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greenbagjosh · 2 years ago

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Sunday 9 August 1998 - prebreakfast TV - ride to Forch - Röstipizza for lunch - ride down the roller slide and the funny elk-light fixtures - train ride home and a ham focaccia for supper

Sunday 9 August 1998

Hi everyone, Hope your week is going well. It is supposed to be cooled down by today. Twenty years ago today I did a quick country train and bus ride around Zürich, after a long day in Zürich itself. Eventually I went back home to München.

Overview

watching Ottifanten and an Otto Waalkes sketch comedy show on TV

shower and breakfast in hotel

check out, walk to Rümlang S Bahn station, lock clothes bag in locker

take S Bahn to Stadelhofen, then S-18 to Esslingen via Forch

take bus from Forch to Uster, and S-Bahn from Uster to Zürich HB

lunch at the Brasserie Johanniter

S-10 train to Üetliberg, walk up to see the Uto Kulm observation area

train to Zürich Selnau, walk back to HB

take train with Sommer Spezial ticket to München Hbf

head home with U-5, U-4 and bus 37 home

arrive home and no one complains (thankfully)

make it to work for the final week And that was the summary of what I did on Sunday, 9th August 1998.

That was some noisy night last night, I am lucky to be back in my comfortable room with no roommates to have to listen to (loud music, snoring and so on), and I have my own TV set.

Breakfast was served until 10 AM at the hotel, so I watched a little TV before going. Since I am still such a big fan of Otto Waalkes since July 1991, I watched an episode of Ottifanten, which are anthropomorphic elephants, the main character voiced by Otto Waalkes himself. Then there was the live action sketch comedy show, with his "English for runaways" inexact English-to-German translations, plus the Kakao sketch.

After seeing Otto on TV, I took a shower, then had breakfast. The breakfast was better than at the hostel, the items were more delicious and the bread rolls were fresh. Well worth the extra 10 CHF I paid. After that I checked out with my clothes bag, and I took my day bag with the remaining sodas for the swig bottle. It was a twenty minute walk to the Rümlang S-Bahn station. My ticket was still valid for Zürich and Rümlang until 12:30 PM but I wanted to out of that zone for the day. In that case, what is the appropriate ticket to buy for all zones of the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (Zürich regional rail district)? More likely than not, it would be the 9 AM ticket available daily and for about 18 CHF for all zones, valid only up to the last train of the day, likely just after midnight.

From Rümlang, I took the S-Bahn via Glattbrugg and Oerlikon to Zürich HB, where for 6 CHF I could store the clothes bag away for the day until it would be time to take the train home. I had until 5:15 PM that day to explore the Zürich region. So I thought, why not take the S-18 all the way to Esslingen ZH? To do that, I had to take the S-Bahn from platforms 21 to 24 to Stadelhofen, and change to the S-18 at its own stop near the theater (which on 24 July was playing The Truman Show). In 1998 I did not know about the Tram museum at Burgwies, close to Balgrist, which would be open at 11 AM. That would have been interesting. I made it a point later to visit, and between September 2011 and December 2016 I have since visited twice. Going further, the S-18 ran on the same tracks as the tram line 15 up to Rehalp, and after that, it went on a surface route up to Zumikon-Waltikon and went underground for Zumikon and Maiacher, before coming out of tunnel for Forch. After Forch and up to Esslingen, the train route was mainly single tracked. The day was nice, mid 70s and had interesting scenery, not too hilly. At the end was Esslingen and I had to take a bus, line 842, through Mönchaltorf ZH to Uster. I had been to Uster on 4th of July 1997 but only by accident. That incident was due to the fact that I did not alight the S-Bahn train at Stettbach as I should have. But this time Uster seemed familiar and I knew where I needed to go and where to alight.

