Casa Dolce Casa!

The Lausanne métro has a characteristic that the MTA should consider importing. Each stop on the line has its own tune associated with the neighborhood; drum trills at one; horse clop clops at another. The sound effects could prove very helpful should you doze off; you’ll be startled to wakefulness by the tone of your stop! (Let's see, a jingle from "42nd Street" when you hit Times Square, a "cha-ching" (or maybe not so much anymore) on Wall Street, bongo drumming at 7th Avenue in Park Slope... .)

If you include the metro, it took us SIX trains to return to Arenzano. Apparently all the Italians were travelling on January 5^th since the 6^th was another holiday, Epiphany (more on that soon). The train we desired to take from Lausanne to Milan was already sold out when we arrived at the ticket booth, so we camped out in the station for several hours, getting in a bunch of reading and shivering, since the Lausanne station is mostly exposed to the elements, save for some on-track waiting alcoves. We took the first train from Lausanne to Brig (a big transfer spot) and noted the French once again giving way to German and the passengers loading on their ski gear as mountains appeared in the background. From Brig we headed towards the Italian border town of Domodossola. The scenery along the way was spectacular.

We thought that comfy and not-so-crowded train would take us all the way to Milan, but unfortunately, we had to disembark and hop on an overcrowded regionale. We luckily found seats and a place for our luggage, but many travelers were stuck standing. Nevertheless, it was heartening to hear all of the passengers complaining in Italian. We finally arrived in Milan and transferred to a gorgeous, brand spanking new Genoa-bound train. Midway through the ride, the woman sitting next to us struck up a conversation; she’s an oncologist that had at one point considered moving to the States, but for the time being is practicing in Milan. She gave us lots of great pointers for traveling around Italy and recommended a great local swimming spot for when summer arrives. Arriving in Genoa, we had to wait a bit for our last train of the evening. But when we disembarked in Arenzano 35 minutes after finally boarding, we were delighted. Vacations (even from your year-long vacation) are wonderful and we were thrilled to take this one. But after a while, you miss your own bed. More than anything, our journey into and out of Svizzera made clear that our apartment in Arenzano has really started to become our home, and we were so glad to return to it!

Baci e gelato,

Martello e Trofie Wife

Leaving Deutsch, Entering Français

So, back to Basel...

Just a few minutes before 10 a.m., there was an assertive knock on the door. Apparently the Easyhotel management is quite serious about checkout time. Luckily, we were eager to get on with the day’s adventures, so our bags were already packed and ready to be stored at the front desk. First on our agenda was the Fondation Beyler (http://www.beyeler.com/fondation/e/html_01start/01_sta__main.php). This beautiful museum filled up quickly, owning to not only the lovely location and permanent collection but also the special exhibit on Venice (Impressionists=large crowd). Martello and I were happy that we had visited Venice prior to seeing this exhibit, a fact that endowed us with some contextual knowledge (and at least in Trofie Wife's case, an ability to skim). 

After we finished touring the grounds, we took a tram back to the town center and went our separate ways—Martello to the Swiss Architecture Museum (http://www.sam-basel.org/) and Trofie Wife to the Puppenhausmuseum (featuring dolls and teddy bears; http://www.puppenhausmuseum.ch/Startpage.1+M59607b34d43.0.html).  Aside from having an awesome name, the Puppenhaus houses a wonderful collection. It contains four floors of historic bears, dolls, and related paraphernalia, including charming period postcards and birthday cards in each stairwell. Each floor is equipped with a digital library; just enter the teddy’s or doll’s item number into the computer and you get its back story (the computer determined that I was particularly drawn to 1930s Steiff bears). Also of note were some great Americana scenes (including a whole section on Teddy Roosevelt) and some amazing Tinguely-worthy mechanical toys, including an entire carnival scene with moving rides!

I still had some time before Martello and I were set to rendezvous, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that I scouted out the bakery and cookie shops. Unfortunately, Basel’s treats are no match for Zurich’s. I had some lackluster Läckerli cookies (Basel originals; I’m not sure if the ones I purchased were slightly stale, or if that’s just how they taste) and sub-par macaroon cookies that it would be an insult to compare to the vaunted Luxemburgerli. Upon finding Martello, he led me to the Tinguely sculpture garden. Here’s what we saw:

Pretty cool, huh? Sadly, adjacent to the garden was a Richard Serra sculpture that had been covered almost entirely with graffiti. The graffiti in Switzerland is another unexpected shocker. We saw it on the Grossmünster (A CHURCH) in Zurich and would continue to encounter it throughout the rest of our time in Svizzera. Zurich Brother-in-Law told us that it appeared to be the one “vice” in which otherwise straight-and-narrow Swiss kids could partake, since many other activities, verboten in the States, are openly accepted/decriminalized there. (I’m just still smarting from the open acceptance of tagging on a church. The paint didn’t even seem fresh… .)

As the sun went down, Martello led us to some other architectural monuments, including a train switch tower, biological sciences building, and apartment complex all by Herzog & de Meuron; we also passed the synagogue, which was staffed with two security guards (we weren’t sure if people were actually inside or not; the community just might have been taking extra precautions with the Gaza ground incursion underway). Trofie Wife’s patience was wearing a bit thin due to the cold and her anxiousness to get to the French-speaking part of the country (enough with the German already!). We finally got our luggage from the Easyhotel front desk and boarded a train. Thankfully, Trofie Wife was able to piece together a sentence in French in order to figure out our transfer at Biel to a train to Lausanne (you’d think after all those years of French I’d be a little bit better in the speaking department, but alas…).

Arriving in Lausanne, we found ourselves hiking up a steep, cobblestone hill in order to reach our hotel, which was adjacent to the famed cathedral. (Of course, the next day we discovered that our hotel abutted a Métro stop…).

Lausanne is definitely picturesque, but due to our late arrival, we ended up in a less-than-lovely portion of the city. We had decent pizza at a food court and watched imitation MTV featuring bad American music. We returned to the hotel to watch CNN International (given the ground incursion) and ponder the room’s décor; the pink leopard carpet definitely raised our suspicions that the hotel might have had a colorful past… Nevertheless, Trofie Wife was pleased to finally visit a French-speaking place and eager to be able to (at least slightly) understand street signs and the world around her.

Baci e gelato,

Martello e Trofie Wife