Every year, at Christmas time, Metalli mall in the center of Zug, Switzerland, is elaborately decorated with Christmas lights, special lightning effects, temporary structures and decorations.
These two panorama images show some of the lightning in the mall. Click and drag across the interactive version to move around the images.
Panorama:
Zug Metalli Christmas lighting
Interactive version:
Panorama:
Zug Metalli Christmas lighting
Interactive version:
On 29th of August 2010, King Albert 2 of Belgium visited the Astrid Chapel in Küssnacht Am Rigi in commemoration of his mother, Queen Astrid. We had the opportunity to attend this occasion and created a Virtual Reality Panorama of the event. A Virtual Reality panorama allows you to look around in all directions, so you can explore the surroundings. In this case, I created a composite panorama that contains three separate events that happened during King Albert 2’s visit: His arrival at the Chapel, the greeting of the invited guests and the attendance of the mass. As such, by looking at the panorama, you can experience the visit as if you were there.
King Albert II visit to the Astrid Chappel in Küssnacht, Switzerland
You can have a look at theinteractive image below:
We took up a new type of photography. It is called “Gigapan” and involves taking very high resolution images. The way we do this is by taking hundreds of images of an area and then stitching those together into one large image. We use a special device/robot that takes all the photos in such a way so they all stitch together nicely.
The most difficult part of the process is setting up the camera to take the gigapan. In order to get a good result, you need to set everything manually: timing, aperture, focus, whitebalance, etc. Depth of Field also becomes a huge concern as you want to make sure everything in the picture is sharp.
Anyway, I don’t want to bore your with the technical details, but I thought you might enjoy one of our Gigapans. We took this one a few weeks ago on basically a “perfect day” in Zug. It was sunny and very clear and we went up the little mountain next to Zug, called Zugerberg to get a good view of the city of Zug. In this view, you see Zugerlake, Zug, Cham, Baar, Steinhausen and the many surrounding villages around Zug.
You can zoom in and out of the gigapan and look at many details within the photo. You can also click on some of the “snapshots” underneath if you want to go directly to one of the selected details within the photo. Click here ot on the photo to open up the gigapan in a new window. Enjoy exploring Zug!
Next to Zug is a small mountain called Zugerberg (“Zugermountain”). A few weeks ago, we managed to visit it at exactly the right time when the sun was setting over the nearby mountains. Here are some photos and a 360 immersive panorama.
Click on any of the photos to see a larger version:
You can look around this 360 panorama by clicking on the image below and using your mouse to look around:
Here is another 360 panorama we took a few weeks ago at the waterfront in Cham, Switzerland. Cham is a small town next to Zug which also borders on Zuger lake.
Cham waterfront in winter
Below is the interactive version of the panorama:
We started something new that we are very excited about and are now taking full 360×180 degree panorama’s. These are high-resolution panorama pictures in which you can rotate in all different directions, so you can look around, to the top or to the bottom and can fully experience a place.
Our first successful attempt to doing this was the local train station, which came out well. Below you can see the “flattened” panorama showing a full 360 degree view of the station.
Zug Bahnhof panorama
You can also have a “spin” with the below picture. More to come in the near future!
Yesterday, I went skiing at the closest “decent” place to go skiing, which is Stoos. There are a couple of places closer to Zug, such as Rigi, but these places tend to be very small ski-areas and not really of any interest to me, so Stoos, with a height of 1922m (6305 feet) really is the local hill for skiing purposes. By public transport, it takes a bit over an hour to get there from where we live.
Conditions for ski-ing were fabulous: there has been tons of snow over the last few weeks, the sun was shining and the skiresort was not too crowded. Although the sun was shining on the ski-slopes, there was a thick fog in the valley, as is so often the case around here, creating some really nice views with peaks sticking out through the clouds.
Although pictures do not fully do the views justice, here are a few images for your enjoyment. As always, click on the images for larger versions:
View from Fronalpstock:
Some nice pictures from the slopes:
View from Kingenstock:
In a yearly tradition going back 39 years, one of the events in Zug is the “Zuger Messe“. The Messe (German for “fair”) consists of a number of large tents in which different retailers and restaurateurs set up their merchandise. You can find all kinds of stuff at the fair such as vacuum cleaners, different foods, electronics, furniture, information about skiing in Switzerland or Austria, live animals, etc. There are also several restaurants and bars, often with live music.
There are over 500 stands at the Messe and it is spread over two areas that are close together. Last year, the Messe attracted 80,000 visitors, so it is considered one of the highlights of the year.
We quite enjoy going there to find some weird and interesting items that we otherwise do not find anywhere else and to enjoy the atmosphere.
The fair also has its traditional “Riesenrad” (Giant Wheel). This is an artistic interpretation of the wheel by night:
This is a write-up I recently did for a colleague visiting Switzerland from Dubai, United Emirates. It lists some of the highlights around where we live, Zug. I am posting it to the blog as I thought it may be useful to others that plan to come this way:
There is no snow, yet, apart from some of the high mountain peaks that tend to have snow all year round. The weather may be great, but it can also be quite rainy this time of the year. Note that sometimes the top of the mountains are above the clouds, so it can be dry there when it is raining in the valeys. Also note that the weather can change easily in a short duration, so always take the appropriate clothing if you go on a mountain (rainjacket, etc.)
