having just updated our squeezebox radios i re-found the BBC iplayer plugin. it’s been lingering in depths of the squeezebox radio menus for ages, i guess, but i had never really checked it out. while waiting for @jmdhh to return i decided to give the iplayer plugin a spin.

for some reasons i narrowed in on BBC4 and encountered old friends such as “the now show” (which i regularly listen to via their podcast) or less known shows such as the intriguingly named “life: an idiot’s guide” (need to check that one out). the one that takes the biscuit, though, is the “shipping forecast”. not the 5:20 GMT one — too wordy the context of that one — but the 0:48 GMT one, nicely framed in music — the ante-music being Sailing By, the post-music being the british national anthem concluded by the BBC pips (all according to wikipedia’s Shipping Forecast entry — and being the fully extended version.

i found it rather soothing you can give it a go via the BBC iplayer.

even though the place we live at here in switzerland has a rather rural character — there are several livestock markets throughout the year down at the station square, very few regions regularly vote more conservative than ours — einsiedeln has a surprising cultural live. one of the driving forces is the chaernehus, which several times a year hosts cabaret, an exhibition, and stages a play.

this year’s play is kino etzel — which @jmdhh and i went to see tonight. kino etzel is played in the old cinema, kino etzel and is a tribute to the old swiss rural cinema of the 1950s. until the of 2010 einsiedeln’s kino etzel was still operating and it had been lovingly kept in the style of the 1950s — i loved it. unfortunately, the end of 2010 was also the last curtain for kino etzel — until this year when the chaernehus theater group decided to make it the subject of their 2012 production.

we had made seat reservations and when we arrived at 20:00 were greeted by cloakroom attendants in 1950s outfit — the price to leave our coats was 1950s as well: CHF 0.20 (tickets were 2012-ish price-wise though we had not only reserved seats in the show but also in the pre-show restaurant: the gallery had been turned into a typical 1950s swiss restaurant complete with a 1950s swiss menu, lovingly decorated with furnishings from that era. due to running a bit late but still had time to have an einsiedler beer and something to eat before the show started.

the play itself is a mixture of cinematic, theatrical, and musical elements — sometimes intermixed (the initial showing of a piece from the 1950s schweizer wochenschau about the bad wolf in wallis¹ was aborted by two 1950s policemen storming the cinema and reading out the regulations of the canton of schwyz regarding cabaret shows. all elements of the play work together to re-create the 1950s — and for most of the show it works quite well (the football piece was a bit drawn out and trying to imitate loriot but not quite achieving that really).

all in all: a very entertaining and interesting show, well worth a visit!

“kino etzel” is on until 11 february 2011

the other day @jmdhh and i were out shopping. while i was waiting at one of the shops i was “hit” by a smell of coffee — and immediately taken back to the apartment of my grandmother in the late 60s, early 70s. she lived in bremerhaven, one of the german sea ports, and had a penchant for coffee.

her apartment always smelled of coffee in a certain way — the smell of coffee emanating from that shop at which i was waiting for @jmdhh must have hit my olfactory memory at just the right spot and triggered that flashback to my childhood. all of a sudden i could remember how her apartment looked liked, the milk bar she sometimes would take me to for late lunches (milk rice with fruits and cinnamon!), the trips to look at — from my child’s perspective certainly — gigantic vessels moored at the columbuskaje, one of the oversea’s ports of bremerhaven. the visits to wremen where i played as a little kid on the beach and even remember taking a dip in the river weser — probably unheard of today. or, the visits to one of her friends who lived in a high rise close to one of the ship yards in bremerhaven, whose apartment had panoramic windows looking out across the north of bremerhaven and in particular over the ship yard. i also remember that there was a huge toy store in the bürgermeister-smidt-straße (huge, from my perspective as a little boy, that is) — which was a great place to be, certainly in the time before christmas

it’s interesting, how smells can cause an immediate memory flashback. i’ve googled for “smell memory” to find out more about it. jonah lehrer quotes in his post smell and memory the french author marcel proust —

But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection. — [marcel proust: swann's way, translated by c. k. scott moncrief]

— and goes on to explain that

[...] the olfactory cortex has a direct neural link to the hippocampus. in contrast, all of our other senses (sight, touch and hearing) are first processed somewhere else – they go to the thalamus – and only then make their way to our memory center.

so smell (and taste, really, since it’s connected to our smell sensors as you’ll find out once you have a severe cold) enjoys a direct link into our hippocampus which seems to play a, if not the, major role in what we consider to be our memory. the only other sensory input i can think of which seems to have some kind of unfiltered access to our brain and emotions is music.

interesting stuff.

during sunday’s #twallfahrt i managed to take a couple of 5-step bracketed pictures, two of which i think produced some interesting results. the first one is the view from etzel pass towards einsiedeln:

at first i thought that it looks a bit weird, then i realized (and on my way home looked at the clouds with “different eyes”) that it does look like that.

the second one is a classical, an in-door shot in the church of the monastery of einsiedeln¹:

i kind of like both, but the second one is more the classical one and i like it best. what do you think?

9:10 — ms d and i arrive at einsiedeln railway station, all kitted out in our walking gear, ready to go. walking past the train we spot our fellow pilgrims. yep, pilgrims: we are on our way to the starting point of the world’s first twitter pilgrimage, the #twallfahrt¹ from pfäffikon to einsiedeln. in the train we meet @decolores1, @konzertharfe, @sempreincorsaa also ready to go on the #twallfahrt. just before the train is about to depart at 9:13 we are joined at the last second by @abtmartin — good thing, too, as he is supposed to lead us on our pilgrimage

i’m looking forward to the first twitter pilgrimage which is at the same time my first pilgrimage on foot (last year’s pilgrimage was by bus, which somehow gives it a different twist, i think). @abtmartin is apparently still in the “geheimprojekt” stage of the #twallfahrt, as he is not really forthcoming with any information about what’s planned.

we get to pfäffikon on time, cross through the station tunnel and see the #twilgrims gathered — a bit short of the maximum number of 8000 mentioned on @pixelfreund‘s blog (about 7969 short, in fact) bit still a sizable group. as various #twilgrims let us know via twitter, that they are still on their way, it’s a bit past 10:00 that we start on our way from pfäffikon up to etzel pass (where we’ll have a lunch break) and then on to einsiedeln to the benedictine monastery there.

the weather, fortunately, is cool, a bit humid, but not too bad, and the hike up “1000 steps” to etzel pass is easy to walk. the clouds are just fantastic (as a subscribed member of the cloud appreciation society i find blue sky days boring) — just past the autobahn we stop for our first #twallfahrt station: @abtmartin tells us a bit about the area (and the history of the monastery of einsiedeln), but the main focus is on two short canons (both in twitter length) that we even manage to render in a half decent way (no trees falling down, no birds falling from the sky). up and up it goes with the next stations at restaurant luegeten and at the fork in the road where the road from schindeleggi-feusisberg joins. around noon we are (as planned) on the etzel pass where a #twallfahrt group pictures are taken, we have a our lunch break, the sf drs tv team does the interviews with @abtmartin and we relax in the sun.

at 13:00 the #twallfahrt re-commences and via teufelsbrück and galgenenhügel we get closer and closer to our destination: the monastery of einsiedeln (interrupted by a short break to give the sf drs tv team a better take on us walking down to einsiedeln). the last station on our pilgrimage is at the gangulf chapel where we meet up with those #twitterati that couldn’t make it for the whole #twallfahrt, practice our twitter-length canons once more and then fight our way through the chilbi crowds to the klosterplatz — where we are greeted by a flag bearer and a cross bearer who lead the way, with the bells of the monastery ringing for our #twallfahrt, through the main entrance into the monastery church!

as we are a bit behind schedule, we #enjoy an even more twitterish worship service than planned — the highlight certainly being the twitterific organ piece (which @boumi manage to capture)!

an apero in the southern court yard concludes this unique #twallfahrt pilgrimage!

all in all: a very interesting and stimulating experience, meeting very different folks and with a couple of good spiritual impulses.

would i participate again? yes, i guess, i would

if you are interested, here are some further links:

• sf drs did a fairly lengthy piece (some german required)
• the katholische internationale presseagentur did a very good article (again, some german required)
• twitter’s #twallfahrt page
• the #twallfahrt flckr pool
• my set of pictures on 50mm-traveller

my grandfather was a sea-faring man.¹

my grandfather was a sea-faring man, and, what is more, he helped create an island… an island that is still visible today.

he was employed by the North German Lloyd aka Norddeutscher Lloyd as an officer, his last ship was the steamship goslar. shortly before the outbreak of world war II the goslar was on its way back to germany and had just passed the panama canal when adolf the terrible declared war on poland. to avoid being captured by the british marine (who was patrolling the atlantic) and also avoid US ports (and the US coast guard) the crew of the goslar had disguised the ship as at first a russian merchant ship and later apparently even sailed under american flag and where slowly making their way along the north-east south american coast until they reached suriname, then a dutch colony, where they anchored during the night of september 5, 1939, and applied for asylum.

at first things seemed to have been fairly relaxed, with the officers of the goslar even being invited by the citizens of paramaribo, that, however, changed on may 10, 1940, when germany invaded holland. the captain of the goslar had the ship moved into the middle of the river suriname and instructed the crew to scuttle the ship in the middle of the river — there are different reports regarding the reasons, and unfortantely, my grandfather has long since died otherwise i could have asked him. one version of the story is that the goslar was sunk to prevent it from falling into allied hands, another version, reported in the june 27, 1943, edition of the st petersburg times, is that the goslar was sunk in the hopes of blocking the harbour and bringing the bauxite export to a standstill (or at least slowing it down). there is even an implied link to an attempted coup to overthrow the government of the dutch colony, as reported in the december 1, 1941 edition of the pittsburgh press according to which the goslar was scuttled as part of the attempted coup. perhaps all stories are just different sides of the same coin.

the crew of the goslar along with my grandfather was then interned in suriname as prisoners of war. apparently there were a couple attempts of escaping from the internment camp, but none of them successful.

the goslar was never raised. according to the report in the st peterburg times it actually helped improve the harbour and bits and pieces of it were re-cycled by the US troops then stationed in suriname. if you look at google maps, you can still see the goslar today!

(larger view)

so, in a way, my grandfather (and the crew of the goslar) created an iron island…

thanks to the excellent wordpress mobile pack wordpress plugin i’m pleased to announce that d2h.net is now mobile enabled: if you visit it on your android or iDon’t, err, iPhone you’ll get a mobile browser-friendly version of our web site. also, http://m.d2h.net/ will take you to the mobile version directly as well.

oh, and you might have noticed, i’ve re-organized the site structure slightly, the blog is now directly at the root of the site.

easy salad:

• about 125g rucola leaves
• about 80-100g smoked salmon
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of whole-grained mustard
• salt
• lemon juice

cut or shred the salmon into little pieces. wash the rucola leaves in a colander and shake off the excessive water. mix the rucola, and the salmon pieces in a bowl. add the oil and the mustard along with a couple of squirts of the lemon juice. mix well. season well with salt.

add croûtons if you like.

it’s sunday. our last night at the ballygarry house hotel was quiet for a change, which is nice. also, as long as our group is having breakfast, we are spared the rather annoying radio blast.¹

after breakfast mrs d and i pack our stuff and join the rest of the pilgrims in our pilgrims bus. the first stop today is in listowel — apparently the literary capital of ireland. our stop is short: mr tambour, our pilgrimage guide, as always, is extremely well prepared and we learn quite a bit about listowel and its literary sons and daughters — but also take a look at listowel’s racetrack during the bus ride from tralee to listowel a co-pilgrim mentioned that apparently writers with a residence in ireland would live tax-free: might that explain the relatively high percentage of writers in relation to the total population? oh, one other thing that’s worth mentioning about listowel: the pedestrian crossing at the newsagents on the main square has an absolutely cool sounding free-to-walk alarm…

it’s a short stop only as we need to catch the 10:00 ferry from tarbert across the river shannon and after 20min or so we are on our way again.

the ferry across the river shannon is a double-ended, open top type of ferry with integral ramps which just drop down to the concrete ferry slips. we do make it to tarbert with about 10min to spare and take the opportunity to have a look across the shannon estuary. the crossing itself is fairly eventless (ignoring that strong shower just before we reach the other side of the river shannon) and we are soon on our way through county clare to lahinch with a short stop at kilkee to have a look at kilkee cliffs.

lahinch means lunch-time! we get dropped off at the sea promenade and mrs d and i do find a nice pub-cum-restaurant, the shamrock inn where we have a rather nice little lunch. it’s a popular place with the locals it seems and service is very friendly and prompt. the food is excellent (as is my pint of guinness )

at about 14:00 we reconvene at our pilgrims’s bus and are off again. next stop: brigid’s well — yep, there’s another one!² this one, in contrast to the other wells we’ve seen so far, is located directly next to the main road and sits to the side of a pub and below a cemetery. interesting combination that. the highlight of our visit is another story by our master story teller, ms k, about the celtic goddess brigid.

of the three places, cemetery, well, and pub, we unfortunately only get to see the well and are soon on our way again to the cliffs of moher!

now, the cliffs of moher: a name that seems to have jumped right of the pages of the hobbit, conjuring up images of wild, remote, difficult to reach cliffs…

well…

…not exactly. if there are any links to hobbit land, then it must be the sticky spider’s web of the black forest of mirkwood which trapped bilbo’s dwarf companions — the cliffs of moher are one gigantic tourist trap. the scenery is nice, what with dramatic cliffs and views west.³ that is true — just don’t look at the king-sized cafeteria, the exhibition center⁴, and a large shopping area selling all the kitsch ireland can throw at you — plus several smaller shops (more kitsch and even more kitsch). mrs d and i speed up to the cliff tops on either side, take a peek at the tower on the north cliff, decide to not pay the entrance fee for the tower, and fight our way back down to the cafeteria — the wind is blowing strongly today — and have a cup of tea, take a look at the kitsch on sale, and settle down to enjoy the sun.

from the cliffs of moher tourist trap our pilgrimage continues towards doolin. instead of going there directly by bus, we get to do a little walk today and approach it from lough north, a nice little walk taking us through the west irish coastal scenery.

our hotel in doolin, hotel doolin, is a newly build hotel in a modern, contemporary style, quite nice. dinner is is the adjoining pub–restaurant, a bit relaxed and not as speedy as the busy ballygarry house hotel, but i quite like it. the food is excellent!

after dinner we split up into little groups and swarm out into the scattered village of doolin to visit the pubs — tonight is “irish pub night”! mrs d and i opt for the “original one”, gus o’connors, founded in 1832.

when we arrive at about 21:45, the live music is already playing (a bit slowly still, but picking up steam [literally] as the night progresses). we settle in with a pint of guinness and cidre and enjoy the music and also the chat with our co-pilgrims.

quite a day

our final full day at tralee and the ballygarry house hotel. tonight we are spared the noisy party guests, unfortunately other co-pilgrims are not so lucky, they suffer from a rather rowdy crowd leaving this night’s wedding party at about 4:00 in the morning. the lady at reception kind of just shrugs her shoulders and replies that it’s not their fault — which ticks me off into voicing my disagreement with that statement…to little avail as her reply is that “they were celebrating a wedding“. my response that, surprisingly as it may sound, we were trying to sleep just draws the standard answer that i could talk to the manager once he’s in. yes. right. thank you. i almost forget to ask whether there’s a possibility of not being blasted by national radio during breakfast.

the weather is billed as “damp all day” — which translates into all-penetrating, fine strong drizzle rain all morning. i realise almost too late that that kind of rain is as effective at soaking my stuff as a strong shower…

first stop today: brendan’s chapel west of tralee for a moment of quiet and reflection. brendan’s chapel is a rather modern building with nice clean architectural lines inside — i quite like that little church and enjoy the prayer, reading a psalm, and the moment of quiet.

next stop: an daingean aka dingle for about 2 hours of sight seeing and some shopping: i need super glue to fix my glasses which have developed this nasty habit of just falling apart at the center piece at the flick of a finger i do finally find a tube of that stuff at the eurospar in an daingean and together with mrs d first locate the post office (two stamps for postcards to the continent) and then the nice little an cafe liteartha hidden away in the back of a bookshop which itself is hidden away in a little side street of an daingean.

at 12:00 we reconvene in our pilgrim’s bus and the whole band of pilgrims is on its way to slea head again to take some “rainy day” pictures, the real target though is the gallarus oratory, a square chapel dating from around 500AD build in the “classical” celtic style: layers of stone slabs, each slightly tilted with the inner edge ending up a bit higher than the outward facing edge, thus, preventing the rain from getting in. our pilgrimage’s guide, mr tambour, buys the tickets for the group and we make our way through the café-cum-souvenir-shop-cum-ticket-counter out to the other side, then follow a gravel path slightly up the hill through a gap in the enclosing wall and end up a the oratory. the chapel has a doorway facing west (i need to duck to get through) and a small-ish window opening towards the east. wanting to get a “feel” for the place, i wait patiently until most of the group has been inside, taken a picture (flash, flash, flash), peeked out through the window opening, peeked into the oratory from the outside through the window opening, collided with me¹ — and manage to catch a minute or so to myself.²

while the rest of the group is still lingering around the oratory i retreat to get away from the hustle & bustle for a bit — and to take a leak. when i approach the outbuilding hosting “the facilities” my ears pick up what sounds like a race track commentator. entering the gents section it turns out to be a live radio feed carrying some running commentary of a horse race being piped into the gents toilet (the radio feed not the horse race, that is)…

we make our way back via an daingean and inch strand — where ms r-w surprises us all by making a run for the beach and taking a bath in the atlantic. to each her own.

dinner is a bit earlier today: we are going to the siamsam tíre theater tonight for a performance of tearmann:

[...] a moving journey to the poorhouse and the Great Irish Famine. Many of those who perished during the famine carried in their folk memor an unknown library of music, song and dance. For some, the last refuge was the Poorhouse. As the drama unfolds, a pair of dance shoes becomes the embodiment of not only all that was lost, but everything that was saved, everything that is still cherished in Irish folk traditions. The dance shoes come to symbolize this wealth of culture – these are magical shoes, they have a life of their own… [siamsam tíre]

and it is a very impressive performance, telling exactly that story with very few words but lots of music, (step) dance, and expression. enjoyed it very much.

looking through drscofield’s twitter messages of the past couple of days i noticed @pixelq’s twitter about “watching the world” and i had to head over to youtube to watch this 3D internet masterpiece once more. IMHO it’s one of the most beautiful pieces of art (and it’s a pity it wasn’t on display in basel recently) — have a look yourself:

almost makes you cry…

content.

if you thought my post about felsenputzing was a joke, think again. courtesy of avid tagesanzeiger reader, mrs d, the link for all of you who want to become expert felsenputzer: register here.

the kunstmuseum in basel is hosting an exhibition of vincent van gogh’s landscape pictures and we had been planning on going up to basel and having a look at them. so, as this sunday had more or less non-stop rain forecast, we had an early sunday breakfast, skipped church, grabbed our rail network cards and hopped on the train from einsiedeln to wädenswil, and changed into the IR train to basel. after about a bit over 2 hours we got to basel main station, changed to the tram and got to the kunstmuseum in just about 5min or so.

yesterday evening i had tried to figure out how much the tickets would cost us — and had found out that entry was timed: you could only buy tickets for a specific entry time period. not fully trusting SBB to be as reliable as we wished it to be¹ we had decided to “risk it” and not bought any tickets in advance. guess, we were lucky: just 10 persons in front of us in the queue for a ticket and we don’t have to wait long either. getting in is a 3-step-process (not counting the ticket purchase):

1. london underground style barriers where you have to insert your newly purchased ticket (supervised by no less than 2 security ladies)
2. we are now in the main entrance hall where we can let go of all our belongings (no cameras, no mobile phone, no clothing…ok, made that last one up), at the end of which is check #2, where you have to show your tickets once more (and again 2 security persons)
3. in front of us is now a huge staircase that would do any temple proud, climbing that we finally end up on the second floor² where our tickets are checked once again.

we queue once more to rent an ipod each as the guided tours are already booked out for all of sunday. then we finally (ticket check #4) get to see vincent’s landscape pictures!

…and i’m really impressed by them. i especially like the ones where van gogh starts experimenting with complementing colours (the flower beds one), pictures from his paris period (like restaurant de la sirene, which unfortunately the kunstmuseum didn’t have as a poster) —

— but also the picture of the sailing boats in the mediterranean sea.

as usual with these kind of art exhibits i’m a bit irritated by the whole hoopla and “oh, this is so important” kind of affected behaviour, by the church of art exhibitions — very aptly summarized by mrs d: “the pictures are beautiful, the whole shebang surrounding it just gets on your nerves.”

we purchase three posters along with proper poster rails to hang them³ and after a late lunch sitting outside on the banks of the rhine are on our way back home. well worth the visit if you ignore all that high-priests-of-art stuff.

at lucerne verkehrshaus i disembark one station earlier than planned, trying to catch the voralpenexpress train back to biberbrugg. with a bit of, let’s say, fast-hobbling i manage to catch the train and am on my way back home.

at biberbrugg i meet up with mrs d who has just been dropped of by fredi and is tired but happy from a fantastic day out. together we hop on to the train to einsiedeln and walk/hobble home

picture links:

• my pictures from today’s tour
• mrs d’s pictures from her tour today

the post bus ride from ibergeregg pass down to schwyz was, well, exciting if not adventurous. in contrast to the more gentle norther approach from oberiberg, the southern approach really takes you into the alps with breathtaking views across lake lucerne, up to the huser stock and hengst mountains — all the way constantly going back and forth, left and right, most of the time with no space for two cars, let alone a car and post bus, to pass each other. the way down thus turns into an almost constant post bus horn concerto and i’m glad that it’s not me who is doing the driving a fantastic ride!

we get to schwyz in time for the bus to brunnen, ship station and i get there with 20min to spare unitl the 12:50 steam ship to lucerne departs. from the south more and more cumulus congestus and cumulus nimbus clouds make their way north and i wonder what the weather in the gotthard area is like and whether mrs d can enjoy the panorama or is stuck in the clouds.

the steamship uri, an old paddle steamer, arrives right on time and departs right on time. i make my way up to first class and the restaurant, where i can share table with an elderly couple from nidwalden (as it later transpires). over lunch we chat a bit about living in switzerland, rüschlikon (he grew up there) and the beautiful lake lucerne area.

later i go outside and watch the scenery slowly go past. switzerland seems full of beautiful places.

sound of the steamship “uri” on lake lucerne

first stop on my tour through the swiss alps by public transport: ibergeregg pass.

