Embracing the fog

A not-so-nice aspect of Villigen is the fog that hangs around on fall and winter mornings. This year I'm going to try to capture the photographic possibilities and maybe that will make it less depressing.

The explanation of why this area is so plagued by fog appears to be our proximity to the confluence of the three rivers, the Limmat (from Zürich), the Reuss (from the Gotthard, via Lucerne) and the Aare (from Bern). They join together near Brugg and then flow as the Aare into the Rhine (from Graubünden) before entering Germany on its way to the North Sea in the Netherlands.

Upon merging near Brugg, the water flow reaches 555 m³ per second (it ain't no Mississippi!). The area is called The Wasserschloss. About 40% of the entire area of Switzerland drains here. In 1989 the people of our canton (Aargau) voted to preserve and support this floodplain which provides habitat for many creatures and plants. A bonus for us are the many nice park areas for all to enjoy.

Some of my older posts about this topic are filed under the label "wasserschloss schweiz".

Sign of the season

One of the (unfortunate) hallmarks of this area is the morning fog in the winter. Apparently it is related to the proximity of the Wasserschloss — the confluence of the rivers Aare, Reuss and Limmat — which dumps a lot of water into the region.

20090908

The old and the new

I've always found this red building charming. Perhaps one of my local readers will tell us more about it. Behind it, a new apartment building.

20090614

The old Gipsmühle building in Lauffohr

The Aare is the longest river that exists entirely within Switzerland. It is 288 km (183 miles) long and has a water volume rate of 590 m³/s (source: Wikipedia).

Today a closer view of the building I pointed out yesterday. It used to be a gypsum mill but is now an apartment building. The architects offices can be seen more easily in this photo. The long building in the middle is currently being renovated. Parts of the scaffolding and bare bricks are visible.

Other views of the mill have appeared on this blog:
20080224 The mill seen from the bridge
20090213 Framed II
20090214 The mill and the bridge

20090614

Where the Limmat meets the Aare

I think I've got this right. The Reuss has already joined the Aare about a kilometer upstream. In the background are Turgi and Untersiggenthal. In the foreground the area of Lauffohr. If you're a regular reader, you might find the largish white building on the river bank on the left side of the photo familiar. It's an old mill (gypsum mill - Gipsmühle) converted to housing units, with the barely visible lower building as offices for Architheke, the architectural firm that planned the renovation.

20090614

Vogelsang as seen from Bruggerberg

This is the region of Vogelsang bei Turgi and we see the Limmat river downstream of Zürich and Baden, and just before it merges into the Aare. In the back is the Austrasse bridge. The building with orange awnings on the right side of the photo is/was a restaurant with a nice view, but it seems to have gone out of business.

The Limmat delivers about 100 m³/s of water to the confluence of the rivers I mentioned in yesterday's post. The start of a sort of diversion to harness some of the energy carried by the flowing water is visible on the left in this photo.

Click here to visit the Pro Wasserschloss organization (site in German).

20090614

Sandbank in the Aare at Lauffohr

Further along the hiking trail on Bruggerberg is a wonderful viewing point for the Wasserschloss which is where three important rivers (the Aare, the Reuss and the Limmat) come together. Here a sandbank in the Aare in the region of Lauffohr is visible.

20090614

The swans

I almost forgot about the swans who live here.

20090203

Moss covered rocks

This Wasserschloss region is always changing and makes for a great place for photography.

20090203

The northern tip of the Aareinsel

As one walks in the direction downstream along the Aare (which has now incorporated the Reuss), one comes to the confluence of the Aare with the Limmat. This whole area is referred to as the Wasserschloss. The word literally means moated castle. About 40% of all of Switzerland's surface water runoff flows through here.

In the background of the photo are some of the Terrassenhäuser of Untersiggenthal. Old post on the topic: 20080529 Terraced apartments.

Google map location here.
Here's a nice write-up about the area in English on a bicycling-tour site: veloland.
Vereinigung Pro Wasserschloss (in German, with nice photos) here. Includes information about the wildlife and plants of the region.
Wikipedia entry about the Wasserschloss (in German) here.

20090203

The Aareinsel in Lauffohr

Part of the small island (Aareinsel) to the north of the bridge between Lauffohr and Vogelsang. Look at this map on Google to see what I mean: link. What's labelled as Lauffohrstrasse is the bridge (well, it's still the old bridge on the satellite images, the new bridge is longer and curved).

Some construction details about the bridge:
October 2007: date the old bridge was demolished and construction started on the replacement
Concrete: material of construction
225 m: length of the bridge
1 month: length of time the contruction was completed before schedule (!)
380 tons: amount of reinforced steel used (1 metric ton = 1000 kg = 2205 lbs)
520 tons: amount of pavement
2: number of columns in the water
(Source: www.azonline.ch)

I don't have any good photos of the bridge to show here. For some beautiful nighttime images of the thing, see these photos by Grendel here and here on Flickr.

20090203

At the Aare in Lauffohr-Vogelsang

Working our way downstream along the Aare from Brugg we arrive in Lauffohr (Vogelsang on the other side). By this time, the river Reuss has already merged with the Aare. There's a crossing over the river here and it has been recently replaced with a new bridge. What you see in this photograph is an natural habitat area for amphibians formed from a diverted section of the river, next to the floodplain area (Auengebiet) of Lauffohr.

This link should take you to the Google map of the area. The image is old and doesn't show the bridge area as it is now.

20090203

High water mark

This big flood occured before my time in Switzerland. I took this photo in Lauffohr (click on label below for related posts) near Brugg, where the Limmat flows into the Aare. The region is called the/das Wasserschloss and is the confluence of the Limmat, the Aare and the Reuss.

20080207

Birdhouse 84

There are lots of birdhouses on trees in the vicinity of the Aare in Brugg. I stumbled upon a cluster of them near the old town today. Here's number 84.

I've recently started to read a book called Das Wasserschloss, about this general area where the three rivers, the Aare, the Reuss and the Limmat come together. Brugg is the entry point of the Aare to the confluence, while Villigen/Stilli is roughly the exit point. I'll try to do some posts based on what I read.

20080114

Lauffohr: confluence of the Aare and the Reuss

Here's another photo from a different part of the Wasserschloss region. The Aare flows in from the right, while the Reuss comes down from the left. It would be better to have a panorama of this region but I didn't have a tripod with me at the time.

If you look closely in the left half of the photo you'll notice what looks like a factory. That belongs to ABB (Asea Brown Boveri), a company that is a "global leader in power and automation technologies". Brown Boveri was established in Baden in 1891 and was the first company to transmit high voltage AC power. That's a simplified statement of the complicated history, a little of which can be read at this IEEE site. Asea dates back to 1883, started in Stockholm, Sweden. The two merged in 1988.

20070209

Sunset over Vogelsang

Three major rivers come together near us in a region that's called das Wasserschloss (the Wikipedia entry is in German): the Aare, the Reuss and the Limmat. I've already mentioned the Aare in this blog (1, 2). Today's photo is of the Limmat, as it flows past Vogelsang. Upstream lie Baden and Zürich among other places.

20070223