Special Feature by Bob Kelley

Sipping ice cold butterbeer inside the boisterous Three Broomsticks, Ed St. Amour pondered his dilemma:  Which was the better investment: Dumbledore’s wand or fashionable (especially at Halloween) Gryffindor class robes?

A pre-teen mulling over how to spend his weekly allowance?  No, actually St. Amour is a 50-something human resources manager from Atlanta trying to decide on the better bargain for his hard earned dollars.

From the moment the first of J.K.Rowling’s series hit the bookstands, the adventurous story of the youthful wizard and his quest to vanquish He Who Must Not Be Named has transcended generations, appealing to Muggles of all ages.  (For the unitiated, Muggles are non-magical folks like you and me.)  Quicker than you can say wingardium leviosa, parents preferring to read the books before allowing their children to do so were soon hooked themselves.

Word of mouth spread the news to childless adults who love a good read. The books were entertaining and rekindled wonderful lifelong lessons in friendship, loyalty, bravery and, above all, the choices one makes and the consequences of those choices.

For young and adult fans, Pottermania reached its zenith with the opening in 2010 of Universal’s $265 million Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWHP).  The 20-acre park within a theme park is credited with boosting Universal Orlando’s attendance 36 percent (more than one million visitors) in its first three months. Visitors who journey to the WWHP are rewarded with state-of- the-art attractions, a restaurant and shops that bring the wonder and magic of the heavily-detailed Potter books and movies to life.  As a testament to its popularity, within six months of opening the attraction sold its one millionth mug of butterbeer, the drink of choice for Harry and his friends.

St. Amour’s first visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, FL had unabashedly brought his personal Pottermania full circle. “Once I started the first book, I was hooked,” says St. Amour.  “The overall appeal of the author’s imagination and her ability to hold your attention made me keep reading each subsequent book.”

St. Amour has remained a true fan of every book in the series and each of the eight movies.  “I have read each book several times and seen all of the movies MANY times,” he adds. “ It just seemed a natural next step to visit the venue that would bring the images of the books and movies to life.

“What I like most is how the Potter saga progressed in complexity relative to the age and experience of the characters.  Each book in the series managed to include some humor even as the story became progressively darker.  Every book also followed a natural progression and it was easy to stay with the story over such a long period of time.”

Entering Universal’s vast multi-themed park, visitors of all ages quickly wind their way through Seuss Landing and The Lost Continent to arrive at the entrance to Hogsmeade and the WWHP.  Passing under the village archway, guests cross into a storybook Olde English realm that is part historic and a lot creative. Iconic locations found in the books and movies are there:

• Hogwarts Express Engine 5972 puffing away in Hogsmeade Station to the delight of youngsters and adults, all waiting to pose for pictures with the engineer.
• The Three Broomsticks pub welcomes those who have worked up a hearty appetite with reasonably priced English dishes such as shepherd’s pie and fish and chips.
• Colorful Honeydukes Candy Shop’s cramped aisles are filled with stunning Potter treats that dazzle one’s taste buds such as chocolate frogs and multi-colored Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.
•  Just down the street, at Zonko’s Joke Shop, visitors fiddle with extendable ears, experiment with sneakoscopes and deftly grasp fragile golden snitches!

In the Hog’s Head Pub, an animated boar’s head mounted on the wall puffs his jowls at visitors who have bellied up to the bar. Over at Ollivander’s Wand Shop, surrounded by thousands of multi-colored dusty wand boxes, wannabe wizards, true to form, actually have the wand choose them instead of the other way around. The extraordinary attention to detail even features Moaning Myrtle suddenly wailing over the sound system in the bathrooms…enough to startle the hardiest Potter fan making a “pit stop.”

Without waiting in line, guests can watch an outdoor concert of the magical Frog Choir croaking through their version of “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” and watch with delight musical and athletic pep rallies featuring Triwizard competitors:  the demure blue-cloaked females from Beauxbatons and fierce athletes from Durmstrang.

The crowning jewel of the WWHP is Hogwarts Castle perched 200 feet above the village where it looks like it has been hewn from solid rock thousands of years old.  Adults and youngsters wait patiently in line to tour the castle; meet holographic visions of Harry, Ron and Hermione (who enter the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom hidden behind the Invisibility Cloak); and visit Dumbledor’s office before being whisked off on the innovative Forbidden Journey ride.

This state-of-the-art ride gives a sense of 360-degree movement combining live-action with robotic technology and filmmaking.  Stepping off a moving walkway into the ride’s old-fashioned bench-like chair, Hermione gives riders a sprinkling of Floo powder…magical dust needed to fly.  In an instant, Potterphiles are twisting and turning their way along a virtual route following Harry through archways, zigging and zagging around Hogwarts’ towering pointed turrets, dodging giant spiders and dragons and diving effortlessly into the darker regions of the Forbidden Forest.  After meeting some of Harry’s menacing foes, the exhilarating ride draws to a close as riders fly over, under around and through the Hogwarts Quidditch field and stadium as teammates in a lively match led by Harry astride his broomstick.  It is not uncommon to see people exit the ride and immediately get in queue to ride it again.

Spending the day at WWHP, some of the most fun comes in people-watching.   Wandering through the shops in adult packs, grown men and women, some dressed like witches or warlocks, show just how “into” Harry Potter they really are.  They laugh knowingly as they stand in front of the Owl Post and watch a Howler (screaming letter) ranting in the window.  At the door to Dervish and Banges, the magical instruments and equipment shop, a robed clerk holds a snapping Monster Book of Monsters, teasing visitors with its deep growls.   While a few of the rides, like the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster, are decidedly aimed to the younger set, the majority of the WWHP attractions and shops are geared to youngsters “of all ages.”

And all of this is the result of an unknown writer’s love of writing and her vivid imagination.

Interest in Harry Potter spans three generations in Kay Barutha’s family.  The Greer, S.C., purchasing agent and grandmother has read all of the books and seen all of the movies.   “My brother encouraged me to read the first book and after that it was just a given that I read each new book,” Barutha recalled.  “The basic appeal is Rowling’s totally unique approach to uncharted waters in a realm of mystery and intrigue.”

Barutha has seen firsthand that the Harry Potter books inspire reading and discussion between children and adults.  Her son, Sean Terrell and his wife, Kim, in Upton, Mass., have also embraced the series and enjoy simultaneously reading and explaining the books to their 7-year-old daughter, Chloe.  “I have read the first three books,” Chloe proudly boasts, “and I watch each movie after I read the whole book.”

Why do the Potter tales hold such an appeal for adults as well as children?  Loaded with history and mythology plus a hint of fantasy, the series makes for thoughtful and entertaining reading.  Rowling’s ability to weave together pieces of magical lore and history can both intrigue and speak to grown-ups.  Older readers can relate to her skillful use of literary influences ranging from British folklore and mythology to such classics as the Iliad, Macbeth, Treasure Island, The Wizard of Oz, the Bible and even hints of Jane Austin’s Emma and Roald Dahl’s Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to name a few.  Grown-ups, all too often jaded by the complexities of everyday life, rejoice in recapturing the fanciful imagination of their youth via Harry, his pals, and their exploits.

“My favorite character is Snape,” says Stephanie (Klosik) Stevenson, a 40-year-old television producer for an Atlanta Hispanic network.  “With all of his insecurities and shyness growing up, I think he’s the misunderstood kid most of us knew, or even felt like, when we were young.”

Stephanie feels her five-year-old son, Gavin, is still a bit too young to start reading Harry Potter.  “Once he reaches the right age,” she notes, “I definitely plan to introduce the series to him.  I believe there are many life lessons laced throughout the books regarding friendship, loyalty, family and trust.”

For Debby Camp, a professional author living in Tulsa, Okla., much joy has been derived over the past decade watching the characters grow and evolve, in the books and on the screen.  “I love the way Rowling has built this magical world and the intricate plotting used throughout the series,” Camp says.  A veteran writer of numerous romance novels for publishing houses such as Silhouette© and Harlequin©, Camp has more than just a passing interest in Rowling’s writing style and structure.  Just shy of 59, she feels the series ended appropriately but is hopeful that Rowling has other tales to tell.

Sara Sinek, Senior Director, Corporate Communications at Scholastic Inc. recently expressed her own thoughts on the cross-over appeal of the Potter books.  “She (Rowling) created characters and a plot that appeals to all ages, from 8-80, and to people from all over the world,” Sinek said. “We continue to see the series energizing new readers to start their Hogwarts journey.  Harry Potter is now a modern-classic and it is almost a rite of passage for every eight or nine-year-old child, and for every adult to read it and/or share it with a child in their life.  Since Harry Potter, we have seen more cross-over in adults reading children’s books that Scholastic publishes and distributes.”

Figures from a Kids & Family Reading Report support Sinek’s claims.  Approximately 43 per cent of parents read Harry Potter for “self or to child,” according to the report, and 78 per cent of parents who have read Harry Potter say they “really enjoy sharing it with their child.”  Additionally, 89 per cent of parents who have read Harry Potter think the series will end up being read by future generations.

“Scholastic is the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter books and published only one cover for each book using Mary GrandPre’s fabulous artwork that appealed to readers of all ages,” Sinek added. “ Bloomsbury, the U.K. publisher, created different covers for adults and children.”

Harry and his friends have gone varsity, too.  In recent years, various colleges have been offering science-based Harry Potter classes such as Frostburg State’s  physics professor George R. Plitnik’s “The Science of Harry Potter:  How Magic Rally Works,” that concludes with a final project of a written and oral presentation on a scientific topic with a Harry Potter theme.  At Penn State University, similar programs have been developed for children’s summer camps.

The written series has ended and the final movie is now in general circulation . . . and audiences continue to savor the adventures of Harry, Ron, Hermione and their friends.  Why? Adult readers are, some suggest, merely reverting to the child they were when they enjoyed Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.  Rowling’s words are “magic” for our time and speak to a generation that lives for the most part in a hectic urban jungle, not the more serene, yet exciting world of Hogwarts and nearby Hogsmeade.   The series, it would seem, is one of the best examples of escapism at its best and brightest.

Which brings us back to Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods, where Mr. St. Amour has finally reached a decision:  Dumbledore’s wand.  As his day in the wizarding world draws to a close, he heads off to watch the latest Harry Potter movie at one of Universal’s theaters.

Later, with nighttime settling over Harry’s world, he takes one last stroll down the streets of Hogsmeade past the whimsical shops, acknowledging familiar Potter characters with a nod of his head.  Illuminated by the soft glow of street lamps, St. Amour quietly relishes a final moment of personal magic with an uninhibited wave of his new wand.

Expecto Patronum!

