You may have noticed the Jaren and Steve-sized hole in the Internet over the past few weeks, and we promise it was not because we don't love you all.
We had houseguests, and unlike New York, they only had two legs. With the timing of the holidays, young Aaron Schwartz was able to take two and a half weeks off of work and thought it would be a good time to visit his brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law in Europe.
Through some really odd circumstances, he ended up with a plane ticket into Frankfurt Germany, where he then took a train to Freiburg in the Black Forrest (Schwarzweld for you German lovers), as Freiburg was the closest he could get to the Swiss border on his ticket. I (Steve) saw this as a good opportunity to see parts of Switzerland Jaren already had, so we made plans to meet in Zurich and work our way back across the country through Bern to Geneva.
Planning to meet in the train station (Banhoff), we arrived within minutes of each other and quickly went to the hostel to drop off our bags. On the way, Aaron gave me the good news that he is now project manager on a multi-million dollar golf course outside Chicago, so of course a celebration was in order.
The Zurich portion was pretty uneventful from a storytelling point of view, although that's not to say it wasn't interesting. Left to our own devices, we did one thing we both thoroughly enjoy -- drink beer. Ate and drank, ate and drank and caught up as brothers do, I'm going to leave the rest of the Zurich narrative as a blur, because that's how we both remember it.
Nursing some fierce hangovers the next day ( and a brief spell of vomiting outside a grocery store) we came to the quick conclusion that there was not much to see in Zurich from a tourist point of view.
We did, however, use the sunny day as an excuse to walk through the town and up to the University. After a brief tour of the Math department (more on "Math Tourism" in a bit), we made our way down to the art gallery out of what we can only describe as obligation.
Understand, for as excited as he gets abut math and construction, Aaron has an equal and opposite reaction to art and writing, so art museums are the second ring of hell for him. Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo are only ninja turtles, and Monet and Manet might as well be the twin aliens on the Simpsons.
After making 40 feet inside the museum before security asked him to check his bag, we took that as god's way of saying "go to Bern." Glad we saw it, but no love loss for the Zurich and its famous gnomes.
Bern, however, was a different story. Old, stone, open rainwater sewers, captive bears in the middle of town and the one time residence of a very famous physicist, this place had fun written all over.
We happened to be there a few days before Christmas, so the Christmas markets were in full effect. And for two Jew boys who only knew Christmas history in the context of the Germanic St. Nicholas traditions, this place felt like Christmas. The markets full of wooden stalls selling everything from hot spiced wine to ornaments to wreaths and everything in between just WAS Christmas to us. Very cool.
After a bit of touring we tucked into an unassuming building for a bite, only to find out the place was far bigger than it appeared, and that it was a collection of Asian restaurants sharing space. Imagine a food court but much nicer. It was here that Aaron got his first taste of Indian food, and that we got to kick our feet up for a bit. After perusing a menu that was half hindi/ half German, we took the opportunity to just soak up the environment.
This was followed by a couple beers with a somewhat odd guy staying in our hostel and his none-to-enthusiastic-to-see-us-or-him Swiss girlfriend. Sensing the tension, we bolted back to the hostel of a nightcap and a much needed sleep.
Waking up the next day, we thought we'd kick things off the best way we know how -- imported Canadian grizzly bears in a pit. Bern, from the flag to the artwork, is all about bears as the area was once heavily populated with black bears. After centuries of urban growth and hunting, there aren't too many more indigenous bears around, so the town imported three Canadian grizzlies to fill the famous bear pit at the edge of town. Seeing as how this was right around the corner from the hostel, it was a logical first stop.
But for Aaron, the most important thing in Bern, possibly the most important thing on the trip to Europe, was to see the Swiss Patent Office. Sexy, I know, but you have to understand the history of the SPO and its particularly notable employees. You see, it was at the SPO in Bern that one Albert Einstein developed the fundamentals for his theory on relativity (E=MC2). Even more impressive, Aaron actually knows what it means.
So after getting directions from the girl at the tourism office (who was thoroughly confused as to why we wanted to go there), we began our walk. Of course, after I got us lost, we stumbled our way back to where we needed to be and found Aaron's holiest of holies.
I'll let the smile tell the rest of the story.
Nerd.
And with that, it was back home to Geneva, to Jaren, and to the next leg of the trip.
1 comment:
Aside from the math and the patent stuff (which by the way makes me shudder, you would too if you worked with them all day), which I guess leaves drinking and vomiting, seems like a great brotherly bonding trip!
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