Oops, I did it again, punching the publish button in stead of the save button.
For the last 8 glouriously sunny days I have been skiing around in the Bettmeralp region. Villa Cassel is standing there in the midst of a ski slope at the edge of the UNESCO World Heritage site Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn.
Currently Villa Cassel is the home of Pro Natura.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Villa Cassel was built to be the chic summer residence of the rich Englishman, Sir Ernest Cassel.
After Cassel’s death the house was run as a hotel from 1924 to 1969.
You can follow its history at the Pro Natura site.
The 25 room mansion was built there at a hight of approximately 1700 m with all the building material and interior being transported merely by man craft and mules, Imagine the piano being transported that way.
Among the guests there used to stay many well known people. The young Winston Churchill stayed there at least four times. He used the time spent there writing, including the biography of his father.
A daughter of Cassel was the later lady Edwina Mountbatten.
After the exploitation as a hotel ceased in 1969, Villa Cassel hardly escaped demolition. The historic building was bought and rebuilt for more than three million Swiss Francs by Pro Natura, formerly called “Schweizer Bund für Naturschutz”, Switzerland’s nature conservation organization.
On July 10, 1976, it was re-opened and inaugurated as the conservation center for the Aletsch forest.
In the summer it has extensive opening times, but during the winter only one afternoon in the week. I’ll have to see whether I am able to visit it.
Last year I promised already to disclose this mystery home.
The new WordPress 2.7 version makes it much easier to find Plugins. I had a project on my back burner for which I need a decent Photo or Gallery Plugin.
I have shown already some interest here for Yachts and Yachting. I have not divulged yet that I used to be an avid dinghy sailor and used to race dinghies as well. Alas ever since I ventured into our Hotel business, my own clinker built 12 foot Dinghy dating back from 1944, is stored safely without much attention lately. I’m even not sure my old stiff legs will be able to endure a regatta anymore.
On the original date of this post I used a plugin, Tylr Slidr enabling me to show you a couple of photos that I uploaded recently, but took in 2005 in Venice during the Biennial of 2005. There I found two Italian 12 ft Dinghies in the Arsenal. They were berthed opposite each other and were giving each other signs with lamps. It was an Art installation. A sort of act of love. Very poetic and I would never have thought of such use of two old dinghies in a basin that was used for maintenance of submarines.
The Artist, Laura Belem, born in 1974 in Bele Horizonte and working there, was able to make this installation with the help of a stipend from the Ministry of Culture of Brazil.
The 12ft Dinghy is a typical One Design Class. It was designed in 1913 by George Cockshott, an amateur boat designer from Southport, Lancashire, who won a competition organized by the Boat Racing Association (BRA). The BRA wanted a new sailing dinghy that would also serve as a yacht tender, and Cockshott’s design with its single, high-peaked lugsail fitted the bill.
It became an IYRU Dutch Class in 1914 and an International Class in 1920. It was even used for sailing competitions in the Olympic Games of Antwerp of 1920 and of Amsterdam of 1928. In 1920 they sailed on the North Sea with a lot of wind. The gold medal was won by the Dutch brothers Jan Hin and Frans Hin. In the 60ies I had the honor to sail against Jan Frans Hin – well, competing …. actually it was more of looking to his backside:-) The Silver medals were also won by two Dutchman (Van der Biesen and Beukers). In Amsterdam in 1928, on an inland lake near Amsterdam with not much wind, the medal winners were all of Scandinavian origin: 1)The Swede Sven Thorel, 2) Norwegian Henrik Robert and 3) The Fin B. Broman.
To my knowledge there are also fleets in the UK, Japan, Switzerland and Turkey.
Dutch compete in Italy and in Germany. Japanese and Italians come to The Netherlands for a race sometimes. The class becomes more and more international nowadays, 95 years after it’s creation. Amazing huh?
I found a PDF file with 2007 draft Class rules in English at the site of an Italian Fleet.
This exercise in nostalgia was just to test this plugin and it seems to be what I needed for this post, although the loading of the whole seems a bit slow. What would you think? [Added: And sadly it didn’t work out as anticipated]
Added January 5, 2008: The next Slideshow of the same photos is as per the advice of Heather from Heather on her Travels and used by her at a slideshow of the Turtle Fountain in Rome. It loaded a lot easier, and was also very easy to copy and paste into your blog, but has not the full screen view mode as the other plugin….Thanks Heather! [Update: Unfortunately Slideshow has closed down]
Added July 14, 2009
Oops When I reviewed this article there appeared some hiccups and parts of the post including the two slide shows simply disappeared completely. Grrr recovering it from previous revisions must be done piece by piece as apparently a later update of WordPress (or the theme) seems to garble text into executable code…. done…it was the link to the Swiss fleet that did it!. Those Swiss:-)
Added November 9, 2009
Since this post I’ve had to delete the plugin. We now are waiting for the 2.9 version of WordPress, wich has been promised will handle media much better than it does prsently.
