Salt-Town
I was in Salzburg last weekend for my boss's 50th birthday party. The guy, Gerhard Plasonig, is one of the board members of WoodWelding, so he's not my current boss, but I've worked for him before, and I've remained somewhat involved in the WoodWelding projects here, so I garnered an invitation. Unfortunately, Jamie had to leave for the US the same day I left for Salzburg, so she couldn't come along. It also meant that I spent large chunks of the evening standing around awkwardly in a foreign-language speaking crowd, and I didn't have an immediate go-to for conversational succor. But oh well. It certainly wasn't a hostile crowd - I knew about a third of them already. The evening as a whole was really nice - it was held at a sort of manor house some 20km north of Salzburg, on the shore of a small lake. There were guest appearances by a (I guess) famous race-car driver, and the car that Gerhard helped build some 30 years earlier. There was a Bach violin solo by Miha Pogacnik, the cultural ambassador of Slovenia, and a sort of entrepreneurial violinist (tough to explain, but the guy has real musical chops as well). There was an excellent 5-course dinner, and live music all night. I was there from about 7:30pm to 3am, and then I ducked out early because I had to get up at 9 the next morning and check out of my hotel. I also got to see some of Salzburg, yet another ridiculously picturesque European city set on the banks of a river. Parts of Salzburg were badly damaged during the 2nd World War, but the main evidence of that now is the somewhat barren interior of some of the churches. Frescoes painted in 1974 just aren't the same as frescoes painted in 1774. Photos should be on the yahoo site soon, if not already.
There are a few other trips I haven't written up in here, like to Gruyeres (when Jamie was still here) - a cheese-making center about 1 1/2 hours west of Biel. This also has a ridiculously picturesque old town, but there are working dairies in the vicinity - the region produces 27 million kilograms of Gruyeres cheese per year. 2/3 of that is consumed domestically. In a country of 7 million people. You do the math. Another fun fact: one 35kg wheel of cheese (77lb) is made from 4000 liters (1050 gallons) of milk. That's right - holy shit. Gruyeres is also (in)famous for the HR Geiger museum, which is perhaps the most out-of-place thing in all of Switzerland. Geiger was the production designer for the film Alien, among others. He's not right in the head. I'm sure there's a point to his bizarrity, but I'm not sure if it goes much further than: "I have deep-set sexual issues". And I can think of better things to do than watch someone graphically work through (or revisit) their sexual issues. Like, say, anything.
On that note, I'll leave it for now, but there've been a few other things over the past weeks. I'll get to them once I remember what they were.
There are a few other trips I haven't written up in here, like to Gruyeres (when Jamie was still here) - a cheese-making center about 1 1/2 hours west of Biel. This also has a ridiculously picturesque old town, but there are working dairies in the vicinity - the region produces 27 million kilograms of Gruyeres cheese per year. 2/3 of that is consumed domestically. In a country of 7 million people. You do the math. Another fun fact: one 35kg wheel of cheese (77lb) is made from 4000 liters (1050 gallons) of milk. That's right - holy shit. Gruyeres is also (in)famous for the HR Geiger museum, which is perhaps the most out-of-place thing in all of Switzerland. Geiger was the production designer for the film Alien, among others. He's not right in the head. I'm sure there's a point to his bizarrity, but I'm not sure if it goes much further than: "I have deep-set sexual issues". And I can think of better things to do than watch someone graphically work through (or revisit) their sexual issues. Like, say, anything.
On that note, I'll leave it for now, but there've been a few other things over the past weeks. I'll get to them once I remember what they were.