Not Royal, But Still a Very Nice Wedding

Last weekend, HWMBO flew to Austin, TX to attend the second wedding ceremony of our granddaughter, Princess A.  The first ceremony, which was apparently the "official" ceremony, actually occurred in Las Vegas, NV over a month ago.  This second ceremony was for the benefit of family and friends who were not able to attend the first event.

After a rollicking Friday dinner at a local restaurant, the wedding events on Saturday and a post-wedding barbecue on Sunday were held at the home of the groom's parents, outside Austin.  Like the high plains of Montana where I was raised, Texas is also subject to impressive wind.  The wind graced the wedding festivities as well, such as here where the bride and groom are restating their vows

and exchanging rings.

After the ceremony, Princess A celebrated with some friends.

Other guests mulled about, getting ready for food that had been

cooked and served from an authentic Texas chuck wagon.

The groom had once been part of a bluegrass band.  After taking off his jacket, he joined with his old combo friends and formed part of the entertainment.

OK, so it didn't have quite the same splendor and pagentry of the Royal Wedding in London.  But a very good time was had by all. Most importantly, the happy young couple have now officially begun their lives together.   Well done, indeed!

April Going Out Like a Lion ...

We haven't had many April showers around here and we're seeing yellow - a very unaccustomed color for these parts at this time of year - clearly signalling dry patches.  Swiss authorities have limited open air burning and have requested that special care be taken with barbecues.  There were even significant forest fires in the Valais that started last weekend, something practically unheard of this early in the season.  But it looks as if what we've missed out on precipitation here, the southern US states have had in spades.  They've not just had storms, with rain, hail and god knows what else, but they've also had a spate of killer tornadoes during the past week. 

The tornadoes have not only wreaked havoc to an extent that they are now being referred to as the "super tornado" outbreak, the worst ever in US history, but they have killed hundreds of unfortunates who were caught in their path.  The toll continues to mount.  Last Wednesday, for example, some 211 tornadoes were reported within a few hours' span.

Still, much of the US mainstream media was so caught up in its infatuation with Donald Trump, the latest but perhaps most fatuous bag of hot air to explore a 2012 Presidential bid - presumably for the Republican nomination which already seems to have a prize group of lunatics in waiting - that it nearly missed the story.  Those who weren't caught up in The Donald's irrepressibly continuing lunacy were infatuated by fluff, pomp, splendor and reminiscences leading up to the royal wedding, which was at least a glorious spectacle with more historical symbolism than the multi-bankrupt and multi-divorced Trump has ever had - or ever will, for that matter.  At least, the new Duke of Cambridge is an active member of his country's military and performs other service benefiting the British public as well.

HWMBO sent me a screen shot of the weather channel showing what was heading for Maryland on Thursday, presumably remnants of the killer tornadoes that had passed through the south.  It was colorful and impressive, but nothing like what others had experienced. 

Indeed, he also sent me a couple photos that he had snapped earlier of one of our rear fences being replaced. 

The replacement was not due to property damage, but simply to age.

We have owned the property since 1982 and count ourselves as very fortunate not to have had significant problems caused by freakish weather systems.

All my warmest thoughts and wishes are with all those who have lost loved ones or otherwise suffered from these natural disasters. 

What enrages me, however, is how certain religious zealots seize on such happenings to stoke people's fears about an End Times scenario.  One of the latest of these nuts predicts the end of the world on 21 May - based on all the recent natural disasters.  The craziest thing of all is that there are actually people who believe him.  And there is LOTS of money involved for their message to be spread.

Wouldn't it be nice if for once these zealots would cease to promote their own cockamamie agendas and, if they've raised so much money, actually send it to their brothers and sisters who need assistance right now on earth?  Because I'm pretty darn certain, come 22 May, that this world will still be here and most of us will still be trying to figure out how we all can continue to co-exist in harmony on it as well as deal with the many challenges of modern life.   IMO, a just God would not want to have any of these nuts anywhere near Her - ever!

Princess Jelly Bean and the Easter Bunny

This photo speaks for itself.

Princess Jelly Bean apparently took her first meeting with the Easter Bunny with aplomb.  We would have expected nothing less!

Staying in a Medieval Village in Tuscany

Once we had left Florence to visit other parts of Tuscany, we used a base outside the major urban areas in order to get the feel of the countryside.  With the help of the internet, I was very fortunate to find an apartment for rent in the tiny fortified medieval hamlet known as San Gusmè.

Because our visit took place 11 years ago, I have been unable to find the same apartment, but here is an advertisement for one in the village.  Based on the website photos, the interior looks very similar, but if it is the same apartment, it has since changed hands.  The apartment that we rented in 2000 was owned by a young American couple whose principal residence was in the San Francisco Bay area.  They loved the relatively unspoiled character of San Gusmè, located right on the border between the territories governed by Florence and Siena.  We handled payment issues on the internet and were directed to pick up the keys at the local grocery store.  The owner was a friend of theirs and managed the apartment for the couple while they lived and worked in the United States.

