Tuesday I again bought a train ticket to St Maurice, this time from
Brig instead of Geneva.
It was a gorgeous sunny day...
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The outlines of the 6th century palace on the street and sidewalk
above...
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One of the more important tombs, but they don't know who's in it...
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The roof is suspended from the cliff and held in place by rocks....
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another important tomb
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Head-Reliquary of Saint Candidus
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Continuous prayer takes the summer off...
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Hotel Alpes d Rhone, which is sadly no longer on booking.com.
They can park two tour buses next to the hotel and they've got a
restaurant to service them, that is more lucrative than booking.com...
Finally I made my way to the museum and saw Armand Hammer's exhibit
"From Rembrandt to Van Gogh"
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Titien
Portrait d'un homme en armure, v 1530
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Pierre Paul Rubens
Jeune femme aux cheveux bouclés
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Francisco de Goya
El Pelele v. 1791
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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Étude pour "Dans le salon de la rue des Moulins", 1894
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Edgar Degas
La Loge du Théâtre, 1885
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Vincent Van Gogh
Le Semeur, v 1888
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Vincent Van Vogh
L'Hôpital a Saint-Rémy
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Paul Gauguin
Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin, 1889
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Paul Cézanne
Garçon au repos, v 1887
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Claude Monet
Vue de Bordighera, 1884
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Vincent Van Gogh
Le Jardin du presbytère a Nuenen, 1885
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Le Repas des vendangeuses, v. 1888
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Rembrandt van Rijn
Junon, v 1662-1665
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Rembrandt van Rijn
Portrait d/un homme tenant un chapeau noir, v 1639-1640
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Édouard Manet
Portrait d'Alice Legouvé, 1875
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Just finished Armand Hammer exhibit in Martigny "From Rembrandt to Van
Gogh"
One Renior, 2 Rembrants, 3 Van Goghs, 2 Monets, one Manet, one Rubens,
a Titien, plus lots of others i cared almost nothing about (yes, i am
art snob or total snob,
or worse ).
Pissarro's mardi gras was nice, i will pay more attention to Pissarro
from now on.
Never seen pics of any of them before, most were not as exciting as
others i have seen by the great artists, but it was much less crowded
than any other exhibit with anything like this caliber artists.
The two Rembrants were stunning and often unattended since they were
not on the outer walls with the rest of the art, and very few people
even noticed the small Manet which also wasn't on the outer walls.
One of the Van Goghs was simply haunting, i have never seen a Van Gogh
like it, the woman in the garden in nuenen appears to be ghostly and
disappears as you move.
Kneeing before a well lit painting shows the brush strokes and makes it
come alive before your eyes.
Just boarded train back to Brig, an hour to go.
Still blows my mind that i have "hiked" much of that way (and ridden
lifts, and buses...), and it takes an hour by train...
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Dinner was from the coop...
Kent:
Nice work Dusty!
I know I'll hit that museum.
I thought it was fascinating the large Roman bronze pieces were
discovered broken up waiting to be recycled, recast, into other things.
Probably door hinges!
That stockalper museum might be interesting.
The carriages that took people over the simplon pass were kinda cool.
Glad things are back on track!
me:
I was wiped yesterday.
I suspect sleeping on the plane made jet lag worse, or maybe it was the
crap weather, or all of the above.
Sunny and breezy today, typical Rhone valley.
I assume kleine matterhorn wind gage is broken since it is stuck on
216kph.
I ignored all the Roman stuff in the martigny museum since i have seen
it all (i assume) before and published a pretty full catalog on one of
my prior trip pages.
the stadium had no screen up this year!
i hiked to the stockhalper castle, neat outsides, i didn't see the
inside. got a pic of the an old carriage labelled with grimselpass and
furkapass on it, two that i have biked... getting the pic of the
carriage coming down gotthardpass in 2021 was awesome, that trip was
insane until my eye blew up :(
There was no passport control when i landed in Geneva, which i found
very strange - it was closed for the evening, day, or ?
I haven't had my ticket checked by a conductor yet on any train, which
is definitely not switzerland....
I have had a few rides in the past where i wasn't checked, but nothing
like this.
I had never noticed there are at least two oil refineries along the
tracks in this valley! they are much more compact than US refineries...
You start packing yet Ray?
Ray:
Of course I'm going to climb the shit out of the Alps, ie. have a
farce.
I'm on the first plane and heading to Philly! (4-plus hours.)
Backpack full of toys is going straight to Zurich.
If the tracks are covered on Breithorn, you can take point since you've
done it before.
Ray:
I did find one "hiker" death on Breithorn that happened on May 19,
2024, on the internets but couldn't find any details.
Did find this hilarious report: "This is an example of mass mountain
tourism. If you want to experience solitude in mountains, this is not a
place for you. Some groups were of 12-15 people, so tightly roped that
they hardly had enough space in between them to make longer steps. It
looked really ridiculous to me, and it seems the same feeling had the
guide of one of the groups. But he was making good money, so everything
was good for him. But one guide was working hard: he had only one
customer, obviously with a deep pocket, a rather heavy woman who simply
could not walk. Instead of leaning forward, which is normal when you go
up, she was actually leaning backward. So the guide was really earning
his money that day; he and the rope between them were the only things
that kept her from falling back. It was a tugging in the real sense."
Ray:
Landed in Philly! Coming for you Dusty! haha.
Interesting articles.
Definitely more dangerous out there for unroped solo climbers doing
things they thought they could handle!
We will be fine on Breithorn as long as the weather's decent.
You have experience and I have new boots.
I'll take crowded as hell and well-trampled route rather than thin snow-bridges covered in recent snow with no tracks!
Spooooky!
I got another double margerita - maybe I should be pacing myself?
Boarding for transatlantic crossing in 30 minutes.
Why are more flounders not going on this trip?
Oh, shit - I just realized I have a wicked buzz as I start my 2nd double marg.