The S-Bahn from Uster to Zürich, goes northwest past the Greifensee.and Dübendorf, before it goes into tunnel at Stettbach and emerges at Stadelhofen. Then there is another tunnel section from there to Zürich HB which is platforms 21 to 24. I alighted at Zürich HB and it was time for lunch. I wanted to go back to my favorite restaurant at the time, the Brasserie Johanniter, on Niederdorferstrasse 70. They were not so full as the previous night and they offered me a table outside. I had a Hürlimann 1 Liter, and on the seasonal menu, they were serving Rösti as a pizza. I could order a "quattro stagione" (four seasons) pizza on a bed of the hashbrowns. It was actually quite delicious, too bad I did not take a photo of it. With a full liter of beer, you have to take at least an hour to enjoy it. I think it was about 2 PM that I paid the bill and left for Üetliberg.

In 1998, the SZU, Sihltal-Zürich-Üetlibergbahn used the same platforms as today, but instead of platforms 21 and 22, the platforms were called just 1 and 2 back then. I took the S-10 the entire distance to Üetliberg via Triemli. It was a four-zone journey and my 9 AM ticket covered it with no problem. When I arrived at Üetliberg terminus, I left the train, walked up the steep pedestrian trail to Uto Kulm, and for the first time I saw the most bizarre light fixtures around, namely the Bruno Weber Hirschlampen. These were four lights on the antlers of giant elk. Also there is some planetary display on the trail. The Uto Kulm resort hotel is at the top, and costs around 200 CHF per night, which I could not afford then. The observation platform and tower are still open to the public. From there you can see from north Zürich into the Albisgütli where there is the late summer Knabenschiessen event, and further along Lake Zürich towards Rapperswil SG and Pfäffikon SZ. I had to take about twenty minutes to get a good view of everything and appreciate the many years I had known Zürich (my first visit was 1976 when I was about four).

It was getting close to 4 PM and I had to go back to the rail station. I thought I would have some time to walk from Selnau to the station, it was not a long journey, and being Sunday, the traffic would be light. I arrived about 4:45 PM and searched for some place to buy Victorinox knives but I could only find cheap store-brand replicas. They would have to suffice. I managed to collect my clothes bag, get to the train to München Hbf and board the right train car, as stated on my Sommer-Spezial ticket. My seat was in an open area of the first class compartment and with a window all to myself. At 5.15 PM the train left Zürich HB, I left seeing the Zürich insurance billboard just outside the station, and away it went. I took a few photos here and there, particularly getting close to St. Gallen. There was a bistro wagon going through the cars, and I could not pass up the ham and cheese sandwich on a focaccia-shaped bread roll. The train reached Bregenz about 7:45 PM. That was the only time the border guards were on the train, and the rest of the way it was uneventful. I think I took a nap between Lindau and Buchloe. As you might expect, the electrification did not start until the train passed Geltendorf, which is kind of the imaginary border of Oberbayern and the Ostallgäu. The sky was getting darker and about 9:50 PM the train pulled into München Hbf. There was no point remaining in the station so I headed home, first on the U-5 to Lehel, and caught the U-4 to Arabellapark, then the bus 37 to my apartment in the Freischützstraße. I entered quietly and no one told me off about my alarm clock.

And the next morning? It would be the final week of my Werkstudenttätigkeit, so all loose ends had to be tightened up, and paperwork had to be filled out for end-of-project, and I had to also take care of my apartment rental and last three nights in Paris for Summer 1998 before flying home. And buying this and that. So the next story may not be until Wednesday the 15th August. The 18th August is the "grand finale" of this saga.

Hope you enjoyed so far, Gute Nacht and bonne nuit!

PS Desirée is afraid of the dark, especially when she's in a park… (that was one song I heard repeatedly in Summer 1998, she had "You gotta be" in 1994)

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greenbagjosh · 4 years ago

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23 April 2001 - the Böögg burns slowly - James Joyce found in Fluntern

Grüezi Mitenand! Bonjour! Buongiorno! Hi everyone!

Thank you for joining me on the fifth day of the April 2001 journey. Today is Monday the 23rd April 2001.

As I was still under the influence of jetlag, I went to bed early the previous night after dinner. I consequently woke up about 4:40 AM, it was still dark. I did not have any roommates to disturb so I just went to the shower in the hall. The hostel would not serve breakfast until 6 AM, so I left the hostel about 5 AM, walked to the Besenrainstrasse bus stop and took it to Morgental where I changed to the tram line 7 - note, I had my Swiss Pass with me, so I did not have to buy a separate ticket. I picked up a copy of the 20 Minuten newspaper and it had an article about today's upcoming event at 6 PM, the Sechseläuten burning of the Böögg.

What is a Böögg? Since the 19th Century, Sechseläuten has been celebrated every mid-April in Zürich. According to zuerich.com, "Who or What is a Böögg? The word “Böögg” is probably related to the word “bogeyman” and similar names in other languages for this frightening imaginary figure, such as Bullebeiss, Buhmann or Boesman. In Zurich, the Böögg resembles a snowman and symbolizes the winter. The burning of the Böögg serves to drive out the winter and herald the spring." Eventually the Bürkliplatz towards Lake Zürich was too small, so it was moved across the Limmat eastward to the Bellevueplatz, on the northern end of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung headquarters. You might know the Bellevueplatz as the starting point for the Street Parade techno music festivals that start about 1 PM on the second Saturday in August, of which I have been to five in total so far.

So what happens at the Sechseläuten festival? Sechseläuten is a half-day holiday, in the Canton of Zürich, but nowhere specifically else in Switzerland. The Böögg is a textile snowman filled with explosives and is meant to be set alight on a controlled flame, in other words, a bonfire. The most explosives are put in the snowman's head. Then there is a parade, for the guilds of Zürich from Paradeplatz to Bellevueplatz, to put the Böögg on top of the wood for the bonfire. That is the plan for the afternoon.

I took the tram about 5:15 AM to Selnau station and walked from one end to the other. I exited the station, and walked along Sihlstrasse to the intersection of Talstrasse and Löwenstrasse. At the pedestrian crossing there was a crossing stripe with the phrase "rauf mit den o+löhnen" spraypainted, with o+ being the female symbol, I guess a demand for gender pay equality. That was about 5:35 AM, according to the picture screenshot.

About 5:38 AM I found a guild sign, namely the "Zunft Schwamendingen" while walking along Talackerstrasse that leads southeast to Paradeplatz. At Paradeplatz was a big banner for the local tram company VBZ (Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich) "damit am Sechseläuten nur der Böögg den Kopf verliert" (so that on Sechseläuten, only the Böögg loses his head". I remember from September 2000 a similar banner for Knabenschiessen, as I was in Zürich for that festival as well. I took a tram to Bellevueplatz to have a look at the bonfire. It must have been stacked about two stories high. I took a tram line 6 to Bahnhof Enge and then tram 7 to the hostel. It was about 6:55 AM and the hostel started serving breakfast, in the part where in 2004 onwards the checkin desk is located now. With the renovations of December 2001 onwards, the checkin desk and hostel restaurant had swapped sides of the hostel ground floor. I can explain at another time. Breakfast included bread, cheese, cold cut meats, dry cereal, milk, tea, orange juice and coffee. Coffee was from the espresso machine and you could order at least three different kinds of coffee drinks, all for free during breakfast. For tea, you would pick out a bag, and with the espresso machine just select the hot water.

As the Sechseläuten parade would not start until about 2 PM, I decided to make a couple of side trips. One of which to Aarau in the canton of Aargau to the northwest, and to Üetliberg to compare a nice sunny and warm September visit would be to a chilly one in April. I thus took my video camera, my Swiss Pass, and headed to the Besenrainstrasse bus stop, Morgental and on to Zürich HB. I boarded a train to Bern that would stop at Lenzburg AG and Aarau. There was not much in Aarau that I particularly wanted to see, other than the Altstadt and crossing the Aare at Flösserplatz. Little did I know that Aarau is close to the cantonal border with Solothurn, and I did not take time to walk along route 5 to cross, but I made up for it a few days later when changing trains at Olten. Before returning to Zürich, I remember passing by the Pickwick pub. It was, and is still, at Graben 6 close to the Kasinopark. It was not yet 11 AM and I was in no mood for any alcohol at that time, and I needed to return to Zürich.

