Sunday, February 05, 2006

Oops! I did it again...

Unlike last weekend, when we woke up spontaneously at inhuman hours, we had to be woken by the alarm clock on Saturday morning. CS and I had to get our passphotos taken at Fotohaus Wolf. CS arranged for an appointment earlier in the week and also asked to have a few portraits taken. We got up at 7.30 and took our time for our morning coffee. After that CS jumped into the tub and I got into the shower, that is, after CS told me to get ready as it was already 9.10 a.m. Darn, I was just completely concentrated on my game of Sudoku on the internet. That's when I got into the shower...

We drove off to Basel and parked the car in the Storchen, walked over the Marktplatz, where the market had already come to live, and arrived at Fotohaus Wolf at 10.00 sharp. Perfect timing! (Maybe I could have finished my game of Sudoko anyway ;-)) in no time we had the pictures and the portraits taken. It went amazingly fast. Now I am curious about the result, but we'll see that next week when we're going back to pick up the passphotos and pick out the portraits for print. We got out and walked into a still fairly quiet city. It was cold and humid but I had seen a nice black Boss coat a few weeks earlier and regretted not having bought it at that time. I saw the coat at Pfauen but CS and I decided to have a look at my favorite clothing store, Herren Globus, first. By the way, TBF gave me the tip to have a look at the Boss Outlet Store in Wetzingen, close to Stuttgart, but I didn't feel like driving 600 km back and forth for a coat. Will do that some other day when we suffer from unexpected early awakenings again. Anyway, we walked into Herren Globus and CS already noticed strange sounds coming from pocket. My credit card was already protesting, even though we hadn't even reached the 1st floor (Boss department) yet. As soon as our faces were noticed a smiling salesman walked in our direction. I told him what I was looking for but unfortunately the wanted coat wasn't available here. No coat, BUT...he was kind enough to show the recent arrivals of the Boss collection. Bottom line: we walked out with bag filled with a pair of pants and 3 shirts. So, still looking for the coat. This couldn't be too hard as Pfauen is just opposite of Herren Globus, so we hopped over and went up to men's department. CS immediately found the coat, I tried it on and the deal was done. Once more my credit card cried out loud.... (Oops, I did it again...)

We went down to the Coop super market located in the basement of Pfauen to have a nice snack at the counter. After our snack we left Pfauen and walked back towards the parking. In teh meantime Basel had come more to live and the streets started to fill with people. We drove back towards home and did our groceries. For dinner CS made a wonderful pork roast which we had in fromt of the TV, watching The Island. A very nice movie from the makers of Bad Boys I & II.

On Sunday morning we got up around 9.00. Pretty early and the awakenings were tough for me. I even had trouble speaking properly while we enjoyed our morning coffee. After the coffee we started the obligatory laundry (yes, we do the laundry on Sunday! Shame on us...:-)) and followed the daily bath and wash ritual. As the weather was nice we decided to go out for a drive to the canton Jura. CS proposed to drive up to a small village called Porrentruy.(Sorry, only available in French, but worth while checking out for the pictures) We found a parking in the old town and faced the old castle. We walked up to have a closer look at this old castle and enjoyed the view from the courtyard over the village. In the 14th century this castle served as the residence of diocese for the region. During office hours guided tours can be made, but unfortunately on weekends you will have to let your imagination speak. No tours available on weekends! Nowadays the castle serves as the home of the justice department as well as a museum. Walking around the courtyard, we read about the efforts made over the past centuries to preserve the castle's characteristics. After enjoying this tour we walked down to the old town for a stroll with the sun and wind in our faces. After an hour or so we walked back to car and drove home. We enjoyed seeing this old village...



....the courtyard..... ................................. ....view over the old town....


Now it's time to think about dinner. We'll probably have a simple but tasty Swiss meal: Rösti with bacon and eggs! That's it for now Bloggers! By the way, this is my new coat! Like it?

To TBF: I hope you're satisfied and see there's no writer's block, and to all of you: have a good start of the new week!!

Cheers ,
Orange-X

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Orange-X love the jacket! It looks like P's jacket actually but his isn't Boss. As for the pics, I love the one overlooking the village. It reminds me of the area on the way to Basel via train. (the name escapes me at the moment.)

I think your weekend was quite joyful but it is funny to hear you have to wait for your photos. They do them instantly here in Vancouver, but the photos you get are much higher quality (which I like more).

Michael Lehet said...

Sounds like you had an amazing weekend!

Mark said...

Dear bloggers, we had a joyful weekend indeed (except for my credit card) ;-) Hope the week will be just as joyful. Will "drop in" at your blogs again soon.

Rob7534 said...

A lovely new coat! And I loved the castle pics! Something I just don't see here in the States, for obvious reasons! :)

CanadianSwiss said...

Expat - Don't know why exactly the wait. Maybe because the photos were taken digitally. Then we had portraits done of ourselves. I'm looking forward to see those!

Rob - Yeah. Really makes you realize how "old" Europe is. I find it amazing. Now I have a question... Do you ever sleep? It must have been 3am or so, when you commented!

CanadianSwiss said...

Michael - Yes, it was a fun weekend. Hope to read more about yours!

Ms Mac said...

Rösti and Bacon and Eggs? I think I may have found my new fave breakfast!

The coat is simply stunning, by the way!

Ginnie Hart said...

You can never take too many of these old-town photos, as far as I'm concerned. I'm a glutton for them. And now I realize there are more cities/countries (besides Germany) that I must see. Miles to go before I sleep!

CanadianSwiss said...

Mrs. Mac - Also great as a breakfast, but veeery filling. Better as a brunch. What I also do is add a layer of freshly grated cheese - something that melts nice - over the bacon strips, keep it in the oven for 5 minutes and then add the fried eggs over it. Don't count the calories thought, but one in a while, absolutely yummy. A real pauper's feast!

CanadianSwiss said...

Ginnie - we're trying to make it a habbit to just visit small towns or regions around Basel on a Sunday. I've been living here for over 20 years, and I'm realising that I missed a lot that was just close by! You're certainly not done, yet! ;-)

Rob7534 said...

I'm too busy to sleep! HA!

Ginnie Hart said...

Actually, CS, I think you're right. That's why we went to Goslar last month--so close to Hannover and small enough to feel do-able in a weekend. That'll probably continue to be our rule of thumb. We'll save the farther and bigger cities for when we have more time. Good idea.

Anonymous said...

wow. Visiting a castle is way up on my 'things to do'.. you must have loved it!

Canadian Swiss, this should link back to my new page ;)

CanadianSwiss said...

Ginnie - Took me a while to realize that!
xmichra - The feeling up there was really amazing and the view absolutely beautiful. The mideval times must have been pretty tough. I sometimes wonder how many poeple lost their lives just to build the darn castles.

The Big Finn said...

Yup...satisfied. For now.

Mark said...

Always happy to please a fellow blogger....!