Monthly Archives: January 2022

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback – Summer Trip to Switzerland (2006) – Part Three

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Today, I finally pulled the plug on my planned February 2022 ski trip to Zermatt, Switzerland. While I had been expecting this for some time, it was still kind of sad to cancel the Zermatt hotel room that would have formed the base for most of my trip. However, even with three COVID vaccinations so far, I couldn’t justify the costs and complications of international travel at this particular time. Perhaps to compensate, I’ve decided to finally write the final post from my summer 2006 trip to Switzerland. The first part is here, while the second part is here.

Italy! Domodossola’s old town (August 11, 2006)

As we had a Swisspass allowing unlimited travel on the Swiss transportation system, we were highly motivated to stay within Switzerland. However, certain cross-border trips were covered. One of them was to the northern Italian town of Domodossola. It was a nice change of pace, and we really enjoyed having a relaxed lunch on an outdoor patio.

Zermatt’s new town, with the Matterhorn struggling to emerge in the background (August 11, 2006)

While it would have been nice to stay longer, we had to return to Switzerland. In fact, our next stop was…Zermatt! A big part of Zermatt’s appeal is, of course, the Matterhorn. Alas, the grim weather that characterized much of this trip continued. We could barely see the Matterhorn from the village. And as you can see from the photo above, I had to put the jacket back on even though this was early August.

Zermatt’s old town (after many failed Matterhorn photos)…August 11, 2006

While we saw little of the Matterhorn, the trip to Zermatt was still memorable. I didn’t have a digital camera yet, but the views from the train were still stunning enough to attempt some pictures from the train window.

Crossing a bridge by train, and looking at other bridges (August 11, 2006) – near Stalden, Switzerland.

The next day, we explored the popular Swiss city of Luzern. It was much more crowded than our base in rural Hondrich. Once again, however, we used our SwissPass to see something totally unexpected: the Bourbaki Panorama. The Panorama is a very large round room, and it contains a very unusual thing: a circular painting! It is 377 feet long and 32 feet high, but each end is connected to the other. It depicts the French army retreating through Switzerland during the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War. It’s a very long story – you can read more about it here.

My ticket to the Bourbaki Panorama in Luzern, Switzerland (August 12, 2006)

We took a walk on top of Luzern’s old city walls (the photo at the top of this post was taken from the top of the walls), saw some other typical Luzern sights, such as the old Kapellbrücke (chapel bridge) and the “Lion of Lucerne”, and then returned to Hondrich for one final night at the farmhouse.

At one end of Luzern’s ancient Kapellbrücke – August 12, 2006.

Writing this post has been another reminder of how much we took for granted in the past. Imagine making spontaneous decisions to hop on a train to visit another country! I remain hopeful that international travel will become a part of my life again soon, even if won’t be this winter.

Posts from Base Camp

2021 (Re-) Discoveries, Part 2

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Following up on my Boxing Day post, here are some more things that I appreciated musically in 2021. Today’s focus is on music with a connection to this travel blog.

In 2018, I went to a music conference in New Jersey. We saw a great band called the Weeklings: you can read more about it here. A couple of the songs they debuted at that conference (see photo at the top of this post) have since made it onto their 3rd studio album (logically, called “3”). I think the above cover of “Baby You’re a Rich Man” improves considerably on the Beatles’ original version…which is not something I say very often!

But I also like the Weeklings’ original music. “In the Moment”, “Running Away”, and the title track from “3” may not sound like 21st century recordings: hearing them is like finding previously unreleased power pop gems from the last century. And what’s wrong with that?

Another vinyl compilation I picked up in 2021 was Stevie Wonder’s “Original Musiquarium I”. This double album collects some of his best 1970s tracks along with a handful of new recordings from the 1980s. It’s hard to imagine a better sequence of music than the beginning of side 3: “Higher Ground”, “Sir Duke”, “Master Blaster (Jammin’)”, and “Boogie on Reggae Woman”.

An urgent live version of “Higher Ground”

But Side 1’s opening comes close: “Superstition”, “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”, and “Living for the City”. Despite being quite a distance from the stage, seeing Stevie Wonder a few years ago in Toronto is one of our fondest concert memories. Here’s a link to that post.

…and an urgent live version of “Superstition”, from the same 1974 German TV appearance

2021 saw me listen to a lot of Marshall Crenshaw’s music again. We saw him perform in upstate New York in 2013, and I managed to get him to sign my copy of his self-titled 1982 debut album (the original vinyl pressing, of course). He was happy to hear that I played his music on my radio program at CFRC-FM.

My signed copy of Marshall Crenshaw’s debut album

That album remains a great blast of fresh air, but I also like playing his lesser-known 1996 Miracle of Science LP. It was recently reissued on vinyl, and included a bonus single with a Michel Pagliaro cover!

Someday, Someway is from Marshall’s debut album

Michel Pagliaro may not be well-remembered, but this Quebec singer wrote and performed “Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy”. The title is rubbish, but musically it has more hooks than almost any other single ever released. When we saw the Trans-Canada Highwaymen perform at the Grand Theatre in Kingston a few years ago, they performed this song as an encore. An absolute highlight! Pagliaro is still performing in Quebec to this day; maybe we’ll get a chance to see him soon.

Music has been an important part of our travels. While the pandemic is crushing any travel ideas right now, I’m hopeful that in a few months we’ll be journeying and listening to live music again.