We had been warned to leave our vehicle outside the walls because the streets were very narrow and there was literally no street parking inside the village.

Our apartment was on the upper level of a renovated medieval building and we had impressive views of the roofs nearby.

Ours was not the only building that had been renovated, but the medieval character of the village architecture was still dominant.

HWMBO loved the local version of a Manneken Pis,

but I preferred the scenic windowboxes dotted throughout the village.

We were able to obtain the keys without trouble and everything worked out as we had hoped.   In our experience, the inhabitants of this little village did not speak English as a rule.  Still, with a combination of a few halting Italian words, some French and lots of gestures, we were able to get along splendidly during our stay there.  I only wish that the stay could have been longer.  We still have fond memories of our vist to this truly beautiful and impressive region and recommend it highly.

Siena and the Chianti Classico Zone

After our long Easter weekend in Florence, we continued south, towards Siena.  Until its devastation by the Black Death in 1348, Siena was an important rival to Florence in the arts.  Just as Florence was inspired and ruled principally by the powerful Medici family, Siena was ruled during the Renaissance by the rival Strozzi family.

Siena's city center has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Even though there weren't hordes of tourists there when we visited, there were still a lot of visitors.

It is in this city center plaza (Piazza del Campo) that a famous horse race known as the Palio takes place twice each year - once in July and once in August.  Imagine this area cordoned off with its cobblestones covered with a layer of dirt so that ten horses representing ten of the 17 city wards (contrade) can race frantically and frenetically around it.  The jockeys ride bareback and are more often than not thrown to a hard landing on the cobblestones before the race is over.  

The race is also hard on the horses.  Shamefully, 48 animals have lost their lives in this race since 1970.  Siena this year announced that it would nominate the Palio to the UNESCO Representative List of Non-Material Cultural Heritage, which protects events or traditions that symbolize a populace or civilization.  But the Italian Minister of Tourism recently withdrew the Palio's candidacy, citing concerns about animal cruelty in light of the statistics relating to injuries and death for the horses.

In a less controversial vein, Siena's beautiful cathedral (Duomo di Siena), designed and completed in the 13th century, was also worth a visit.

The hillsides between Florence and Siena contain the villages of the Chianti Classico zone, originally designated as three villages in 1716, but expanded in the 20th century.

Chianti classico has its own separate zone in the greater Chianti-producing area.

Because we found ourselves so close to Assisi, we also ventured from Tuscany into Umbria to visit the birthplace of St. Francis of Assisi and where the basilica dedicated to St. Francis, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located.

Slogging Through Florence

Continuing my reminiscences of our trip to Tuscany in 2000 ...

One cannot even begin to think of Tuscany without also thinking of its major city, Florence, referred to variously as the birthplace and jewel of the Renaissance or, alternatively, as the "Athens of the Middle Ages," with its emblematic Ponte Vecchio over the River Arno.  My younger brother was a student in Florence in 1968-1969 during his university's junior year abroad program and his adventures there remained forever among his hallmark life experiences.  Prior to 2000, I had never visited Florence.  So, as part of our visit to Tuscany, I had arranged for us to spend the Easter weekend in the city.  

Although we did not realize it until we had left beautiful Stresa and the agglomeration that is Milan, we were about to experience travel on one of the most congested travel days of the year.  They say that ignorance is bliss.  That did not prove to be the case for us.  In my ignorance, I had assumed that most Easter weekend travel would occur on Friday afternoon or evening, or even on Saturday, by which time we should already have arrived at our destination.  In Italy, however, the prime travel day for Easter holidays is Good Friday and everyone had begun their travel early in the morning!  I will never, ever, make such a mistake again.  In 2011, things were no different.

A drive that would ordinarily have taken us a little more than four hours lasted all of NINE!  It was not relaxing either.  For one thing, Italian drivers take priority on the right very seriously, even as they enter major highways, fully expecting those who are already on the highway to make way for them.  For another, we would just begin to build up momentum and then traffic would literally squeeze together like an accordion so that everything would come to a complete stop for long periods of time until cars began to creep forward once again.  Pity HWMBO who had to sit in the car with me - never a patient passenger at the best of times!  But even this ordeal finally came to an end and we tentatively made our way into the center of Florence.  There we found our hotel, including parking, although our parking garage was a few blocks away.  We were literally wrung out and, without further ado, fell into bed until the next morning, very thankful not to face any driving for a couple days and wondering why we hadn't just decided to spend the rest of the weekend in Stresa.

