Ready to Go Home

It still seems a little strange to say that I am going home when I fly back to Mexico.  My 10 day trip to Ohio is coming to an end.  I did all the things that I needed to do while up here, and I had an opportunity to see many, but not all, of my friends.  My flight from Cleveland to Houston leaves tomorrow at 6:40 AM tomorrow.  That means that I will need to get up around 3:00 AM.  I'll pack the last minute items and check out of the hotel by 3:30.  By 4:00 I will be at the airport car rental center to return the vehicle.  The shuttle will take me to the airport terminal, and I should be there to check in by 4:40, two hours before my departure.  

I will have a three hour layover in Houston and then board my plane for Mexico City.  With the two hour time difference, I will arrive in Mexico City a little after 1:00 in the afternoon.

It is likely that I will break my long streak of daily blog entries and not write tomorrow.

Farewell, Ohio.  I plan to return in June of next year to renew my Ohio driver's license, and again in September to attend a high school class reunion.

(image taken from the web)

The Main Objective

The primary purpose of my trip to Ohio was to vote in the election.  U.S. citizens who live outside the country are able to vote by mail-in ballots.  However, given the status of the mail in Mexico, I wanted to vote in person.  Besides, as already mentioned, I had other things I wanted to accomplish while up here.  Early voting in Ohio began on October 8th at the Board of Elections in each county.  Last Friday, I drove to downtown Cleveland, and did my civic duty.

In the past, since I would usually be in Mexico on Election Day, I have always voted early.  Usually there would not be a long line at the Board of Elections, and I would have a minimal wait to receive my ballot.  This year, on the the opening day of early voting, there was a record number of voters who showed up in Cleveland.  Even several days later, I had never seen so many people at the Board of Elections.  The line snaked through the hall, and there were over twenty windows open for voters to sign in and receive their ballots.  Every time there was someone who was voting for the first time, one of the workers would ring a bell, and those waiting in line would applaud.

By the time I left the building, the line of people waiting to vote stretched along the sidewalk outside the Board of Elections.

I am hopeful that the large turnout is a good sign.

Basel in the Rain

My last day in Basel, Switzerland, and my last day of sightseeing before returning to Frankfurt for my flight home, was the worst day, weatherwise.  It rained all day, and it was a pain to carry an umbrella while trying to take pictures with my camera or check Google Maps on my cellphone.

My sightseeing centered on the Old Town, and if it had been a sunny day, I am sure I would have found it a more enjoyable experience.

As in the other cities that I had visited, the Old Town is dominated by the cathedral or "Münster".  Well, it used to be a cathedral until the Reformation.  Now it is a Protestant church.

The "Münster" was begun in 1019.  The original Romanesque structure was destroyed in the 1356 Basel earthquake, the worst earthquake in central Europe in recorded history.  It was rebuilt in Gothic style and completed in 1500.

The plaza in front of the "Münster"

Street scenes in Basel's "Altstadt" or Old Town

A couple of the fountains in the Old Town

As mentioned before, you can drink the water from any of the fountains in Switzerland.

A view of the Rhine River from the Old Town

You can see the cable crossing the river where the ferry boat runs.  From the other side of the river there are nice views of the "Altstadt", however, the ferry did not seem to be in operation on this rainy day.

One of the Basel's medieval gates survives from the days when the it was a walled city.

 

Parts of Basel's city hall are over 500 years old.  However other parts, with colorful murals and decorations are of more recent addition.

That concludes my trip to Europe!

It was a very interesting and enjoyable journey, and I hope to return in the future to visit my cousins again and to see new places.

 

Two Missions Accomplished

Jumping back and forth between my trip to Europe and my current visit to Ohio...

My reason for coming to Ohio for a short trip is to accomplish a number of things.  One of those was to give my Christmas cards (which were already made out) to a friend in Ohio so that she can send them after Thanksgiving.  (If I sent them out from Mexico, they might arrive in time for Easter of next year!)  On my second day here I went to the post office to buy stamps.  The person at the post office said that the cards were over the weight limit and that each one needed two stamps.  So the bill for stamps was rather pricey.

