IrishOboe

I’ve been too focused on my studies and my dwindling bank account to bother with much exploration, but I had two day passes for the public transportation systems in northwest Switzerland so Friday after a solid practice session I met with Stephanie and we hopped on the next train to somewhere.

I did the same thing that day before but by myself.  Full of confidence and lacking in any fear I hopped the first train available which happened to be going to Liestal, only it didn’t.  I still don’t know what happened, but as I sat on the train looking at my map and the scenery for the sake of connecting the train route with the train tracks I see from the road I noted familiar territory but wondered why the train was going East and not West.  The called a station I couldn’t find because it was not on the path to Liestal and just as I found St. Johann station on the map we pulled away from it and it was then that it hit me with clarity that I was headed toward France and had just missed the last stop that my tram pass was good for.  I decided not to worry myself too much and planned to hop off at the next station and turn around.  I could use a bad American accent and a cute innocent face to explain my mistake and get out of a fine if need be.  I got off at Saint-Louis and immediate felt like I was in a different world.  Rather, it felt like the slightly dangerous world of Europe I’d forgotten about living in my safe bubble of Switzerland.  It was trashy, abandoned, and all in an unfamiliar language.  Actually, I could understand quite a bit just from having being exposed to so much French.  I made it back to Switzerland without trouble and hopped the next train to somewhere and this time went West and discovered the little town of Frick and a cute church there.

Saturday’s adventure with Stephanie went remarkably more smoothly and we hopped the train that took us South to Zwingen where we found a neat castle with beautiful purple flowers blooming on its walls.  We found a bus stop where to my horror I discovered the busses run so irregularly we might have to wait two hours before the next one.  As we contemplated what to do and I scolded myself for thinking all of Switzerland had busses that ran at regular and convenient intervals a bus to the station pulled up and we decided to take it.  It turns out that the busses from the station leave more frequently we walked right on to the bus we wanted and shortly thereafter were on our way to Breitenbach, our next transfer destination.  In Breitenbach there wasn’t much but we had 20 minutes to explore the local church before catching the next bus.

It was a modern and not too attractive church from the outside, but inside was a combination of old and new that worked well.  It was open and had theater seating like modern American churches but had traditional Catholic decorations.  My favorite part was how the balcony with the organ was to the side so that it nearly overlapped the stage making the organ visible to the congregation and I thought it would be an excellent place for concerts where the performers could use both the alter area and the balcony while still being easily visible to the audience.

Our next transfer was Nunningen where we found another interesting church that I suspect was designed by the same architect.  It was more traditional from the outside but incorporated more modern elements on the inside, including the theater seating and a visible organ.  I’ll post a comment when I get around to adding pictures.

We at our picnic lunch there in the hills outside the church enjoying the view of a ruined castle and two local kids helping constructions workers.  We felt like we found our own little corner of Switzerland unmolested by other tourists.

With perfect timing (I’d like to say completely planned) we caught the next bus to Bretzwil where we planned to have another short look before bussing on, only this time our luck ran out.  We managed to find the bus stop, but the irregular schedule had the fated words “this bus doesn’t run on holidays and days where school isn’t in session.”  Seeing that it was Easter week I suspected that our luck had run out.  As we stood there trying to be sure of our interpretation of the schedule a kind Swiss lady offered her help and in a good High German and friendly exchange she ended up walking us to the start of a Wanderweg train that would take us to the next town.  It was a beautiful, sunny, warmish day and we both felt up for a hike up the hill, through the words, down a muddy path and into next town: Reigoldswil.  There we were just in time for the next bus to Liestal and even had a moment for a pit stop.

In Liestal we managed to find our way to with Stephan’s folk’s place – okay, so I had to call Stephan for directions – and we paid Margee a surprise visit.  Stephan joined us after work and we all took the train back to Basel and I had my first experience with troubled Swiss trains.  It was 10 minutes late and that made us miss our ride to Diana’s which meant being nearly an hour late because of bus schedules.  We almost missed that bus, too because we couldn’t figure out where the stop was.  We made it eventually and enjoyed a spaghetti dinner and a chick flick with the gals.  We enjoyed “Last Holiday” and the best line in the movie is “The secret to life is butter.”

All together it was a lovely vacation day and I’m glad I forced myself to relax because April brings a slew of concerts and a great deal of work.  Speaking of which, I’m off to rehearsal for a concert tomorrow . . .