I took the train back to Zürich via Lenzburg, and changed to the S-10. I may have mentioned the S-10 many times in the past, and it is an anomaly in comparison to the other S-Bahn lines in Zürich. Its rolling stock, instead of the standard 15 kV / 16 2/3 Hz voltage as used by SBB, Deutsche Bahn and ÖBB of Austria, uses the 1,000 V DC, which is long since outdated and is due to be decommissioned by 2023, but is still used by the existing rolling stock. To avoid a conflict of voltages, the pantographs of the S-10 rolling stock are moved from the center of the train but placed on the left side (assuming the direction of travel is towards Zürich HB) with its own catenary. Parts of the tunnel between Zürich HB, Selnau and Binz/Giesshübel allow for opposite side and switchback use by both lines S-4 and S-10, but SBB and VBZ have seen an increase in ridership on S-10 and they are trying to invest in line expansion, so the 1,000 V DC power will need to be decommissioned and only one power source will be supported. The S-18, aka Forchbahn, is another story, which I will not go into at this time.

About 11:25 AM I returned to Zürich HB. The tracks to the S-10 are underground and close to the Bahnhofplatz and Löwenstrasse rail station platforms. In 2001, the platforms were called platform 1 for the S-10 and platform 2 for the S-4. After the opening of the four platform Löwenstrasse station, platforms were renumbered, so platform 1 and platform 2 are now platform 21 and 22, the Löwenstrasse station platforms 31 to 34, and the original S-Bahn station towards the National Museum, are called platforms 41 to 44, when they used to be 21 to 24 when first opened. Sigh, you have to admire the progress that Switzerland went through during 20+ years...... I think I boarded a 11:35 AM S-10 train to Üetliberg that did not terminate at Triemli (had that happen to me in July 1998). I remember passing by the Giesshübel station about 11:41 AM. So far there was no sign of any significant snow, and the skies were mostly clear, though the air was chilly, maybe mid 40s or +4 to +6 Celsius. After the train passed Uitikon, the snow was starting to show up.

By the time I reached Üetliberg, there was about six inches of snow almost everywhere, tracks visible but sleepers covered. It was 11:58 AM when I stepped out of the train, and some of the snow had started to melt, so I had to watch where I stepped. At Üetiberg they still have an axle with a cog, but the Üetlibergbahn S-10 line does not use any cog rail at all, and is billed as one of Switzerland's steepest rail lines that does not use either a cog or traction cable. Prior to 2016 I used to love to ride the fun roller slide where you use a hard V shaped coaster and the rollers have a ten foot decline with maybe three or four bends. I rode it the last time in September 2000, and made a video of it. I think it was dismantled in 2016 or earlier and replaced by a less entertaining set of stationary bicycles or similar.

It was getting close to 1 PM so I headed back down to where I could catch the tram line 7 to the hostel, get a fresh camera battery, and find a good place to view the Sechseläuten Parade. Somehow I walked to just outside the Münsterhof location of Leder Locher, and a band was practicing at 2:25 PM, about thirty people in total, and in Georgian / US Revolutionary period costume, though I could not tell you to what guild they belonged to. I remember there was a little girl about 5 or 6 years old with a Pooh Bear balloon. I walked to the Bahnhofstrasse, somewhere near the Bärengasse and watched the parade for an hour or so. There were many musicians from various guilds, and even the wine barrel making guild had an excellent percussion session. The baker guild threw bread rolls at the crowd.

At 5 PM I walked towards Bürkliplatz to cross eastwards to Bellevueplatz so that I could have a good view of the Böögg. I found some place where I could see the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" corporate sign. I think I was about a hundred feet away, and could see about fifteen feet of firewood as well as the Böögg itself. I had a nice view, and was getting very excited for 6 PM to ring. By then, the cavalry was circled around the bonfire.

