Found objects and superstition
11/08/2024
Sometimes it's simply the circumstances that make you take a drive. In the foothills of the Alps in the fall, for example, it's often the fog hanging between the hills that makes you flee. So you get in the car on a gloomy weekend and set off in the hope of coming across the sun above the fog line - i.e. somewhere between 800 and 1300 meters above sea level. I have to admit that this sometimes leaves a few questions unanswered. For example, whether I can add another meaning to such a trip. That could be visiting a place, getting a long-lost spare part or meeting up with friends you haven't seen for a long time. So it's not just the journey, but also the destination - well - the destination!
It happened again the other day: fog on Friday. But that's not so bad, except that cyclists in Zurich are even harder to spot in the dark in the evening. But Saturday was also gray and cloudy. Lake Zurich was barely visible, nestled between Zimmerberg and Pfannenstil, and I had a burning desire to give my Jaguar XJ12, which had only recently been somewhat freed from its ailments such as rattling and rumbling, a proper drive. The car - actually a piece of madness, but that's precisely why it's so appealing. Even the legendary Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis is said to have once commented: "The Jaguar V12 wasn't really necessary." - I wanted to get some exercise and give my visitor (a friend from Holland) a little lesson in art and cultural history. Our destination was Einsiedeln. If my friend hadn't told me that he had visited the monastery district and library of St. Gallen the day before, I might have gone somewhere else. But before us lay the monastery village with the most impressive baroque backdrop in Switzerland.
It's good when visitors to a tourist destination are offered what they are looking for first: parking spaces! Einsiedeln is no slouch in this respect. There is usually a free space right on the monastery square. Among all the modern SUVs, the XJ, despite its proud length of more than five meters - a Canadian version with US bumpers - looks like a small car. An MG F (coincidentally right next to it and a classic in its own right) is just as high - or rather low.
As probably the most important pilgrimage site in Switzerland, Einsiedeln naturally offers a wide selection of restaurants. So the first thing to do was to have a coffee. Then followed a walk through the main street. Unfortunately, the famous Goldapfel bakery was still closed at its original location - there is also a modern store on the main square - so there was some time for detours. These led us through the stables of the monastery, through the richly decorated monastery church and then into a devotional store with statues, crucifixes, plaques, religious literature, ex-voto panels - and nativity figures.
Some time ago, my godmother - who died at the age of 99 - bequeathed me an Italian nativity scene from the 1950s. It contains some figures, some made of wood, but also some made of a kind of plastic. Perhaps it is the same mass based on linseed oil that was once used to make linoleum floors or the historical figures of - no coincidence, the similar name - "Lineol". Perhaps it was a coincidence (or luck) or the Italian manufacturer once sold millions of them all over the world, but I found a complete set of identical figures as NOS - meaning "New Old Stock" - in the store in question. The sales clerk confirmed that this box must have been in stock since time immemorial and added that she was surprised that anyone had found it at all. The honest skin! So I'm one of the stranger customers on the hunt for antiquities. I can live with that.
So now my crib troupe is complete again, and the joy was correspondingly great. Christmas can come; I'm ready. But the joy was heightened on this day by a visit to the small golden apple museum behind the historic store and the purchase of some "Häliböcke" (a honey pastry) and filled, light and brown doughnuts - fantastic with coffee! There was a local cherry liqueur to try, and the service there is excellent!
And the Jaguar ran completely smoothly afterwards. This didn't stop me from treating it to one of the most important and sustainable spare parts ever. The most wonderful thing about it: it also comes from the same devotional store. How? No, of course it wasn't the nativity figures. That would be complete nonsense. It's the plaque of St. Christopher. It bears the image of the same patron saint of travelers who was probably also consulted for the naming of the Porsche in-house newspaper. Well, St. Christopher is now emblazoned with the little boy Christ on his hump in the engine compartment on the radiator frame, right next to the ignition coil mounted there. I think that helps.
Ever since I started driving, it has always helped to have a badge like this in my car. In the VW Transporter, it covered the hole where the switch for the blue light of my former ambulance used to be. In the Caterham, St. Christopher magnetically held the parking tickets until I left the underground garage. And in the Jaguar, he now proves that with this example of British complexity and sometimes lousy parts quality, it may well be advisable to hope for the good "vibes", the well-meaning spirits or even the help "from above", or at least the helpers of those from above.
Do you know this? Does your car also carry some kind of talisman, a symbol of good luck? And do you sometimes accompany your journey in the classic car by calling out to all the saints and praying to the Almighty, even if (like me) you are hardly really religious?
We didn't achieve our true intention on that Saturday - to escape the fog. Further up, on the Sattelegg, the fog crept over the top of the pass. We had to enjoy our Leberli with rösti outside wrapped in blankets, with no sign of the sun. The car, however, worked perfectly throughout the entire trip - except that its thirst makes you a beggar, but that's really my own fault. I was warned often enough about the abysses of a Jaguar twelve-cylinder from the 1980s - it was like a short journey to the essence of classic driving: you can do it for no real reason. You're rarely short of good excuses and once you've set off, you come across all kinds of things that you probably wouldn't have given a second thought to otherwise - like nativity figures or St. Christopher's plaques, for example. And my guest enjoyed the trip.
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