Railing

Railing about what?

Once upon a time…and then it was yesterday…and you are reading this today.

In a land of mountain trains–funiculars, cable cars and narrow gauge cogwheel trains. They are slow and they get you high.

Why? Why get high?

I’ll let the following photos tell the story. You will be in the Bernese Highlands of the Jungfrau Region, the northern pre-mountains, above 2,000 meters in the Swiss Alps. Why build these mechanical contraptions to get high?

Here are the trains that get you high.

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Passenger cars–note narrow gauge and cogwheel. Start at 600 meters, finish at 2,300 meters.

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Passenger cars and engine–small and strong–electric power. 

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Engine close up–attached in front of the engine is a cart for transporting goods and construction materials.

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Once you are high…the air is thin, fresh, cool and the distances…magical.

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Mountains–Eiger, Monch, Junfrau with the Mannlichen gipfel amidst the clouds in the foreground.

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Paths to explore, paths for discovering.

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Discoveries.

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Going deep in.

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Can’t get enough.

Book or cover?

When I was growing up, I heard many times, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’–in different circumstances but often about people. Sociological training at home. Skin color, clothes, part of town…

These days, I am the stranger, in a strange town. I live on a hillside, looking down on the town center. The largest, tallest building is the public school. And in this image you can see it bedecked with planter boxes overflowing with red and pink geraniums in flower.

It is obviously the most important building in town and most beautifully adorned and maintained. If I judge the people of this town by the care they have shown for the public school, have I made a mistake?

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Public school as town center for the last century

Sun Flower

As a photographer, I am average, at best. 

I take photos of plants and landscapes that speak to me.

What do I hear? What do they say? Only I know that I must look closer. So I do that through the camera viewfinder. I share these because somehow or other they have spell bound me. And I like that. I hope you have a similar experience.

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Sun. Flower. Tell me more about the Sun and flowers.