All those people on the road had been going somewhere and, to be sure, Florence was one of their destinations.  So, here is what we saw early Saturday morning when we walked into the city center

and again.  Florence was certainly getting its share of Easter visitors.  I believe that this is one of the first times that I experienced what a "throng" really is.

Michelangelo's David is one of the main attractions, even though this statue in the Palazzo della Signoria is a replica.

The original statue was moved to the Accademia Gallery in 1873, and we viewed it there too.

We visited the Uffizi Gallery on Monday - after waiting in line for three hours!  But this wonderful art gallery was well worth the wait.

It was also fun to wander about in more informal settings, even though the artists here can only aspire to have their works hung in the Uffizi someday.

I would love to visit the magnificent city of Florence again someday and spend much more time there.  Our 2000 stay was much too short.  But it is safe to say that I will never again choose to visit during Easter holidays.  And I will not recommend a visit during that period to anyone else, unless they really, really, REALLY love crowds!

Easter Weekend - Eleven Years Ago

Back in the year 2000, I was still hard at work.  I believed then that I would most likely be retiring from international work in late 2001 and returning to the US shortly thereafter.  But Destiny took my rather vague plans and changed my life enormously in unexpected, unprecedented and clearly unanticipated ways.  For me, fortunately, those changes were largely - but not all - positive ones.  Lives of millions of others have also changed since 2000 in unexpected, unprecedented and clearly unanticipated ways.  For a majority of those others, however, the changes have been tragic, devastating and financially catastrophic.   I have been fortunate, perhaps unduly - and undeservingly - so.  But I have always realized that it was sheer good luck rather than any innate characteristic of mine.  I have been grateful for that luck and very appreciative towards whatever Fates have dealt me such wonderful cards.

In any event, this quiet Easter weekend - the last full weekend of April - that precedes the last few days before I will meet up with HWMBO in Italy to tour the spectacularly beautiful Italian lakes district with him and others - has reminded me of the Easter we celebrated in 2000.  This is primarily because our upcoming visit to Italy has served as a sort of tickler.  In 2000, inspired in part by Frances Mayes's lyrical memoir, "Under the Tuscan Sun," HWMBO and I decided to drive from Geneva to spend our Easter vacation in Tuscany. 

The book inspired a movie in 2003 that bears only a tangential relationship to the story Mayes wrote.  I like both the book and the movie, each for different reasons.  It is, after all, very difficult not to like a story that is based in Tuscany.

In planning our trip, I had arranged for us to overnight in Stresa on Lago Maggiore (Lake Maggiore).  We began our travel in the morning on Holy Thursday, had a pleasant lunch at an inn in the Swiss Alps and breezed into Stresa with plenty of time left to explore a bit before having dinner.  Our hotel was modest but pleasant, with a view over a sunny outdoor dining area.

We decided to take the ferry to visit the Borromean Islands, specifically Isola Bella.  This island is almost wholly occupied by the monumental Baroque villa of the Borromean family and its spectacular gardens.

After first wandering through the villa, admiring the many works of art and listening to the history recounted by our tour guide, we made our way to the gardens to exclaim at the ornate, overlapping terraces and the compositions built into them.

We were also charmed by the unusual white peacocks that wandered through the garden at will.

So, our first day on the road passed very pleasantly and we dined and slept well that evening.  I am very much looking forward to spending time in Stresa again - we've meant to return for many years.  Now, at long last, we shall.

Blossoms, Blossoms Everywhere!

It's not simply the apple blossoms in the orchards nearby - everything is flowering in this area lately.  From blossoms near parking areas

to trees and blossoms in local gardens.

The rhododendron on my terrace is blooming gloriously this year.

And for wisteria lovers like yours truly, there are lots

and lots

and lots

of photo ops.

Apple Blossoms

It's as if all of the local plants have gotten the message.  Even without the traditional April showers (this month has so far been unusually dry), blossoms have popped out all over.  Barely a month ago, some of my equine neighbors were not venturing out without their blankets.

Now they are happily munching away in their paddocks sans blankets, against a backdrop of apple blossoms.

I may have missed DC's beautiful cherry blossoms, but there are apple blossoms galore here.  And they are just as lovely.

But, because we've had so little rain this April, the local farmers have resorted to Plan B: irrigation.

Fortunately, they have that option, especially with the lake so conveniently located nearby.

On Shaky Ground

In light of the continuing financial, environmental and other impacts from the devastating Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March, the lead article in today's real estate supplement to the local newspaper discussed the growing concern that the great majority of buildings in Switzerland would not withstand a strong earthquake should anything similar occur here.

