I often find myself feeling weary and down-hearted when I make the mistake of finding out what is going on in the world outside my own little circle of life. More and more the media seems obsessed with fear-mongering and xenophobia. Fear the stranger. Fear those who are different. Those here by accident of birth… Continue reading Leave the door open
Tag: Switzerland
Along the Comedy Circuit
A few weeks ago, soon after our (I and She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed) Sardinian adventures, the wife and I went a-walkin’ one weekend along a trail called the Witzweg (Joke Trail), a three-hour walk from one small Swiss hamlet, Walzenhausen, to another Swiss hamlet, Heiden. Not a bad experience, really. You get yourself to the Lake of Constance… Continue reading Along the Comedy Circuit
Thus endeth the lesson
This coming Monday I will be thinking about a woman I have never met who will teach for the first time my last student whom she has never met. Final lesson of my teaching career until October (and maybe final one of all?) took place yesterday evening. My private student in Weinfelden (See: No smile… Continue reading Thus endeth the lesson
The other side of Wonderland
US Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump proposes a wall along the US-Mexico border, funded by Mexico, to keep illegal immigrants out of the US. Greece is uneasy about the recent flood of refugees from the civil unrest happening in neighbouring Macedonia. Syrian and Iraqi borders are porous and leaking escapees from the ISIS caliphate conquest… Continue reading The other side of Wonderland
Sunshine Sketches of the Wild, Wild East
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.” This was the catchphrase for the 1930s US radio show, “The Shadow“, as well for the 1994 film of the same name, starring Alec Baldwin and Penelope Ann Miller. I was reminded of this phrase when driving back to Landschlacht yesterday after… Continue reading Sunshine Sketches of the Wild, Wild East
Unloved in Jerusalem
There is a phrase that beguiles me with its unknown source that “a prophet is rarely respected in his own Jerusalem.” This phrase comes to mind when I consider the Rhine towns of Feuerthalen, across from Schaffhausen, and Rheinau, downriver 181 km / 113 miles if discussing walking distance. Feuerthalen, population 3,500, is Schaffhausen’s unremarkable… Continue reading Unloved in Jerusalem
The secret sites above the Falls
The biggest problem with being a tourist in Switzerland is the distinct feeling that the Swiss don’t want you to visit and certainly don’t want you to learn anything about the country. Switzerland certainly does not go out of its way to market itself aggressively in comparison with countries like the US or France. The… Continue reading The secret sites above the Falls
Wolves in sheep packaging
“No one could tell me, but I learned something else about Schaffhausen, a tiny curiosity of history. The town was bombed by American aircraft in 1944. (See Oops! Did we do that?) The Americans insisted that it was a mistake – a bombing force had lost its way and, thinking it was still over Germany… Continue reading Wolves in sheep packaging
The company that couldn’t
Neuhausen am Rheinfall is a municipality in the Canton of Schaffhausen just south of the cantonal capital, Schaffhausen. It has a population of nearly 11,000 people. Despite its location beside the Rhine Falls, Neuhausen is primarily an industrial city. “We came along a filthy street between forges and mills right through to the Falls. What… Continue reading The company that couldn’t
The cards we’re dealt
The Swiss, especially the German-speaking Swiss, always have to be different. Consider playing cards. The Swiss German speaking part of Switzerland has its own deck of playing cards. They are mostly used for Jass, the “national card game” of Switzerland. The deck is related to the various German playing cards. Within Switzerland, these decks are… Continue reading The cards we’re dealt