Blogs from Basel, North-West, Switzerland, Europe - page 10

Ah free booze. For some, an unexpected sign that heaven can exist on Earth. For others, a surefire ticket to hell. Today, everything bad in the world was forgotten in favor of all-you-can-drink beer. In breaking news: Rheinfelden, Switzerland The Feldschlösschen Brewery in Rheinfelden was shut down due to a lack of beer. The Rachelson Family took the all-you-can-drink tasting session a little too seriously and was too strong a force for the factory's 90,000 bottles an hour production. Although free food was also given - including fleischekase (german for "meat-cheese" although no cheese is involved), cheese pies, and pickles - the Rakes demanded more and more beer throughout the hour session. "The 90 minute tour beforehand was a real drag, I just wanted to get straight to the beer degustation," said Evi Rachelson, the real ... read more

It's been slowly and gracefully turning from autumn to winter. Since we've lived in California so long, we were not really used to the cold weather. Now it's 0 degrees Centigrade (32 Fahrenheit), and really feels like winter. We are living in a small, cozy, comfortable apartment in the center of downtown Basel. We step outside of our building into the midst of shoppers, restaurants, cafes, bookstores, antique shops, bookstores. Now they are also putting up the Christmas lights, and the first snow fell (about 2 cm). In fact, next door to our residence is an English bookstore, and I will be hosting a trivia cafe event there on December 7. If you are available, drop in! Here is a web address so you can see the details. http://www.bergli.ch/shop/talkparties.htm Evi and I are spending our time ... read more

Hello- Yesterday we ventured to St Remy just to check out another provencol village. I'd heard about renting farmhouses nearby with chef-owners catering to their boarders and wanted to see if this might lead to a future venture with my husband. We wondered into a perfume factory where I purchased a scent I like. The highlight was walking into a chocolatiers shop! The most intense chocolate smell-taste Ive'experienced. FYI: St R is where Van gogh was hospitalized after cutting off his ear. Also Nostradamos birth place.. Now were located in Switzerland. Our trip today was cut short due to a missed connection. There was a bomb threat in one of the French stations. These days are intense but the scenary was incredible. We followed Lake Geneva several miles. With the snowy Alps as background, the lake ... read more

After getting to bed at 2am we had a rather late start to the day. I took a walk around the town cemetery and the town walls of Bergheim, while Lorenza sat in the sun reading a book. In the late afternoon we went for a drive to the mountain resort of Trois Epis. It is a lovely little haven in the Vosges. There is also some kind of climate station there as well, but I could not work out the French explanation of exactly what it was for. Back at our hotel, we tossed a coin to decide on tomorrow’s destination. Heads was Freiburg in Germany, tails was Basel in Switzerland. Tails it was, we would head south to Switzerland for the day. We went to bed laughing that we had such choices, considering in ... read more

22 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 1989 No volví a saber de ellas. HISTORIAS DE LA ESTACION DE TREN En la noche del día 21 llegamos a Lyón, en Francia. Ahí teníamos que transbordar, pues nuestro boleto era para Ginebra, pero salía hasta la madrugada siguiente. Sentado en una banca de la estación de tren, junto a nosotros, había un hombre con una maleta grande, de metal plateado, entre las piernas, pero la dejó al levantarse e irse. La vimos con desconfianza. No sólo nosotros: más tarde se acercó un policía con un aparato, lo pasó alrededor de ella como si fuera un detector, y se la llevó. Al rato vino el dueño, espantado por lo que suponía un robo. En otro momento, me escurrí al baño de un restaurante para ponerme unas mallas bajo los pantalones y ... read more