It’s sort of a tradition here at Tourist Travel. An article to warm the heart, not to mention an excellent way to spend a little bit of your holiday time. So sit back and enjoy……

Christmas in San Francisco

New fallen snow blanketed the countryside. The sounds of passing cars along the road were muted in the still, peaceful air. Hills and valleys, in their blanket of snow, rolled softly into the distance, bathed in the mellow light of a nearly full moon. A woody smell of burning pine and warm hearths teased at my nostrils as I turned up the lane toward the house, snow crunching beneath my boots……

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

Locked between mountains and the Gastineau Channel, Juneau is a great portal for visitors to be introduced to the rugged and beautiful “last frontier” state of Alaska. With a population of 31,000, Juneau is a cross between a city, a frontier town, a cruise ship destination, and small town America, and you will experience all of these within minutes of each other here.

Juneau’s cornucopia of natural splendor is really its stock-in-trade. You’re never far from an awe-inspiring glacier, rivers teeming with thousands of spawning salmon, or mammoth humpback whales breaching violently from the ocean. Or you can paddle across peaceful lakes, and ride a tramway up a steep mountain for a spectacular view of lush rain forest and shimmering fjords.

Juneau’s man-made attractions also pack some serious weight for their punch; sampling delectable amber ales at a renowned brewery, panning for gold on a river which hard bitten prospectors worked over a century earlier, walking through a historic gold mine, and wandering through some interesting museums are all part of the Juneau experience. And watching the locals who emerge after the tidal wave of cruise passengers has receded back into their luxury liners is always instructive.

You can’t miss Juneau residents—they’re likely to be wearing the Official footwear of Alaska, brown Neoprene XTRATUF Gumboots, with a half-inch wide, cream-colored rim around the top, and cream-colored soles. I once saw a flock of hot young women, dressed to kill in their mini skirts, participating in a Karaoke bar wearing these gumboots, without the slightest hint of self consciousness.

The Mendenhall Glacier is an ideal place to set the naturalistic stage for your visit to Juneau. Caught in a deep valley between tall granite outcrops, the glacier presents a breathtaking sight, with its bluish gray cliffs and tall ridges of ice snaking down from a huge ice field. Sunk into the top of a small butte and surrounded by Northwest evergreens, the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is an ideal place to view the glacier. Only a 15-minute drive from town, it’s the oldest visitor center in the national park system, one mile from the huge glacier that dominates the vista.

Inside the center auditorium, an 11-minute film tells how these phenomenal ice monsters are formed and recede in tandem with the pulse of nature, while other displays describe Alaska’s abundant wildlife. Outside, a short walk along a sealed trail gets you to Photo Point, where tourists snap frantically away with their point-and-shoots and DLRs, recording this picture perfect vista of lake, glacier, and mountains.

Descending a concrete walkway near the center you enter a raised boardwalk, set ten feet above the ground on metal stilts, where you can look down on the spawning salmon in the small glacial creek. It’s August and they’re writhing and wriggling as they fight their way up the rushing water; stopping for a breather in small side eddies. Recent evidence of bears is everywhere: Chewed up salmon carcasses, large crushed piles of grass, and black piles of scat. The bears are hungry, stocking up for their impending hibernation.

Nearby I read a sign that tells parents to keep their dogs on a leash and keep their children close—sound advice indeed. The bears are taking the afternoon off when we visit, but I’m told that when one lumbers onto the boardwalk, a ranger walks in front, warning visitors to move back and stand still while the bear passes. Wow, a personal ranger escort—welcome to Alaska!

The next day we launch a kayak from Above & Beyond Alaska Company’s Kayak Center into the eerily quiet Mendenhall Lake. The calm waters are shrouded in lacy curtains of mist as we slowly paddle our way towards the glacier, about two miles distant. We silently glide among oddly sculpted icebergs, some the size of small cars or large houses, as they loom up around us. Their colors change from blue to green to white depending on their depth and size. It’s like being in a giant ice-filled margarita glass, with a rim of forest and mountains.

Sticking close to the water’s edge we paddle past cascading waterfalls, gravel beaches, and protruding wedges of land covered with dense green Northwest foliage and brush. Finally, we get to within three quarters of a mile of the glacier, and it’s noticeably colder here from the packed icebergs. All too quickly we turn away from this marvelous sight and paddle back to our beach.

On our way into town we drop by the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery to watch the amazing sight of thousands of huge, spawning salmon struggling and clawing their way up the rushing water to reach their biological destiny, which in this case is to be milked, gutted, cleaned and sold to fishermen. Inside the Visitor Center, an aquarium shows Alaskan undersea life, and tourists are lured into buying salmon products of every description you can imagine, smoked, canned, you name it.

This non-profit hatchery exists to sustain salmon for the State of Alaska for commercial and sporting use, and I’d say they do an outstanding job of it. We walk past long metal vats with tens of thousands of tiny salmon fry writhing around, waiting to graduate into the larger vats with the bigger boys and girls. Eventually they’ll be released into the ocean and 2 to 5 years later will thrash their way back here to be milked of their eggs and milt. Where else but Alaska will you find a horde of tourists intensely watching this whole process?

It would be gross touristic negligence to visit Juneau without going on a whale-watching excursion. To see these behemoth 45-foot long denizens of the deep erupt 15 feet or more from the water in a feeding frenzy is more than spectacular, or any other superlative for that matter. It is, simply put, a sight that must be seen to be believed. Captain Greg of Weather Permitting Alaska takes us out in his aluminum boat to show us these enormous creatures, telling me that he guarantees a whale sighting.