Here are a few websites you should be aware of that will help you with planning any trips you may want to make:
http://www.sbb.ch is the public transport site where you can find schedules from anywhere (not only the train) to anywhere. As public transport in Switzerland is excellent, it is really a great way to get around if you are visiting. In fact, I don’t have a car and use public transport instead as it is so good. Bear in mind that in many cases, the trainride in its own right is actually a great experience and provides some beautiful views.
http://map.search.ch/ is a really good map website for Switzerland where you can not only find locations, but can also public transport stops. Even better is that you can then right-click on bus and train stops and tell it from or to where to go (e.g., Zug) and it will show you how to get there and how long it will take you.
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html is a website about visting Switzerland that has tons of information on where to go and what to do
Also note that for many of these trips, you will get a much better price if you buy the whole ticket at the train station as they give special discounts. If you plan to travel a lot, you may also find this useful: http://www.tellpass.ch/en/. It is a pass that allows you unlimited travel within Central Switzerland (which is around Luzern, but not Zurich) for 2 days within a 7 day period (the other days, you get half price discounts) and gives you special discounts for other activities. I do not know all the details, but may be worth checking out. There is also a Swiss Travel card that gives similar benefits, including access to 450 museums: http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/en/ and is valid for the whole of Switzerland.
I assume you will be staying in Zug and therefore will focus on things to do near to Zug:
One of our favorite local trips is to onto Rigi (http://www.rigi.ch/en/welcome.cfm ), which is the closest mountain to Zug. It is not super high, but it provides really great views of the surroundings. It is particularly nice to do a full tour around the mountain: take the train to Arth-Goldau, change to a mountain train that takes you straight to the top of Rigi, with some stunning views along the way, do some walking and looking out on the top and then come down on another mountain train (one is red, the other one blue, don’t remember which one is what), but this time, take the mountain train to Viznau with some more fantastic views. Then take the boat from Viznau to Luzern, which is where we had our meeting. The boat ride is stunning on nice days. I recommend first class so you can sit upstairs. After you enjoy Luzern, which is beautiful, take the train back from Luzern to Zug.
The mountain we visited with the IT team last year Titlis (http://www.titlis.ch/index.php?id=134&lang=en ). You can also visit it during summer. To get there, you would want to take a train from Zug, over Luzern, to Engelberg. Another very nice trainride that gives you some nice views over the lake. The last section of the train goes steeply up the mountain. In Engelberg, you may need to walk about 10 minutes to the mountain station, which is SW of the station (easy to get to). You can then take a few cablecars all the way up to the top of the mountain, which is over 3,000 meter. There is snow at the top all year round and they have a number of activities such as visiting an ice cave and sledding at the top of the mountain. It will take you a couple of hours to get from Zug to Engelberg.
Another favorite of ours, which is relatively close to Zug, is Stanserhorn ( http://www.stanserhorn.ch/en/ ), which provides beautiful views of the mountains and has an easy path to walk around the mountain at the top. It is a pleasant walk and you really get a great view of all the mountains and lakes around, including places such as Jungfrau and Eiger. In order to get there, you would need to take a train to Stans and from there go up the mountain.
And then finally, there is Pilatus (http://www.pilatus.ch/), which also provides stunning views of the surroundings and is about 2000 meters. Again, you can make a lovely roundtrip by taking a train to Luzern, and then switching to the bus to a place called Krienz. From there, you take the cablecar up the mountain (you have to change halfway and can also do some activities at this halfway point). Once you have soaked in the views at the top, you take a train back down (if I remember right, it is the steepest train in Switzerland) to a place called Alpnachtstadt. From there, you can again take a lovely boatride back to Luzern.
The Vierwaldtstädtersee, which is the lake by Luzern, is incredibly beautiful. The boatrides above go over this lake. If you want to do the full length of the lake (an incredibly beautiful boatride), you can take a train to Fluelen and take the boat to Luzern from there. The boat trip is about 2 to 3 hours and is really worthwile.
If the weather is not that good, you can visit Luzern, where our IT conference took place, or Zürich, both very nice cities, although I prefer Luzern. Also bear in mind that it is really not that far, by train, to visit Bern, which has a very nice town center, or Geneva, with its famous lake. You can easily go to these places in daytrips from Zug.
If you are looking for a beautiful trainride, you can take the following traintrip: Zug – Erstfeld – Andermatt – Sedrun – Disentis – Chur – Thalwil – Zug. It does take a few hours (not sure how long exactly), but takes you past some beautiful places, including the “Swiss Grand Canyon”. The train also goes to over 2000m, so you are actually in the mountains without having to do anything apart from changing trains a few times. Obviously, you can also get off along the way and enjoy the local area and mountains.
A “famous” trip, that I have not yet made, but has been recommended by me, is to visit the JungFrau (http://jungfraubahn.ch/). You would need to make an overnight trip for this, though, and stay in Interlaken, as it is too far to get to from Zug and back in one day (getting up the mountain takes a while). The trainride over Sarnen, Brienz to Interlaken is also stunning. If you go there, I recommend returning from Interlaken over Bern as that trainride is also very nice next to the lake and doing so does not add that much time.
I’m sure there are many other great things to do, but these are the first things that came to mind.
What a sudden drop in temperature. Last week it still was 25-30C (75-85F), this week the temperature barely is going over freezing with daytime temperatures of 6C (42F).
With the cold temperatures, we are also getting the first snow. Well, almost – the snow is not yet hitting Zug itself, but is clearly visibly on the surrounding hills and mountains, including our “housemountain” Rigi. Still a month or two before the ski-slopes start opening, but the early snow should help providing a good base for upcoming snow … at least, if the temperatures don’t rise all much again in the next few weeks.
Here is a picture of snow-covered Rigi from our balcony. You can clearly see the snowline is not that much higher than the houses in the foreground. Not the best picture, but wanted to share the news with you:
