8. Quiet, Old Town, Sun, Parks, and Finn. 9/4/22
Today was a quiet day…. Post wedding day.. started out late… quick breakfast at our now regular café down the street from the hotel – Christie’s. Turns out that the owners and bakers are Ukrainian. Lots of wonderful decorations highlighting support for Ukraine. Turns out we really missed the big bash after the wedding—at the Cotton Pub where about 25 of Julia and Julian’s friends partied until after 1:00 a.m.! Mmmmm must be getting old since we opted not to attend that part of the celebration.
After brunch we strolled to Geneva’s old town – Vielle Ville – an ancient maze of small streets and squares filled with restaurants, little hotels, galleries, and historic buildings that have pretty great masonry facades. The old town is about 80 feet higher than the lake so it’s a bit of a climb. It was a picture perfect day… about 70-75 degrees, crisp bright sun, so it was very pleasant to walk. Saint Peter’s Cathedral, from the 12th Century, is the major building around which much of the old town is situated. We strolled around for a while and then headed back toward our hotel, stopping a few times to take in views.
Then we headed out again and walked to the little island in the middle of the river (Rhone)… and just wandered for a while. Then we headed back to Christie’s to pick up some wonderfully yummy desserts to bring to Elizabeth’s for dinner. One of the pastries we bought was a perfect cube covered in chocolate powder, making it look like a solid chocolate box (about 2” x 2” x 2”).. but the surprise was cutting into the chocolate cube. It was filled with a perfect half yellow and half blue marshmallow-y cake that clearly represented the Ukrainian flag. The other pasties were: four quarter cakes that sat together to form one bigger cake—1/4 carrot cake, ¼ cheesecake, ¼ red velvet, and ¼ black forest…. !!
Given all the goodies we were carrying, we opted for a taxi to Carrouge where Elizabeth lives and where Emma and Hem and Finn are staying. We had a lovely dinner and the desserts were a big hit. Finn seems to have emerged from his stomach crisis (which prevented him and Hem from attending yesterday’s wedding). He was bouncing around and in pretty good shape. They are headed back to London very early tomorrow morning. And we are headed back to Zurich tomorrow but don’t have any definite departure time since we are driving.
Tomorrow morning’s challenge will be getting the car (that Alfa) out of the garage to head out of town. Not yet sure the route we’ll take but we’ll figure it out tomorrow.
All the best.
Happy Labor Day!!
Fern
7. The Wedding: Geneva. 9/3/22
After a quick brunch at Christie’s a wonderful little bakery (which we learned is owned by Ukrainian bakers) we got ready to head to the wedding.
All 70 guests gathered at the century-old Mairie de Troinix (little town hall in Troinix, a village that is about 15 minutes from downtown Geneva, and where Julia and Julian purchased a house about 18 months ago). Once the bride and groom arrived, we all headed to the top floor of the old building—climbing the winding wooden stairs to the third floor—where the ceremony would be held. The bride and groom and the “witnesses” (Julian’s best friend and Julia’s sister, Emma) sat in the center of one side of a very large “conference-style” table that probably had about 25 chairs around it. Guests then filled in at the other chairs and the remainder of the assembled guests sat around the room. The brief ceremony was conducted by the officiant (maybe like a justice of the peace). After about 10 minutes, they were married.. and signed all the official documents. The ceremony was completely in French so I can’t tell you too much about what was said, but I’m told she talked about destiny… how people meet and how if not for destiny they might just miss each other and never meet! Julia and Julian’s two children were adorable although I’m not sure they really knew what was going on. Ella (nearly 3 years old) managed to crawl under the table when she wound up on the opposite side of her parents and decided she needed to be with them. The under-table route was clearly the most direct one to take. Louis (about 4-1/2) sat more quietly than I have ever seen him before.
I should say that we arrived by taxi which was a bit harrowing … we gave the driver the address and he took us to a little square with a café.. and we were sure it was the wrong place. Then he asked in French if we were going to a wedding. I responded in the affirmative.. and so he immediately turned the taxi around and took us to the neighboring church!! After a quick call to Elizabeth, we went back to that little square with the café. The “mairie” was next door to the café.. and that was the location we needed. Guess the driver just assumed weddings take place in churches.