He lives up to his word. Twenty minutes later we are watching a sight that would excite even the most jaded tourist or wild life photographer—humpback whales bubblefeeding. One of the whales makes a primal grunting sound somewhat akin to a distorted foghorn, and then dives below a school of unsuspecting herring where it blows bubbles that rise, scaring the herring into a tight ball. Meanwhile, nine whales have dived deep under the water, forming into a circle, and then rise rapidly up to the surface, their enormous jaws wide open, scooping hundreds of pounds of herring and plankton into their gaping maws.

Exactly eleven seconds after the foghorn warning, the whales breach simultaneously from the water like prehistoric monsters, in a gigantic waterspout, and then slam down onto the water on their backs and sides, to disappear with a blast of steam from their blowholes and a last flick of their mighty trident shaped tails. It’s quite a performance and I can hardly speak for a while afterwards, apart from a lame “Did you see that?” We follow the whales for an hour or so, see this performance repeated a couple of times and return to shore very happy campers.

Back in Juneau, we take the Mount Roberts Tramway to the top of the steep, 2000-foot high mountain of the same name, and catch a breathtaking view of Gastineau Channel and Douglas Island far below us. This panorama of absolute seclusion is a powerful reminder of how Juneau can only be reached by boat or plane—there are no roads leading into Juneau from the mainland. We visit a half blind eagle in a shelter, walk along the hiking trail for a while, and watch an informative movie, Seeing Daylight, about Tlingit Indian legends, culture, and language.

Back down the mountain we walk along Juneau’s tidy streets exploring its touristy shops, galleries, museums, and restaurants. The historic district of town, with its turn of the century western facades, is an eclectic milieu of jewelry and souvenir shops that feed the insatiable thirst of the cruise ship passengers, interspersed with bars of all stripes, and hardware and convenience stores for the residents. Pretty planter boxes of colorful flowers, twin-globe street lamps, and festive banners brighten up the sidewalk, as a trolley car clangs its way along the street. Juneau is quite the scene, tucked dramatically away at the foot of a mountain range.

Watching the enormous cruise ships berthing and sightseeing seaplanes buzzing to and fro across the harbor reinforce just how much tourism is the life-blood of this city.

Don’t miss the iconic Red Dog Saloon, but time your visit after the cruise passengers have retreated, or you’ll have to wait a while. This touristy recreation of a noisy honkey tonk bar seems to have captured the spirit of the 1890’s during the town’s gold rush heyday, complete with sawdust floor. Look for Wyatt Earp’s gun, some Winchester rifles, a mounted Kodiak bear, and other frontier paraphernalia displayed behind the bar.

For beer aficionados, the Alaskan Brewing Company makes for a lively stop. In 1986, when Alaskan Brewing Company set up their brewery in Juneau, they became the 67^th operating brewery in the United States. Since then, their products have been awarded more than 100 major national and international medals and awards, half of which are gold. Their most renowned brews, Alaskan Amber, Alaskan IPA, Alaskan Stout, Alaskan Summer Ale, and Alaskan Winter Ale are uniformly thirst quenching. Drop by and sample up to six of their delicious beers, free of charge. You’ll meet a fun mix of locals and tourists, all with a passion for beer.

Much of Juneau’s history revolves around its gold mining days that started in 1880, so you’ll find plenty of gold mining museums and tours here. Tucked away in a rugged mountain valley behind Juneau, the Last Chance Mining Museum is absolutely crammed, floor to ceiling, with thousands of old pieces of gold mining equipment. They range from small to enormous and the gadgets make the museum look like the setting for a Steampunk Convention.

In one corner of the museum stands a replica of the AJ Mine Adit, the mine entrance. The original mine entrances are sealed off to the public, so this replica was created to give the visitor an idea of what a mine was like back in the day. Walking through, you’ll see historic photographs, a wide display of hand tools that were used in the shops for maintaining the mining equipment, pneumatic drilling equipment, and ancient picks and rock samples.

The remnants of another gold mine are seen on the AJ Mine and Gastineau Mill Tour—and they’ll show you how to pan for gold. The tour bus ascends a steep trail up Mount Roberts to what remains of the Alaska Gastineau Mill. A guide shows large black and white photos outlining the different types of gold mining and demonstrates how to operate a sluice box, and then describes hydraulic mining, dredging, open pit mining, and underground hard rock mining.

Next you drive two minutes down the dirt trail and stop at the enormous rusting steel girders and concrete skeleton of the former mill, built into the steep mountainside. It was here that the ore carts opened to pour their contents into a rotating pebble mill, where the rocks were crushed into a sand-like product, which was sifted and washed to collect the gold.

Then, you’re whisked further down the hill for a tour inside the historic Gastineau Mine conveyor tunnel shaft, one of the highlights of the day. It’s the only hard rock gold mining tour in S.E. Alaska. Your guide escorts you into the cool, 360-foot-long mine shaft. Inside the mineshaft, 20 feet wide and ten feet high, our voices and the gravel crunching underfoot echo down its length. The guide stops to demonstrate how work was done in the mines, sawing a joist, operating a bone rattling pneumatic drill, and dumping ore into a hopper ore cart.

The Juneau-Douglas City Museum gives a concise and thorough history of the town. As one might expect, its major focus of is on its mining history, with plenty of old photographs, interactive exhibits, dioramas, and displays about Hands On Mining, to show the pioneer life as it was back in the mining days.

