[Mark]

3 June 2019 at 11:57:41 #913876

Hi Peterli

Yes, you are correct I have done most of my hiking around BO and Zermatt and limit my comments to those areas. I have also hiked around Adelboden , Leukerbad and the Dela Valley and Gorge. I especially enjoyed hiking the Hahenmoos and Gemmi passes. But my knowledge of these areas is limited to 1 short visit.

In our upcoming trip we will be based in Locarno. Unfortunately we only have a 1 week stay before transferring to Bolzano for a week hiking in the Dolomites. I am currently researching moderate day hikes (3-5 hr)for both areas. I would certainly welcome any suggestions you can share.

Mark. P.S. I am also in the early stages of planning a trip to the upper Engadine valley, perhaps Sils Maria as base for September 2020.

[Mark]

3 June 2019 at 12:29:48 #913877

Hi Slowpoke

Thanks for the information! I will study those links. We are actually staying in Orselina which should be convenient to visit The Church of the Madonna del Sasso as well as Cimetta. I am currently studying some hiking options around Montes Comino and Gambarogno and possibly Robiei and the Basodino Glacier.

Unfortunately I only have a week and I expect it will only whet my appetite for the area.

Mark

[Peterli]

4 June 2019 at 4:38:05 #913878

Hello again,

I’m curious, where are you arriving in Switzerland (or are you arriving in Milano), and how will you be getting around during your one week stay ? I mentioned Milano as you said you were moving on to the Dolomiti after your week in the Ticino.

Orselina should be a nice base for your visit. I hope that you will get to places like Lugano, Gandria, and Morcote on the Lago di Lugano, and a great place from which to view the lake is from the top of Monte San Salvatore.

[Peterli]

4 June 2019 at 6:35:22 #913879

Hello Slowpoke,

On Jun 1, 2019 – 11:54 PM you said << However, except for one at Marbach, marginal, there are none in the nicest part of the Mittelland- the Emmental. And, the Dreiseenland gets short shrift… Two on Lac Neuchatel (of course,near you) and one at Murten (oops, Morat). You have often lamented the overemphasis in these fora on the few famous sights in the Alps. I think this site strengthens that emphasis. Nothing on the Bode except…Rorshach? Nothing for St. Gallen? You’ve got to be kidding! What do you think? >>

Well, I’m finally getting some extra time to say what I think. I think my main purpose in contributing to this forum is to provide information to people planning to visit Switzerland who have discovered MySwissAlps and like to use it to get advice, suggestions and tips. Another purpose, a more personal one, is to provide information about the part of Switzerland that I know best, which I feel most foreigners know far too little about, this in the hope that they will at least consider visiting places in the area bounded by Lausanne, Montreux, Fribourg, Le Landeron, La Chaux-de-Fonds, and the Lac de Joux. However, this does not stop me from making contributions about places outside my area, and these may be about the Säntis in the north-east, Morcote in the Tessin, the Niesen beside Lac Thun, or the Swiss Transportation Museum in Lucerne. On occasion, I will even mention places over the border in France (such as Pérouges or Morteau, or the Upper Rhine Valley) or Germany (like the Insel Mainau) and once over to Liechtenstein.

The 240 Roundshot locations all cost money to set up and maintain, and so they are either sponsored by organizations or businesses, such as Swisscom. I understand your affection for the Emmental (I think it is a beautiful region as well) and perhaps sometime in the future the Käserei and some other businesses in Affoltern im Emmental and surroundings will get together and sponsor a panoramic camera, perhaps one at Lueg ?

The Emmental is only a part of the Mittelland (plateau central in French, usually shortened to just “Plateau“), but there are many other scenic and friendly places on the Plateau, be they off in the Toggenburg of Saint Gallen or Morat in Fribourg. I mention the word “friendly” because the people are such an important part of why one becomes attached to any area (including the Emmental). On the attached map, the Plateau is shown in white, stretching from Lake Geneva to the Bodensee (Lac Constance), sandwiched between the Jura in green and the Alps in light blue.

As for the locations of the Roundshot cameras, I find they are scattered all over Switzerland, and most of them are not on the tops of the mountains that are most usually mentioned on this forum. They are found in a variety of locations, from campgrounds (like Avenches) to airports (like Sion and Gstaad) to harbours (like Morges and Hergiswil) to downtowns (like Lucerne and Morat and Zurich), etc. etc. Just scroll down the many locations on http://www.roundshot.com/xml_ 1/internet/en/applicat ion/d170/f172.cfm to see the variety of locations. By the way, I found at least 11 in the canton of Neuchâtel, 4 around the Murtensee (Lac de Morat), and about 14 over in the St. Gallen and Appenzell area. Actually, I’m looking at the one in Rorschach right now and they have a nice blue sky with a view right across the lake to Germany. I agree that there are other cameras although I don’t know how many are panoramic or live or in colour. A number of years ago I used to watch a live fixed camera that looked down on the train station in Winterthour. It was in colour during the day and switched to black and white after dark. There also used to be one looking at the train platforms in Neuchâtel that refreshed every 20 seconds but that one has been off-line for years.

