Back Log

I am going to post back to back, as I have pictures from my last trip, though I am already into my next trip. Bear with me and read on...

During the Sunday of my last trip, I went with two of my colleagues to the Roman ruins just southeast of Basel. The area is called August Raurica and it is really facinating. The settlement dates back to around 60AD and there was a settlement there for several hundred years. Eventually, there was an earthquake and the town was destroyed and eventually buried. The townspeople moved the city closer to the river in subsequent years. In 1961, while digging for construction of homes, they came across the remains of the first town and started excavating. The area that is on display now opened in 1995. (You can read this on the website, if you can read German. I think that my facts are close to correct, based on the tour we took. But don't quote me on any of it!)

So here are pictures from there:

This is the ampitheater that is directly across from the museum. You can tell that they have done a lot of work on it to make it functional - it's pretty obvious that there are new bricks there. They hold concerts here in the Spring/Summer.

This is a wall display of a mosaic tile floor that was found. This is actually about 8ft wide and about 12ft tall. The description also said that there was about another 2-3 ft of tile around the edges depicting "battle pictures" of the top Gladiators at the time. The tiles were about 1/2" squre each.



Ok, so I took this one because it's so strange. Hopefully you can figure out the scenario...

This is the bathhouse for the town, which is pretty impressive in the sheer size of this. I would LOVE a bathroom this big!

We also went to see the Tinguely Fountain in Basel that day and took lots of pictures.

All the pieces are mechanical and move water, so it's pretty interesting to see. I also have video here that I took.

That's it for the "touristy" things from trip 1. It was a whirlwind trip complete with a mental breakdown, but I survived. The subsequent trip home was also whirlwind and drove me and I think everyone else crazy, but I'm back. And I'll tell you more about trip 2 thus far and share more pictures soon....

Vogel Gryff Day in Basel

I have 2 days of pictures, so I'm going to put up two posts. Make sure you check out both of them.

Saturday was Vogel Gryff Day (or here) in Basel. According to several websites: Rafting the wild man around 10.30 pm; landing in Little Klingental 11 hours, dance on the Middle Rhine bridge 12 hours. Dancing in the afternoon and evening, according to the program. Free night in the restaurants. (Personally, the entire thing reminded me of the Veiled Prophet Society in STL)

Here is a video of the "Wild Man" on the raft:

Here is a picture that is a little clearer:

Here is me with our PM Jeff along the Rhein:

Then we walked around Basel and this is what a typical Saturday afternoon looks like:

While out and about, I found some more yarn at a store that had a great selection. It was in the middle of a department store, but the prices for yarn from Italy & France were tough to beat. I have already added it to Ravelry (blondengr) and I'll get pictures of it soon.

After that I went back to the hotel and slept for 2 hours! Then we went out for "Scaffolding Pizza" or at Bear Roma. (All the places are referenced by something other than their real names, in order to remember them!) It was good pizza, though it was not cut - need to bring a pizza cutter...

More adventures on Sunday....

Greetings from Switzerland

I am not doing well on learning German, so I'm not even going to attempt it!

So I'm going to post some pictures instead:This is during our landing at JFK airport in NYC. It's not very good, but you can make out the city AND the SMOG....

This is my room - taken from the door and then towards the door. And yes, that is the bathroom - at least I don't have to share, like in some hotels in Europe.

And this is the section of hair burned to the curling iron that I singed off this morning. (Luckily my hair is layered enough that it's not noticeable - at least I didn't start at the top of my head on that piece...)Apparently not only do you have to use the adapters, but you have to watch the voltage too. Curling irons, clothes irons and blow dryers get hotter over here. Needless to say, I'm down one curling iron and one clothes iron. I figured out the blow dryer in time...

Our office actually overlooks the Rhine River and I'm waiting for a better day to get pictures. I'll try to have more of the city and people later this week.

It's after midnight here....goodnight!

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2008!

First off, CONGRATULATIONS to my sister MA on getting engaged last night. Her fiance' is a great guy and will be a great addition to the family.

I decided to call it quits with BW this week. I felt like I was working too hard too early on and was feeling like I wasn't being made a high enough priority. In addition, my family was not happy with the fact that I was "stood" up on Christmas Eve - it's hard to make up that ground with the group. (Of course the last time I ignored my family's feelings, I ended up divorced, so it's hard to argue with that logic.) So I'm keeping my options open and hoping to meet new people.

Switzerland is in 6 days and counting. I have not started packing, though I have gotten most of the "travel" stuff already. That will be a project for this weekend...

I did get some Christmas knitting finished, but pictures are still on the camera. I'll post them when I can.

Keep checking back on the blog for updates from Switzerland. I'll be posting pictures and stories of our adventures over there.