Cruising
Lazy day today.. at least the first bit of it.
Since we had nothing else to do, we decided to go on a boat cruise thingie - I'm not exactly sure what it was. I mean, it wasn't a tourist cruise-ship that we went on, it was more of a transport ship, going from Interlaken Ost [East] to Brienz on Lake Brienzersee. So anyways, that was pretty good, looking at the aqua green waters of the lake, watching mommy-ducks trying to teach ducklings to swim, watching little towns on the bank of the lake go by. On the way back, I had a little nap under the noon sun.
We had lunch at McDonald's - you'd think we'd be tired of McDonald's after having food from there [and the same order, mind you] everyday in Zermatt, but no! We happily devoured it.
After lunch, we went to Mystery Park. It's this huge circular building where shows of the educational kind are shown.
The first show we watched was called 'Contact' and it was about the opening passages of the biblical book of Ezekiel [although they didn't mention that, I could tell easily because such twisted, bordering-on-crazy words could only belong to Ezekiel]. Ezekiel describes the flying creature he saw, with wheels and wings and other, more intricate details. He also describes a stadium-shaped building whose exact measurements he was asked to take. Using those measurements, modern builders have built a model of that building and using the details of the flying "creature", a NASA worker has recreated the object. The object fits exactly into the stadium-shaped building. But the question raised is what was the point of these measurements and these descriptions?
The next show was about the Mayan calendar. It revolves around a ziggurat, which is a Mayan square-based pyramid. On each of the four faces of the pyramid, there are 91 steps leading up to the top, where there is a large erection [no, not that sort!]. 91 times four is 364, plus one at the top gives 365. The Mayan calendar itself consists of three wheels that are connected to each other like gears and a turn in one makes the others turn too. The zeroth day and year on the Mayan calendar is August 11th, 3114 B.C.E - that was when the wheels were simultaneously at their zero point. The next time this will happen is calculated to be in 2012.
The show after that was about Egypt and its pyramids. Ok, since we learnt about measuring angles in radians this year in Math, this was particularly interesting for me: the Great Pyramid's distance from the center of the Earth is equal to its distance from the North Pole. Since the Earth is circular, a line drawn from the North Pole to the Pyramids would form a circular arc. When the length of a circular arc [the distance between the North Pole and the Pyramids, here] is equal to the radius of the circle [the distance between the Earth's center and the Pyramids, or the Earth's center and the north pole, i.e. the radius of the Earth], the angle between the two radius lines is equal to exactly one radian. That was intriguing, as well as the mystery behind the construction of such a huge structure - carrying 3-ton stones is no easy task, let alone placing them precisely on top of one another. The show ended with an Arabic proverb: Man fears time, but Time itself fears the Pyramids
The last show was about the Stonehenge in England. Its construction, too, is a mystery. How the 20-ton stones were erected and how the stones were placed on top of each other still remains unexplained. It was built by people in the Stone Age - when there were no Caterpillar construction machines or university-educated architects - just fur-wearing humans who hunted with the bow and arrow and drew on cave walls. The Stonehenge consists of giant stones placed in circles which are certain distances apart from each other. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the distances between the circles correspond to the distances between the orbits of the first four planets in our solar system. The reason behind its construction also remains a mystery.
So that was the day. Sarah's feeling unwell and Papa blames it on us for taking her around too much.
The "transport" ship that took us around the lake - it was called Jungfrau for some reason. But then again, everything here is named after Jungfrau. How un-creative.
What's a seagull doing in a lake?! The cute thing turned around as the ship passed its perch. Attention seeker?
Leaving Interlaken Ost, there was a bridge under which we passed.
My personal photographer brother and I, sitting on a bench on the first floor of the ship.
Some pictures of the Lake Brienzersee and the mountains surrounding it:
My brother fell in love with the lovely green water of the lake - and it truly was so beautiful. The mountains surrounding the lake were carpeted with trees and grass and little towns at the feet of the mountains.
That's one part of the town of Brienz, where the ship landed and we disembarked, only to board another ship five minutes later which took us back to Interlaken.
The bright orange flowers at the port in Brienz. I love the spiky-looking red one on the top-left corner.
I fell asleep on the way back to Interlaken. Man, those are some huge nostrils!
Ah, The Ugly Duckling being played out right before our eyes! I had forgotten that a baby swan is called a cygnet until Sarah told me. Damn, calculus can cause you to lose memory!
There was a waterfall pouring water into the lake, though I couldn't figure out where its source was. There was no ice or snow on the mountain, as far as I could see. And it was a clear, sunny day. Maybe it was coming from the toilet(s) of a cottage at the top of the mountain?
All photos courtesy of my brother.
That was our third day in Interlaken and the sixth day in Switzerland.
This song is dedicated to Pizzalicious Boy. Oh how I wish to see thee once more!
PS - Italy won the football match against Ukraine today, so the Italians in Interlaken have gone absolutely nuts [wait, that's redundant] and they're driving up and down the main street, honking their cars and waving their flag about. Since our hotel is right on the main street, I went downstairs to see what the hell was going on. Needless to say, there were Italian guys there and let's just say I never stopped smiling. More honking still going on.