By the way, I did click on the three links that you suggested. On the third one I found a colour camera up in Magglingen, a place I’m pretty sure you know. It’s colour, but it’s fixed. And it’s a sunny day in Bienne ! I will definitely poke around these three links some more. I also found a live one (not full screen, though) for the Glacier 3000, which is probably a Roundshot camera, as Glacier 3000 is also on the map of the Roundshot locations.

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[Mark]

4 June 2019 at 11:11:20 #913880

Hi Peterli

We will be flying into Milan and out of Venice due to the proximity to Locarno and Bolzano. We will be using trains and busses while in Ticino but we are splurging on a car and driver from Locarno to Bolzano since it saves over 3 hours of travel time over using the trains and split 4 ways was not terribly more expensive.

There is some sort of convention in Lugano and all hotels are booked but we hope to visit and will check out Monte San Salvatore.

Any suggestions for Locarno?

Mark

[rockoyster]

5 June 2019 at 10:16:40 #913881

“Too bad Alpenrose opted out some time ago . . .“

Amen! She was the best.

[Mark]

5 June 2019 at 11:07:59 #913882

Hi Rockoyster

<<Amen! She was the best.>> Yes as a rookie forum poster I was in awe of you,Slowpoke, and Alpenrose. You 3 were like the 3 Musketeers or the 3 horsemen of the apocalypse (larger than life). Or maybe even the pinnacle of trios and my personal heroes….Larry,Moe, and Curley.(sorry I just couldn’t control myself).

Do you have any restaurant recommendations with a view in Locarno? Eating at the castle near Bellinzona sounds intriguing.

Mark

[Removed user]

5 June 2019 at 11:18:50 #913883

Alpenrose?

[Slowpoke]

5 June 2019 at 12:44:22 #913884

Hi Peterli-

I was obviously too hasty in my count for the Dreiseenland. I looked at the map, and should have looked at the list. The map gives an impression of a concentration in the Jungfrau Region.

The compilation is an excellent resource, as Steph noted, and, the images that I have looked at so far are of high quality. The 360 view is very helpful, as well as interesting.

Indeed, for many years, before that other link to webcams appeared, I always checked the web cam from the NZZ, overlooking all of Zürich for current information. I recall that you could control the camera, pasing it anywhere n a 360 degree rotation. I used to toward Uetliberg to see how clear the sky was in contrast to the TV tower.

The webcam site that I mentioned can be very disappointing, because the cameras frequently do not rotate, and seem to be poorly maintained. It does seem to be heavily populated, with some locations having lots of cameras. I think they may both be useful for the seeker of specifics about a particular place.

As always it is very hard to try to be humorous via the internet. My remarks were intended to be a joke for you, and, I apologize that the intent did not translate..

Slowpoke

I’d say the quality of the roundshot is better overal, but thatboth are useful.

[Arno]

5 June 2019 at 13:28:27 #913885

Hi Mark,

Our Locarno page offers a list of recommended hotels: http://www.myswissalps.com/lo carno/hotels.

[Mark]

5 June 2019 at 16:32:50 #913886

Hi Arno, Slowpoke, and Rockoyster

Thanks Arno but we already have hotel accommodations in Orselina just above Locarno but so far we have no restaurant reservations.

As Slowpoke notes above humor over the internet is risky. I suspect my feeble attempt in my above post regarding Larry, Moe, and Curley is likely lost on anyone under 40. And of course it is meaningless to those not familiar with the Three Stooges on American TV in the 50s and 60s. Though probably not funny by today’s standards, they were quite popular in my adolescence (in a Jerry Lewis sort of way). Oops I did it again.

Mark

[rockoyster]

5 June 2019 at 21:27:54 #913887

I am honoured to be mentioned in such company. 😉

Sorry, Mark, but our gastronomic experiences in Locarno extended only as far as gelato by the waterfront. Somewhere I missed in Lugano but would have loved to get to was the Grotto de Pescatori accessible only by boat. There is a fun looking waterside restaurant at Gandria which is more accessible.

[Arno]

6 June 2019 at 6:40:31 #913888

Hi Mark,

Yes, online humor can be risky, but as long as people are just missing the point and not offended it is all fine 🙂

There are many restaurants in Locarno, I’m not sure if reserving a table is necessary. Last time we were there, May last year, it was not necessary. Might be different in mid summer if you have picked one specific restaurant. There are nice restaurants in nearby Ascona, on the lake boulevard, too. We didn’t eat there but I saw some appealing ones, all with a good view.

[Peterli]

6 June 2019 at 7:19:00 #913889

Bonjour Slowpoke,

Absolutely no need for any sort of apology, although I was quite surprised that you felt the Roundshot locations were overly-concentrated in certain mountainous areas that are oft-referred to on this forum.

I do feel that much of Romandie is too little-known and visited by foreigners (the exception being along the eastern part of Lake Geneva and Geneva itself), and I must admit that part of me kind of likes it that way, as I would not want places I like to go to being over-run by tourists. I have always believed that to really know Switzerland one should visit and meet people in all three of the major linguistic regions. I think the distribution of Roundshot cameras, although far from being complete, helps to portray all the regions. As such, it should help visitors to Switzerland and also armchair travelers to get a better idea of where they might want to go.