Zürich Airport

I'm in the elegant surroundings of Zürich Airport catching up on some emails.

Last night I went up to the Heilig Kreuz church to take more pictures of the organ, and ended up having coffee in the chapter house with Theo and some of the some people who work with children including Ursula, a vivacious young lady who said one day she would love to come to Australia.

Some futher last minute shopping around Basel; lunch at Zum Isaak on Münsterplatz, and then we took some more pictures which Alec believed would provide further evidence of an earlier date for the case of the organ at Roskilde.

David has chosen not to release these recordings - the music isn't quite ready. He thinks it will take a further 2 months of work, and he'll come back to it in a couple of years.

Friday

Alec and David left at 5.45am to get their tram and a train on to Naples.

My flight from Zürich isn't until 1.30pm so I can have breakfast at the hotel before getting a train to Zürich.

Arlesheim

What a fabulous-looking organ - this one dates from 1750, and shows fine Rococo decoration. We even got to hear it played thanks to a visit by a group of organ fanciers from Munich.

Off to the Mountains

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Today I'm going to try to take a picture that is representative of that statement which comes from the Sermon on the Mount. You'll see how it works when the CD comes out!

Looks like it is going to be clear again. A bit crisp in the morning, but I'm sitting outside and a t-shirt and long-sleeved shirt is enough, so it can't be that cold. It gets to about 15° during the day.

Over breakfast

Here's a view of the Rhine from just behind the Münster. It is fast-flowing, but I've heard that people swim in it. It is a matter of getting in and being carried downstream I think.



There's a curious behaviour one can observe at any bed and breakfast establishment. The breakfast room is usually quiet and people drift, select the table the greatest distance from any other party already breakfasting, they make selections from the range of foodstuffs laid out, and place their order for tea of coffee. Invariabley I have found that milk is provided with the coffee, even though you replied in the negative when the host made a point of asking if you would care for milk with your coffee.

Anyway, the scene is now set for the very peculiar behaviour. Each of the couples in the breakfast room begin speaking to each other sotto voce, presumably so that other parties in the room will not be able to hear what they have to say. The trouble is, the person across the table can't hear what they have to say either, and every 2nd or 3rd phrase is greeted with "Hmm?". This expression seems to be the same in any language. I really felt for the mumbling couple across the room from me this morning. We three were the only ones there, and I felt like telling them it was OK for them to speak up, my German isn't good enough for me to understand anything they are telling each other anyway!



After getting some fruit (including raspberries of course!) I spent a while around the Münster today. It is a fabulous square, and from drawings I've seen from the 1400s, it looks much the same today as it did then!





I've made a ticket change today - it will be more convenient to fly home from Zurich than Copenhagen. It would have been nice to go back to Copenhagen, however we need the extra days here, and there's not much point going back there to spend an hour in transit!

More Swiss sights

Taken at sunrise, this shows the Holy Cross (Heilig Kreuz) church in Binningen. I met Theo Ettlin tonight - he's the organist here in Binningen. Very energetic and an excellent musician.

Binningen

No recording today. The city is quiet with shops closed. David told me that when he lived here 40 years ago he and his flatmate were doing some work in the attick where they lived on a Sunday, and they came down to find a note on the door asking them not to work on a Sunday.

So stalls are open - there's a man selling lovely roast chestnuts.

Got a good picture of the Holy Cross church this morning with lovely lighting created by the rising sun behind it.

Basel

What lovely city! The Outside the main cathedral, the Münster, there is a fabulous square, Münsterplatz. Photos coming.

On Friday I started out doing a walking tour of the greater old city, and explored spots along the Rhine, starting with St. Alban-Kirche built around 1270. This millwheel is nearby.

The dates given for these posts can be a day later than here in Switzerland. It is Saturday evening as I type this, but because this blog is registered in Australian time, when I create a new post it is atuomatically dated as Sunday 7 October.


These are pictures from Saturday . . .

This is Basel Spanlentor, a gate which was part of the walled city. It dates from 1370, but the walls themselves were destroyed in the 19th century.



The Rathaus is on square normally occupied by stall-holders selling everthing from cheese to trinkets. There's a busy tram stop here too.


The Historisches Museum Barfusserplatz is Basel’s history museum. It is housed in what was a Franciscan church built in the 1300s. Amongst the relics and sculptures on display is a series of stained glass windows. This one show a portative organ. David tells me he's having one made. Basel has a wonderful academy of music at which David specialised in ancient music, particularly that which would have been played on the clavicytherium.


