deposit their wealth safely and escape from the legal hurdles of their native states. Though Bairns is the capital of Switzerland, Zurich attained prominence owing to its financial status. By the time we reached Zurich, it was very late in the evening. So we had a brief stop over and strolled through a few streets. The Zurich Lake with seven bridges spanning across it, is the main attraction of the city surrounded by many monuments and buildings. Many tourists come here to enjoy boat rides and do shopping on the river front promenade. The water in the lake is very clear and pure. This lake is formed by the Linth river which rises from the glaciers of the Alps and flows through the Escher canal and Lake Walen into the Lake Zurich. The outflow from this lake forms Limmeth river. The richest world famous bank. U.S.B. (Union Bank of Switzerland) is located in this city. Established in 1854 it grew into one of the leading private banking and asset-management institutions. It has branches in more than fifty countries. It has more than 64,000 employees with huge assets of 910 billion dollars. This bank manages nearly 35% of private and institutional offshore funds.The U.B.S. merged with another gigantic Swiss Bank "Swiss Bank Corporation" in 1998 to form the present new U.B.S.
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| U.B.S. Bank, Zurich |
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| Union Bank Of Switzerland |
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| Fraumunster Church |
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| Framunster Church near Munster Bridge |
Our Tour Manager during this brief stop over, took us to a beautiful historic church "Fraumunster Church" built on the remains of a former abbey. The German King Ludwig gave lands and many privileges like collection of toll, marketing and minting rights to this Benedictine Abbey. Emperor Frederick gave more powers and freedom to this abbey in 1218. During Reformation Movement the abbey was dissolved. The Romanesque Church building serves as a parish church under the evangelical reformed church of the canton of Zurich. We saw beautifully painted stained glass windows done by Marc Chagall in 1970. The carved figures on the walls depict the story of martyrdom of the patron saints, St.Felix and St.Regula. The paintings on the walls were done by Paul Bodmer in1920s blending the spirit and style of the medieval architecture.We sat for a while in the church and lit candles. The statue of Madonna with Baby Christ in her hands made us feel the tender affection of the Divine Mother.
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| Carved figures on column |
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| Columns at Framunster Church |
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| Paintings on church wall |
Later Our Tour Manager showed us from distance the hotel where Winston Churchill stayed when he came to Zurich on September 19th, 1946 to deliver a lecture at Zurich University. A stone plaque with
words "Europe, Arise!" is still seen in the city street "Paradeplatz". He also added that Switzerland, because of its non-involvement in World Wars became a peaceful shelter for many celebrities like Lenin, Albert Einstein and James Joyce. "The Cafe Odeon", a Viennese style coffee-house opened in 1911 overlooking Bellevue Platz, was the favorite spot for Lenin, Einstein and James Joyce. Joyce stayed in Zurich for four years (from 1915 to 1919) and was very much attracted by the peaceful atmosphere of the city, and admired Zurich as "the city of order and prosperity."
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| Paradaplatz, Zurich |
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| Stone Plaque at Paradeplatz |
Finally at the western end of the Minister Bridge (Munsterbrucke) we saw a bronze statue of Hans Waldmann (1435-1489) the famous mayor and military leader of Zurich, who contributed much to the careful planning and development of the city. As the Master of Kambel Guild he renovated churches and beautified the city. But due to his overambitious nature and indiscriminate act of imposing heavy taxes on peasants of neighboring villages resulted in the revolt of villagers against him. In 1489 he was charged with corruption and was executed in public. The statue of the Mayor riding on a horse was done by the famous sculptor Herman Haller and was unveiled in 1937 by Kambel Guild commemorating his services to the great city.
After this brief orientation tour in Zurich we traveled to Engelberg, a resort town in the canton of Obwalden in central Switzerland . It took nearly two hours to cover a distance of one hundred kilometers through Alpine region with mountain slopes and spacious pastures and dark clumps of fir dotting the hills everywhere. Our lodging was at Hotel Bankialp, a place with moderate amenities. To have our meals we were whisked away in batches to another place where Indian menu was provided. It was almost 10.00 p.m. After an exhausting journey we sank into our beds dreaming about the pastoral scenes of the Black Forest, the loud ringing Swiss bells, the melting sweetness of Swiss chocolates amidst the wild roaring sound of gushing Rhine Waterfalls heard from afar. In the morning we shook ourselves out of slumber responding to the wake up call at 6.30 a.m. In one hour we should get ready to see many more charms of the Alpine region.
30th OCTOBER, 2015
SOMASESHU GUTALA
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