Added March 11, 2012
It appears Slideshow has closed its doors permanently as of March 6, 2012. Revisiting the site of Heather learned me she has now incorporated a Google + thingy…I’ll put this on the back burner for a while to look into it further.
The photo, featuring Maria von Trapp, 94, the second eldest daughter, center above, with her brother Johannes von Trapp and their sister-in-law Erika von Trapp, at the opening, belongs to a NY Times post stating that they opened June 29, 2008….
VIENNA – The former home of the Trapp family, made famous by the 1965 film “The Sound of Music,” will not re-open as a hotel after all following opposition from residents and politicians, the owners said.
The villa in Aigen, near Salzburg, failed to receive final approval Wednesday from the city after neighbours complained it would bring hordes of tourists to their peaceful suburb.
“It seems like the Villa Trapp, the original Sound of Music family home, is not getting a permission to open as a hotel, although all legal conditions have been complied with,” the owners, Marianne Dorfer and Christopher Unterkofler, said in a statement received by AFP.
“Local politicians… are obstructing the permission,” they added.
Local councillor Traudi Lackner told the daily Kurier: “The owners wanted to open not only a hotel, but also to use it for events: the house would have become a magnet for day tourists.”
Some 300,000 fans of “The Sound of Music” visit Salzburg every year, taking part in special themed tours, and local residents feared the small villa would soon become a tourist spot as well.
The Villa Trapp, which was inaugurated in July, needed formal approval as it is located on protected land.
Dorfer and Unterkofler said they planned to appeal the decision.
They said all previous city assessment reports had been positive and that politicians had supported their project until residents pressured them to turn it down.
“All the politicians we contacted were positive and motivated us, saying how important this project was for Salzburg tourism,” they said in their statement.
“There is no objective or legal reason to block a 14-room hotel in Aigen,” they added.
The villa was the home of Captain Georg von Trapp, his seven children and their governess Maria, later known as the Trapp Family Singers, from 1923 to 1938.
I found a later article that claimed the original Von Trapp residence is available as a B&B at a blog Visit Salzburg, a guide to Salzburg written by locals.
Last edited by GJE on December 3, 2011 at 11:01 am
I’m a bit sad: I remembered a nice Blog writing about cultural traveling in Europe. I had to dig deep in my memory and remembered my friend Karen had referred to the blog in one of her Travel Carnival posts. It appeared to be in her First Travel Carnival:She had pointed me to High Culture on a low Budget. I’m sad because Olivia apparently ceased writing for the Blog Since June 2008. Curious what’s happening.
Katharina Fritsch: Mouse
I have written on other occasions about our little cultural travel group of friends that we have coined “Art en Route” and travels occasionally to see modern art. Recently we visited Duesseldorf to soak up some modern art. For us Baby Boomers art, design, music, dance, but also good wining and dining are excellent excuses to travel. Therefor I introduce a new category to my blog “Cultural Travel”
Katharina Fritsch: Monk, Doctor and Salesman
I have several posts in my sleeve, but will start with a couple of sculptures of Katharina Fritsch that belong to the K21 Art Collection im Standeshaus. The Standeshaus appeared to be a very nice Museum in the middle of a park. Apart from its facade it had been demolished and rebuild entirely and has a glass roof like some other museums have nowadays. Nowhere on its site is there any information about this renovation after which it became the home of the 21st century art collection of the Art Collection of the German Nordrhein-Westfalen state. I like the building, its location and its restaurant.
Katharina Fritsch: Mouse and Man, Monk, Doctor and Salesman
I am impressed by these sculptures and the fact that K21 devotes a whole room to her.
Katharina Fritsch does not seem to have a website. At present she is a Professor at the German Muenster art academy and there is some info about her on Wiki.
If you search her on Flickr, you’ll get a nice collections of her sculptures.
After eight successful years in London, New York, Sydney and Melbourne the Affordable Art Fair has been launched in Amsterdam in November 2007. After this first edition the Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam will grow in 2008: circa 80 galleries from the Netherlands and abroad will be seen at the Westergasfabriek terrain from 29 October to 2 November. The fair is fun, relaxed and with everything from €100 to €5,000, it is an art-buying opportunity that can not be missed.
The fair’s friendly environment invites first time buyers to browse amongst the thousands of paintings, original prints, photography and sculpture, whilst seasoned collectors can seek out hot new artists. In short, AAF Amsterdam is a fair where you can look at contemporary art, love it and leave with your own piece.
This funky fair’s stunning location is the 19th century gasworks, an impressive industrial monument on the Westergasfabriek terrain, close to Amsterdam Central station and easy to reach by bike, tram, car or foot from the town center. Affordable Art Fair – Amsterdam – Contemporary Art Fair
K21 im Standeshaus, a beautiful Photo of 
