Glasi Hergiswil

Dennis both needed and deserved a break today, so I suggested he stay home with Joey and relax and watch the end of the Tour de France while I took Ella and Alex out.  I had a place in mind that I'd been wanting to visit for a while but really didn't want to attempt with Joey in tow: a glass blowing museum, located just outside Luzern, in the town of Hergiswil.

Alex and Ella were both game to go, and so we gathered up our provisions and card games and books and caught a mid-morning train.  Ella worked her way through a small stack of books during the hour-long ride to Luzern, while Alex and I played a marathon game of Rat-a-Tat-Cat: we played first to ten, and he won, ten to nine.  Alex has adopted the adorable habit of shaking hands at the end of a game and saying "Good game," and after we did this, he told me, quite earnestly, "Thank you, Momma, for being a good sport."  I can't think of a more pleasant way to pass a train ride.

After a transfer and a second, very short ride to get us to Hergiswil, we were met with some gorgeous scenery: I just don't think I'll ever get tired of views like these.  

Having a snack with the ducks and chickadees

The Glass Museum, Glasi Hergiswil, is the only show in town: apparently the manufacturer is almost two hundred years old, and a small village flanks the many buildings and restaurants owned by them. They put together a really impressive museum to lure people out of Luzern.

The museum and glass works is located right on Lake Luzern, and they had set up a couple of water jets and fountains that the kids could manipulate....and, of course, they did.

Admiring the wares in the seconds shop

We entered the museum through the gift shop, and the kids surprised me by being immediately enchanted, running around and pointing out pretty things.  Ella brought her purse with her, and she was fingering the twenty dollars she's managed to save, trying to figure out what in the store might constitute a bargain.  I suggested she hold off for a bit, considering before buying herself an extremely fragile vase or the candle holders that she was eyeing.

Glass xylophones

So instead we went into the museum, which surprised me by being highly tactile for the kids and really, really amusing.


It was more like a science museum than anything else. In the first room, they had several tuned xylophones made of glass: Ella's eyes gleamed, and she rushed to the closest and started playing Au Clair de la Lune while Alex stress-tested another exhibit.

Listening to ocean sounds in different
shaped vessels

There were a lot of exhibits that had to do with
refraction of light and images

The kids spent a long time going through the half-dozen rooms of exhibits, learning (sort of) about the process of glass making and products made of glass.

"Prince and Princess: six
glass fairy tales and a
sadly true story"

But their favorite room had, as far as I could tell, very little to do with glass. Someone had created a mechanical puppet show telling a story that was, I think, a mash-up of six different fairy tales, accented with jazz flute. We watched the ten-minute show twice, recording it the second time so that we could take it home to Dennis for a translation. Since I took the time to tape it, I'll share a little of the show here: if you bother watching it, I'm sure it'll make exactly as much sense to you as it did to us.  But, incomprehensible as it was, the kids were on the floor with laughter.

After we finished the museum, we circled back to the gift shop, where I got the kids some glass marbles as their treat, as well as something pretty for my table back in Kirkland. And then we learned that, because we'd spent our money in the gift shop, we had a free entry into the crystal labyrinth.

To enter, we had to put on gloves and slippers, so that the walls and floors would remain smudge-free: because everything was made of glass, with mirrors lining the walls, the only way to make it through the maze was to keep your hands in front of you and feel your way around.  With dark, constantly changing light, the maze was incredibly disorienting.

Ella took off at a quick, competitive trot, racing me and Alex to the finish, I think.  But in less than a minute, I heard a loud thump as she smacked straight into the glass.  I tried to get to my weeping child to comfort her and check her head: I could see her, through the glass, but I couldn't quite get to her.  Rather like a horrible nightmare.

But I did, finally, fumble my way to her, and, after confirming that there were no knots on her forehead, I sent her on her way. And at least thirty seconds passed before she rammed her head again.  And Alex, too, smacked himself a couple of times: once, as you'll see, as I was videotaping him walking through the maze.

None of us ever did make it to the exit of the maze: we all ended up going back out the entrance: Ella, as soon as she could find it, and Alex and I after a little more stubborn struggling and a few more hits to the forehead.

We tried to go to the museum playground next, to clear our heads, but it started pouring sheets as soon as we left the building, so we turned around and went to the glass-blowing studio instead.  This was the real reason I'd wanted to come to Hergiswil: I'd read that visitors were able to blow their own glass, and that sounded a little too cool to miss.

We spent a little time watching the artisans make candleholders and vases: both the kids were totally enthralled with how pretty the molten glass looked, and, frighteningly, where incredibly eager to play with glass heated to over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit.

And, lucky for them, this was just the place to do it. In a separate studio off to the side, for fifteen francs, you could, indeed, blow your own glass ball.

When it was our turn, the kids given a few options: small, medium, or large; and ridged or smooth.  Alex knew exactly what he wanted: a small, smooth ball, but Ella froze.  She wanted to discuss the merits of each with the glass blower, and to know what, exactly, were the dimensions of each size, as well as their structural integrity.

Because the balls weren't tempered, they aren't guaranteed to last for any length of time, regardless of the size. And, in truth, Alex and Ella didn't do much, except give the balls their final few puffs. But they both felt very brave and proud when they were done.  And the balls look awfully pretty, hanging in our window.

While we were waiting for our new treasures to cool, we went back out to the playground, where the rain had slowed to a mist.  The kids turned their noses up at the soggy quartz sandbox (containing the same sand used in the glass production) but we all really enjoyed watching the biggest marble run I've ever seen.

Off to the side was a vending machine, selling the same sort of marbles that I'd bought for them in the gift shop, made for use on the run, but the kids preferred to watch the other kids instead: they were too afraid of losing their own marbles. Finally, not wanting the kids to miss the fun, I bought an extra marble.  And their fears immediately proved founded: on its maiden voyage, our marble got stuck a quarter of the way down the track.  Boo!

The marble run, which made sweet tinkling noises
as the marbles dropped across the glass

Also on the playground: when we got
home and showed Dennis and Joey our
adventures, Joey didn't want to stop
looking at this photo. "Silly Alex!" 

Hiding from the rain.

 It was after three o'clock when the kids had finally decided they had seen and done everything they wanted to see and do.  But, unfortunately, the rain had started again, just in time for our walk to the train station. So we tucked ourselves away for a little while next to the church, where the kids poured over the catalogue of glassware that Ella had chosen.  I would never have guessed that would amuse them so completely for so long.

Eventually, when we got on our train, Alex decided he was ready to read a real book, and we both almost dozed off as I read to him, lulled by the rocking train.

We made it home just in time for supper, just after Joey woke up from his nap.  Groggy Joey was immediately alert when we gave him the marbles that Ella and Alex had picked out for him, and Ella and Alex stumbled over each other, trying to be the first to tell their Dad about their adventures.

Of course, some things get lost in translation when they're filtered through the eyes of a five- or eight-year old, but we were able to show Dad, and now you, a few bits of footage from the day, including the kids blowing their glass orbs.