Secrets of the Swiss

Hello everybody,

The falling temperatures have announced the arrival of winter. Average temps 0 degrees C (32 F) for the past week, but lately it has warmed up to 10 degrees (50 F). It's often been cloudy, so when it's sunny we like to take a walk, all over this interesting town of Basel. Yesterday we walked to France (just across the border, 30 minutes on foot, to St. Louis).

Basel is an underrated city, one of the most beautiful in Europe in my opinion, but such a modest city also, that they don't blow their own horn in pursuit of tourists. So it's mostly the residents who fill the streets all times of the day and night. This is a walking city. (Can you name 5 walking cities in the US?). There is also an excellent public tranportation system, with trams running every 7-10 minutes from anywhere to anywhere in the city region.

--> First Swiss Secret: Swiss society is not as stressed out, overworked, frantically moving as the USA. Here people work diligently, make enough money to survive, enjoy spening it on food and drink and travel and clothing and $1000 espresso machines. People are down to earth, knowledgeable about the world, appreciative of the arts, overwhelmingly honest, well-dressed, good looking, modest, and funny (in a quiet sort of way).

You hear dozens of languages on the street. Most common, Swiss German followed by German, French, Italian, English, Hebrew, Turkish, Hindi, Arabic, Albanian, Russian, Chinese, Thai, Portuguese, and so more. Switzerland is becoming increasingly internationalized, due to global politics. In the past the Swiss could preserve their long-standing traditions and could teach proper behavior to the next generation. Now it's all changing. Today it's no surprise to see a dark skinned teenager of Sri Lankan immigrant parents, speaking a rapid Schwiezerdeutsch with his multi-colored Swiss school mates.

--> Second Swiss Secret. They've never heard of smoke-free environments. Every restaurant and cafe is full of cigarette (even cigar) smokers. If you don't like the smoke, stay home or wear a gas mask. Our survey of potential no-smoking restaurants so far has detected exactly TWO that can be called (at least partially) non-smoking. One of which is called the Cafe Mitte, which dedicates 50% of the space to non-smokers, who can easily smell the smoke in the other half of the room.

This cafe, however, also supplies free wireless internet access (the only place in town), so we visit here (often with computer) on a regular basis for a great cappucino, lively customers, in a big beautiful room. They also have kinderspiel, parents and kids playing here in the morning, even tango dances on weekend nights. In cosmopolitan Basel, restaurants and cafes are full up till the wee small hours of the morning. People sit and talk, in a settled way.

We recently visited the town of Dornach, at the end of the #10 tram line from Basel, home of a brand of thought based on spirituality, education, and architectural grace. This is the home of Rudolph Steiner's Goetheanum, which, as Gadiel mentioned in his travelblog (www.travelblog.org/bloggers/chods), has no right angles, and makes the best use of colors (see photos).

The entire town conforms to the architectural style embodied in the Goetheanum itself, so the feeling there is of living in a hobbit land. There is a peaceful atmosphere in this small intellectual and spiritual town. It felt to me like the Mill Valley of Switzerland. I expected to see a 1968 Volkswagen Van rolling down the street filled with long-haired students of the school. You can check out all this at the address: <http://www.goetheanum.org/>. First Polish up your German.

Nearby was an interesting restaurant, with aesthetic beauty and delicious food, and a lovely view of the town and the Geotheanum. All vegetarian food, which pleased Evi. The second no-smoking restaurant we found in Switzerland! The only downfall of this great place, however, was that they charged us for a glass of drinking water from the tap, which is listed on the menu with other beverage choices.

--> Third Swiss Secret: Switzerland has the world's cleanest, healthiest, coldest, and most delicious drinking water in the world. It flows from the glaciers in the Alps, and runs freely in the beautiful outdoor fountains 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in every Swiss city. The restaurants, however, are not so eager to share this water with their high-paying customers. Why give away water when you can charge $5 for a small plastic bottle of mineral water (from other nearby glaciers)? As a result, no restaurant offers water without a customer request (sometimes a pleading). We heard of restaurants with signs announcing that they do not serve running water. Customers are so used to this system that they don't question it. Restaurants are expensive and beverages even more so. It costs the same amount for each of the following: A beer, a wine, a coffee, a Coca Cola, a cup of tea, or a mineral water, about $3-5.

Now that Gadiel is around, we are sharing the beauty with him, trying to discover all of this beautiful city on foot. We visited the Art Museum which features wonderful works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Renoir, Warhol, Picasso (who dedicated some paintings out of admiration of the citizens of Basel).

Our goal is to go skiing, as soon as these cloudy days produce lots of snow up in the mountains.

Auf Wiedersehen,
Howard and Evi

---

---