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Anybody here a fan of documentaries?

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The YT video I posted in my previous post was ultimately marked "private" - and so this one may be also.....so if you read my post and are interested in watching - please go ahead to the YT site itself and bookmark it.

I just watched this on my local PBS channel and was in awe the entire episode.

I've never been to Switzerland....nor have I ever wanted to. Until now!

Outside Beyond the Lens - Switzerland
(from 2020)
For the season finale, the Beyond The Lens camera crew visits one of the most scenic locations on Earth. Jeff, David and Jon wrap up a year of exploration with their cameras in the heart of the Swiss Alps. A road trip into the green valleys and snow-capped peaks reveals a side of Switzerland that is sometimes overlooked by all the scenic wonders…the people and food. Owners of the oldest hotel in Lauterbrennan tell their amazing story and share some local secrets about how to explore the high mountains of Europe.

 
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Bazza said:
The YT video I posted in my previous post was ultimately marked "private" - and so this one may be also.....so if you read my post and are interested in watching - please go ahead to the YT site itself and bookmark it.

I just watched this on my local PBS channel and was in awe the entire episode.

I've never been to Switzerland....nor have I ever wanted to. Until now!

Outside Beyond the Lens - Switzerland
(from 2020)
For the season finale, the Beyond The Lens camera crew visits one of the most scenic locations on Earth. Jeff, David and Jon wrap up a year of exploration with their cameras in the heart of the Swiss Alps. A road trip into the green valleys and snow-capped peaks reveals a side of Switzerland that is sometimes overlooked by all the scenic wonders…the people and food. Owners of the oldest hotel in Lauterbrennan tell their amazing story and share some local secrets about how to explore the high mountains of Europe.

Click to expand...
I've spent a great deal of time in that area. However, that's a misspelling. It should be "Lauterbrunnen." "Brunnen" is a spring, but, in this case, it's really a waterfall. "Laut" can mean "loud" in English. Hence, it's really "loud spring," literally. "Brennen" is a verb meaning to burn. So, they've almost changed it into "loud fire"... :)
 
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TIDE-HSV said:
You can drive to the parking lot where the cable car starts. We didn't have the time to take the funicular up, because my daughter and husband have a great dane we couldn't leave unattended in the car. It's the highest cable car in Europe. The name means "lunch needle"...
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And there’s another summit in the range called— aiguille du goûter — the goûter is a small meal around 4 pm and when we have it here in my family or at friends it’s usually pies and/ or pastries. Midi is noon, midday— lunchtime and I think the summits got their names from the time the sun would pass over them so in this case the needle — mountain summit—is like the clock hand at noon/lunch or 4pm/goûter for the other summit.
 
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Tidewater said:
Cable car.
Click to expand...
Go Bama said:
Funicular! :D
Click to expand...

Mrs. Basket Case and I recently returned from a trip to Switzerland. Cable car and funicular are two different things.

A cable car is kind of like a giant ski lift. It’ll hold 25-40 people, depending on luggage, and is an enclosure suspended from above by cables.

A funicular is essentially a train with toothed wheels and rails. It crawls up slopes too steep for a regular train.

Cable cars can provide some spectacular views you can’t get any other way. A funicular is a means of getting from the bottom of a steep hill to the top.
 
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4Q Basket Case said:
Mrs. Basket Case and I recently returned from a trip to Switzerland. Cable car and funicular are two different things.

A cable car is kind of like a giant ski lift. It’ll hold 25-40 people, depending on luggage, and is an enclosure suspended from above by cables.

A funicular is essentially a train with toothed wheels and rails. It crawls up slopes too steep for a regular train.

Cable cars can provide some spectacular views you can’t get any other way. A funicular is a means of getting from the bottom of a steep hill to the top.
Click to expand...
Like Padre, I was unfamiliar with the term so I looked it up. The word funicular is derived from the Latin word funiculus, meaning rope.

adjective
  1. 1.
    (of a railroad, especially one on a mountainside) operating by cable with ascending and descending cars counterbalanced.

  2. 2.
    relating to a rope or its tension.
noun
  1. a cable railroad, especially one on a mountainside, in which ascending and descending cars are counterbalanced.

Here is a link to the Lookout Mountain Incline
which provides some information on the derivation of the word and on the railway itself, which they describe as a funicular.

https://ridetheincline.com/what-is-a-funicular-railway/#:~:text=Funicular%20derives%20from%20the%20Latin,it's%20known%20as%20the%20Reisszug.