From a global perspective, the risk of a catastrophic earthquake in Switzerland is considered quite moderate.  It is not a comparatively major trouble spot.  And whatever risk does exist varies largely among the regions.  For example, the risk is particularly high in Valais, Basel, Central Switzerland, Engadine and Saint-Galler-Rheinthal.  To drive this point home, the article listed the nine most powerful earthquakes recorded in the history of the Swiss Confederation as follows:

              Churwalden (Grisons): 3 September 1295
              Basel (Basel): 18 October 1356
              Ardon (Valais): April 1524
              Aigle (Vaud): 11 March 1584
              Central Switzerland: 18 September 1601
              Brigue-Naters (Valais): 9 December 1755
              Altdorf (Uri): 10 September 1774
              Viège, aka Visp (Valais): 25 July 1855
              Sierre (Valais):  25 January 1946

All of these earthquakes were located quite naturally in mountainous areas.  Fortunately for me, the area around Lake Geneva is not a high-risk earthquake area.  Of course, as we have seen from the earthquake in Japan, one does not actually have to be in an earthquake area to have one's life changed by it.

One concern is that earthquake insurance is not required in Switzerland, even though coverage is available through Swiss Re for those who wish to obtain it and costs about CHF 100 per CHF 500,000 worth of coverage.  Yet, of all possible natural disasters, the risk of earthquakes ranks highest here.  Some cantons, such as Vaud where I live, require that flood and fire coverage be purchased for real estate holdings, in addition to regular comprehensive insurance.  The cost is reasonable.  Because my own property is located very close to a major lake floodplain, I believe that the flood coverage especially makes sense.

In 2003, there was a parliamentary initiative at the Federal level to strengthen protective coverage for natural disasters generally, but the political right and the cantons themselves opposed it and so it never came to anything.  In 2005, private insurance companies and cantonal insurers actually agreed on a similar proposal.  Once again, the political right, this time allied with the association of property managers, defeated it.  So today, it's up to individual owners.

The concern is that Swiss society, like that of any other industrialized society, has become more vulnerable in modern times.  It is not only individual buildings and homes that would be affected but also major infrastructures such as telecommunications and electrical systems, food provisioning and water systems.  In such a context, the consequences of a major earthquake in Switzerland could be terrible.

According to one estimate from Swiss Re, an earthquake on the scale of that in the region of Basel in 1356, with an estimated magnitude of 6.5, could cause damages amounting to CHF 80 billion, three-quarters of which would result from damages to and loss of real estate.  To that amount, one would still need to add another CHF 20 billion for financial consequences resulting from infrastructure destruction and loss of productivity.  Apart from the economic impact, the human toll would be devastating, with thousands dead or gravely injured and hundreds left homeless.

Sobering thoughts indeed.

Anticipating Easter

It is a wonderful time to be here right now.  The weather is dreamily beautiful and, because so many of my neighbors and friends have taken advantage of the school holidays to travel somewhere else, I literally find myself alone.  Even my good Friend J, although in the Geneva area for now, has one set of family visitors for this week.  They will leave on Friday and on Saturday, she will welcome yet another set who will celebrate the Easter holidays with her and her husband and son.  She just called to tell me that she will also be travelling to the Chicago area on 30 April to attend a week-long sales conference.  So, she will barely have time to catch her breath before then.  As for me, I'm really beginning to enjoy this retirement status, even though I wish that it paid better!

In this last week before Easter, flowers are popping up everywhere, with their heart-lifting colors.

Traditionally in this region - and others - of Switzerland, local fountains are decorated with Easter mementos.  Here is the tiny fountain by the boat landing parking area

and here is the main fountain in front of the chocolaterie - a very good reminder, as if any needed reminding of chocolate goodies right now.

Most around here choose one of two vacation destinations.  Either they travel into the mountains, and we have plenty around here to choose from.  Or they head south towards the Mediterranean.  Frankly, I am just as happy to stay here.  I am the beneficiary of beauty both from the mountains nearby and the lovely lake that is literally at my doorstep - OK, so it's about 100 yards away.  Plus I need not worry about "red" driving days, congested routes, crowded tourist sites, frustrated drivers, the steadily upward creep of the price of gas, or sticking to a schedule.  And, interestingly enough, the prediction for our local temperatures mirrors that of London.  If these predictions hold, we will be warmer here than if we were in Majorca, at least according to one report! 

April Morning in My Village

At long last, evidence of other human beings could be spotted in a village center on Sunday morning.  As you can also see, cycling was not an original idea.  I met lots of others - whole families even - on my route.

For some reason, I absolutely adore wisteria blossoms

So I have a lot of wisteria blossom photos.

I also love the pretty buildings in my own village,

especially if they also have wisteria blossoms.

Unsurprisingly, the local débarcadère (boat landing dock) looked deserted.  It was early morning and the boat was not scheduled to arrive before 11.  The Alps are still virtually invisible.

The facilities at the village park by the lake will not open officially until 1 May.

But there is evidence that new playground equipment is being readied for the official opening

even though the volleyball court looks very bare without a net.