23 April 2001 - the Böögg burns slowly - James Joyce found in Fluntern
GrĂŒezi Mitenand! Â Bonjour! Â Buongiorno! Â Hi everyone!
Thank you for joining me on the fifth day of the April 2001 journey. Â Today is Monday the 23rd April 2001.
As I was still under the influence of jetlag, I went to bed early the previous night after dinner.  I consequently woke up about 4:40 AM, it was still dark.  I did not have any roommates to disturb so I just went to the shower in the hall.  The hostel would not serve breakfast until 6 AM, so I left the hostel about 5 AM, walked to the Besenrainstrasse bus stop and took it to Morgental where I changed to the tram line 7 - note, I had my Swiss Pass with me, so I did not have to buy a separate ticket.  I picked up a copy of the 20 Minuten newspaper and it had an article about today's upcoming event at 6 PM, the SechselÀuten burning of the Böögg.
What is a Böögg?  Since the 19th Century, SechselĂ€uten has been celebrated every mid-April in ZĂŒrich.  According to zuerich.com, "Who or What is a Böögg? The word âBööggâ is probably related to the word âbogeymanâ and similar names in other languages for this frightening imaginary figure, such as Bullebeiss, Buhmann or Boesman. In Zurich, the Böögg resembles a snowman and symbolizes the winter. The burning of the Böögg serves to drive out the winter and herald the spring."  Eventually the BĂŒrkliplatz towards Lake ZĂŒrich was too small, so it was moved across the Limmat eastward to the Bellevueplatz, on the northern end of the Neue ZĂŒrcher Zeitung headquarters.  You might know the Bellevueplatz as the starting point for the Street Parade techno music festivals that start about 1 PM on the second Saturday in August, of which I have been to five in total so far. Â
So what happens at the SechselĂ€uten festival?  SechselĂ€uten is a half-day holiday, in the Canton of ZĂŒrich, but nowhere specifically else in Switzerland.  The Böögg is a textile snowman filled with explosives and is meant to be set alight on a controlled flame, in other words, a bonfire.  The most explosives are put in the snowman's head.  Then there is a parade, for the guilds of ZĂŒrich from Paradeplatz to Bellevueplatz, to put the Böögg on top of the wood for the bonfire.  That is the plan for the afternoon.
I took the tram about 5:15 AM to Selnau station and walked from one end to the other.  I exited the station, and walked along Sihlstrasse to the intersection of Talstrasse and Löwenstrasse.  At the pedestrian crossing there was a crossing stripe with the phrase "rauf mit den o+löhnen" spraypainted, with o+ being the female symbol, I guess a demand for gender pay equality.  That was about 5:35 AM, according to the picture screenshot. Â
About 5:38 AM I found a guild sign, namely the "Zunft Schwamendingen" while walking along Talackerstrasse that leads southeast to Paradeplatz.  At Paradeplatz was a big banner for the local tram company VBZ (Verkehrsbetriebe ZĂŒrich) "damit am SechselĂ€uten nur der Böögg den Kopf verliert" (so that on SechselĂ€uten, only the Böögg loses his head".  I remember from September 2000 a similar banner for Knabenschiessen, as I was in ZĂŒrich for that festival as well.  I took a tram to Bellevueplatz to have a look at the bonfire.  It must have been stacked about two stories high.  I took a tram line 6 to Bahnhof Enge and then tram 7 to the hostel.  It was about 6:55 AM and the hostel started serving breakfast, in the part where in 2004 onwards the checkin desk is located now.  With the renovations of December 2001 onwards, the checkin desk and hostel restaurant had swapped sides of the hostel ground floor.  I can explain at another time.  Breakfast included bread, cheese, cold cut meats, dry cereal, milk, tea, orange juice and coffee.  Coffee was from the espresso machine and you could order at least three different kinds of coffee drinks, all for free during breakfast.  For tea, you would pick out a bag, and with the espresso machine just select the hot water. Â
As the SechselĂ€uten parade would not start until about 2 PM, I decided to make a couple of side trips.  One of which to Aarau in the canton of Aargau to the northwest, and to Ăetliberg to compare a nice sunny and warm September visit would be to a chilly one in April.  I thus took my video camera, my Swiss Pass, and headed to the Besenrainstrasse bus stop, Morgental and on to ZĂŒrich HB.  I boarded a train to Bern that would stop at Lenzburg AG and Aarau.  There was not much in Aarau that I particularly wanted to see, other than the Altstadt and crossing the Aare at Flösserplatz.  Little did I know that Aarau is close to the cantonal border with Solothurn, and I did not take time to walk along route 5 to cross, but I made up for it a few days later when changing trains at Olten.  Before returning to ZĂŒrich, I remember passing by the Pickwick pub.  It was, and is still, at Graben 6 close to the Kasinopark.  It was not yet 11 AM and I was in no mood for any alcohol at that time, and I needed to return to ZĂŒrich.
