Our wonderful trip is over, and we are off on the train to Zurich to catch good old Delta back home. Again, we are so blessed.
The Basel train station.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Last thoughts
One aspect of life in Basel that amazes us completely is the easy way most people switch between languages. School children study German, and Swiss German, a dialect of this part of Switzerland, French and English. Many signs are in multiple languages, and the television shows and movies come from France or Germany or America. All three languages are in use in multiple ways, and almost everyone is familiar with all three. There is also a good bit of Italian spoken, since Italy is on Switzerland's southern border. We are both amazed and probably a little jealous. It just seems so rich to have so many ways to express yourself and to better try to understand the world.
Our wonderful trip is over, and we are off on the train to Zurich to catch good old Delta back home. Again, we are so blessed.
The Basel train station.
Our wonderful trip is over, and we are off on the train to Zurich to catch good old Delta back home. Again, we are so blessed.
The Basel train station.
City Walks -- University District, November 30
Basel University is Switzerland's oldest university, celebrating 550 years this year. Interestingly, the medical scool is particularly known for its department of tropical diseases. Who knew?... Amazing to consider tropical diseases in Switzerland.
The littlest sewing machine, in a shop window near our apartment...
The chocolate store. One must fortify ones self before a city walk to the Umiversity...
What's this? Swiss chocolate fortified with goods from the "new world"...
Ah... Bicycles... We must be getting close.
A banner celebrating the university's birthday...
A statue... not sure of the story...
A faculty home?
An interesting store in the University district was this store (below) where wine and olive oil were decanted from little barrels and crocks...
All sorts of wine choices in all sorts of containers...
Bottles for olive oil
Christmas decorations in a shop window...
All sorts of stores for the students and faculty...
A tower still remains from the old city walls, with a gate to the university center
Students always have opinions, and graffiti seems to be a universal medium of expression. It's interesting that this sentiment is expressed in English...
The littlest sewing machine, in a shop window near our apartment...
The chocolate store. One must fortify ones self before a city walk to the Umiversity...
What's this? Swiss chocolate fortified with goods from the "new world"...
Ah... Bicycles... We must be getting close.
A banner celebrating the university's birthday...
A statue... not sure of the story...
A faculty home?
An interesting store in the University district was this store (below) where wine and olive oil were decanted from little barrels and crocks...
All sorts of wine choices in all sorts of containers...
Bottles for olive oil
Christmas decorations in a shop window...
All sorts of stores for the students and faculty...
A tower still remains from the old city walls, with a gate to the university center
Students always have opinions, and graffiti seems to be a universal medium of expression. It's interesting that this sentiment is expressed in English...
City Walks — Lohnhof, December 3
Walking the city another time we went to the area around the Lohnhof church, location of a former prison, which has now become an area of expensive apartments.
These shutters have heart cut outs. Another house had cut outs in their shutters with Christmas wreaths hanging on each shutter by a red ribbon.
Lovely homes
A short cottage among the taller ones...
Diamond cut outs in these shutters...
The Lohnhof church with its welcoming door and archway...
A wooden porch on a stucco house...
A snow trimmed statue in a little pocket-sized park... I think there was a maze beneath the snow, but today it was all white with no part of the maze visible.
The Munster spires across the way...
Interesting darks and lights...
An Italian-type deck on a roof top.
Snow covered roofs...
These shutters have heart cut outs. Another house had cut outs in their shutters with Christmas wreaths hanging on each shutter by a red ribbon.
Lovely homes
A short cottage among the taller ones...
Diamond cut outs in these shutters...
The Lohnhof church with its welcoming door and archway...
A wooden porch on a stucco house...
A snow trimmed statue in a little pocket-sized park... I think there was a maze beneath the snow, but today it was all white with no part of the maze visible.
The Munster spires across the way...
Interesting darks and lights...
An Italian-type deck on a roof top.
Snow covered roofs...
City walks — Munster, December 3
Walking the city, looking at the buildings, admiring the Christmas decorations is good fun. Around each corner there are little vignettes of buildings of different sizes, different ages and varied color schemes, roofs all touched with snow to give a Christmas-y look. The walk to the Munster Cathedral took us up a hill over looking the river.