After the ceremony and some champagne in the courtyard everyone headed to Julia and Julian’s house for a great array of foods and lots of drinking. The weather prediction had been rain but it’s like the clouds just disappeared, and the weather was perfect…. However, at about 5:00 there was a lot of wind and the skies turned dark as a squall blew in with heavy rain for about 20 minutes.. Everyone gathered inside the house, and many stayed out under the tents. We left the party at about 7:00 and from what we know the “young” crowd—30s and 40s– (which comprised about 85% of the guests) were headed to a club for lots more partying with the groom. Julia was headed to the hotel where Julia and Julian will spend two days. He would come a few hours later.. Given that Julia is 5 months pregnant, the idea was that she would be able to rest and avoid what I’m sure will involve a lot of alcohol at the club scene.
By the way, we took a taxi because the garage where our car is parked (about a block from the hotel) is so tightly laid out that it takes about 15 minutes to get the car either in or out. We decided it was best to just leave the car in the garage for our entire stay. And also, that meant we could drink as much as we wanted and not worry about driving.
We opted to head back to the hotel and then get a snack at about 10 pm… rather than to go to Elizabeth’s because little Finn (Emma and Hem’s 3 year old) developed some kind of stomach problem last night and was really not feeling well. So he and Hem never made it to the wedding. We figured there was enough going on at the house and we didn’t need to complicate things any further.
That’s about it… definitely, the day was focused on the wedding which was truly lovely.
We did have a few interesting conversations and learned that the language (which is spoken throughout northern Switzerland) referred to as “Swiss-German” is very different than German (which they call “high-German”). And we’ve been trying to understand how people can afford to live in this country. Prices are totally outrageous. At restaurants you are always asked if you want water, but you always have to pay for the water. In some places it’s a flat amount–$5 for each person at the table, regardless of whether or not everyone at the table wants to drink any water; in other places you pay by the glass. It’s next to impossible to get out of any restaurant for under $100 per person. We know that the minimum wage is something like $23-$27 depending on what “canton” you live in; housing is incredibly expensive—about 30% higher than the Bay Area. Everyone thinks they pay very high taxes but frankly they seem to be pretty much like the US or maybe even lower –depending on one’s tax bracket, from what we can tell; and the more important issue is that they get a lot for their taxes – free quality education, including university, excellent healthcare, good roads and public transportation… and only a very very small part of taxes go to national defense. Quite civilized, I think.
Fern
6. Bern Old Town and Bern to Geneva 9/2/22
This will be short as it’s late and it’s been a long day. In brief, we started the day walking (once again) in the old center of Bern which is about as charming as it gets. It’s the medieval center and has retained all the character of the period. Bordered on three sides by the river it’s actually very compact. There was a fire in 1405 and much of the city had to be rebuilt. Because of all of the rivers you are constantly finding yourself crossing one bridge or another. The river is like a horseshoe as it wraps around Bern. It sometimes splits with little islands in the middle. It never seems to be wider than 200 ft. but is often only about 50’ wide.
We stopped again at Einstein Café for a snack, and this time realized that the café is on the ground floor of the building where Einstein lived during the two years he worked on the theory of relativity. We made a quick stop in the cathedral and checked out whatever arcaded streets we hadn’t explored yesterday. One interesting feature of several of the Swiss cities that Mike especially liked is the fact that the cities have lots of red chairs scattered about plazas and shopping streets so that people can sit, rest, have an ice cream cone or whatever. Just overall, very humane values that are exposed in planning, design, and overall concern for the population.
Unfortunately one health issue hasn’t seemed to have hit the Swiss — they are still smoking! Yes, well- educated, well-employed Swiss of all ages are still smoking—something that truly amazes us.
After a quick lunch, we said goodbye to Bern and headed on the fast route to Geneva for the pre-wedding dinner. Our real purpose in coming to Switzerland this trip (especially since we had been here only four months ago) is to attend Mike’s niece Julia’s wedding. She and Julien have been together for about six years and have two children (and another on the way). Tonight’s event was a chance for the families to meet (although we had already met part of Julien’s family at various Christmases and other events.
But, I digress— the first hour of the drive from Bern goes through beautiful ag land, forests, and pastoral areas. The highway consists of scores of short tunnels on top of which there are animals grazing or parks or crops, or just grassy areas or trees. Where we in the states would probably blast through and create heavy retaining walls, they have preserved the landscape and ag land and only tunneled through. Strange to drive through a tunnel and see corn growing above.
After checking into our hotel – one we have stayed at many times before (but which suddenly seemed very worn and ill-equipped after our stays at such amazing hotels as the Bellevue Palace and des Balances), we quickly headed to the location for the pre-wedding dinner in the town of Carrouge (adjacent to the city lines of Geneva) and where Elizabeth (Mike’s sister-in-law) lives.
Tomorrow afternoon is the wedding – more after that.
Disappointed to learn on CNN that Trump is still a free guy and is likely to still be out in the public when we return on Thursday.