I took the train back to ZĂŒrich via Lenzburg, and changed to the S-10. Â I may have mentioned the S-10 many times in the past, and it is an anomaly in comparison to the other S-Bahn lines in ZĂŒrich. Â Its rolling stock, instead of the standard 15 kV / 16 2/3 Hz voltage as used by SBB, Deutsche Bahn and ĂBB of Austria, uses the 1,000 V DC, which is long since outdated and is due to be decommissioned by 2023, but is still used by the existing rolling stock. Â To avoid a conflict of voltages, the pantographs of the S-10 rolling stock are moved from the center of the train but placed on the left side (assuming the direction of travel is towards ZĂŒrich HB) with its own catenary. Â Parts of the tunnel between ZĂŒrich HB, Selnau and Binz/GiesshĂŒbel allow for opposite side and switchback use by both lines S-4 and S-10, but SBB and VBZ have seen an increase in ridership on S-10 and they are trying to invest in line expansion, so the 1,000 V DC power will need to be decommissioned and only one power source will be supported. Â The S-18, aka Forchbahn, is another story, which I will not go into at this time.
About 11:25 AM I returned to ZĂŒrich HB.  The tracks to the S-10 are underground and close to the Bahnhofplatz and Löwenstrasse rail station platforms.  In 2001, the platforms were called platform 1 for the S-10 and platform 2 for the S-4.  After the opening of the four platform Löwenstrasse station, platforms were renumbered, so platform 1 and platform 2 are now platform 21 and 22, the Löwenstrasse station platforms 31 to 34, and the original S-Bahn station towards the National Museum, are called platforms 41 to 44, when they used to be 21 to 24 when first opened.  Sigh, you have to admire the progress that Switzerland went through during 20+ years......  I think I boarded a 11:35 AM S-10 train to Ăetliberg that did not terminate at Triemli (had that happen to me in July 1998).  I remember passing by the GiesshĂŒbel station about 11:41 AM.  So far there was no sign of any significant snow, and the skies were mostly clear, though the air was chilly, maybe mid 40s or +4 to +6 Celsius.  After the train passed Uitikon, the snow was starting to show up. Â
By the time I reached Ăetliberg, there was about six inches of snow almost everywhere, tracks visible but sleepers covered. Â It was 11:58 AM when I stepped out of the train, and some of the snow had started to melt, so I had to watch where I stepped. Â At Ăetiberg they still have an axle with a cog, but the Ăetlibergbahn S-10 line does not use any cog rail at all, and is billed as one of Switzerland's steepest rail lines that does not use either a cog or traction cable. Â Prior to 2016 I used to love to ride the fun roller slide where you use a hard V shaped coaster and the rollers have a ten foot decline with maybe three or four bends. Â I rode it the last time in September 2000, and made a video of it. Â I think it was dismantled in 2016 or earlier and replaced by a less entertaining set of stationary bicycles or similar. Â
It was getting close to 1 PM so I headed back down to where I could catch the tram line 7 to the hostel, get a fresh camera battery, and find a good place to view the SechselĂ€uten Parade.  Somehow I walked to just outside the MĂŒnsterhof location of Leder Locher, and a band was practicing at 2:25 PM, about thirty people in total, and in Georgian / US Revolutionary period costume, though I could not tell you to what guild they belonged to.  I remember there was a little girl about 5 or 6 years old with a Pooh Bear balloon.  I walked to the Bahnhofstrasse, somewhere near the BĂ€rengasse and watched the parade for an hour or so.  There were many musicians from various guilds, and even the wine barrel making guild had an excellent percussion session.  The baker guild threw bread rolls at the crowd. Â
At 5 PM I walked towards BĂŒrkliplatz to cross eastwards to Bellevueplatz so that I could have a good view of the Böögg.  I found some place where I could see the "Neue ZĂŒrcher Zeitung" corporate sign.  I think I was about a hundred feet away, and could see about fifteen feet of firewood as well as the Böögg itself.  I had a nice view, and was getting very excited for 6 PM to ring.  By then, the cavalry was circled around the bonfire.