David took me to the University library where he was keen to see an exibition featuring a woman he knew when livig in Basel 40 years ago, the Swiss mezzo-soprano Elsa Cavelti. She's made her debut in Poland in 1936, and worked with the State Theatre of Beuthen (Silesia, near Bytom, Poland), in Düsseldorf and at the National Opera of Dresden, City Theatre of Zürich as dramatic alto. She sang on the principal European and American stages and was know for her premiers of the works of Swiss composers like Paul Huber, Othmar Schoek, Frank Martin, Willy Burkhard and Rudolf Kelterborn. She became a highly respected teacher and died in Basel in 2001.

Switzerland

It stayed warm and muggy all day.

Wall sockets for electricity in Switzerland are not compatible with those in the rest of Europe. Fortunately I could borrow an adapter from the hotel. There is a socket in my room that will take the European plugs, but no such luck at the Holy Cross Church.

I did (for me) a great deal of walking, so an afternoon soaking in the tub in my room was just what the doctor ordered.


Thursday night David played about one third of the program, then in the hotel restaurant he spoke of some of the history of Basel, and its Catholic and Protestant heritage. I wish I'd taken notes! The organ pre-dates the churches - it was used at the head of an army as they went into battle. These large steam-driven calliopes must have been frightening.

Norway

Spent Wednesday in Årnes with Jim Stirling and family - great to see them again. Pictures of Stirling Station coming.

I flew to Oslo. It was 3°C when we landed and some fog had developed. Jim picked me up at Gardemoen Airport and said that the day before has started foggy but cleared into a beautiful day. Well, it did so again, and I had the chance to relax on Stirling Station with Jim and Edel, Espen and Tina who was home from school for the 'potato harvest', a week in atumn when it was traditional for all hands to help lift the potato harvest from the ground. They are not growing potatoes on Stirling Station, but there's no shortage of animals! I've seen some changes since last time I was there - the place has so many things to do and see - a wonderful day out especially for kids.

Jim ran me back to Gardermoen, but not before he had a chance encounter with an excavator and a truckload of topsoil it had lifted from the roadside. The topsoil will come in handy for projects Jim has going on around the farm.

I wore the hat through the airport at Oslo - there may be a picture. It has an effect on people.

Had 30 minutes to check some email for NOK 59 while waiting for the flight. I love the wooden floors of the Scandinavian airports - the lighting is stylish and effecting, and the leather-upholstered seats I was sitting on were made of wood mounted by a matt stainless steel on some rendered concrete stands. Lovely effect. And of course tastefully framed billboards of Mads Mikkelson wearing the latet H&M gear were visible through most of the airport.

From the airport at Oslo back to Copenhagen is a 60 minute flight, and within 10 minutes I had my return train ticket to Malmö where I caught up with Ross who'd had found time amongst his meetings to go shopping at H&M!

Set the alarm for 6am. My flight was at 8.15 - I'd not checked and seemed to recall that it left at 8.30, so was cutting it fine because the trained pulled out of Malmö at 7.02am - they do run precisely on time fortunately - and by the time I got to Kastrup it was 7.30am. I saw on the board that my flight could check in at positions 32-39, each being fed by the one long line snaking its way back and forth in front of 4 open check-in positions. I stood in line for 10 minutes knowing that my flight would have left before I got to the head of the line, so I pulled out of the line and went straight to the Business Class check-in (I'd not been able to see this for the sea of people lined up in front of Economy, but my Star Alliance Premier status affords me this option.)  I'm sure I'd have missed my flight if I'd had to wait in Economy. As it was, there was still a long way to go - there was a sign at security advising that the wait in that line would be 7 minutes; and from there, once unbelted jeans are rebelted and the laptop is back in the backpack, there was a long walk to what must be the furthermost gate at Kastrup, D104. The flight was boarding when I got there.

I'm typing this onboard a Spanair MD-83 - the flight is nowhere near full and I have an empty seat either side of me. I hadn't realised that this would be a codeshare flight with a Spanish airline, so it was a pleasant cultural surprise to read of fabulous Latino destinations in the Spanorama magazine whilst being served breakfast by the Spanish crew.