You can read stories about the mines from sliding panels, and a large colorful display shows the types of rock at the Treadwell Mine. Glass cases contain typical clothing worn by miners, and some of their equipment.

The Alaska State Museum, a large white concrete building with art nouveau decorations sculpted into its walls, is only a ten-minute walk from the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, and is equally impressive. Although not as focused on mining as the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, it gives a polished, in-depth recounting of the state’s history and natural history, including Native Cultures, History Galleries, a For Kids Only section, and much more.

The Juneau Steamboat Company Harbor Tour, ably led by Captain John L. George, is a low-key summary of the Juneau gold rush heritage. You sit inside a turn-of-the-century, wood-fired passenger steamboat as it chugs sedately along the Gastineau Channel at 3.5 knots. Wearing a black vest complete with silver watch chain and captain’s hat, Captain George regales you with tales of how these steamboats were a common form of transport back in the day, ferrying miners and their families across the channel, and tells of the three mines that produced gold along the channel.

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Where to stay:

For the complete experience, stay at the historic Silverbow Hotel, a beautiful 1914 boutique hotel with 11 rooms decorated with antiques and period wallpaper. Situated in the heart of downtown Juneau, its old furnishings and creaking floors help you relive the good old days of mining in Juneau. The bakery next door is not to be missed.

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Roy Stevenson is a freelance travel writer and photographer based in Seattle, Washington. He’s had more than 600 articles published in 160 regional national, and international magazines, newspapers, in-flights and online travel magazines in the U.S.A., Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He writes on travel and culture, history, art, military history, military vehicles, writing, communications, health, fitness, running, triathlons, sports and film festival reviews.

The city of Luzern is just a 45 minute train ride from Zurich, one that I found more than worth the effort when experiencing much enchantment and stunning views of the waters and mountainous regions surrounding it.

The Entlebuch’s Enchanted Plums

Residing west of Luzern is the Entlebuch, about 35 minutes by train at the stop called Schupfheim.  It’s made up of eight villages and spans some 154 square miles and contains many of the Alps’ rolling foothills:  roughly one per cent of Switzerland’s land area.  One fourth of this area is now protected moors (highland marshlands), which exuded a pleasantly eerie feeling amidst the fog, making me wonder if any monsters were lurking there.

The first settlers here came in the 11th century, but for the last two centuries, one passed-down fairy tale has captivated the locals involving a plum-like fruit called the Zyberli.  It’s featured in a five year old-plus German book Zyberli-Gschicht.  As a big fan of children’s stories, I got to visit this land, where, according to the story, little people known as the Bargmandli used to pan for gold for their valley masters (Talherrens), and in return for making the latter rich, they would receive the Zyberli fruit.  But this would end as the egotistical Talherrans chopped all the fruit trees down so they could build bigger thrones for themselves, making the little people leave, leaving the Talherrans without more gold.

I started out on the three mile circular trail in the town of Romoos at the Hotel Kreuz, and soon came upon a newly planted Zyberli tree on a lawn.   My path then took me outside the town center to the Forest Gate, where I would then embark on long and winding dirt roads that were wet with dead leaves from a steady drizzle, which I navigated with my walking pole, opening and closing many gates.

Little feet symbols were plastered along the trail to make sure I didn’t get lost, leading me to such places as the school for the Bargmandli, where actual kids convene to get lessons on acting responsible in the forest amidst beautiful and peaceful surroundings that include a natural babbling brook soundtrack.

Fluhi’s Surrounding Natural Magic

Fluhi is on the other side of the Entlebuch, and provided me a great opportunity to see more breathtaking autumn scenery in the Pre-Alps (foothills), ending at Cheesiloch, a canyon with a 130-plus foot drop.   Prior to the path leading directly to the canyon, a 45 minute hike from town begins that has winding roads, cows who love being  photographed (kept apart by a “fence” made of just one rope), and rolling meadows.   The last 30 minutes to the canyon would be one of my most challenging hikes I’ve ever taken.  My walking pole saved the day, for the narrow pathway was sharp and rocky, and drenched with wet maple leaves.  Nature’s soundtrack included hearing the pleasant babbling of the Rotbach stream as I proceeded deeper into the dense evergreen forest with deep drops to the canyon below.

To see the Entlebuch via Romoos, it takes about 40 minutes from Luzern via public transportation.  From Luzern, take a train en route to Wolhusen (first stop towards Bern about 15-20 minutes away), and then the yellow “Post” bus will take you to Romoos in less than 20 minutes.  Fluhi is reachable a little further down the same above-mentioned line at Schupfheim’s train station (about 35 minutes), and then by taking a Post bus to the town, which takes ten minutes.

Dragons Take On the Ghost of Pontius Pilate

I planned to go to the top of Mt. Pilatus via The Golden Round Trip.  I expected to do a good amount of hiking, but steady rainfall in the lower elevations of Luzern and reports of snow up the mountain before I even left town appeared to hamper my day.

I started my Golden Round Trip from Luzern with a free (thanks to my Swiss Pass) 100 minute boat ride on Lake Luzern to Alpnachstad, the base of the 6,995 foot high Mt. Pilatus.  I wasn’t feeling ideal, as my stomach was a bit queasy and my sinuses were clogging up, but nonetheless, I told myself I’d tough it out.   Even though the fog gave way somewhat, the steady drizzle continued amidst the deep valleys that were cut by glaciers in times past.  The boat bounced around from one town to another along multi-finger-like Lake Luzern, which has the look of a dragon’s outline.

