was an oven; it was an ordeal getting to Basel, etc. The people we stayed with, Lukas and Dita, are vWe’re on our way to Marburg, Germany from Basel, Switzerland to visit Evelyn Korn. I trust this will be less of an ordeal than the trip to Basel, which was (I think) productive for Phil, and fun, but an ordeal nonetheless. Getting there was an ordeal (“fast train” from Paris to Mulhouseery interesting, and Dita is a great cook. They are not permanently in Basel, though, and are in a rented third floor walk-up, and we slept on a mattress on the floor. And it has gotten hot over here.
People over here are just discovering ice. Basel was interesting, though. It’s not very big, and is on the point of Switzerland where
Switzerland, Germany and France meet. I took a picture from the edge of the Rhine (which, by the way, is HUGE), looking under a bridge. I was in Switzerland, and the gray building on the left bank under the bridge is in France, and the oil tanks on the right bank are in Germany.
I’ve had sort of zero down-time, and I need some. P wants me to phone Jeannette Dumas to find out what’s happened with the plumbing repair, but I need to phone Martin, too, and haven’t found any way to put more money on the cell phone I bought. And the charger for the camera is in my luggage, and the battery is virtually dead, so I can’t do much with that.
P also wants me to spread the word that he went for a morning swim in the Rhine River while I was still asleep. Lukas and Dita live the equivalent of half a block from the river.
I went to the Van Gogh exhibit at the art museum and visited the Munster yesterday, did some “sort of” shopping but didn’t buy any clothes. Everything is dreadfully expensive, even when it’s on sale. I did buy yet another pepper grinder as I REALLY don’t like either of the ones I have in Couze. One is really hopeless and the new one is marginally better. Maybe this one will actually work.
Restaurant food seems astonishingly expensive.
Went out to an Italian restaurant last night with a couple of Lukas’s students. Very good, very authentic Italian food made by a family who is actually from the Parma area and claim they get their pasta sent to them by relatives in Italy. It
was certainly good, and certainly expensive. VERY good, though.
P and I went back to the Munster this morning before we got on the train to go to Marburg. It’s very interesting. Red sandstone. Most of it is 14th century, some is 15th, and the oldest part is 9th or 10th century; it appears they aren’t certain. Has some very interesting tombs in it, and a lovely garden behind it overlooking the Rhine, plus a lovely park full of chestnut trees on one side. It was good; I’m glad we went back there, as when I visited briefly yesterday, I was whacked.
On Tuesday night Dita made dinner. After black olives and a bottle of white wine down on the river’s edge, while dangling our feet in the water, we ate on their tiny balcony. Had gazpacho from the classic recipe somewhere in Andalusia. Fresh tomatoes, sred bell pepper, lots of garlic, bread soaked in olive oil, put through a food mill or food processor, chilled. Very good. Then an “empanada” and salad. The empanada had in it onion, zucchini, red bell pepper, basil, feta cheese,…baked between two sheets of puff pasty. Salad and vinaigreet. Bread. Red wine. Followed by some kind of yummy orange cake with frosting that she also made. It turns out she wanted to be a chef, but chef schools in Venezuela (she’s Spanish but grew up in Venezuela) wouldn’t accept women when she was ready to go. So she became a biologist.
I hope Marburg is more relaxing than the last three days have been. I’ve been hot, tired and on the run all the time…
Later. And I’ll put some photos in when I can download them.
Lillie
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