felinejumper | fandom tourism since 1899

hi, pals! I have a fandom update for you, and it's this: I was in Switzerland, and I remembered that our good man Arthur Conan Doyle frequented Switzerland. As well as, clever minds may have already guessed (or been spoiled by Twitter), our ~~good~~ boys S. Holmes and J. Watson.

So: I was in Switzerland, and I had a few hours of driving time to spare, and so of course I took the fucking detour to Reichenbach Falls, because, you know, fandom and being unbearably enthusiastic at all times, as I am. I did not expect to have any feelings, but....look. Just. How much fannish energy has been invested in John Watson being absolutely wrecked in the Swiss Alps? To Holmes grieving/rejoicing/reacting to this one particular choice? How much fannish energy has been devoted to this one authorial choice 100+ years ago? How many alternate interpretations?^ How many people have visited Reichenbach with my same fannish energy? How many fics have I read about post- or pre-**Reichenbach^^? (Answer: [mumblemumbleI'mgladhistoryisn'tpublic])

Reichenbach is practically an entire genre in and of itself, we all know that, and the experience of simulaneously projecting every single one I could remember onto that landscape was a trip, emotionally speaking. I did not cry, but I did look longingly out the window at the rain and radiate emotion.

Cool things:

the little cable car guy ("funicular") that takes you up to the falls themselves was installed in 1899; this completely blows my mind, and I am obsessing over the fact that a billion Victorians made the exact same little pilgrimage for the exact same reasons, and it's been going strong ever since.
there is a Sherlock Holmes statue in the middle of town, along with a Sherlock Holmes Lounge, a Sherlock Holmes hotel, a Sherlock Holmes Museum. The local bookstore had a poster listing which Holmes stories they had in which languages. And an entire display of Holmes adaptations.
It was raining, so the line to take a picture with the statue was mercifully short and my extreme embarrassment muted. There were many pictures taken of me looking thoughtful and deductive. They are my greatest pride and deepest shame. I have shown them to everybody who will look.
NEXT to the Holmes statue, they have a mountaineering one! Of...drumroll, please.... the delightful overlap of it being Sir Leslie Stephen, one parent to V. Woolf. Pro mountaineer, which I did not know.
The valley has a trillion other waterfalls and they are all fairly spectacular; it looks just like you'd imagine a Swiss countryside to look. It's about an hour from the region of Gruyere, so one could maybe toss some cheese commentary into a next Reichenbach fic.

Technically, I didn't go up to the falls for time/weather reasons, so I did not see the little white star that marks the spot but. You know. Not half bad, overall.

^ 6631 AO3 works tagged "Post-Reichenbach", soo...
^^ I will confess I am extremely partial to the high-key everybody-is-a-gentleman romance of Katie Forsyth's Birds to a Lighthouse, but GOD even that has some Swiss bits ^^^ icon is...the most appropriate I have on hand, I think

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

forestofglory

I'm glad you had such a good experience!

chestnut_pod

*squee*

What a great feeling! I'm glad you had such a good time :)

fhionnuisce

I wanna do this with The House on the Rock if possible. Maybe. (I'm glad I've seen the actual thing on TV now, thanks Neil Gaiman...)

So cool about the V. Woolf connection! And the bookstore sounds so delightful.

donut_donut

I would definitely have done it!

The funny thing is, I bet many if not most of the people who visit aren't even true fans. I've visited lots of vaguely literary sites just because they were in the guidebook and I had some time to kill.