Now I’m wondering if a funicular is fungible. :D
 
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One documentary I loved was— African Cats. I think it shows that the maternal instinct , in mammals at the least is— as Jack Reacher would say— part of the lizard brain. I would just say that nothing is more powerful than a good mother.
 
Go Bama said:
Like Padre, I was unfamiliar with the term so I looked it up. The word funicular is derived from the Latin word funiculus, meaning rope.

adjective
  1. 1.
    (of a railroad, especially one on a mountainside) operating by cable with ascending and descending cars counterbalanced.

  2. 2.
    relating to a rope or its tension.
noun
  1. a cable railroad, especially one on a mountainside, in which ascending and descending cars are counterbalanced.

Here is a link to the Lookout Mountain Incline
which provides some information on the derivation of the word and on the railway itself, which they describe as a funicular.

https://ridetheincline.com/what-is-a-funicular-railway/#:~:text=Funicular%20derives%20from%20the%20Latin,it's%20known%20as%20the%20Reisszug.


Now I’m wondering if a funicular is fungible. :D
Click to expand...
The feature of funicular is counterpoise
 
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4Q Basket Case said:
Mrs. Basket Case and I recently returned from a trip to Switzerland. Cable car and funicular are two different things.

A cable car is kind of like a giant ski lift. It’ll hold 25-40 people, depending on luggage, and is an enclosure suspended from above by cables.

A funicular is essentially a train with toothed wheels and rails. It crawls up slopes too steep for a regular train.

Cable cars can provide some spectacular views you can’t get any other way. A funicular is a means of getting from the bottom of a steep hill to the top.
Click to expand...
You are correct. The word I always think of for the train is the German - "Zahnrad," "toothwheel." BTW, cable cars over there come in much smaller versions, did originally. The monsters are a fairly recent invention...
 
TIDE-HSV said:
You are correct. The word I always think of for the train is the German - "Zahnrad," "toothwheel." BTW, cable cars over there come in much smaller versions, did originally. The monsters are a fairly recent invention...
Click to expand...
View from a Swiss Cable CarView from Swiss Cable Car_October 2023.jpg

There's actually a publicly traded company called Schilthorn (same name as the mountain) Piz Gloria that builds and operates monster cable cars up several mountains, plus some other tangentially related businesses.

For one village we stayed in, the narrow-gauge train that normally provides access was under maintenance. For a lot of reasons -- narrow roads, no place to park, etc., cars are few and far between, and almost always associated with construction contractors and/or government functions. So for about 6 weeks, including the time we were there, the only realistic way to get in and out was by a Schilthorn-owned cable car.

With the exception of the leg up to the summit of the Schilthorn mountain, it was covered by the Swiss Pass. To go to the summit, including the restaurant where they filmed several scenes in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the Swiss Pass got you a 50% discount. But you still had to kick in a pretty expensive supplement for that.

Side Note: The Swiss public transport -- trains, trams, boats, cable cars, etc. -- runs with stereotypical Swiss precision. We used them easily over 50 times during our two-week trip, and never once were any of them even one minute late.
 
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4Q Basket Case said:
View from a Swiss Cable CarView attachment 38190

There's actually a publicly traded company called Schilthorn (same name as the mountain) Piz Gloria that builds and operates monster cable cars up several mountains, plus some other tangentially related businesses.

For one village we stayed in, the narrow-gauge train that normally provides access was under maintenance. For a lot of reasons -- narrow roads, no place to park, etc., cars are few and far between, and almost always associated with construction contractors and/or government functions. So for about 6 weeks, including the time we were there, the only realistic way to get in and out was by a Schilthorn-owned cable car.

With the exception of the leg up to the summit of the Schilthorn mountain, it was covered by the Swiss Pass. To go to the summit, including the restaurant where they filmed several scenes in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the Swiss Pass got you a 50% discount. But you still had to kick in a pretty expensive supplement for that.

Side Note: The Swiss public transport -- trains, trams, boats, cable cars, etc. -- runs with stereotypical Swiss precision. We used them easily over 50 times during our two-week trip, and never once were any of them even one minute late.
Click to expand...
I know there are large ones now all over. When I first started going to Switzerland, they were rare. In fact, the Grindelwald lift, one valley over from where you stayed, you rode uphill in a six-man wooden seat, which had canvas on the uphill side, since it was high speed. At the bottom, they sized you up and issued you a canvas overcoat, which you donned and a blanket for over your lap. At the top, they took up the overcoats and blankets and put in a downhill-bound lift. The last time we went, they had a high-speed gondola, although the six-person normal-sized ski gondola, not like the monsters for tourists like the ones from Stechelberg up to Mürren, or the one on up to Schilthorn...
 
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