The magazine also has a feature on Aging rock stars - Los viejos rockeros nunca mueren - Old rock singers die hard. The article rounds up the usual suspects to say what? I'm not sure, apart from the fact that the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, The Doors (albeit without Jim Morrison) were still going strong. It draws a bit of a long bow inluding Sting in there - he's only in his early 50s. But it points out that we have a group of musicians who don't retire in this business - after the death of Johnny Cash we had James Brown, and Ray Charles about whom there was a recent bio-pic. It finishes bup by saying " . . . the most relevant in rock history aren't its heroes, either dead or alive, but the freeing attitudes the injected to successive generations of fans. Their haircuts and jeans, but also their young spirit and pacifism, under that motto: "Make love, not war". A picture of a bare-footed guitar-playing Sting is captioned: "Sting says he makes love daily thanks to yoga".

It is beautiful weather in Basel - about 20°C and it looks like there has been rain recently. The conductor on the train spoke in French, though most people in this region speak German.

I met up with David and Alec at the hotel where they were having lunch. The church is pleasant and we'll hear how good the organ sounds tonight!

Malmö Castle

Visting the castle today - and some shopping of course!

Tuesday I walked to the castle in Malmö - it wasn't going to be open for another hour, but it the courtyard there were some large photographs captioned with lines from the words of a song by Bob Dylan, "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall". The exhibition contains photos by Mark Edwards had opened on September 15th, and is there until next year. Very powerful.

In the afternoon I went to a famous sauna - were you can sit and look south across the ocean towards Denmark. You'd need to almost press you face to the window to see but in the distance off to your left is the huge bridge that connects Denmark with Sweden, while off to the right you'd be able to see Sweden's tallest building, the Twisted Torso tower. I went there later, but first I had to put some clothes on. You see I'm sitting naked on a little square of cloth which prevents my bum being burnt by the hot wooden stands - and this is the cooler of the two saunas! I walked into the other one, and felt my feet burning so walked out again - so that's why some of the chaps were in fact wearing something - footwear!

Sweden

I love the designs created by Bo Bendixen - bold, bright and a good sense of fun. His headquarters are at Aarhus north of Copenhagen, but you can find some t-shirts, postcards and coffe cups at Atrium in Copenhagen. Most of his other stores are in beachside towns around Denmark. I'm looking forward to seeing his shop at the airport too, now that it is reopened after re-developments.

Today we took the train to Malmö in Sweden, and looked around the old city, had lunch on Lilla Torg (Little Square), some of the buidlings around it dating from the 16th century. Not to be put off by cooler days, the Swedes dine al fresco sometimes wrapping themselves in the blanket provided at each seat by the restaurant!

There are many pedestrian malls where bicycles are the only vehicular traffic. And pedestrians are out in force - this must be healthier for business - and the pedestrians.


The Sankt Petri Kyrka (St. Peter Church) is the oldest structure in Malmö, and I ws fascinated to see many carvings from the mid 1600s there very similar to the carvings on the organ at Roskilde which dates from the same time. The oldest part of the Sankt Petri Kyrka is the Krämarkapellett, or Tradesmen's chapel, which is decorated with frescos from the 1400s. These had been whitewashed during the Reformation, but were uncovered in the earth 20th century.

København - Roskilde

Took the train to Kastrup airport to see if my SAS vouchers could get us a flight to Oslo. Unfortunately, it was going to be over DKR 4,000 return, the internet fares last night were DKR 1,400 for the two of us to go, but the vouchers can't be used online. I made a booking for Wednesday, and then we headed back for breakfast in Copenhagen. Danish pastries of course, and coffee at a little place attached to an information centre across the road from the Tivoli.


We got the train for Roskilde, spending until early afternoon there. The caretaker at Roskilde Domkirke recognised me and let us in part way through a church service - lovely to hear the organ and the congregation singing.

After that we hit the waterfront, the home of the Vikingships museum, had another coffee and watched a blacksmith at work making nails. The old Viking traditions of ship building are kept alive there, At the museum I bought a CD of what musicologists presume the musical instruments of the Vikings must have sounded like. Quite tuneful, though some very strange sounds are emitted from horns.

I called back afterwards to thank him - he said he was on the second of four services there today. Thence to Bryggegårten for lunch - it wasn't open until midday, but we had only 5 minutes to wait. Some of the nicest pasta and smoked salmon I could hope to taste anywhere! Made Skype contact with Christopher, and found the signal persisted out in the street so were able to give him a front row seat at a performance by a hat-wearing gambler who gave me a treatise on how the only computer system worth operating was linix because it was free.


The Danish trains are efficient - clean, quiet and frequent. This is being written on the train heading back to Copenhagen. Back in Copenhagen we explored the waterfront around Nyhavn and saw the new opera house just across from the Danish Admiral Hotel.

From there to the palace!