The walk took us along narrow streets with a church spire in the background. This spire is not the Munster, rather it is near Barfusserplatz.
Here's a hat store--all hats and scarfs for both men and women, including accessories such as feathers or decorated hat pins.
This house with red timbers and green shutters must look like Christmas all year round.
Another house with beautiful shutters
The munster...
The sundial on the Munster tower...
This building has the reverse color scheme of the one above with its red shutters and greenish-gray timbers.
Handsome gate to this building complex...
The walk took us along narrow streets with a church spire in the background. This spire is not the Munster, rather it is near Barfusserplatz.
Here's a hat store--all hats and scarfs for both men and women, including accessories such as feathers or decorated hat pins.
This house with red timbers and green shutters must look like Christmas all year round.
Another house with beautiful shutters
The munster...
The sundial on the Munster tower...
This building has the reverse color scheme of the one above with its red shutters and greenish-gray timbers.
Handsome gate to this building complex...
Sunday, December 5, 2010
A trip to the suburbs
The Breyeler Foundation houses an outstanding collection of modern art in an architecturally interesting building in the suburbs of Basel. There's a current traveling show of the artisti Klimt, but we saw most of these works on a previous trip, at their home in Vienna. And, frankly, he is not one of our favorite artists, although the colors are beautiful. But the trip to the suburbs sounds interesting, so off we go on the tram.
I forgot to mention in the description of our flat the wonderful Tassimo coffee maker. Good coffee keeps us going, and this one is very good with its little pods of coffee.
So with two cups of coffee we are off...
Along the way we pass probably five or six city blocks of community gardens, most with little garden houses, and many with bar-b-que pits and patios. This picture is taken from the moving tram, so it is not a good one. But we have never seen so many little garden plots--quite a busy activity for those folks living in apartments without room to garden. This must be quite a sight in the summer time.
This is the Breyeler Foundation with its outside reflecting pool that comes right up to the wall of the building. The snow was heavier as we left the down town.
This bench filled with snow almost looks like a piece of sculpture.
The gazebo overlooks fields to the hills beyond the town.
A view of the open areas...
The snow is held on the leaves of the azaleas.
Nice trip. Most of the houses were single family or duplexes with small yards, as we moved away from the density of downtown. I would guess we traveled about twenty miles, still on our tram line week's ticket.
I forgot to mention in the description of our flat the wonderful Tassimo coffee maker. Good coffee keeps us going, and this one is very good with its little pods of coffee.
So with two cups of coffee we are off...
Along the way we pass probably five or six city blocks of community gardens, most with little garden houses, and many with bar-b-que pits and patios. This picture is taken from the moving tram, so it is not a good one. But we have never seen so many little garden plots--quite a busy activity for those folks living in apartments without room to garden. This must be quite a sight in the summer time.
This is the Breyeler Foundation with its outside reflecting pool that comes right up to the wall of the building. The snow was heavier as we left the down town.
This bench filled with snow almost looks like a piece of sculpture.
The gazebo overlooks fields to the hills beyond the town.
A view of the open areas...
The snow is held on the leaves of the azaleas.
Nice trip. Most of the houses were single family or duplexes with small yards, as we moved away from the density of downtown. I would guess we traveled about twenty miles, still on our tram line week's ticket.
Home sweet home--Basel
Our flat in Basel has served us well.
We are at number 11, and up one flight of stairs to the "first" floor.
The kitchen is very complete with a nice selection of food and condiments that our landlord provided to help get us started. We ate in for breakfast and lunch and then became regulars at the neighborhood Italian restaurant, which was fabulous.
The shower and sink are tucked away in the corner of the kitchen.
The bedroom is the other room with a comfortable bed and covers.
Here's our Italian restaurant, all closed up at the moment. My favorite was the eggplant or "melanzone" ravolii with tomato sauce, and Jack's was the lasagne. The pasta was all homemade and fresh. Yummy, for sure.
We have been very comfortable for our week in Basel.
We are at number 11, and up one flight of stairs to the "first" floor.
The kitchen is very complete with a nice selection of food and condiments that our landlord provided to help get us started. We ate in for breakfast and lunch and then became regulars at the neighborhood Italian restaurant, which was fabulous.
The shower and sink are tucked away in the corner of the kitchen.