Best – Fern
5. Paul Klee, Cats, and Bridges: A Day in Bern 9/1/2022
BERN!!! Yet another totally charming, well-preserved city…with a population of about 150,000. We started our day with a very light breakfast at Einstein Café. There are a lot of references to Einstein here in Bern since he lived here for about two years but supposedly developed his theory of relativity here. We sort of stumbled on the café as we walked through another area of arcaded streets as we headed to the Paul Klee Museum. The glasses have various mathematical formulas on them harkening to Einstein’s work.
Then we began our marathon walking day; roughly 20,000 steps and 9 reported flights (but I think there were a lot more than what the iPhone recorded)… and a lot of uphill paths. Our destination was the Paul Klee Museum, which in addition to having a delightful show of the artist’s work, complete with a lot of areas for visitors to participate in creating their own Klee versions of geometric patterns and other activities for kids—is a phenomenal work of architecture. The building was designed by Renzo Piano. Apparently, Klee’s daughter-in-law donated most of her inheritance of about 700 works by Klee to the city of Bern.. and other documents were donated by other family members. Klee was very enamored of children and their art.. and seeing so many of his works in one place really conveys that. Klee had a very beloved (and big) cat who is in a lot of photos of the artist. So the curators had a delightful silhouette of a cat scattered at the base of several walls almost sneaking around the space. A good form of whimsy.
The building is a series of three undulating steel “hills” or “waves” that “emerge” from the ground and blend into the landscape. I’m generally more interested in more urban museums and have problems with buildings that are unto themselves “sculptures.” But this one really stands out and yet is modest in the way it becomes part of the landscape. Even if you’re not a Paul Klee fan (which I happen to be), the building is spectacular enough to warrant a visit. The inside includes wonderfully expansive exhibit space, places for concerts and dance performances.
The walk – which was pretty intense was worth it, although perhaps we should have just taken the bus from downtown. No… definitely worth the walk.. which included an elevation change of about 400’ (40 story building). The walk took us through some beautiful (yet more) neighborhoods and vistas from bridges. Lots more red-tiled houses and complexes. The location of the museum is on the outskirts of the town with some commanding views of the local terrain.
From there we walked to Rosengarten Restaurant which is situated in Bern’s Rose Garden – with spectacular views of the Old Town – and a life-size sculpture of Paul Klee seated on a bench – you can sit next to him—which many people did to take selfies (not us!) We had lunch out on the terrace and then braced ourselves for our walk (downhill this time) back to town. But then we decided to head to Dampfzentrale which is a former power fossil fuel power plant that has been transformed into performance spaces and other art venues. Apparently, the city was going to demolish the building but there were a lot of protests regarding preservation and artist demand to create a cultural venue. The artists took over the building and squatted for some time and the authorities eventually relented.
The walk eventually took us down to the river where once again people were swimming and floating on rafts and totally enjoying the water and the weather (By the way, we have really lucked out thus far…. No rain, a lot of sun or partial sun and temperatures in the low 70s – perfect travel weather…. But we think we will hit rain and hotter temperatures in Geneva tomorrow.)
Then as we headed back to the hotel—once again uphill—we reached a point with a pretty steep incline and were totally exhausted. Thought we’d never make it up… But then we spied a funicular and hopped on—with everyone else who needed to get to the top of the incline!! Saved!!
Arrived back at the hotel exhausted… but then it was time for dinner which we decided to have at one of the hotel’s three restaurants. We picked Noumi— the hip restaurant whose menu is focused on interesting fusions of gastronomy. Should have taken notes, but in general we had the Lebanese beef tartare with all sorts of spices and herbs… the second starter was dumplings prepared in a Filipino style. The main dishes we chose included cod prepared with pomegranates and some other goodies… and charred salmon with some lemony butter sauce and yet more goodies.
Okay – ending now.. More on Bern tomorrow and our drive to Geneva.. Onward to the wedding.
Fern
4. Old Swiss Architecture; Castles; Alpine Towers… Almost too perfect to be believed. 8/31/22
We began the day in Thun – leaving our rather sweet hotel that was unfortunately in a rather unlikely location—by walking the town; about 11,000 steps and the equivalent of about 10 floors.
Thun is a delightful town of 40,000 people, predominantly German-speaking with a small population speaking Italian and also Romansch. Less than 1% of households speak French as their home language. Thus, walking around Thun (and actually around Bern where we are ow) you hear almost no French; just German (which is hard for us since we know no German, but everyone speaks English).
