The Great Museum Fail….

We all knew that it was coming, and Thursday was my museum fail, but that is at the end of the day…..

As I started out this morning, Google maps took me thru Petersplatz which is the plaza located next to Michael’s office. I had walked thru here many times, but had never stopped at the church that anchors the plaza, so today was the day!!!

Many of the churches that I have visited here have not been functioning churches. They have been reworked to provide other needed services. It was refreshing to enter one that was prepared and ready for worship….

The churches here have ornate spires and outside decorations, but, unlike the churches in Rome, the insides are stone and greatly un-adorned……

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There were numerous places where frescoes had been uncovered, and from the documentation that I saw, these were from the 1400’s…..

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This simple flower arrangement was delightful…..

….and I delighted in the head sculptures between these seats…..

I loved the chandeliers….

And, this rug caught my eye as well……

The next stop was City Hall….yes you heard me right!!!! Like many people, this was my initial feeling about visiting a governmental office…..

I couldn’t get a good picture of the building so pulled one off of the internet…..

The building is an amazing demonstration of the art of Trompe-l’œil. Look at the faux terrace along the front of the building…..

The inside courtyard continues with the decorations….this photo again from the internet…..

Photos from inside the edifice continued to show the attention to detail in all of the decorations…..

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I particularly like these painted details……

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The statue was under repair and it was interesting to watch the painter carefully mixing the paints to match the existing surface……

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It was now lunch time and I decided to visit a small truck located in the Vegetable Market…..

….were I was excited to find a Vegetable Wrap with Hummus…….

It was SO yummy!!!!

There were workmen at one end of the Plaza putting in a new brick design. It was interesting to watch them at work…..

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Now I was ready to hit the Mechanical Music Instrument museum again so walked across the bridge and to the same closed door!!! This time I decided to be pro-active and pushed the buzzer for the museum….

…. but nothing happened. Since it was during the lunch hour I decided to sit across the street and wait for a bit and even tried calling the number listed in the guide. But NO, I was obviously NOT supposed to see this museum!!!

Heading back across the river, I hit one more church….. St. Elisabeth’s. Once again this huge edifice has nothing to do with religion, but is used as a city building….

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The last place that I wanted to visit was the Antiquities Museum. After finally finding it, I paid $23 to enter a very small museum that contained artifacts from Vesuvius and Pompeii….which we will be visiting next week!!! The audio guide didn’t give information about the exhibits but, instead, was a story teller very animatedly telling a tale about what might have happened!! And the final kicker is that you weren’t allowed to take photos. Needless to say, I ran thru the exhibit pretty quickly and had finished the tour in less than 15 minutes!! Oh well…..one bad museum is still okay!!!

As Michael’s course was finished at 5:00, I walked to the University to meet his students and share some wine and snacks. It was great to meet these young people and to hear all of their stories. We then went out for one last typical Swiss meal that started with this beef and mushroom appetizer…..

My main course was Port Cordon Bleu and was magnificent, but very heavy…..

Okay….not my best day out, but still fun to be in a different part of the world!!!!!