Friday and Saturday, July 11-12, 2025–Zermatt to Geneva

Posted on July 12, 2025 by dunngone

After sleep, packing, and breakfast, we left the hotel and walked to the train station

Along the way, we enjoyed the streets and old buildings of Zermatt.

Two unique architectural features were stone tiled roofing and straddle stones for building foundations.

Stone tile roofs, particularly those made from slate or schist, are a traditional and characteristic feature of Swiss architecture, especially in the Swiss Alps. These roofs are known for their durability, ability to withstand heavy snowfall, and their integration with the surrounding landscape. The stones are typically sourced locally and cut into flat pieces, then laid in overlapping layers on wooden beams.

Foundation straddle stones or stone slabs were used historically for structures like granaries in areas like Switzerland as foundations. These mushroom-shaped or tapered stone pillars lifted the building above ground level, making it all but impossible for rodents to climb up and into the structure. This foundation stones were used particularly for Swiss granaries.

We took the train from Zermatt to Tsushima, then bussed to Lausanne, Switzerland, for visit to the International Olympic museum (Lausanne is headquarters for the International Olympics.

Our guide, Eva, was a torch bearer for the Salt Lake City Games, and her torch is on display in the museum.

Other notable relics of past Olympics are on display.

From the International Olympic museum, we traveled to the Lavaux Vineyards Terraces for wine tasting and lunch. The Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, stretching for about 18 miles along the south-facing northern shores of Lake Geneva from the Chateau de Chillon to the eastern outskirts of Lausanne in the Vaud region, cover the lower slopes of the mountainside between the villages and the lake.

Although there is some evidence that vines were grown in the area in Roman times, the present vine terraces can be traced back to the 11th century, when Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries controlled the area. It is an outstanding example of a centuries-long interaction between people and their environment, developed to optimize local resources so as to produce a highly valued wine that has always been important to the economy. Since July 2007, Lavaux is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From Lavaux we bussed to Geneva for the final days of our trip.

Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland. It is situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhone River exits Lake Geneva. It is a center for international diplomacy, hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world, including the headquarters of many agencies of the United Nations and the IRC and IFRC of the Red Cross.

It has been referred to as the world’s most compact metropolis and the “Peace Capital”. In the aftermath of World War I, it hosted the League of Nations. It was where the Geneva Conventions on humanitarian treatment in war were signed, and symbolized by the “Broken Chair”.

It shares a unique distinction with New York City, Basel, and Strasbourg as a city which serves as the headquarters of at least one critical international organization without being the capital of a country..

Our excursion included a bus tour of the diplomatic zone, a stop at the United Nations, drive-by of WHO and International Red Cross, a walking tour of old town and St. Peter Cathedral, and concluding with a boat ride in Lake Geneva.

Saint Pierre Cathedral is a historic church in Geneva.

It was originally a Roman Catholic cathedral but became a Calvanist Church in 1535.

It is known as the adopted home church of John Calvin, one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation. Inside the church is a wooden chair used by Calvin.

This excursion concluded the sight-seeing portion of our trip. It has been wonderful, despite a persistent head cold for over two weeks.

Monday, July 7, 2025–Basel Highlights

Posted on July 7, 2025 by dunngone

Basel is located in the northwest of Switzerland in the border triangle between Germany, France and Switzerland. Basel is Switzerland’s third most populous city. The city on the Rhine is considered the country’s art and culture capital. Basel is a city with three official languages: French, German, and Italian.

Basel’s old town is filled with picturesque alleyways and over 200 fountains.

Highlights include the town hall and the cathedral. Basel Minster is a religious building in the Swiss city of Basel, originally a Roman Catholic cathedral and today a Reformed Protestant church.

The original cathedral was built between 1019 and 1500 in Romanesque and Gothic styles.

The Basel Town Hall is a 500-year-old building dominating the Marketplace. The Town Hall houses the meetings of the Cantonal Parliament as well as the Cantonal Government of the canton of Basel-Stadt.

Daniel Bernoulli, a famous mathematician and physicist was a native son of Basel. Bernoulli’s principle is a key concept in fluid dynamics that relates pressure, speed and height. The resulting Bernoulli Equation is often written as:

P + 1/2ρv² + ρgh = constant, where

Pressure (P): The force exerted by the fluid per unit area.

Velocity (v): The speed of the fluid.

Density (ρ): The mass of the fluid per unit volume.

Elevation (h): The height of the fluid above a reference point.

Gravity (g): The acceleration due to gravity.

The majority of my graduate work in engineering involved Bernoulli’s principle.

Guide and plaque honoring Daniel Bernoullil

We spent our “downtime” in a small plaza, Basel’s Petersplatz, watching cultural dances and children riding on the beautifully decorated, illuminated Frankfurt horse carousel. The antique carousel has a “horse” made by Peter Philip Schneider in Frankfurt, Germany, around the late 19th century. The horse is a rare, hand-carved and painted example from the golden age of carousels. It is a standing style carousel horse, intricately detailed and professionally restored.

Sunday through Saturday, February 8-15, 2025—What’s Next?

Posted on February 15, 2025 by dunngone

Kay and I have been RVing pretty much since we got together—25 years. Now that the RV is gone, and there is not one in the future, what will we do next? First and foremost, we’ll stay home in Hot Springs Village more, enjoying our house and lakefront lot. We will continue to play golf and pickleball. And Kay will likely fill up her social calendar while I’ll ramp up photography experiences. If my back will tolerate it, I would like to do some yard work and gardening, particularly for pollinators. And time will be made for even a bit of woodworking now that the absence of a third car frees up a portion of the garage. Maybe, even car/tent camp. And, we will continue to travel—just not for extended times, likely three weeks or less at a time.We still have several places to go on our life list: Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand, more of the Pacific Northwest, northern Arizona and southern Utah, and maybe even Africa. Whereas financial aspects used to be the limiting factor, now it is health and wellness, or lack thereof, so we’ll see.

Now, for this reporting period. Because of lots of rain, conditions in the Village have been wet so no pickleball and no golf. We’ve both done a bit of cooking and baking, and I have made a couple of things in the “shop”. Our shoes—golf shoes, outdoor shoes, gardening shoes, swimming shoes, etc.— were seemingly everywhere in the garage. So, a shoe bench seemed like a good idea. And, we had a cushion left over from “our” first house (actually Kay’s house). Made with a “trout and fly fishing” fabric that I wanted to use. Consequently, that set the dimensions of length, width, and height. Cheap lumber was used, i.e. #2 pine; it was of very poor quality, but “good enough”. So, after a bunch of sawdust, measurement errors, and wrong screws, the bench was finished. It’s not something to be proud of, but is serves it’s purpose quite well pattern.

And then, a coat and cap rack was necessary to hold all the umbrellas, rain jackets, work coats, and caps and hats. If it’s length were the same as the bench’s, the two would look quite matched. A couple of rare pieces of clear 1 x 4 x 8 pine had been purchased previously from Lowe’s and one was used for the coat and cap rack. It was a simple design and build: cut to length, edges routed with a decorative pattern, sanded, a finish applied, and the coat and cap hooks installed.