We strolled the old town, crisscrossing the rivers on footbridges and bridges shared by cars, bikes, and pedestrians. We walked the little island between the rivers which was filled with shops, carts, cafes and people. We meandered our way up the wooden stairs that lead to the castle (equal to about 7 flights in each direction) to get great views of the city and to see both the 11th Century church and the 14th Century castle – both in exceptionally good condition. I managed to nearly get locked inside the church as the only door open for exiting was extremely heavy and had an intricate locking system, which apparently had closed behind me. I tried several different ways to open the door but nothing worked. I realized there was a list of instructions on the back of the door explaining how to unlock the door, but it was only in German and way too complicated for my less than elementary German. My solution was to phone Mike and see if he was close by; he laughed but did open the door from the outside.
Eventually we took the elevator down so that we didn’t have to make this into an all-day affair. As we descended on the elevator to the street level of the old town (7 floors below where the church and castle stood) we walked through a well-lit garage with piped in classical music. The car area, like all of Switzerland was immaculate, bright white walls, and freshly painted parking stalls done in red. As we walked underground from the parking area to the old city the music continued and the walls kept changing colors – a sophisticated light, changing show making all the white walls turn first to green and then blue and then purple and then red and then orange!).. Like walking through a light show.
The stroll around town was amazing. Every inch of space surrounding the river was taken up by street musicians, restaurants, shops, and more. As we crossed the two narrow rivers that run through the town we realized that people were swimming and “surfing” (near the locks which create waves), paddling, and just having fun in these rivers that abut buildings. We even spotted two women swimming with their dog. The river is so clean you can see bottom. These water activities make the city so alive and vibrant. And the swimmers were joined by ducks and swans who also seemed to really enjoy the river as well (and certainly entertained all the kids). We chose to have lunch at a little restaurant adjacent to the river to be able to watch all the different activities going on… After strolling some more, we headed to the car to get to Bern. We left Thun at about 4:00 to head for Bern, our next destination.
The drive through the Swiss countryside (we opted for no highways and no toll roads) was amazing with the cute and charming quotient going off the top. Tiny, narrow roads skirting the edges of tiny villages No fences around farms; everyone on bikes; lush, lush green and occasional corn growing in perfect rows. Great old farmhouses and residences made of wood, with red tile roofs (although many now sported solar panels).
We arrived in Bern at about 5, and are staying at the Bellevue Palace Hotel—the state’s guesthouse for visiting heads of state (like us?) We settled into our gigantic room and eventually headed downstairs for drinks on the terrace. And then we walked to “moment” with a lower case ‘m’ – a restaurant we had read about. The walk was about ½-mile in each direction through arcaded streets filled with mostly an under-30 crowd, so we fit right in. It was a beautiful night, so it seemed like all of Bern was out having drinks and dinner… truly blocks and blocks lined on both sides with small restaurants. Don’t know how anyone chooses which place to eat at. ‘moment’ did not disappoint. The place was very very casual (as is all of the country). We started out outside … but moved inside halfway through the meal as it started to get a little chilly. Not sure I can recall all the details of each course… especially after some prosecco and a few glasses of wine… but I recall a few things: each dish was fantastic and used some surprising combinations of ingredients. Here goes:
Started with a set of about five little plates which they called the bread course.. great homemade bread with all sorts of tidbits like homemade “potato chips” with an herb dip; a curd with herb spread, celery and apple juice shot, and more; small piece of trout with yummy veggies and a bed of cooked greens; flat iron steak (sliced) –cooked perfectly, sous vide and quickly seared with polenta and a mustard sauce of some kind and roasted zucchini cut the long way; a tomato dish which melted in your mouth and included a tomato sherbet; and finally a dessert with berries and sorbet sitting on a sort of sweet muffin with cream – Anyway, it was a great meal and then we meandered back through the arcades to the hotel…
Oh, and we are trying to follow the news… and hope to see Trump in jail by the time we return!!!
Tomorrow we explore Bern –
Fern
3. Lakes, Rivers, Winding Roads, Rain, and a Few Castles (From Lucerne to Thun). 8/30/22
Greetings from Thun, a small city/village in the Bernese Oberlander area of Switzerland. The castle of the town was built in 12th Century and the church is from the 14th Century. But we haven’t really explored the town yet, since we arrived around 6:30 pm, having taken a very slow rural route from Lucerne.
Started the day at our now regular breakfast hangout: Mill’Feuille. after being there for two days in a row… Then we finished packing and headed out in our sparkling Alfa Romeo. Decided to avoid highways so that the GPS would force us onto country roads – much longer but much greater sense of the country. We headed to Brienz through multiple tunnels cutting through the mountains and great vistas and scenery; amazing wooden barns; traditional chalets; green hills and the most amazing teal color lakes and rivers. The relationship between the green forested areas abutting the teal blue river was an artist’s delight.