It eventually turned 6 PM. The time had come to start the bonfire. Unfortunately it was getting cloudy and colder, upper 30s, or maybe +3 to +5 C. What is important to note about the bonfire, is how long it takes, from exactly 6 PM to when the Böögg's head explodes with the explosives. If the fire takes less than ten minutes for the Böögg's head to explode, then it will be a good summer in Zürich. Otherwise it may be a chilly one (e.g. 1997 and 2017 from what I remember, temperatures below normal and precipitation above normal). On 23 April 2001, it took a while. Even by 6:10 PM, the flames had not even made it halfway up to the Böögg. Fuel had to be put on the fire as it was going out. About 6:20 PM, the flames made it to the Böögg's feet and explosives started to pop. The Böögg's textile skin started burning and more explosives went off. It is not over until its head completely disappears. The next five minutes would be suspenseful. About 6:27 PM the Böögg was reduced to his head and a wooden frame where his "body" used to be. And right as my video camera's clock said 6:28 PM, I caught an explosion that was about five times the size of the Böögg's head. The crowd, of maybe 10,000 people at the time, cheered, and the head guild's band played a victory song. At 6:29 PM, all that was left on the bonfire, was a wooden frame and where the head used to be, just a charred out 2 by 4. According to the head guild, Sechseläuten 2001 was declared "mission accomplished".

After such excitement, I thought I should do the cable car rotation, namely the Polybahn and Rigiblickbahn, that I remember riding in 1997, 1998 and 2000. Then I would come back by tram lines 5 or 6. From Bellevueplatz, I walked to Central, the lower station of the Polybahn. If you have heard of ETH Zürich, that is the upper station of the Polybahn. My prior ride on it was on Friday the 24th July 1998 with my striped top hat, and I took a selfie about 3:30 PM that day. The Polybahn was still operating at 6:55 PM so I took it up to ETH Zürich, and managed to watch the other car go down to Central. I took the next tram from the ETH/Universitätsspital three stops to Seilbahn Rigiblick, and around 7:10 PM I took the cable car up to the upper station. The Seilbahn Rigiblick is automated kind of like an inclinator at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas. You pick your station, Goldauer Strasse, Hadlaubstrasse, Germaniastrasse and Rigiblick, then it makes the appropriate stop. It was built so well, that if both cars stopped along the way, you would be at any one of the stops (Goldauer Strasse for one and Germania Strasse for the other). I was at the top station, and there was a bus line 39 to Im Klösterli near the zoo. Interestingly enough, for those who like James Joyce's literature, he is buried close by at the Fluntern cemetery. I thought about eating at the Klösterli restaurant, but I took a pass after looking at the dinner prices so I went back to Niederdorferstrasse by tram line 6, where I know that prices are more reasonable. By then it was about 7:45 PM and the sun was about to set. The tram did pass Toblerplatz, for which there is a famous triangular chocolate bar named after it. Also the trolleybus line 33 terminates there, still does after part of its route was cut back and replaced years later with line 72, also a trolleybus line.

I ended up back at the ETH/Universitätsspital tram stop, took the Polybahn down to Central, and looked for my favorite restaurant to eat supper at. In April 2001 I did not know of Bierhalle Wolf, that I more frequently visit since 2011, so I did not go there then. Instead I went to the Brasserie Johanniter on Niederdorferstrasse 70, had a seat inside, and started off with a liter of Hürlimann Lager. The last time I ate at Johanniter, I had their Graubündner Spätzle with ham, cheese and onions, and luckily it was still on the menu. It was priced 20 Francs. I think 2002 it was withdrawn and the only Spätzle they serve anymore is in the vegetarian style. I had someone share my table, and we had a conversation, not very deep. After paying our respective tabs, we went on our ways. I went back to Bellevueplatz to see what remained, if anything, of the Böögg, and there was still the skeleton that I remember from 6:29 PM. So I went back to the hostel to sleep, as tomorrow would be a travel day to Bern.

Please join me as tomorrow I will see two new cantons, one of which has two half-cantons. Then we will see a new astrological clock similar to the one in Prague, and not too far from the Bundeshaus. See you then.

Auf wiederluege! Au revoir! Arrivederci! Goodbye!

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