Sukkot - the festival of outdoor eating and the four species - runs from September 18 to 25 this year. The best sukkah sits atop the glass dining room of the Prima Kings hotel at Paris Square - it seems to emerge from a bed of flowers. It's really spectacular. Sadly, I didn't have a chance to take a photo.
It being Sukkot, the university is closed and having experienced Sukkot, I thought this year I'd go on vacation. I'm in Switzerland visiting my friend TT - my travel and office buddy from last winter. I deplaned Tuesday to a cool and wet evening (rain - it's been nearly 5 months since I've seen rain!) that was admittedly a bit of a shock as last weekend it was 35C in Jerusalem; it was 12C in Zurich. Things have warmed and dried out a bit and I am adjusting to autumn weather - closed toed shoes, long pants, a cashmere sweater, gortex, and an umbrella! More shocking than the weather might be the clean streets, the orderly queuing, CHF 6 for a coffee at Starbucks (WTF? your coffee isn't worth NIS 6), awesome trains, surface water - lakes and rivers, and GREEN everywhere!
So far it's been rather a busy week; we've all been working. We ride the train to Zurich, leaving the house at 730, walking to the station. The train takes about 20 mins to get to Zurich. I go to the library at the university while TT is at work, and when the weather lifts, I do a wee bit of sightseeing and shopping (fall boots!). Today we got a lift to Basel with TT's partner who works there, where I also worked at the uni library. In the afternoon we visited the Kunstmuseum of Basel which has a rather impressive collection including maybe a bit too much 15th century art depicting the passion of Christ and other key events in Christianity. However, we did have a bit of fun considering whether the pictures were a reasonable depiction of the Old City of Jerusalem and Ein Karem (there were paintings commemorating the Visitation and the birth of St. John the Baptist). Moving forward a bit in time we saw some great Renaissance works including Rubens and Rembrandt, and Pieter Brugel the Elder's Triumph of Death, which comes off as a bit apocalyptic...and perhaps timeless. The collection includes Impressionist pieces (Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne, Gaugain, Pissarro, Manet, Munch); excellent work by Swiss painter Ferdinand Holder; creepy Dali; great Picasso pieces and some from before he became a Cubist. And, a few pieces by Marc Chagall, he of the windows at Hadassah Ein Karem.
We're planning an excursion to the Alps in the next few days as the weather is meant to clear considerably.
It being Sukkot, the university is closed and having experienced Sukkot, I thought this year I'd go on vacation. I'm in Switzerland visiting my friend TT - my travel and office buddy from last winter. I deplaned Tuesday to a cool and wet evening (rain - it's been nearly 5 months since I've seen rain!) that was admittedly a bit of a shock as last weekend it was 35C in Jerusalem; it was 12C in Zurich. Things have warmed and dried out a bit and I am adjusting to autumn weather - closed toed shoes, long pants, a cashmere sweater, gortex, and an umbrella! More shocking than the weather might be the clean streets, the orderly queuing, CHF 6 for a coffee at Starbucks (WTF? your coffee isn't worth NIS 6), awesome trains, surface water - lakes and rivers, and GREEN everywhere!
So far it's been rather a busy week; we've all been working. We ride the train to Zurich, leaving the house at 730, walking to the station. The train takes about 20 mins to get to Zurich. I go to the library at the university while TT is at work, and when the weather lifts, I do a wee bit of sightseeing and shopping (fall boots!). Today we got a lift to Basel with TT's partner who works there, where I also worked at the uni library. In the afternoon we visited the Kunstmuseum of Basel which has a rather impressive collection including maybe a bit too much 15th century art depicting the passion of Christ and other key events in Christianity. However, we did have a bit of fun considering whether the pictures were a reasonable depiction of the Old City of Jerusalem and Ein Karem (there were paintings commemorating the Visitation and the birth of St. John the Baptist). Moving forward a bit in time we saw some great Renaissance works including Rubens and Rembrandt, and Pieter Brugel the Elder's Triumph of Death, which comes off as a bit apocalyptic...and perhaps timeless. The collection includes Impressionist pieces (Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne, Gaugain, Pissarro, Manet, Munch); excellent work by Swiss painter Ferdinand Holder; creepy Dali; great Picasso pieces and some from before he became a Cubist. And, a few pieces by Marc Chagall, he of the windows at Hadassah Ein Karem.
We're planning an excursion to the Alps in the next few days as the weather is meant to clear considerably.
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