From Brienz with a plethora of 18th Century chalets and lots of little carved wooden figures which acclaim the woodcarving history of the region, we headed toward Beatenberg which is home to the famous St Beatus caves (which we didn’t visit but where we stopped to photograph the amazing houses built under and around rock cliffs.
And then we stopped in Oberhofen ams Thunsee. Eventually, we arrived in Thun, just as the rains started to soak the town (and us). We got lost a few times and had to make u-turns, but we made it. It took a while to find our “boutique” hotel—partly because we had a very different visual image of the place than what it actually is! We booked based on descriptions on the web—“pays homage to its 19th Century past with exposed oak beams juxtaposed against mid-20th Century design….Each of the hotel’s individually designed rooms…. “ What they failed to note is that the tiny hotel is bordered by railway tracks on one side… a supermarket on another side… and god knows what on another side. And there was no real way to drive up to the hotel to drop off our bags. Honestly if you could move this place to another location, it would be a gem. Finally, we parked the car under the supermarket.
We eventually got our bearings and settled in … just in time for dinner, which we had at the hotel’s entry floor. Food was quite good; not exotic, but very good cuts of beef and prepared well. So we ate.. and once I finish this note I’m going to crash. Switzerland is a beautiful country but even countries that appear to be near-perfect have dark sides. Still not my cup of tea but I can see that living here would be a great way to find peace. But, for now, enjoy the final days of August—I’ll be in touch after we arrive in Bern, which should happen late tomorrow.
All the best – Fern… Onward to Bern, tomorrow.
Hope all is well stateside. We are getting CNN at the hotel, but it’s not very US-focused, so we only have some little tidbits of news in the states. Maybe that is for the best. We have been in Lucerne for two days but heading to Thun tomorrow afternoon.
We began the day with a nice breakfast at a little outdoor café located a few blocks from the hotel. I had the baked eggs in tomato sauce (sort of like shakshuka but not as spicy; Mike had a bagel with lox… and I was quite the happy camper because they had iced chai lattes. The hotel is pretty wonderful and the view from our room quite spectacular looking out across the river to the other side of the old town. Lucerne is almost too perfect – beautifully preserved with the old section pretty much intact and well-designed newer buildings (concert hall, museum, train station, etc.) located on the edges of the old city – sort of framing the precious, preserved structures. Many buildings have passageways and structures that bridge across narrow streets. And then there are the covered wooden footbridges from the 14th Century—still in use to move easily from one side of the river to the other. We probably crossed over these bridges dozens of times yesterday and today as we strolled the city.
Lucerne is lovely (as was Zurich) with incredible vistas to the mountains, great food, the cleanest streets you can imagine… but frankly just too perfect for me. I guess I thrive on the stress of real cities and their problems… and their diversity. The New Yorker in me kicks into gear when I’m in these sweet and near-perfect places. What, no honking horns? No litter? No people sleeping in the streets? No yelling taxi drivers? Safe enough for kids, little kids to appear to be walking on their own (probably with parents not too far behind, but alone enough to feel independent). Everyone on bicycles; dozens of walking streets where pedestrians rule. But I am serious, it’s just a little too calm and soft for me; I need the edge. We’ve traveled through a lot of Switzerland over the years and while Lucerne might be more charming than many others, most Swiss cities seem to fit the same characteristics.
That said, Lucerne is truly beautiful; probably one of the most beautiful and livable cities I’ve seen in all my travels. Beautiful in that picturesque way. Now for a few points that I hope answer some of the questions some of you have asked.
Covid: No one is wearing masks. Indeed, it’s like the pandemic never happened. While the Bay Area might have gotten lax about mask wearing, most people seem to don the masks in supermarkets, pharmacies, etc., I can count on one hand the number of masks I’ve seen in Switzerland since we arrived.
Costs: Switzerland is truly the most expensive country I know. Meals (in good restaurants) are probably 50% higher than in equally upscale restaurants in either San Francisco or NY. Good hotels are also very pricey. Our simple breakfast was close to $50; gel manicure is about $80! Not sure how Swiss salaries rank, but I assume they must be high. Obviously, many of the expenses we have in the US are non-existent here, given the social benefits – good schools, health care, university education, and more.
Now for our day today… After walking the covered bridges, we strolled the old town including hiking up to the top of the ramparts and having to walk up and down very steep, old wooden stairs that were at a 45-degree angle to reach the top of the old watch tower from which we had spectacular views of the whole city. After deciding we really deserved some gelato, given all the walking,. I did a teeny bit of retail therapy (really teeny) and we photographed a great deal. I think I clocked in at about 350 images today—everything is just so photogenic!
