akamerica

Much enjoyed your travelog and the really sharp pictures. Among other places in Switzerland I visited Lucerne, several years ago, and it became a favorite memory.

One highlight was watching the workers add wooden beams to the dam on the Reuss ?River apparently to manage the level of Lake Lucerne. Quite a system with needed skill and risk to the worker placing the large wooden beam into the fast moving water and having it "thunk" into place along side its like neighbor. As such the dam can expand and contract the water flow out of the lake. Several of the beams broke in half from the force of the water.

Do you use typically use a tripod? I had resolved to do so but too quickly gave it up for its trouble.

Note your residence is in NW Washington State close to Canada, eh? I logged 18-years in Federal Way enjoying the three months of summer and suffering the 8-9 months of damp bone chill. That and the joy of salmon fishing looking like an Eskimo. Now sun almost every day in SW Florida, and a bit too much humidity in the summer providing many soaked t-shirts. So escape to Wisconsin's Door County when the financial decimal point allows. And yes, we do laugh and point at the blizzards up north feeling quite at ease.

Thx for sharing your outstanding work.

Art

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Interesting that you had that experience at the weir in Lucerne, yes that is used to control the outflow of the river Reuss from the lake and thus also the level of the lake. A very ancient but effective contraption - but I have never been able to witness when the wood pieces are adjusted, that would be very interesting - lucky you that you were able to see it. I will have a picture of the weir in one of the coming posts from the "Summertime" album, but I guess you have already seen it by checking in on the album - thanks for doing so!

Yes, you saw it correctly, we now live in the PNW, very close to the border of the US with Canada, it is the last stop in a life that has taken us to a bunch of countries on a bunch of continents. We are just completing our 14th year here and are quite happy with this location. We lived in the tropics for quite a while, and while eternal sunshine might be an enticing thought, the constant heat and humidity, the typhoons and the more or less constant length of day can get boring, so we do enjoy the four seasons and change of temperature with an occasional enjoyable snowfall very much!