The next day, I was going to take the stamped cards to my high school friend Gayle so that she could send them out at the end of November.  On the way I stopped at the pharmacy to accomplish another one of my goals... to get my COVID and flu shots.  They had the COVID shots, but were out of the flu shots.  I did not know that, although it is fine to get the two shots together, if you get one shot, you should not get the other one until a week later.  I would be returning to Mexico before then.  She said that a new shipment of flu shots should arrive later that afternoon, so I said that I would return later.

I drove on to the home of a high school friend Gayle.  Last year I gave her my Christmas cards just before I left to make my new home in Mexico City late last October.  She sent them right after Thanksgiving.  (I have a reputation to maintain. My Christmas card is always the first to arrive!)  She was happy to do the same again this year.

We visited for a couple of hours, and then I returned to the pharmacy.  The delivery of flu shots had arrived.  So, I filled out the paperwork, and got the two shots... one in each arm.  I have never had a serious reaction to vaccines... a slightly sore arm at worse... and this time was the same.  Two of my reasons for coming back to Ohio were accomplished.

The Toy Museum

Basel is supposed to have a top-notch art museum, but since I had already been to four art museums on this trip I didn't feel like doing another one.  My cousin recommended the toy museum for a change of pace.  It turned out to be a delightful option.  It has four floors of teddy bears, dolls, doll houses and miniatures, and is the largest museum of its kind in Europe.

Many of the teddy bears were manufactured by Steiff, a German company that has been making plush animals since the late 1800s.  Their antique bears are collectors' items.

 

There is a large collection of dolls from all over the world.

The best part of the museum was the collection of doll houses and miniature scenes which were incredibly detailed.

There are miniature scenes of all kinds of shops and village scenes.

If you are tired of visiting art museums on a trip to Europe, the toy museum in Basel is a wonderful choice.

Miss Liberty's Creator

I don't know if they still teach such things, but I remember learning in elementary school that the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to the United States, was designed by the French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi.  Bartholdi was born in Colmar.  His father died when he was two years old, and the family moved to Paris.  However they held on to their house in Colmar, and even later in life the sculptor continued to maintain his childhood home.   Today, the house is a museum dedicated to Bartholdi and his sculptures.

"Auguste Bartholdi was born in this house the 2nd of August 1834,

died in Paris the 4th of October 1904."

In the courtyard of the house is a large bronze statue that he did two years before his death.  It is entitled "The Great Supporters of the World".

Several rooms of the house deal with his most famous creation, "Liberty Enlightening the Word", the monumental statue that we know as the Statue of Liberty.

Early models for the project

The final model of the Miss Liberty that we know

A model of one of the statue's ears in the actual size of the statue

Prior to being sent to the United States, the statue was assembled in Paris.

This photo shows the arm and torch.

In this photo, the assembled statue towers over the surrounding buildings in Paris.  The statue was then disassembled and shipped to the United States.

Although the Statue of Liberty is Bartholdi's most famous work, it is by no means his only monumental sculpture.

Here is a model for the head of a monument honoring Claude Rouget de Lisle, the author of France's national anthem "La Marseillaise".

In 1864, this fountain designed by Bartholdi was unveiled in a Colmar park.  The central figure is of Armand-Joseph Bruat, an admiral of the French navy during the Crimean War.

Surrounding him are four allegorical figures representing Oceania, America, Africa and Asia.

In 1940, when the Germans invaded France, the Nazis destroyed the fountain.  Some courageous citizens of Colmar rescued the heads of the allegorical figures from the wreckage.

Those heads now reside in the Bartholdi Museum.

After the war, the fountain was rebuilt, using Bartholdi's original design.

This is the model for another monument created by Bartholdi.  It is entitled "Switzerland Rescuing Strasbourg from Its Torment During the 1870 Siege".

It honors the efforts of the Swiss cities of Basel, Zurich, and Bern to negotiate the release of women, children and the elderly when Strasbourg was besieged by the German army during the Franco-Prussian War.

The monument stands just a short distance from the hotel where I was staying in Basel.

We will return to Basel for the last two installments of this European trip.