The Lucerne Festival is taking place (most of August and a little of September), so we decided to go to one of the free concerts which was part of what was dubbed the “Diversity” track. We dashed to the Concert Hall which was well worth it even if the concert wasn’t going to be so great. The Concert Hall is located in a complex adjacent to the main train station and is in the same building as the major art museum. There are literally dozens of eating establishments within and outside the building. And the Hall sits at the edge of the river with water features literally coming directly into the building. And because there is so much outdoor space, people gather in the area – families, kids, older people, tourists, etc. taking advantage of the pools and the water edge. Boats are also docked there, and people literally came to the concert via train, bike, boat, walking, buses, and more—somehow terminating in this “house of culture.”
So, we got to the concert hall just as the doors were closing. It was a very casual crowd (probably since it was a free concert) with a pretty good mix of ages. I think if we had arrived 30 seconds later, we would not have been able to get in… after all the Swiss really respect the clock! It was the “diversity” concert but the audience was all White (my understanding is that there are about 100,000 Blacks living in Switzerland – out of nearly 9 million people). Anyway, it turned out that the term “diversity” had a very different meaning from what I imagined (I thought music from Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Asia). The focus of the program was on the work of graduate students (and maybe young faculty) who were pushing the edges of their instruments—playing with different potentials of their instruments—tapping on violins, using various tools to get different sounds on large gongs; stretching wind instruments to reflect different ways to bring sound. It was interesting but I had to laugh because it was so different from what I was expecting.
Then we rushed back to freshen up to have dinner at the Michelin-starred restaurant at our hotel – des Balances. We snagged a wonderful table right at the river’s edge so we could watch the ducks and swans swimming around and the reflections of all those great buildings in the sparkling lake whose bottom you can see with the water that fresh and clean. Dinner was everything the reviewers said it would be. We opted for the fixed 5-course meals (which also wound up including numerous little “surprise dishes” over and above the 5 courses.)
First came one of those little specials… a cherry gazpacho. Then some lobster and chorizo for Mike and tuna carpaccio with ginger, wasabi, roe, and mango for me. Then we both had a chilled apricot soup that was scrumptious. Then octopus with some kind of olive tapenade and foam. And for the main course we both selected the lamb chops with vegetables which practically melted in your mouth. While we had ordered the dessert (poached peach with peach sorbet and some herbs), suddenly a pre-dessert arrived at the table. And then after the peach dish—of course on Swiss meal would be complete without Swiss chocolates which they brought to the table.
We complemented all of this with prosecco and then wine.. I think you could have rolled us out. Good thing all we had to do was go up the elevator to our room.
I’m going to sign off now.. More tomorrow from Thun.
Fern
Greetings – Today’s adventures… We left our little hotel in the old town area of Zurich right after breakfast and headed to pick up a rental car so we could begin our journey (Zurich to Lucerne to Thun to Bern to Geneva and back to Zurich.. and home). The wait at the rental car place was crazy; it was as if all of Switzerland decided to rent a car. Fortunately, we had reservations, or I doubt we would have been able to get a car. The wait was so long that we befriended people in line including a lovely Mexican family who are currently living in Stockholm! Their 5-year-old son was super excited about the car (my Spanish is probably at his level, so I was able to understand…) but apparently, he thought his parents were “buying” a car that he would have forever, rather than renting. That will be one sad boy when the car goes back to Hertz. We finally got our car …. And it is a very bright blue Alfa Romeo!! We are clearly driving in style. It took us about 15 minutes to figure out how to start the car, how to get into gear, etc. (later we needed to figure out how to turn the car off). Finally, we were on the road.
We had decided early on that we would drive to the Bruno Weber Park which is about 20 minutes or so from the hotel (and not really on the way to Lucerne, our next stop). We had heard about it in Atlas Obscura, and it did not disappoint. As I understand the story, Bruno Weber—trained as a graphic designer and painter—began to “decorate” his parents house which was located on beautiful grounds (200 acres I think). But the work kept growing and growing (well at least Bruno decided to keep it going) and includes all sorts of phantasmagoric creatures—serpents and elephants with two trunks and snakes and more. Many of the sculptures are covered in colorful tiles.
The structures are mostly concrete and there are hundreds and hundreds of them. .. many larger than life-size. Most can be sat on, stood upon, walked across, climbed on, etc. Some are very obviously situated, and others are almost hidden in the bushes and the ponds… spotting them only as you stumble upon them amid trees and bushes. And it is a photographer’s heaven. Would have liked to be able to stroll uninterrupted without anyone else there and would have liked to see it at different times of day. Should you find yourself in Zurich, this is a not-to-miss spot. Far better than museums and institutionalized art.