Dragons and the Luzern area have had a long mythical love affair, going back to medieval times.  One story from long ago featured a cooper reportedly falling off Mt. Pilatus in wintertime, but he awoke all snug and warm in a dragon’s cave, and was cared for by the dragons until springtime, when the weather warmed up.  It’s said that one can still hear the flapping of a dragons’ wings and see their shadows at fateful times when on the mountain.

The dragons have allegedly survived even as the ghost of Pontius Pilate hasn’t.  Some seven centuries ago, locals were banned from scaling the mountain because of the fierce weather around Lake Oberalp, blamed on Pontius Pilate’s ghost haunting the place.   That is, until the town rose up in 1685 to take on the poltergeist (appearing with gray hair and dressed in purple annually on Good Friday) by “stoning” the lake.  Nonetheless, the weather I was experiencing made me wonder if Pilate’s ghost was doing an encore.

Healing by the Dragons’s “Touch”

My second leg of the “Golden Round Trip” proceeded on the world’s steepest cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad, where us passengers experienced gradients as high as 48 per cent at speeds of about 6-7 mph. Going up, we were surrounded by thick evergreen forests being hammered by rain, then light snow, and then heavier snow as the visibility decreased. But I began to notice something on my ascent:  I wasn’t feeling queasy anymore and my sinuses were clearing up as the 33 minute ride (that’s half price with a Swiss Pass) ascended through several tunnels barely wide enough for the cogway carriages.  The driver masterfully had to navigate the heavier snow amidst sudden jerks and stops.   He laughed even though I was anxious (because there are three braking systems to prevent disaster).

At the top, it was snowing hard and very cold.  Despite the many paths and other activities being closed down, I was able to take on the below freezing temperature and wind chill and walk through a series of tunnels in the mountain called the Drachenwag.  The tunnels kept me from getting wetter, but not colder.  But alas, I felt such a high even though the openings in the tunnels showed little as the snow-covered mountains became whiter.  Still, my venture upwards to the dragon’s mythical homeland made me feel better, along with some delicious hot vegetable soup and some green tea-flavored Swiss cola called Rivella in one of the area’s diners.

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Pictures credit to Roy A. Barnes and may not be used without permission.

Disclosure: Roy A. Barnes attended a press trip sponsored by Switzerland Tourism  but what he wrote were his own impressions without any scrutiny of the press trip sponsor.   He’s a frequent contributor to the Traveler Blog, writing from southeastern Wyoming.  

Photography by Linda Popovich

The small town of Haines nestles peacefully overlooking the remote shores of Alaska’s pristine, 90-mile Lynn Canal—the longest Fjord in America. Haines lies at the base of the fog shrouded Takshanuk and Chilkat Mountains, glistening glaciers crawling down their steep black granite canyons. A belt of foothills covered in Pacific Northwest evergreens is all that separates the town from these towering massifs.

Haines is a quiet little harbor town of 2,400 souls. They’re mostly flannel-shirted fishermen, loggers, artists, retirees, and a sprinkle of gold miners, all sharing two things in common. They love the spectacular natural vista of fjord, forest, and mountain that greets them each morning when they open their curtains, and they have no desire to live the city life anymore. They’re here to get away from it all. Some might call them reclusive, and they’d be proud of this.

There’s no rush hour traffic in this isolated village and the residents all know each other, perhaps too well. But they’re genuine and friendly and look you in the face when they talk to you. Their hands are calloused hands from hours of hauling in heavy gillnets laden with struggling salmon, or working outdoors. Bears scavenge through garbage cans in back yards, and the occasional moose strolls through the streets. Visiting Haines is like time traveling back to the 1950’s, and, sadly, it’s not something you’re likely to see in the lower 48 anymore—it’s a remnant of America that has been lost to iPhones, MTV and urban sprawls.

Certainly the residents are subject to the usual squabbling you’ll find in any small community, but it’s the sort of place that, when it comes down to it, people rally around to help neighbors who have fallen on hard times. The newly unemployed are likely to find a fisherman on their doorstep with a couple of fresh salmon, or have a hunter with some choice moose cuts for the freezer dropping by. Or a neighbor chopping wood for an elderly woman.

As you might expect from its expansive natural setting, most of the attractions in Haines revolve around the great outdoors and indeed, the town is a world-renowned haven for outdoor adventurers. During its short summer from May to September, backpackers, campers, kayakers, rock climbers, and mountain bikers converge here to ply their sports. They paddle on scenic gray-silted lakes, hike through rugged, heavily forested trails, scale impossible rock faces, and free fall for miles on bone jarring descents down skinny mountain trails.

We start our Haines experience with a kayak trip with seasoned guide Nathaniel (“Nacho”) Stephens, from Alaska Mountain Guides & Climbing School. Nacho tells us about the natural attractions around Haines, driving us out to Chilkat State Park, along winding gravel roads. We drive past a cove with a small picturesque salmon cannery jutting out over the water on a pier, and a sailboat moored in the harbor with trees growing from it.

The wind is too strong across the Chilkat inlet, so we drive north back through town to Chilkoot Lake, where we put our kayaks in and paddle comfortably around the perimeter of this large lake. The water is a grayish color from the alluvial run off from the mountains, and the lush trees growing right up to the water’s edge teem with life. We paddle directly underneath a large, mature, black bald eagle that looks down at us with disdain.

