A postcard-like (hence the title) view of the town of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarburg">Aarburg</a>, near Olten. Located near the major east-west communication axis in Switzerland, the Aarburg castle is a familiar figure in any train or car journey along this busy route. But few people ever stop to take a closer look.
After many years of shooting through on the Intercity train, I took advantage of a meeting in nearby Olten to go and have a look. There's surprisingly little to visit in Aarburg, the castle being open to the public only once a week.
But the true wonder of Aarburg lies at its feet. At this particular spot, the Aare river is forced to make a sudden almost 90° northwards turn. Roughly half of the water (on the left size of the river) manages this turn in one go and quickly flows away under the roadbridge. But the other half is trapped on the right size, between the fast flowing current and the strong rock formation, creating a huge whirlpool. Having left the main current with such momentum, this mass of water actually manages to flow back uphill for several meters, colliding with the incoming current.
Being also trapped, the water on the right size slowly begins to rise a couple of centimeters above the riverbed. After a short time, the pressure created by this excess water becomes to big, the trapped mass of water is released into the main current, and the cycle begins anew. The constant up and down movements of the water level gave its name to the place: "<a href="http://www.swissinfo.org/ger/dossiers/wasser/detail/Die_Aarewaage_ein_einzigartiges_Naturphaenomen.html?siteSect=2501&sid=4100616&cKey=1060174933000&ty=st">Aarewaage</a>", the Aare scales.
Aarburg Castle (Deutsch: Festung Aarburg) is a tourist attraction, one of the Castles in Aarburg, ስዊዘርላንድ. It is located: 6.1 km from Oftringen, 9.5 km from Olten, 870 km from Munich. Read further
