The Lake Lucerne near Vitznau.

The drill head of the tunnel boring machine used to drill the Gotthard tunnel. The piece is 9.43 meters high and 225 tons heavy.

The fancy projector at the "Planetarium" which projects the sky and videos onto the spherical ceiling.

The collection of small planes.

The original EURECA satellite that spent over 11 months in space circling the earth.

Space toilet.

The missing Wright sister.

A giant miniature train system modeled after the Northern ramp of the Gotthard railway including a number of underground spirals.

As always with labeling things that predate my own existence I'll go out on a limb here and declare this a steam locomotive.

The famous (in Switzerland anyway) Migros Bus, which is a supermarket on wheels for villages that lack a supermarket. I always found it fascinating to go shopping there as a kid.

This hall houses a giant satellite image of Switzerland. It is so big that you can actually find your own house in millimeter size.

Ivy standing on the city of Chur.

A functioning model of the old Titlis cable car.

The automobile exhibition hall, completely covered in Swiss street signs.

Blue Tit (Blaumeise)

Bullfinch (Gimpel)

Blue Tit (Blaumeise)

Long-tailed Bushtit (Schwanzmeise, Aegithalos caudatus europaeus). Apparently its head isn't quite pure white enough to be a Aegithalos caudatus caudatus, the Northern European group.

Long-tailed Bushtit (Schwanzmeise)

Thrush (Drossel)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Buntspecht)

The beginning (if you're walking, that is) of the sled run leading through the Sapün valley.

The snow was just hard enough to walk and just soft enough to get (re)acquainted with downhill sled riding.

Icicles come in all kinds of shapes, including kitchen spatulas!

An old wooden covered bridge and the new one next to it. Getting yanked off the sled would really take all the fun out of it, something that the local forefathers failed to consider. :-)

The lazy way of doing it: Hire the snowmobile to the top, so that the exercise is safely constrained to the cheek muscles chewing your lunch.

The view back.

Ice climbing, anyone?

Life's good when you're being pulled by a horse. The horseshoes' soles would later crumble and leave little rubber pieces all over Switzerland – perhaps something to do with this strenuous task?

Finally! After a well-deserved and delicious lunch at the Heimeli it's time for the fun part!

The cable car to the Weisshorn.

The view towards the Weissflue and Chüpfenflue.

The Swiss answer to cold weather isn't to stay inside with the baby, but to strap a pair of runners to your baby cart.

This is what happens when squirrels are hiding, leaving photographers bored ...

... and this.

Waste sorting Arosa-style. A dedicated container for horse manure.

The upper lake in Arosa which is the course of the annual horse race. This year, however, the ice was a bit to thin, so the event was canceled.

We came all the way from Asia to see ... Mandarin ducks. :-)

The entrance to the 觀霧榛山森林浴步道 (Guan wu zhen shan forest trail).

The semi-informative trail map at the entrance. (Click here for a larger version.)

A picnic shelter right at the beginning of the trail for those who get tired easily. Then again ...

... the view is nice enough to warrant a little break.

The trail before it starts getting steep.

The stairs up to the top.

View from the platform towards 樂山 (Le shan, the one with the radar station on top). On the left-hand side the two peaks are 北坑山 (Bei keng shan, closer) and 東洗水山 (Dong xi shui shan, further away).

The view from the platform towards the 雪山山脈 (Xue shan mountain range).

A close-up of the same view with the most prominent mountains labeled. (No guarantees though, it's really hard to label mountains you haven't been to. In the process I've even seen some tourist panorama panels whose labels seem way off.)

On the left is the area I've been to last year in my attempt to climb 大霸尖山 (Da ba jian shan).

Funny clouds on top of 樂山 (Le shan).

If you walk past the entrance to the trail you can see 榛山 (Zhen shan). What you can't see, however, is that the peak on top of which the view platform sits is not actually the top of 榛山 (Zhen shan). To reach the real top you have to follow an unmarked trail (that I missed), which eventually gets you to the 三角點 (triangulation point) that has no view.

Along the 大鹿林道西線 (West section of the Da Lu forest road) there's the world's smallest "botanical garden". It's actually labeled as 親子植物園 on the map, but this lonely (albeit beautiful) tree seems to be it.

The view from the foot bridge that crosses 馬達拉溪 (Ma da la river). At the same time this is the end of the wide part of the 大鹿林道西線 (West section of the Da Lu forest road). After that it's merely an overgrown hiking trail.

On the way back to the 觀霧山莊 (Guan wu mountain hut) the view is still quite nice.

The view from the parking lot at 觀霧山莊 (Guan wu mountain hut).

The 雪霸休閒農場 (Guan wu recreational farm) is really a place to visit before you go to 觀霧 (Guan wu). While the view is good it just can't quite compete ...

... and neither can their English translations. With unrecycling clearly being the opposite of recycling this must be a tiny factory.

I'm neither good at shooting flowers nor did I have suitable equipment, but you get an impression of the beautiful flowers they have in their glasshouse.

A super-detailed ("sign", "starting point of a stone steps", "starting point of steep ascent", ...) map of the area. This one actually lists the hidden trail to the top of 榛山 (Zhen shan). (Click here for a larger version.)

On the way down we were lucky enough to see a beautiful sea of clouds make its way into the valley.

The first trail head to 鵝公髻山 (E gong ji shan). Various maps, all with contradicting information, can be a little confusing, but this one is the most obvious one.

The stairs in the first turn lead up to a nice little forest trail that avoids a few hundred meters of concrete road. I chose the concrete road on the way up and the forest trail on the way down for maximum map coverage.

View eastwards.

The long and not-really-winding concrete road up towards the real trail head. Approximately the first 1.2 km are like this before the trail starts.

A view platform from which you can see most of Hsinchu on a clear day.

However, on a hazy day the prominent 五指山 (Wu zhi shan or Five Finger Mountain) is about as far as you can see. (The view of the little finger is blocked by the tree.)

This is where the forest trail joins the concrete road again.

A few turns further you can finally see 五指山 (Wu zhi shan) in its entirety. This is the south side where you can actually drive to the top of the middle finger using a service road.

From here it's pretty much all forest trail and no view until the top.

There's a second trail down to what is labeled 第二登山口 (Second trail head).

Almost at the top!

After exactly an hour of hiking I had reached the top of 鵝公髻山 (E gong ji shan), 1579 meters above sea level. (Think about this picture for a bit.)

Hint: ˙ɐɹǝɯɐɔ ǝɥʇ ɥʇıʍ op oʇ ƃuıɥʇǝɯoS

There's light at the end of the tunnel! Unfortunately, the light is backlit fog. According to Google Earth you should be able to see the ocean from here on a clear day. Or you could be lucky enough to have a view like this. I guess this mountain will go on my nice weather to-do-again list.

The top of 鵝公髻山 (E gong ji shan).

Almost back at the trail head again. This is the forest trail at the bottom, leading through beautiful trees.

Back down again at the stairs in the first turn.