Stopping on a bank covered with undergrowth, we tie our kayaks to some small branches and have a sandwich lunch while Nacho tells us of his worldwide guiding travels and about the flora and fauna in the area. Paddling back into the wind is tough but rewarding, as we cruise along the far shore of the lake looking at cascading waterfalls and vast mountainsides that taper off into the lake.

On our drive back, at the mouth of the Chilkoot River where the salmon are frantically running, we see a beautiful brown mother bear with two cubs, their long brown fir rippling with every step. They amble along the riverbank, not 30 yards from some of the fishermen. Standing up to their waists in water, the fishermen do a double take when they see the bears behind them. “Bear”, they yell down the river to the next fishermen, and then turn back to their fly-fishing. Only in Alaska!

A couple of days later we cycle back towards the Chilkoot River along the coast road with Thom Ely, owner of Sockeye Cycle Company who leads Alaska Bicycle Tours. We pause on the roadside to watch a mother Bear with two cubs strolling idly along the beach. The chubby bears sniff for any tasty salmon morsels that might have washed up on the shore of the fjord. Looking up behind us, we see a bald eagle keeping watch in a tall Douglas fir, just across the road.

Then, back on our bikes at the Chilkoot River mouth, we see another bear with three cubs across the river, all shoulder deep in long grass, frolicking around. One never seems to get tired of watching the wildlife in Alaska, and this is especially so in Haines.

The next day, for another fix of Alaska wildlife, we take the Chilkat River Adventures Company’s flat bottom aluminum jet boat on a high-powered cruise through the extensive swampy Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. Despite the noise of the engines, I am amazed at the wild life we see on this 48,000-acre bottomland, where the Chilkat, Klehini, Tsirku and Chilkoot Rivers converge, and diverge with each other. The waterway is shallow in places, a muddy brown, with reeds and thick growths of trees sprouting from its banks.

We see several eagle nests above us, huge platforms of branches and twigs that have been built up over the years; some are 4-5 feet deep and easily that much across. The occasional bald eagle with black feathers, white tail feathers and yellow talons soars high above us when we get a little too close. The six-foot wingspan of these raptors is breathtakingly impressive, as they flap with a swooshing sound. Further on down the river, a couple of shy moose spy on us from behind some brush; and panicking waterfowl flap desperately over the stagnant, marshy water away from us. The occasional weathered clapboard shack lies amongst the overgrowth, covered in a dense growth of moss that is endemic to S.E. Alaska.

Rainbow Glacier Adventures took us on a tour of an active gold mine that brought us up to speed on the gold mining history of Haines, and we visited a working gold mine—one of the highlights of my Alaska gold tour. Holly Jo Parnell picked us up at our hotel to drive us 35 miles out to the Big Nugget Mine.

This open cast mine is located at the end of a 9-mile long gravel road, in a ravine at the bottom of several mountains. It’s a gorgeous place, where years of gold mining operations have formed a flat plateau. Here we can watch the gold miners operating the heavy equipment to extract those precious ounces of lustrous gold from rocks and dirt.

Holly Jo gives a demonstration of gold panning, and we swirl, sift and sieve the dirt and debris from our pans to find a nice sized little nugget gleaming up at us, which we get to keep.

The return journey includes taking a trip down a side road to the ghost town of Porcupine Creek. In 1905 during the Porcupine Creek mining boom time, over 2,000 people resided here. Today, little remains of the town except for a couple of weathered old clap board houses with broken, sagging roofs, and some collapsed piles of logs and wood that once were houses or log cabins. It’s a sad sight, but its former residents mined 81,000 ounces of gold from the area, so life here can’t have been too bad.

We’ve seen so much nature, and now it’s time to see Haines’s other activities. Our Jilkaat Kwaan Cultural Tour of the Klukwan Village is excellent. The tribal longhouse is new enough for us to smell the Cedar planks. It has a fire pit sunk into its center with an opening in the roof above. It took the tribe 5 months to build this longhouse, and decorate it with totem poles, which tell several stories in their deeply etched carvings. Tribal cultural leader, Danny Klanott, 33, points out bears, ravens, eagles, whales and other animals that are such a deep, symbolic part of their culture.

We are treated to a dancing display by an ensemble of pretty Jilkaat girls ranging from eight to eighteen. Draped with colorfully decorated red, black and blue woolen cloaks alive with native symbols, and holding ceremonial paddles, these demure girls, led by Daniel, put on a dance performance their elders would be proud of. Thousands of years of heritage show in their faces, as they gyrate and chant the Knock on Door Dance, and the Salmon Fishing Dance.

Living in Seattle, I’ve seen my share of Northwest Native ceremonial dancing by professionals, but these girls easily rival the slickest tourist performances that rain city has to offer. Most of the kids live outside the village of 50 Jilkaats, but return during summers to absorb their tribal culture and reunite with their friends.

Salmon are the nourishment and spiritual lifeblood of the Jilkaat Kwaan and we watch a demonstration of how salmon are prepared for the smoking rooms. Our guide uses a deceptively sharp looking paring knife to defin, gut, slice, and debone salmon to reveal its rich red meat. It sounds gory, but she’s obviously done it thousands of time before; she can clean a fish in less than a minute. “Now if we can only stop the bears from nosing around the smokehouses”, she says—and she’s not joking.

