May 31
May 31 Lützelflüh to Eggiwil 22 km Walking deeper into the German part of Switzerland, the architecture shifts a bit, closer to a traditional sense of Swiss structures. Today we had a chance to see up close a number of the traditional barn/houses which are incredible buildings. Built on a one-story masonry base usually containing […]
May 30
May 30 Bern to Lützelflüh 33km In the middle of May, 2014, Sarajevo experienced the worst flooding in more than a century. I remember standing by the Miljacka River watching the rush of water and expecting at any moment the banks to breach, flooding the old town. They held there, though there was devastation downstream. […]
May 29
May 29 Murten to Bern via train Today we did a little “iron blazing”–we took the train to Bern, skipping a little over 30km of the Trans-Swiss trail. Had we walked that stretch it would have been more of the fields we’ve been doing and, because Bennett has limited time, he would have fewer days […]
May 28
May 28 Neufchatel to Murten 17 km (plus ferry ride across lake Neufchatel) When I was around 11 years old, I was given a working model steam engine. It had a horizontal nickel boiler, a whistle/release valve and a single cylinder engine. I would fill the boiler, burn some Esbit tablets (hexamine fuel) to get […]
May 27
May 27 St-Imier to Neufchatel 26 km Walking a narrow river valley, turning at a gap in the surrounding range to climb over to the next, then crossing it for the next– that’s walking in this corner of the world. Each kilometer brings something different– wheat field, yew forest, meadow with milk cows, beech forest–sometimes […]
May 26
May 26 Saignelégier to St-Imier 17.5 km The French cantons in Switzerland are known for agriculture, which seems primarily to be dairy, and watchmaking. Yesterday walking into St-Imier Bennett and I peered into a high tech lab, speculating about what they were studying with all the clean rooms and microscopes. It was a watch factory–something […]
Walkers Have Never Been Modern
Walkers Have Never Been Modern for Bruno Latour Robert MacFarlane along with Stanley Donwood and Dan Richards wrote a beautiful little book called Holloway. A holloway is “a sunken path, a deep & shady lane. A route that centuries of foot-fall, hoof-hit, wheel-roll, & rain-run have harrowed into the land.” In other words, a holloway […]
May 25
May 25 St. Ursanne to Saignelégier 28km Mud, but pure pastoral beauty. Today’s walk was a little tough toward the end– just need to get back into shape–but beautiful in an understated way. This region is steep, but not stupendous, an agricultural area with lots of muddy pasture crossings. The path followed Les Doubs River […]
May 24
May 24 Porrentruy to St. Ursanne, 16 Not an ambitious first day– getting our legs back and learning to navigate in a new country. Did climb up an over a ridge or two, but nothing difficult. It was fun to watch Bennett note the little differences in the world– the steep pastures, the heavy cow-bells, […]
May 23
May 23 Hoping it is not a harbinger of what is to come, it rained hard all night and through the first part of the morning. Certain to be some muddy trails, but today is a day to read and write, waiting for Bennett to arrive late this evening. Wandered the town a bit, stopped […]