Weekend Field Trips

As long as we're living in Switzerland, we are doing our best to take advantage of the location by taking weekend field trips. Here's a recap of our most recent three.

One of the oldest forms of Swiss art is called Scherenschnittee, or paper cuts. A temporary exhibition displaying a large collection of paper cuts was something I was very interested in seeing. I'd seen different wares made replicating this traditional art, but I hadn't seen any of the real art. Luckily, the museum holding the exhibition was only a short, but beautiful drive away from Horgen.  

Do you remember schwingen, Swiss wrestling? Here the Swiss sport is transformed into art. 


The piece below was one of my favorites. So much detail: the four seasons, clothes drying on the line, artist at work in bottom center and of course, cows. 

bottom center detail

autumn and winter

some are in color, but b&w is traditional

everything white is underwater and everything black is above water - clever idea

cows, cows and more cows

story of a life

Below is an example of a really old piece, circa 1858, once again depicting the parade of cows. By day, Johann Hauswirth  made charcoal and by night he was an artist. His  perfectly symmetrical pieces were often given as payment for lodging or meals. 

across from the museum = beautiful setting

A friend recommended we check out the only Glassworks of Switzerland which was another short drive away.

been around a long time!

 

We could have waited in line to blow our own glass ball, but instead opted to watch someone else do it. Neither of us wanted the souvenir ball anyway. 

bottle from 1823

large chess pieces

a cow, what else?

glass dragon for climbing in the playground behind the glassworks

Down the road from the glassworks - who? what? why? No idea

After the Glassworks, we continued on to the Chess Museum. It was more of an exhibition of 900+ chess sets from all over the world. I don't play chess, but I enjoyed looking at them as much as Tom.  If I ever decide to take up chess, I think I should start here:  Chess for Dummies! The board removes guesswork and tells where the pieces start and how they move.

India vs Britain

table is as beautiful as the rest

Smurfs!

good guys? GW Bush, C Rice and friends

bad guys? Putin, etc

vs

Cats vs Dogs:
We all know who would win that battle. I love the cats' rook (scratching post condo combination), but I think the dogs' rook should be a fire hydrant, not a dog house.






The Alice in Wonderland set below is for Sarah. The opposition wear blue instead of red.

Think chess is a hard game? Try playing this vertical version!




 

had to include a Swiss set

I wonder which set the boys from The Big Bang Theory would choose: 
Star Wars or Star Trek?

Some of the sets are not so easy to determine which figure is which piece. 



I only touched on the variety of sets on display, but you get the idea. 


 



Tom also has a collection, but he will never have 900 sets! We have picked up a few on different trips. I predict there will be a purchase when we're in Russia this summer.  I'm including a couple of Tom's sets. Not all of them came to Switzerland with us.

from Peru - Spanish vs Incas

This set is called Isle of Lewis - it's a replica of the oldest known chess set. 












I have to stop here and post this even though we continue to have field trips. It's hard to keep up with myself! 


Tschüss! (Ciao in German)