A picture is worth a thousand words. With apologies for our ongoing negligence in
posting new material, we hope this is true.
Over the last three months, we have come to realise that though a month
seems like a long time in which to complete a single post, every month is
composed entirely of moments.
Procrastination is always easy in the moment.
In an effort to eliminate this problem we have decided to
divide our blog into more manageable chunks.
Instead of plentiful writing with a few photos for accents, you will now
find plentiful photos with only a small amount of writing for accents. By accents, we mostly mean context and possibly
some of the better anecdotes.
As an added bonus, assuming the math above holds true, each
blog entry will now contain something like ten times the material, condensed
into only a fraction of the effort to read.
How awesome is that?
Switzerland
(In which we visit with our friends Evgueni and Cybele and
their son Alex, with some interloping by Marc)
(Left to Right): Adam, Aislinn, Cybele, Alex, Evgueni, Marc
Evgueni, Marc, and Adam were in the same class during their
Engineering studies at Waterloo. At
first meeting Evgueni appears proper, maybe even a bit reserved, with a cutting
wit and a clear intellect. His subtle
Russian accent clearly marks him as an evil genius, the kind of person one
wouldn’t want to offend by mispronouncing his name. It was for this reason as much as for
convenience that we took to calling him ‘E’ for short.
E and Cybele moved to Europe a few
years ago, arriving in Basel, Switzerland relatively recently after E sold his
soul to the man for a job with big pharma.
Having seen the swanky campus where he works, the man pays well. Cybele in the meantime continues working as a mother and
an artist out of their home. They live
together with their young son, Alex, in a small flat in Basel.
Marc has an afro that is in constant competition with his
personality to see which can fill more of the room. His intellect isn’t so much cutting as it is
smothering. Spend five minutes with Marc
and you’ll find yourself enveloped in his world with a whole slew of new perspectives
which you had neither anticipated nor with which you are entirely
comfortable. This is the mental
equivalent of entering a souvenir shop to be polite after the shopowner kept
insisting, “Don’t worry. You don’t need
to buy anything. Looking is free,” only
to find yourself on the way out holding a bag of extraordinary but strange
novelties.
Unsurprisingly, Marc rarely lives longer than six months in
the same place. Though recently his
partner Gerid’s done a good job of keeping him more or less in the vicinity of
Linz, Austria, most of the time.
E and Cybele kindly offered to host us at their place in
Basel for a few days with day trips to Interlaken and Freiburg, Germany along
the way.
Aislinn in Freiberg enjoying seasonal wild Pfifferlinge mushrooms with
potato pasta with our stuffed Canadian travelling companions Benjy the Beaver
and Smiley the Polar Bear
Evgueni and Alex admire the view while hiking the waterfalls of
Interlaken, Swtizerland.
Along the way, we took a few days to ourselves to visit
Lugano in Switzerland's only Italian county, Ticino.
Adam had made a point of included a trip here with Aislinn. The views, food, and ridiculous levels of
affluence are all stunning. Picture
Italy with German efficiency and Swiss landscapes and prices.
Swiss Landscapes: View from near the train station in Lugano
Italian Lifestyle: A leisurely lunch on the piazza in Lugano
Marc arrived on our second-last day in Basel, joining Cybele
and us for a day of touring the city including the special pre-Christmas fair
and an afternoon visit to Evgueni’s workplace.
Sunset from Evgueni and Cybele’s apartment
Basel with celebratory Christmas Ferris Wheel
Alex sees the Ferris Wheel
Aislinn and Adam on
the Love-Tester at the Fair
Hopefully it was just the freezing weather and lack of gloves that caused it. We ranked on the bottom most
blue bar. The label was in German. There may have been a ‘u’ with two dots over
it in there somewhere.
Complimentary visitors cappuccinos on imported Moroccan furnishings at
Novartis
In medicine, before any lecture, a doctor has to acknowledge
all potential pharma and medical funding he receives that may cause a
conflict of interest. For the record,
Novartis gave both my wife and I very very very good free cappuccinos on two
separate occasions.
Visiting E’s
workplace, the appeal of working there is obvious. Every part of the campus has its own theme
from the imported Moroccan furnishings and thousand plus year old antiques of
the visitors centre to the fake bird nests with hidden speakers broadcasting
chirping on the main thoroughfare to the Frank Gehry designed building at the
end of the street, and even the outstanding little detail below:
A Real Life Recreation of the Classic Optical Illusion: Is it a bird
bath? Or two faces in profile?
Austria
Leaving Switzerland, we travelled with Marc back to Linz to
visit with him and his partner, Gerid. At
the train station, Marc and Aislinn decided it would be fun to hide while Adam
ran to buy some water five minutes before their train left the station. Adam had no idea whether to board the train
before it left or continue searching the station for them. There may have been some angry words shared.
Adam gives Aislinn the stink-eye
Gerid works as an educational coordinator for children’s
groups at Ars Electronica in Linz, a museum dedicated to the intersection of
science and art. For an example of one
of their more novel display projects check out this link.
Aislinn tries a tail that senses her movements and adapts to
counterbalance them
A bite to eat at the Linz pre-Christmas Fare
Delicious Risotto courtesy of Gerid
An Austrian clothing catalogue, open to the “Canadian” page
Marc proves his Canadian origins by modelling for us. He actually briefly worked as a model. No, seriously. If you’re surprised, don’t be.
Leaving Linz, we travelled to Vienna, a city famous for its
culture, in particular the many famous composers who lived and worked there.
A night of Classical Music
Aislinn poses with her favourite composer Beethoven
(not pictured but nearby: Brahms,
Schubert, and Strauss)
Our Next Installment
Turkey, complete with photos should be ready in about a week.
