Funny Fall with Fog and Phantoms and a Forge

A little background note to my latest Picasa Album with the same title

We had a funny fall time in Kandersteg (Switzerland, Berner Oberland) two weeks ago. It was literally full of phantoms, ghosts, spirits, 'has-beens' AND fog. Real white, wet, mountain weather fog.
Nevertheless we had tremendous fun, not only in rooming around the village, taking pictures of all the ghosts that the association 'Kultur in Kandersteg' had put on display at various parts of the village (within the framework of a week of activities under the banner: Gespenster - Geister - Spuk), but also enjoying autumn, having long walks from brook to brook and even climbing some of the more modest mountains towering right above the Kandertal Valley.

The view was worth every minute of sweating upwards. (Apart from my album you will find more mountain pictures here: http://mmontivagus.blogspot.com/2010/10/svajc-kandersteg-oszi-pillanatok-2010.html ).

In the meanwhile our 6 months old son also found his pleasure: crawling around the carpet and examining everything he found. On our departure day he produced another little surprise: two sharp little teeth in the front!

This was perhaps the 10th time I travelled to Kandersteg and the first time WE tried something different than the usual: we chose a special accommodation place, a Ferienwohnung, a nice holiday flat in the building of the OLD ICE AXE FORGE. Of course, no more ice axes are made there in the traditional way, now all is in factories of the big brand names you buy in mountain sport stores, but it was a pleasant surprise to visit a place where a hundred years ago the forefathers of mountain climbers had their axes, crampons etc. made.

Now this is an artist's workshop (hosting cultural events sometimes) that you can visit to learn about tradition and where you can even try crafting something yourself under the guidance of the owner, Mrs Ursula Binz, who very nicely explains all. Her works -the brand name is 'Sein und Formen'- and the rental conditions of the flat can be seen at: http://www.ursulabinz.ch/ a nice trilingual website. She does presentations for children's groups as well - it is safe and rather interesting for a six-ten year old one! I can only recommend a visit there and for any autumn visit, past the touristic season, I can assure you, you will find beauty and calmth around Kandersteg.

You reach this album here: http://picasaweb.google.hu/kamalika.gyorgyjakab/FunnyFallWithFogAndPhantomsAndAForgeKisertetekOsze#