Paintings by Giovanni Segantini

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Giovanni Segantini was a19th century Italian painter. He was born in Austria and had a difficult childhood after his parents died. He was shuffled between relatives and spent time in reformatories. In fact, it was chaplain at the reformatory who noticed Segantini's artist skills and encouraged him to pursue them. He eventually moved to Italy, which he considered his home, and later to Switzerland. 

He painted rural and Alpine scenes. He was quite successful during his life.

Portrait of Giovanni Segantini
by Luigi Gallina

Paintings by Waldemar Fink

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Waldemar Theophil Fink was an early 20th century Swiss artist. He started as a commercial decorative painter. He then studied art in Munich and moved onto becoming a landscape painter. His works featured the Swiss Alps. He painted in the impressionist style, and so his palette is much brighter and more vibrant than you usually see in landscape paintings of mountains.

Waldemar Fink

Riding coasters

Above is a front seat ride aboard the Twister at Noebels, Pennsylvania. It is a nice old wooden roller coaster. From there were head to Switzerland for two rides. The first is the Pradaschier Mountain Coaster in Churwalden which is a long ride down the side of a mountain. We then get off the rails to take a summer toboggan ride at Fräkigaudi on the Fräkmüntegg. Enjoy (if you don't get motion sickness from watching the videos). 

Hornussen - a popular Swiss sport

Hornussen is an old and popular Swiss sport. It has been described as a cross between baseball and golf, although that doesn't really capture its play and rules well.

A puck, called the hornuss, is mounted on a rail and driven down field by a player swings a rather odd, long and flexible bat. In the field are players of the opposing team who wield giant rackets to try to knock the hornuss down. If they successfully knock it down the offense scores no points, otherwise one point is awarded if the hornuss travels at least 100 meters, and additional points are awarded for each 10 meters that it travels beyond that.

Teams alternate at bats. Games are said to be leisurely, and skill rather than physical strength is important so a wide range of players can, and do, participate. The below video has an English narration that explains the sport further.