It eventually turned 6 PM.  The time had come to start the bonfire.  Unfortunately it was getting cloudy and colder, upper 30s, or maybe +3 to +5 C.  What is important to note about the bonfire, is how long it takes, from exactly 6 PM to when the Böögg's head explodes with the explosives.  If the fire takes less than ten minutes for the Böögg's head to explode, then it will be a good summer in ZĂŒrich.  Otherwise it may be a chilly one (e.g. 1997 and 2017 from what I remember, temperatures below normal and precipitation above normal).  On 23 April 2001, it took a while.  Even by 6:10 PM, the flames had not even made it halfway up to the Böögg.  Fuel had to be put on the fire as it was going out.  About 6:20 PM, the flames made it to the Böögg's feet and explosives started to pop.  The Böögg's textile skin started burning and more explosives went off.  It is not over until its head completely disappears.  The next five minutes would be suspenseful.  About 6:27 PM the Böögg was reduced to his head and a wooden frame where his "body" used to be.  And right as my video camera's clock said 6:28 PM, I caught an explosion that was about five times the size of the Böögg's head.  The crowd, of maybe 10,000 people at the time, cheered, and the head guild's band played a victory song.  At 6:29 PM, all that was left on the bonfire, was a wooden frame and where the head used to be, just a charred out 2 by 4.  According to the head guild, SechselĂ€uten 2001 was declared "mission accomplished".
After such excitement, I thought I should do the cable car rotation, namely the Polybahn and Rigiblickbahn, that I remember riding in 1997, 1998 and 2000.  Then I would come back by tram lines 5 or 6.  From Bellevueplatz, I walked to Central, the lower station of the Polybahn.  If you have heard of ETH ZĂŒrich, that is the upper station of the Polybahn.  My prior ride on it was on Friday the 24th July 1998 with my striped top hat, and I took a selfie about 3:30 PM that day.  The Polybahn was still operating at 6:55 PM so I took it up to ETH ZĂŒrich, and managed to watch the other car go down to Central.  I took the next tram from the ETH/UniversitĂ€tsspital three stops to Seilbahn Rigiblick, and around 7:10 PM I took the cable car up to the upper station.  The Seilbahn Rigiblick is automated kind of like an inclinator at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas.  You pick your station, Goldauer Strasse, Hadlaubstrasse, Germaniastrasse and Rigiblick, then it makes the appropriate stop.  It was built so well, that if both cars stopped along the way, you would be at any one of the stops (Goldauer Strasse for one and Germania Strasse for the other).  I was at the top station, and there was a bus line 39 to Im Klösterli near the zoo.  Interestingly enough, for those who like James Joyce's literature, he is buried close by at the Fluntern cemetery.  I thought about eating at the Klösterli restaurant, but I took a pass after looking at the dinner prices so I went back to Niederdorferstrasse by tram line 6, where I know that prices are more reasonable.  By then it was about 7:45 PM and the sun was about to set.  The tram did pass Toblerplatz, for which there is a famous triangular chocolate bar named after it.  Also the trolleybus line 33 terminates there, still does after part of its route was cut back and replaced years later with line 72, also a trolleybus line.
I ended up back at the ETH/UniversitĂ€tsspital tram stop, took the Polybahn down to Central, and looked for my favorite restaurant to eat supper at.  In April 2001 I did not know of Bierhalle Wolf, that I more frequently visit since 2011, so I did not go there then.  Instead I went to the Brasserie Johanniter on Niederdorferstrasse 70, had a seat inside, and started off with a liter of HĂŒrlimann Lager.  The last time I ate at Johanniter, I had their GraubĂŒndner SpĂ€tzle with ham, cheese and onions, and luckily it was still on the menu.  It was priced 20 Francs.  I think 2002 it was withdrawn and the only SpĂ€tzle they serve anymore is in the vegetarian style.  I had someone share my table, and we had a conversation, not very deep.  After paying our respective tabs, we went on our ways.  I went back to Bellevueplatz to see what remained, if anything, of the Böögg, and there was still the skeleton that I remember from 6:29 PM.  So I went back to the hostel to sleep, as tomorrow would be a travel day to Bern.
Please join me as tomorrow I will see two new cantons, one of which has two half-cantons. Â Then we will see a new astrological clock similar to the one in Prague, and not too far from the Bundeshaus. Â See you then.
Auf wiederluege! Â Au revoir! Â Arrivederci! Â Goodbye!