The bedroom is the other room with a comfortable bed and covers.
Here's our Italian restaurant, all closed up at the moment. My favorite was the eggplant or "melanzone" ravolii with tomato sauce, and Jack's was the lasagne. The pasta was all homemade and fresh. Yummy, for sure.
We have been very comfortable for our week in Basel.
Karl Barth
One hope for our trip was the possibility of visiting Karl Barth's city and, perhaps, visiting his home and seeing his archives. When we were in school in the 60's Barth was probably the most prominent Reformed theologian, known for his prodigious output of scholarly writing and his generous attention to his students. Several of Jack's professors had studied here with Barth, and students who could arrange it were still coming here to study. In those days we could only dimly imagine what studing in Basel might involve, so we were delighted for the chance to come, even so many years later, and imagine what it might have been like to study here.
Our friend and landlord called for us, and we were given an appointment for Wednesday afternoon. We made our way up to the Bruderhaus district by tram in the midst of falling snow.
The Karl Barth home...
Dr. Drewes met us at the door and graciously invited us inside and upstairs to Barth's personal study where we visited for over an hour.
The walls were lined in two rooms with his personal library, including his own edition of his monumental "Church Dogmatics," as well as other works he valued.
Over the doorways were etchings, one of Mozart who "provided him natural revelation" and one of John Calvin who "provided him special revelation."
Over Barth's desk where he wrote long hand his many, many letters, articles and books, hung a reproduction of the crucufiction from the center panel of the altarpiece of the cathedral in Colmar by Gruenwald. The hallmark of Barth's theology has always been its high Christology.
Karl Barth was born in Basel but educated in Germany where he began teaching. With the rise of the Nazis he was expelled, and returned to Basel where he lived and taught until his death in 1968.
The Barth personal letters are kept and still being catalogued here. Dr. Drewes, who personally attended Barth's last series of public Saturday lectures, showed us some of the correspondence, at first all hand written and later typed. The original edition of "Church Dogmatics" is in Barth's own hand, with the transcription by his secretary on the verso (see below).
Some of the letters which are being transcribed onto computer files....
We were able to ask about Barth's contacts with Bonhoeffer, and discuss his contacts with the Catholic theologian Hans Kuhn. All of this discussion is certainly dated and not of much interest anymore, but we both found it fascinating, and we were so pleased with the opportunity.
We asked Dr. Dewes if students were still studying Barth. "Not so much, now," he said. The last entry in the guest book before ours was November 4, and ours was December 1. We were both certainly privileged to have studied Barth in our day.
Our friend and landlord called for us, and we were given an appointment for Wednesday afternoon. We made our way up to the Bruderhaus district by tram in the midst of falling snow.
The Karl Barth home...
Dr. Drewes met us at the door and graciously invited us inside and upstairs to Barth's personal study where we visited for over an hour.
The walls were lined in two rooms with his personal library, including his own edition of his monumental "Church Dogmatics," as well as other works he valued.
Over the doorways were etchings, one of Mozart who "provided him natural revelation" and one of John Calvin who "provided him special revelation."
Over Barth's desk where he wrote long hand his many, many letters, articles and books, hung a reproduction of the crucufiction from the center panel of the altarpiece of the cathedral in Colmar by Gruenwald. The hallmark of Barth's theology has always been its high Christology.
Karl Barth was born in Basel but educated in Germany where he began teaching. With the rise of the Nazis he was expelled, and returned to Basel where he lived and taught until his death in 1968.
The Barth personal letters are kept and still being catalogued here. Dr. Drewes, who personally attended Barth's last series of public Saturday lectures, showed us some of the correspondence, at first all hand written and later typed. The original edition of "Church Dogmatics" is in Barth's own hand, with the transcription by his secretary on the verso (see below).
Some of the letters which are being transcribed onto computer files....
We were able to ask about Barth's contacts with Bonhoeffer, and discuss his contacts with the Catholic theologian Hans Kuhn. All of this discussion is certainly dated and not of much interest anymore, but we both found it fascinating, and we were so pleased with the opportunity.
We asked Dr. Dewes if students were still studying Barth. "Not so much, now," he said. The last entry in the guest book before ours was November 4, and ours was December 1. We were both certainly privileged to have studied Barth in our day.
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