Switzerland’s Strada Alta

You take the high road, I’ll take the low road… We were in Switzerland rather than Scotland, but we couldn’t help but repeat this refrain on our recent adventure in Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.

We had friends coming for a visit and knowing how dismal it can be in October in Basel, we decided to play it safe and head to the sunny side of Switzerland, as their very fun ad campaign calls it. The sun is very much a part of the culture of Ticino. It directed the way life developed there. There are vineyards and terraces, beautiful gardens. In fact, if not for the Swiss stores and the prices listed in francs, you would think you were in Italy proper.

We made a good decision: it was grey and rainy in Basel as we departed but when we came out of the tunnel into Ticino, the sky was blue and bright. Hooray!

The Strada Alta (high route) is a trail in the Leventina Valley. To access it, we took a train from Bellinzona to Airolo, and then headed to the hills. The train did most of the uphill for us, so our 17 kilometer trek took us on an undulating path through a few villages. As usual in Switzerland, there are places to stop along the way for snacks and meals, making multi-day hikes a breeze to plan and easy to do, even with kids along.

The woman at the Leventina tourism office was very friendly and helpful. We were clearly not the first people to take this hike, but despite its popularity, we pretty much had the trail to ourselves, seeing just one couple during our hike. And lots of cows.

We spent the night in Osco in a dormitorio, then hiked out the following day. The poor weather caught up with us, but the forecast promised snow at higher elevations, which was extremely exciting for our friends from warmer climes. Of course the thought of it was better than having to deal with is and fortunately we were below the snow.

Back in Basel later that day, we went to the corn maze up in the Bruderholz, and from the platform in the center, we could see the fields of freshly fallen snow in the nearby hills. Winter is on its way!

If you go:

Book accommodation ahead if you’re going in the busy season as options are limited. You can find travel details at the Leventina Tourismo site.

Rights All Right

Some people, when asked “How are you?” respond, “Oh, I’m all right”. I generally have a bit more enthusiastic response, somewhere along the lines of “I’m great. How are you doing?”.

It’s all a matter of perspective, of course, but no matter how bad a particular day or moment of my life is, overall I have it pretty darn good. After all, wherever I have lived, I can turn on a tap and have water come out. I have roof over my head, and heating in the winter. Granted, I couldn’t always drink that water, but getting potable water was as simple as ordering refills for the water cooler. I have never had to lug a daily supply of water from a river, or a central tap.

While I am delighted to have the right to complain, I don’t think it’s right for me to complain. In fact, I believe I have the obligation to make sure other people have the right to complain and to do something to better their lives.

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

We arrived at our new destination – Basel, Switzerland – on 19 August 2011. One great thing about moving is the opportunity to reinvent yourself. While I’m not sure I’ll do that completely, I  have decided I will once and for all start the blog I’ve been meaning to start for years, so here goes!

I’ve been amazed to find that despite a major change like moving across the ocean, again, things are remarkably the same.  We are staying in temporary accomdations in Binningen, in the same building where we stayed upon arriving in Basel the first time in August 2001. Fortunately the building has been upgraded – new, lighter and brighter furnishings – but we easily fell back into the same routines.

Jason is back in the same office building, though in a new job and therefore on a different floor. We arrived on a Friday and Jason went off to work the following Monday, leaving the business of settling in, again, to me.  Not to sound mean, but that’s the way it’s been the past five moves, so no great change there.

We spent the first week looking at apartments, considered a few in the outskirts of Basel but decided to take one in the Gellert, the neighborhood where we lived last time. In fact our new apartment is all of two and a half blocks from our old apartment. As I said…

The best “same” is our friends. We have stayed in touch with several families  from our Montessori days, and it’s been great to reconnect with them. And some of our new friends here are actually friends from Hong Kong – a family we knew well there has also moved to Basel (that’s tale for the “Small World” category) and it’s been great to maintain that connection too.

A lot in Basel has changed, but much of what I loved about it before is still here. Looking forward to getting out there and exploring more!

Hello world!

I know this post is supposed to be deleted, but I’m keeping it to show procrastination, or busy life, or something. Created this account on Sep 1 fulling intending to follow with my first post, already sketched out in my head, and finally did it on 30 Sep. At least it was in the same month!