Dinner in the Woods

One of my very first blog posts, eleven years ago, told the story of how I made contact with my Swiss cousins.  After I retired, I started doing research on my family genealogy.  One of my great-grandmothers was from Switzerland, and her death certificate gave the town where she was born... Othmarsingen.  I discovered that the town had a website, and I wrote a message in the guestbook asking if anyone had any information about my Swiss family.  Niklaus, who at the time was one of the town councilmen, read my message, and did a bit of detective work.  He found a distant cousin who was still living in Othmarsingen.  That was the beginning of my relationship with my Swiss family, and I owe it all to Niklaus.

Nick and I have kept in touch all these years, and each time that I travel to Switzerland, we get together.  I told him that I was going to spend a few nights in Aarau, which is only a short drive from Othmarsingen where he still lives.  He suggested a restaurant near Aarau where we could meet, and since I wanted to treat my cousin Walter and his wife Helen for dinner, the four of us got together.

The restaurant is called Chalet Saalhoehe.  It is located in the forests of the foothills of the Jura Mountains, which extend along the border between Switzerland and France.

At the restaurant with Nick, the man who found my Swiss family

In spite of its rustic setting the restaurant was quite elegant.  Everyone is familiar with fondue, one of Switzerland's most famous dishes.  But we had something I had never heard of... "Fleischfondue" (Meat fondue).  Just as with cheese fondue, we shared a heated fondue pot.  But instead of melted cheese, the pot was filled with hot broth.  We had plates of sliced beef and vegetables which we put on skewers and dipped into the pot.

It was a delicious meal, and a wonderful evening of great company!

The First of the Season

 As the Day of the Dead approaches, more and more bakeries, cafés and restaurants are featuring the seasonal favorite... "pan de muerto" (bread of the dead).  No, bread of the dead is not, as Alejandro morbidly jokes, made from the ashes of the dead.  It is a sweet bread shaped like a round bun, with crossbones of dough on top.

Some places, such as Walmart, have been selling "pan de muerto" for over a month.  I, however, vowed that I would not eat any until October.

Today I was walking through the Condesa neighborhood, and I passed a bakery located near the Airbnb that I used to rent.  The bakery is called Gran Vía, and, although it is not very big, their breads and pastries are very good.  I could not resist looking in their window to see if they had bread of the dead.  They did, and they also had "pan de muerto" with chocolate filling.

I bought two.  One I ate as I was walking back to the apartment, and the other I will have tonight.  I guess we can say that the Day of the Dead season has begun for me.

  

In Aarau

After Werner's birthday party, I went with my cousin Walter (he is a first cousin of Werner's) and his wife Helen, and spent three nights with them at their home in Aarau.  Aarau is a pleasant town of around 20,000 people and is the capital of the canton of Aargau.

When we got to their house, I gave them a number of gifts which I had brought for them.  I bought Helen a hand-woven "rebozo" (Mexican shawl) and a "guayabera" shirt for Walter.

 

Helen and Walter have traveled to Mexico in the past.  Before I took this trip, I had asked Helen for some ideas of what to buy for them as gifts.  She sent me some photos of Mexican handicrafts that they had purchased previously, and I could see that they liked the traditional Day of the Dead figures.  While I was at a handicraft fair in Mexico City I found this delightful papier mache skeleton figure playing the guitar, and I decided that I had to buy it for Walter.

Since Walter is a doctor, I had the last minute idea of buying him a "Dr. Simi" doll.  I explained to them that the dolls were based on the logo of the "Farmacias Similares" chain of drug stores, and how the dolls have become very popular.

They seemed to be very pleased with their gifts from Mexico.

The next day, Walter took me on a tour of Aarau's small but picturesque "Altstadt" or Old Town.  The neighborhood is usually very lively with lots of shops and restaurants.  But in Switzerland the shops are all closed on Sunday, and the streets were very quiet.  (If you need to buy something from the supermarket, the only one that is open is the one in the train station.)

 

One of the city gates survives from when Aarau was a walled city.  Local buses are barely able to fit through the gate.

Next to the gate is a clock tower.

As in most Swiss towns, there is a fountain which served as a source of water for the population.  It is perfectly safe to drink from any of the public fountains in Switzerland.  Such fountains are usually topped with beautiful statues.  This one has a figure of "Lady Justice".

The church in the "Altstadt" dates from the 1400s.

A unique feature of Aarau's Old Town is that the undersides of the gables of many houses are decoratively painted.  This has given the town the nickname of "The City of Beautiful Gables".

At Half Mast

Yesterday, I was in downtown Mexico City.  As I passed the Zócalo, I saw that the enormous Mexican flag on the plaza was at half mast.

It was the anniversary of the Massacre of Tlatelolco.  In 1968 on this day, thousands of student protestors along with bystanders had gathered peacefully at the Plaza of Three Cultures in the Mexico City district of Tlatelolco.  The police and military fired upon them.  The exact death toll is uncertain, but probably between 300 and 400 people died.

