By the way if you haven’t seen the France Special, you can find it here.
Thinking of awarding the Swiss competition winner within the next couple of days, so send in your answers before I do that. As for the answers so far, I CAN tell you that ONE person got it quite close.
Very interesting use of stone, I like how it’s positioned on the site. It’s very apparent here that Botta’s work has that strange contradiction between contemporary and homage to the past.
And us Malaysians think we are trained by tropical rainforest mosquitoes? These mosquitoes are so poisonous they leave a ring-like mark around the inflamed area, which range from the size of coins to Famous Amos cookies!
At one point, my screaming itching bulging body decided to go see a doctor. The best place I could find was a First-Aid Centre and they immediately gave me an injection, prescribed oral medication and a skin ointment. Even with full guns blazing, it still took about three days to heal.
Curse the Swiss-Italian mosquitoes!!!!!
The place feels like a really mountainous Italy. The food, language, even people looks Italian.
Jeff gave this place too much credit because of Mario Botta’s work. The town is easily explored, much of the third day was spent watching CNN in our claustrophobic hotel room. Moreover I couldn’t update the blog because we couldn’t find a computer with USB.
Having said that, we managed to bump into a wind orchestra playing in the main hall !! My first live music in probably, forever, or something. I managed to record three full sessions (including a James Bond remix !!). So if you’re a classical music fan, remember to ask me to show it to you.
Peter Zumthor is one of my favorite architects.
But getting there is probably the ultimate pilgrim’s nightmare. Even from Lucerne, considered one of the best starting points in Switzerland because of its central location, we had to change trains three times and catch a 30 minutes bus ride.
Finally arrived and we couldn’t locate the bath house. Had to keep asking for directions because we’re still skeptical. After working our way to the reception (very inaccessible), checked in, dumped our luggage in the room, we saw this …
This looks remotely familiar, it has to be it!
Then, we found the entrance …
Thankfully Zumthor is still slowly renovating the place. We reserved the cheapest rooms, the so-called “Outhouse”.
Check Out Our First-Class 5 STAR Outhouse
I’ve been talking most of the time, so this will be a Jeff Blog Special on, The Vals Therme Bath House!! Presenting, Jeff the Architectural Critic !!
Primitive, yet, finely crafted, is perhaps the most adequate description of the bathhouse. To use these two seemingly contradictory terms simultaneously I am interpreting Zumthor’s design at two levels; first, that the experience one gets from bathing in that space is very much in tune with the basic human needs for shelter, privacy, prospect, light, darkness…etc, at its crudest sense; and that the craftsmanship in the handling of materials, plans, fenestration, thresholds, passages and the landscape, elevates the crude human needs into a spiritual indulgence……enough architecture for now…..what i mean to say is…….what a nice bathing experience it was………..
- by Jeff the Critic
After bathing, we bumped into Zumthor’s wife and had a short but very good conversation!
Thanks to our Traveler’s Phaidon Atlas, we anticipated Jean Nouvel’s Culture & Congress Centre. The cantilever is even bigger it looks in photos. It’s a Monday, most European museums are closed on Mondays. Therefore, it was really cool to see so many people still using the public space even though it was closed. The building is very successful in those respects.
Check out the thickness of the glass mullions.
Very very beautiful city. The city nestles between a calm lake and river, totally surrounded by the snow capped Alps. The streets, like Lyon, oozes with character. Those wooden bridges are really old, dating back to medieval times.
There is quite a number of Disneyland-like buildings around the whole town. I could feel Bambi is right around the corner.
Lion of Lucerne
When we’re done, we went into a bar. They only serve alcohol-less beer there. Beer sans alcohol in a Swiss-German town??????
Florence may be old, dirty and chaotic but it’s FUN. Happy Hour now, want to hit the pubs soon. I’m sharing the room with like a thousand people, so-called “8 bed mixed dorm” but much dodgier. But whoa, it is actually the bedroom of one of the hostel workers, and he plays rock guitar !!! His guitar is pretty shit but it is plugged into a Marshall JCM900, right below my bunk bed !!!! Don’t think I’m going to sleep much tonight.
Florence is really funny, there’s these two other American Hispanic dudes from LA (USA) and they were like telling their absolutely hilarious backpacking stories. Their most funny one, they asked for Florence accommodation while they were in a s*** hostel from Rome, just yesterday night. The receptionist booked them a reservation in a place called “Florentine” or something. When they got here this morning, the whole place got shut down !!!! Apparently it was overcrowded or something. And it was shut down because they were like repeat offenders of the council laws.
When we finally got to our hostel, they had to take us elsewhere using a golf cart, zipping around the tiny streets of Florence. Imagine 5 backpackers with their huge luggage just crammed onto a little cart going at 20km/h, tourists were taking photos of us!!
Once we got there, I noticed at least 20 other people in three bedrooms, each with probably 8 beds. And there were more coming. I also noticed hostel workers were pulling out spare beds, I think they had to be “illegal” tonight. And when they mean MIXED dorm, they really mean it. The other girls don’t seem to be very modest as well, walking around in their, ahem. Most are Americans so .. I don’t know.
Best of luck in the Swiss competition!
Hey it’s time for another competition. Seeing that the previous one was WAY too easy and discouraged responses, I’ve decided to make things a little harder this time. Observe the following picture …
Yes, hahaha you are right, that is what you call A REAL SWISS ARMY KNIFE. And yeap, that really is a radio antenna in the middle. WTF??? Once you get over the madness, the competition only requires two answers from you.
1) How many tools there are on this Swiss Army Knife. Good luck to your eyes. (Hint: It’s not a Victorinox, it’s a Wenger)
2) Guess how many times I’ve actually bumped into this knife on display! I need some element of luck in this game. (Hint: between one and ten)
Is it worth the prize?? That’s for you to judge. The winner will receive an authentic Victorinox Swiss Army card, with a blade, ruler, pen, light, screw heads, scissors, magnifying glass, pin and tweezer all in one super-thin package you can fit in your wallet !!
Rules are ..
1) Only ONE entry per person.
2) I must *know* you, so I can make sure there’s only one entry per person.
3) If no one guessed it perfectly, the prize goes to the one who guessed the closest.
4) The second answer has higher precedence. Meaning if you guessed the second answer perfectly, it may override the first answer’s error.
5) You don’t have to be in Sydney to join, if you are in Sabah, Adelaide etc. etc. I will post it to you absolutely free of charge.
Okay, that’s it. Now good luck using Photoshop to enhance the image or something, hahahah. Have fun!
Cup Noodles (look at the French spelling) with funny eggs and Swiss cheese! As mentioned earlier, there’s nothing really special in Basel, even in terms of food. It is however, compensated by the fact that there’s a lot of microwave ready stuff, if anything.
a young capricious bloke with a penchant for the strange, unknown, and exotic. Here lies the journals of my worldly travels, as I trot around the globe in search of adventure!