Since we had nothing else to do, we decided to go on a boat cruise thingie - I'm not exactly sure what it was. I mean, it wasn't a tourist cruise-ship that we went on, it was more of a transport ship, going from Interlaken Ost [East] to Brienz on Lake Brienzersee. So anyways, that was pretty good, looking at the aqua green waters of the lake, watching mommy-ducks trying to teach ducklings to swim, watching little towns on the bank of the lake go by. On the way back, I had a little nap under the noon sun.
We had lunch at McDonald's - you'd think we'd be tired of McDonald's after having food from there [and the same order, mind you] everyday in Zermatt, but no! We happily devoured it.
After lunch, we went to Mystery Park. It's this huge circular building where shows of the educational kind are shown.
The first show we watched was called 'Contact' and it was about the opening passages of the biblical book of Ezekiel [although they didn't mention that, I could tell easily because such twisted, bordering-on-crazy words could only belong to Ezekiel]. Ezekiel describes the flying creature he saw, with wheels and wings and other, more intricate details. He also describes a stadium-shaped building whose exact measurements he was asked to take. Using those measurements, modern builders have built a model of that building and using the details of the flying "creature", a NASA worker has recreated the object. The object fits exactly into the stadium-shaped building. But the question raised is what was the point of these measurements and these descriptions?
The next show was about the Mayan calendar. It revolves around a ziggurat, which is a Mayan square-based pyramid. On each of the four faces of the pyramid, there are 91 steps leading up to the top, where there is a large erection [no, not that sort!]. 91 times four is 364, plus one at the top gives 365. The Mayan calendar itself consists of three wheels that are connected to each other like gears and a turn in one makes the others turn too. The zeroth day and year on the Mayan calendar is August 11th, 3114 B.C.E - that was when the wheels were simultaneously at their zero point. The next time this will happen is calculated to be in 2012.
The show after that was about Egypt and its pyramids. Ok, since we learnt about measuring angles in radians this year in Math, this was particularly interesting for me: the Great Pyramid's distance from the center of the Earth is equal to its distance from the North Pole. Since the Earth is circular, a line drawn from the North Pole to the Pyramids would form a circular arc. When the length of a circular arc [the distance between the North Pole and the Pyramids, here] is equal to the radius of the circle [the distance between the Earth's center and the Pyramids, or the Earth's center and the north pole, i.e. the radius of the Earth], the angle between the two radius lines is equal to exactly one radian. That was intriguing, as well as the mystery behind the construction of such a huge structure - carrying 3-ton stones is no easy task, let alone placing them precisely on top of one another. The show ended with an Arabic proverb: Man fears time, but Time itself fears the Pyramids
The last show was about the Stonehenge in England. Its construction, too, is a mystery. How the 20-ton stones were erected and how the stones were placed on top of each other still remains unexplained. It was built by people in the Stone Age - when there were no Caterpillar construction machines or university-educated architects - just fur-wearing humans who hunted with the bow and arrow and drew on cave walls. The Stonehenge consists of giant stones placed in circles which are certain distances apart from each other. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the distances between the circles correspond to the distances between the orbits of the first four planets in our solar system. The reason behind its construction also remains a mystery.
So that was the day. Sarah's feeling unwell and Papa blames it on us for taking her around too much.
The "transport" ship that took us around the lake - it was called Jungfrau for some reason. But then again, everything here is named after Jungfrau. How un-creative.
What's a seagull doing in a lake?! The cute thing turned around as the ship passed its perch. Attention seeker?
Leaving Interlaken Ost, there was a bridge under which we passed.
My personal photographer brother and I, sitting on a bench on the first floor of the ship.
Some pictures of the Lake Brienzersee and the mountains surrounding it:
My brother fell in love with the lovely green water of the lake - and it truly was so beautiful. The mountains surrounding the lake were carpeted with trees and grass and little towns at the feet of the mountains.
That's one part of the town of Brienz, where the ship landed and we disembarked, only to board another ship five minutes later which took us back to Interlaken.
The bright orange flowers at the port in Brienz. I love the spiky-looking red one on the top-left corner.
I fell asleep on the way back to Interlaken. Man, those are some huge nostrils!
Ah, The Ugly Duckling being played out right before our eyes! I had forgotten that a baby swan is called a cygnet until Sarah told me. Damn, calculus can cause you to lose memory!
There was a waterfall pouring water into the lake, though I couldn't figure out where its source was. There was no ice or snow on the mountain, as far as I could see. And it was a clear, sunny day. Maybe it was coming from the toilet(s) of a cottage at the top of the mountain?
All photos courtesy of my brother.
That was our third day in Interlaken and the sixth day in Switzerland.
This song is dedicated to Pizzalicious Boy. Oh how I wish to see thee once more!
PS - Italy won the football match against Ukraine today, so the Italians in Interlaken have gone absolutely nuts [wait, that's redundant] and they're driving up and down the main street, honking their cars and waving their flag about. Since our hotel is right on the main street, I went downstairs to see what the hell was going on. Needless to say, there were Italian guys there and let's just say I never stopped smiling. More honking still going on.