so. when hubby and i were in h.s., we had many random conversations (not much has changed, really). we would have serious philisophical converstions about everything from life to music to food... to anything that could be discussed.once, we started talking about swiss watches (it's totally a common conversation piece). we had no idea what made them better than non-swiss watches. there was no wikipedia at the time, so where did we go for answers, you ask? pdaddy (my father-in-law), of course! like hubbs (or more than hubbs, actually, but give him a few years, and he'll catch up!), pdaddy is a wealth of knowledge... literally, like the richest bank in the world of knowledge, and he can teach about the most random stuff for hours and hours.
when we asked him about swiss watches, he said, "i don't really know" and then continued to explain what he knew for a good 30 minutes (which is quite impressive for not really knowing). to learn more about watches, click here (b-c this post has actually nothing to do with watches, so don't think you're gonna take any knowledge away with you (btw: my own father, mr. bee, gave me an awesome swiss army pocket watch many moons ago that i still have... it's pretty much awesome.) ).
if this blog has nothing to do with watches, then what in the heck is it about?! it's about SWITZERLAND, of course! why switzerland? b-c we're going to BASEL! on november 22nd, hubby and i will be off to the country of watches, chocolate, army knives and ricola. our trip ends on november 27th, but i have a feeling that the swiss won't be the only lucky nationality to be graced with our presence.
basel is on the german and french borders, so our mini-excursion will consist of (more than likely) 3 countries. woah, how awesome is that! like, totally, super-rad, fantastically awesome! funny fact about switzerland... the swiss don't speak spanish, nor do they speak english. what will we do?! the swiss speak german, french, italian and romansh (never heard of that one before), none of which we speak. oh well. i guess we'll speak spanish with a french accent (it's worked for hubby before), and hopefully we'll get along...
and if not, please say your farewells on november 21st.
hubbs is really excited to see some rad architecture... namely, a chair factory (oh, how thrilling). me? i'm really excited for some chocolate. i love chocolate. when i visited dublin (oct. 2002), i had some extremely delicious irish chocolate, and when hubbs visited belgium (march 2006) he brought me delicious belgian chocolate... but swiss chocolate... oh man. i can hardly contain myself.
what else will we do in the frigid swiss, german and french weather, you ask? good question, but first, i want to explain the frigid temps of basel: about 32º - 45º f in november... holy coldness, batman. anyway, we have no idea what we'll do (other than wear many layers), but you better believe that we'll be googling "basel" a lot in the next 20 days!
yay for living abroad and traveling abroad and all that good stuff.
p.s. a lil' birdie told me that this blog is all over the place... and that hubbs has a new blog post!
9 comments:
When I was a young girl ... with an unnatural fear of nuclear war (don't even ask)I once heard that Switzerland was a "neutral" country ... i.e. a "no war" zone and I decided that I would live there. I thought about it ALL the time ... and that's even before I knew about the whole chocolate thing. So ... now my dreams have come through because of you guys. Thanks for giving me vicarious use of your travels.
What decent lawyer (or Es family member) can't talk for 30 minutes on something he (or she) knows nothing about? Besides, you should have asked me about Romansh, I knew about that (or at least that it was one of the four official languages of Switzerland--probably because some misdirected guidance counselor in high school convinced me that Honors Students should take French or German but never Spanish--a lifelong misstake). Excited for your trip. Switzerland has always seemed like one of the most beautiful places in the world. Hope the reality is even better than the expectation (particularly where the chocolate is concerned) and that you get to see some of the stuff you want to see as well as the architecture stuff. By the way, the lesson is, if you want to know about timepieces, ask a railroad man not a lawyer, you might actually get a watch, not a lecture.
See, railroad guys get you there on the hour instead of billing you by the hour. Sometimes you just want to know what time it is, not how a watch works.
so incredibly jealous! while you are heading off to switzerland we will be heading off to phoenix. phoenix is cool and all but it's no switzerland. jealous!
AND this will be the first time we go to phoenix and dont get to see you guys...that will be kinda strange.
couple questions re: switzerland
im not sure how large basel is but isn't there alot of english spoken in switzerland?
and...did you guys pack warm enough jackets? coats i guess you will need actually? if i was going somewhere with a climate like spain's i probly wouldn't think to pack a huge jacket!
jealous jealous jealous :-)
oh dang! my friend that lives in basel just came into phoenix 2 nights ago! and won't be back there until jan sometime. otherwise i would have her give you some places to go :P oh well! random journeys are super adventurous and a ton of fun! and if you can make it to ikea and back... i'm sure you can make it to switzerland and back... i mean, how hard can that be? right?! :P
i'm super jealous but i'm taking you back there when i come visit! don't forget :)
and let the countdown begin!
Switzerland... that is so exciting! Take lots of pics while you are there!
Ps- I have a new post! (I think you are the only one who reads my blog)
How exciting! You'll have a great time. Be sure to eat a lot of chocolate for me too!!!!
1. i'm jealous.
2. pdaddy is a genius even when he knows nothing.
3. swiss watches are better because they are made of cheese.
How fun! Your daddy is a railroader and Paul's daddy is a lawyer. Random.
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