Each year there are student marches on October 2nd to commemorate the massacre.  I had left the Zócalo long before the demonstrators had arrived at the plaza.  However, because major streets were going to be blocked by the marchers, service on the Metrobus was suspended on several lines.  I had to walk some distance before I was able to take a bus back to the apartment.

I read today that around six thousand people participated in the march.  For the most part it was peaceful, but there was a small group of perhaps 150 malcontents who were smashing windows, spraying graffiti on buildings, and throwing firecrackers at police. 

The Big Event

When I first wrote about my planned trip to Europe, I explained that my reason for going was to attend the 70th birthday party of my Swiss cousin Werner.  My cousin Brigitta, with whom I was staying, is Werner's sister.  So, of course, she and her husband Peter were attending the event.  Around noon on the Saturday of the party, they drove me from Uster, where they live, to Othmarsingen, the ancestral home of the family.  Othmarsingen is about 30 miles to the east, on the other side of Zurich, and the party was going to be at the house that belonged to their parents.

The event was planned to be held in the back yard, and we were all concerned about the weather.  As it turned out, the weather was perfect... warm and sunny.

There were perhaps fifty people at the party.  I did not know some of them, but there were many others, including numerous cousins, that I knew from previous trips.  Most everyone speaks English, so there were plenty of people with whom I could chat.  I did not have a chance to talk at length with Werner since, as the host, he had to mingle with all his guests.  I gave him his birthday gift, which was my original painting which I used to create this year's Christmas cards.

A bar had been set up in the back yard, and there was a food truck which was serving tacos.  I had my doubts as to how authentic the tacos would be, but, other than the fact that they were served on flour tortillas, they were quite good.  They even had cilantro and salsas for garnishing them and lime wedges.  (A squeeze of lime juice is obligatory for an authentic taco.)  I had to chuckle watching some of the guests attempt to eat a taco, and I showed a couple of them how to roll it up.

There was also a band performing throughout the afternoon.

  

Werner, the birthday boy, is to the left, and he is with his brother and sisters.

 

I had brought my luggage with me, because after the party, my cousin Walter and his wife Helen were taking me to their home in Aarau (just nine miles to the east) where I was to stay for the next three nights.

A Once in Every Six Years Holiday

Yesterday, October 1st, was a public holiday in Mexico.  However, the holiday occurs only once every six years.  It is the day of the inauguration of the new President.

This morning the front page of every newspaper in the city (and most likely the entire nation) bore the image of the first woman President in Mexico's history, Claudia Sheinbaum.  In fact, she is the first woman President in the history of the entire continent of North America.

(Even "Metro", a tabloid that is dedicated more to sports and crime reporting and outrageous stories, had a picture of Sheinbaum in the corner of its front page.)

"...promete hacer de México ´potencia científica´"

"She promises to make Mexico a scientific power."

Given the fact that she has a Ph.D. in energy engineering, one would hope that her Presidency will have a scientific slant.

"Gobernaré para todos, sin odios, por un país próspero."

"I will govern for everyone, without hatred, for a prosperous country."

Let's hope that those words are not just platitudes. 

Hopefully, within a few months, there will be another woman President on the North American continent.

A Delightful Town

I mentioned earlier that I had taken a train to Schaffhausen to visit the Rheinfall.  You perhaps have never heard of Schaffhausen before, but it was one of the highlights of my trip.  I told you that I would frequently use the German word "Altstadt" which means Old Town.  I saw many on this trip (and there are more to come), but my favorite "Altstadt" was that of Schaffhausen.  Its compact and largely pedestrianized Old Town is a delight, and it is not overrun with tourists.  After viewing the Rheinfall, I spent the afternoon wandering its picturesque streets.

The "Altstadt" is filled with lovely buildings, some dating from the Renaissance.  A number of them have elaborately painted facades.

The town is also noted for its oriel windows (a type of bay window).  There are 171 of them.

The history of the Church of St. Johann goes back to the 11th century, but the current structure was built in the 14th through 16th centuries.  Originally a Catholic Church, it became a Protestant church at the beginning of the Reformation.

On a hill overlooking Schaffhausen is a circular fortress called Munot.  It was built in the 1500s to protect the town.  The only time that it saw military action was in 1799 when Napoleon came through here on his way back from Austria.

This little staircase along a street in the "Altstadt" turned out to be the way to climb to the fortress.

The hillside is covered with vineyards.

Inside Munot there is a large dark chamber where troops would have gathered in case of attack.

A spiral ramp leads up to the roof.

From there you have a great view of the town.

After exploring Schaffhausen, it was time to have dinner before taking the train back to Zurich.  I went to a place called Restaurant Falken.

I started with a Swiss specialty that I had never seen before... "weissweinsuppe" (white wine soup).  It was very good and rich with cream.

For my main dish I had schnitzel again.  It seems that schnitzel is always served with French fries.  I wish that instead they would serve it with German potato salad or red cabbage.

Before I ordered my meal, I got a chuckle out of the saying on the placemat.  And I also felt proud that with my rudimentary knowledge of German I was able to understand it.

"Beer is made from hops.

Hops is a plant.

So, beer is practically a salad."