After spending a considerable amount of time at Bruno Weber Park, we headed to a lovely restaurant called Winzerhaus located in the totally charming town of Weiningen (sp?), which was about 20 minutes from the Park. We sat on the terrace with the trellises completely overgrown with vines (prompting us to select a wine that came from the grapes above our heads). It was a beautiful day (so far, we’ve lucked out with weather) and we (over-) ate an extremely relaxing meal and were way too stuffed to head to Lucerne, but we did.
The hour-long drive from Zurich to Lucerne was uneventful except that we got lost several times because Google Maps was a little confusing… and the GPS in the car is in Italian; we can probably shift the language, but we haven’t had the time. And, getting lost when traveling is always more fun than just getting their straight-away.
We arrived at our hotel in Lucerne—having to drive through several pedestrian-only streets and a plaza… the only way to get to the hotel— to drop off our bags; we won’t need the car while we are here in the city, so this lovely Alfa Romeo will live in the hotel garage. Have to say this is probably the most luxurious and stressless travel we’ve done in decades. For those of you who follow this travel blog, you’ll be happy to know that the more typical Tiger/Pyatok travel will resume in December when we head to Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan, and Israel.
Anyway, the Hotel des Balances is spectacular; our room looks out on the river with a totally drop-dead view.
After settling in, we headed to dinner at Lucide which is located at the Lucerne Concert Hall and the Art Museum. We also noted that during the days we are here it is the Lucerne Festival, so there are performances throughout the city. Hopefully we’ll catch some of them. Don’t have tickets so we’ll probably just stop by the free outdoor concerts. More about Lucerne tomorrow, but the river is full of fantastic covered wood bridges that date back centuries and criss cross the river.
Our hotel was originally built in 1178 – nearly one thousand years ago—as two houses/mansions. Over the years as it expanded it was a town hall, a school, occupied by Benedictine Friars, two guild halls, and more. There was some kind of fire in 1893 which caused severe damage and the need to rebuild and renovate, but the foundations are original. It’s a spectacular building with a consciously attentive staff. For those who follow this kind of stuff, the comedian “Emil” began his career at the hotel performing Emil and the 40 Thieves. The front of the building— which is next to impossible to photograph— is painted in a Hans Holbein style (by the former director of the art school, in 1893).
We strolled back from dinner – lots of people strolling – and went through the train station in order to cross two very busy streets that have no apparent pedestrian crossing. So, actually, I think we did it the right way along with the locals.
I’m going to sign off now.. Its pretty late here. More tomorrow.
All the best –
Fern
Pre-Travelogue. Midnight in Zurich. 8/27/22
Greetings from Zurich –
Just a reminder… as I say every time I write this blog… feel free to delete or ignore; no hard feelings; everyone is busy.
Anyway, here we are in Switzerland – a very calm and not very exotic trip, so probably shorter notes than usual and less exciting. Bigger travel to come in December. We are here in Switzerland for Michael’s niece’s wedding in Geneva which will take place on Saturday, September 3. Given that we were in Geneva in May en route to Malta, we were originally coming just for the wedding – four days and then back to the US. But as we thought about it and reconsidered. We decided to make a little Switzerland journey out of the trip—visiting cities we have not been to in many years. And so, here we are at the start of our trip – in Zurich. Took non-stop flight from SF and after watching 5 episodes of Yellowstone on the flight—I’m now hooked!—and one little sappy story about Barack meeting Michelle, arrived in the ultra-clean city of Zurich and similarly clean and scrubbed Switzerland. Apparently there are about 2,000 homeless in the entire country of nearly 9 million people. They are pretty invisible, and I have heard that there are very strict laws against sleeping on streets and in parks.
After checking into the tiny Hotel Helmhaus which is on the edge of the Old Town and about one block from the river, we set out for a walk along the river’s edge. The water is incredibly clean and supposedly is safe to drink. The Limmat River runs through the whole city and it is a delightful respite. As we strolled we noticed that there were literally hundreds or more people floating in the river and hundreds more in line to get into the river. Each had a little duck float that they were holding, tied to, or merely playing with. Adults, kids… everyone. And this had been going on for hours. Apparently it’s the end of an art week and this was some kind of celebration. I think it might also have been a bit of a fundraiser, but not sure (hope it was since it could have yielded some good funds for some organization). We watched everyone enter the water and float down river and get replaced by others just entering the river.