Our next stop is to watch two master totem carvers working on a thick trunk of yellow cedar. This piece will take six months to complete and is to be emplaced near the village’s greeting house. The carvers inscribe the outline of their totem’s features in pencil before chipping away at the log. They’ll do this for months, depending on the size and elaborate decorations of the totem.

Back in sleepy Haines, we explore its museums, art centers, and other quirky attractions. A walk through Fort Seward is a must. Once a frontier outpost, Fort Seward was set up to establish the U.S. land claim for this area from the Canadians, and construction was begun in 1903. We walk past Officer’s Row, a tidy collection of well-preserved white buildings, some now serving as B&Bs, and the fort’s headquarters, the parade ground, Captain’s Quarters, and the old Guard House.

Also on the Fort grounds are the Chilkat Center for the Arts and the Alaska Indian Arts skill Center, both open to the public, with an eclectic series of galleries boasting colorful contemporary work by native artists, and a room where you can watch totem pole carving.

A walk through the American Bald Eagle Foundation Museum in Haines is particularly instructive. Dioramas, photographs, exhibitions, tours and live raptor presentations tell everything you ever need to know about these superb birds. The museum exists because of the close proximity of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

Haines hosts the renowned Alaska Bald Eagle Festival every November, with 3,000 eagles as the special guests. The eagles are drawn to a four-mile stretch of the Chilkat River to feed on the late salmon run. The trees, I’m told, are absolutely packed with eagles, and the event draws thousands of spectators, journalists and photographers from around the world. It’s no wonder that Haines is named “The Valley of the Eagles”.

On Main Street we come across the truly unique and world famous Hammer Museum. It’s easy to spot because there’s a huge 20-foot tall hammer standing in front of it. It would be fair to say that museum curator, Dave Pahl, has an obsession with hammers—all types of hammers.

This affable and amiable man has collected so many types of hammers that his wife eventually told him they needed to be moved from the garage. Rather than part with them, Dave started the Hammer Museum in 2002 and has never regretted it.

Dave’s sincerity shows through when he tells me that his mission is to show visitors the history and multiple uses of hammers, and how important they are to society. He ranks the invention of the hammer up there with the wheel and fire. And he may be right. Inside, hanging on every inch of wall space in the four rooms are hammers—1500 in total.

I discover there are so many varieties of the humble hammer that my initial incredulousness has been replaced by a genuine respect for Dave and his amazing collection. I rate the Hammer Museum as one of Haine’s Top Three attractions, not least because of the fascinating stories that Dave tells about each and every one of his hammers.

There are drink hammers for tapping against a glass to order more drinks in night clubs in the 1920’s; triple claw hammers; Farrier’s tool hammers; cobbler’s hammers; combination drills and hammers; coffin keys; bed keys used for tightening the bed springs on early beds; political hammers; clock winding keys; metal tack hammers; cattle stunning hammers; meat tenderizers; hog tattoo hammers; chisel hammers; electricians hammers; adjustable head hammers; staple pulling hammers; spring eye hammers; Clark bar hammers; box terrier hammers; ripper hammers; fabric block printing hammers; bung starters, and literally hundreds more variants. I’m astonished.

When Dave was digging the foundation for the museum, he uncovered an 800-year old warrior’s pick or slave killer hammer used by the Tlingits, displayed inside. The Smithsonian Museum of American History donated the mannequins, posing with hammers. The Hammer Museum should be one of your first stops in Haines, and for the $3 entry fee is worth every cent. Do not miss it!

Tucked away behind the village, at the fairgrounds, is a recreated turn of the century western street complete with boardwalk and facades over the wooden shops. These houses were the town props for the 1991 movie “White Fang” based on Jack London’s famous book by the same name, written in 1906. Although the film was lensed out of town, the city had the foresight to reassemble the prop storefronts in the fairgrounds and encourage local businesses to set up shop therein.

One of the most visited places in this well kept facade is the Haines Brewing Company, where you’ll meet master brewer and ZZ Top lookalike Paul Wheeler. Sample some of his fine hand crafted ales and beers including Dalton Trail Ale, Lookout Stout, Eldred Rock Red, IPA, and Captain Cook’s Spruce Tip Ale. It’s a small operation, but extremely popular with the locals who are constantly dropping by to refill their growlers. Sample Dave’s homemade root beer—it’s delicious.

There are a few restaurants in Haines, but your dining experience should definitely include breakfast in the Bamboo Room Restaurant, housed in what looks like a red barn. Listen to the friendly banter of the local fishermen and interplay between the locals. It’s free entertainment and will give you a flavor of what life is like in Haines. Try the wide selection of home baked donuts and pastries at the Chilkat Bakery and Restaurant.

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How to get to Haines

Traveling by the large, comfortable ferries on the Alaska Marine Highway is a great way to get to Haines. When I arrived, the shuttle from my motel was not there, so a local retiree put my bags in her station wagon and drove me to the motel. It turns out that her daughter worked there some years ago.

Where to stay in Haines

The Captain’s Choice Motel offers comfortable rooms with laundry facilities, a bar overlooking the Fjord, and close proximity to downtown Haines.

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Roy Stevenson is a freelance travel writer and photographer based in Seattle, Washington. He’s had more than 600 articles published in 160 regional national, and international magazines, newspapers, in-flights and online travel magazines in the U.S.A., Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He writes on travel and culture, history, art, military history, military vehicles, writing, communications, health, fitness, running, triathlons, sports and film festival reviews.