the post bus from oberiberg wound its way up the pass road navigating lots of curves and bends each time sounding its characteristic swiss post bus horn: dah-dee-doh-dah!

sound of the ibergeregg–schwyz post bus

right at the summit of the ibergeregg pass is a pub-cum-hotel with a nice terrace providing a fantastic view of the alps! i’ve got until 11:40 for the bus to schwyz and settle down for a cup of coffee and some mountain and motorbike watching: the pass road is very popular with both bikers and motor bikers and over the course of half an hour you get to see motorbikes of almost any shape and make: those tiny ones with barely enough power to make it up here — isn’t there a law against mistreating small mopeds — up to real monster bikes that threaten to eat the whole pass in one go, road, mountain, pub, the lot.

then there are the racing cyclists: mostly men in their late 50s (the younger ones are probably already at home again), sometimes accompanied by a younger woman, always in what appears to be the latest racing outfit, almost all happy to reach the summit.

next stop: schwyz.

having hobbled to einsiedeln station, i’m in time for the 9:05 post bus to oberiberg — the weather is fantastic and i do envy mrs d for her snowshoe hike from the gotthard pass up to fibbia, a tour i’d been looking forward to very much¹, especially as it is guided by fredi kälin from bluedimensions (if you want to do really nice walks or snowshoe tours: book fredi!)

instead of moapping around at home, however, i’ve planned a little mountain and lake tour myself — using only public transport i intend to go from einsiedeln via oberiberg to ibergeregg pass, have a coffee break there and enjoy the panorama, then on to the capital of our canton, schwyz. next stop is going to be brunnen where the plan is to switch to the steamship for lucerne. from lucerne it’s back by train via arth-goldau and biberbrugg to einsiedeln again.

lazyrelaxed.

[some german skills required]

i used to sing in the church choir of the united methodist church adliswil back then when we still lived in adliswil. around december of last year michael hug, a very good friend of mine, asked me whether i wanted to take part in the farewell summer concert for viktor hug, long time conductor of the choir¹ — naturally, having always enjoyed the way viktor leads the choir, i agreed. and so i’m taking the train from rüschlikon almost every thursday night to thalwil, pick up the mobility car there and drive back to adliswil in time for choir practice. then at around 21:30 i “race” back to thalwil, drop off the car at the station, and catch the train back to wädenswil to make the connection to the train to einsieden.

tonight we were practicing chorus #24, der herde gleich, out of händel’s messiah — and although we had had a stab at that one before, tonight i picked up an old german word: wallen. it seems to mean to walk and is used like “er wallte seinen weg dahin” (he went his way). i liked it so much, that at arund 21:30 i didn’t just go, no, ich wallte von dannen

stumbled over this excellent youtube clip about lambient media … enjoy!

lazyrelaxed.

as we did last year, over the easter weekend mrs d and i stayed with the sisters of the communität casteller ring on the schwanberg again. in contrast to last year, when we had snow on good friday, this year the weather was just splendid with the sun shining from wednesday afternoon all the way through monday when we returned to erlangen.

i really enjoyed the “time out” from my job and from the day-to-day hustle and bustle and took the chance to think several things through and reach a kind of internal consensus on some of them.

ever since i’d seen american cemeteries with their open, park-like appearance — in contrast to the european but certainly in contrast to the german and swiss ones with their rows and rows of “burial allotments” — i had been fascinated¹ with the concept of a friendly, open, and peaceful cemetery and found it sad that there was nothing comparable available in my home country, germany…

…until a couple of years ago when we learned about the friedwald concept, where, after cremation, one gets buried next to a tree in a specially designated forest, the friedwald.

somewhere around 2006/2007 we learned during one of our stays on the schwanberg that a friedwald was going to be established on the schwanberg. ever since both mrs d and i had wanted to buy a final resting place for both of us there but somehow had never got around to it. so, this easter we went and acquired our last and final resting places: it’s tree #282, a lovely spot close to the old celtic wall.

you are welcome to visit