After a brief nap, we headed to Gul, a Turkish restaurant we had read about which turned out to be pretty great. Very casual.. three courses as a “surprise menu”.. but each course consisted of about four small plates. It was about a mile from the hotel so we strolled back at a leisurely pace passing lots of cyclists and pedestrians along the way. Tomorrow, after we pick up our rental car, we head to Lucerne; we will be back in Zurich for three nights at the end of our trip. Our drive will be: Zurich to Lucerne to Thun to Bern to Geneva, and back to Zurich. Hopefully pretty relaxing, although I did bring the final chapters of my book with me to try to move that along to meet my deadlines.
All the best –
Fern
8. Final Day in Malta. 5/20/22
Greetings –
May 20th–our final day in Malta, we headed to Rabat which was originally part of Mdina or vice versa but about a thousand years ago the Arabs walled and fortified Mdina. Actually. yesterday, when we went to Domus Romana we were at the edge of Rabat. While there are many religious sites in Rabat including the grotto where St Paul is said to have lived when he was shipwrecked, and a cave painted with 14th century murals (where St Agatha—the one whose breasts were cut off) was supposed to have hidden.. we opted for the 21st century and strolled the wonderful narrow streets (which are actually several centuries old) where people still live and work.
We stumbled upon an open door and were greeted by Harry Mallia, a former “tree surgeon” turned woodworker who invited us into his teeny studio. In what is probably less than 100 sq ft, he is turning wonderful wood bowls and other small vessels, in shapes driven by the grain and shape of the wood. He collects stubs and branches of pruned trees grown on the Maltese Islands as his medium and as he explained, he feels he is keeping pieces of Maltese trees alive forever. Basically he turns and hollows the stub to his desired thickness (really thinness) without letting the wood split, and then he preserves the wood by using natural oils which sometimes he must do over and again for as much as 300 days. He signs all of the pieces HMH, which doesn’t stand for his name which also happens to use the initials HM; rather it stands for something like “heart, mind, hope”. We were totally captivated by not only the objects and his love of wood but his passion for the integrity of wood and of his work. This is a guy who truly loves what he does. We wound up talking and seeing all of his tools and his lathe.
Of course, now Mike is set on getting a lathe and adding this skill to his own passion for carpentry. Harry loves to talk about wood and he found a good listener and questioner in Mike, so he went on and on and would have been happy to keep going, but we might have missed our flight. Since we spent so much time there we figured we should make a purchase. Each piece is signed and at the bottom he carves the number of hours each piece took him to make. His prices are based on that number (of hours it took him to create) times 12.5 euros. The pieces are all very small—between 2” and 8” I’d guess. I was most interested in a very simple plate, but It turned out that was his plate.. the one he’s been eating on for several years. It’s clear he practically lives in this tiny studio. So, the plate was not for sale. We bought a lovely little (2.5”?) vessel made of hibiscus wood. He made sure it was signed and then gave us some authentication papers and some instructions for keeping it in good shape… mostly we need to remember to oil it once every century!!! I think we will pass on this information to someone else.
From there we hustled to grab a quick bite along our walk back to Mdina and the hotel where our bags were waiting. We then drove to the Malta Airport in Valletta, dropped off the car, and flew to London (about 3.5 hours). We were reminded by the rental car folks of our little mishap with the car being stuck in that nasty hole and AAA coming to tow us out—-they had a video to remind us. Funny, so much had happened between then and now, we totally forgot about it!
And then we realized all the places we wanted to see but didn’t find time. It was a good trip and I’d definitely recommend a visit to Malta. You need at least a week to really see it and feel it. It’s known for its beaches and diving and we never went anywhere near those places, but we did note that the water was crystal clear. The old settlements and towns are incredible—wonderful to walk in the day and also in the nighttime. It’s unfortunate what they’ve done in recent years on the outskirts of all these wonderful towns and villages—uncontrolled growth and very ugly buildings. Not sure who is building all these apartment complexes and for whom; their population is not growing and it appears that these new condo or apartment high-rises are empty. My guess is developers see Malta as a prime location for second homes for Europeans??
Anyway, if you stay inside all the wonderfully charming older cities and towns you’ll never see those places. You only run into them when you’re on the road driving from one place to another. People are delightfully friendly; the streets are immaculate; food is good and at times great; and though it’s a small island with about as many people as Oakland it’s quite international because so many foreigners come here to work. It’s also more cosmopolitan than you’d expect given that so many young and middle-aged Maltese return after living abroad.
Enjoy Malta. Happy to make suggestions.
Fern
Fern's Travel Notes 