Travelogue
==========

2017-08-14 18:58:37 (Flying over Montreal)

Megan and I are undertaking our first significant voyage together since we met
up in Moscow, seven years ago. It is exhilarating to go travelling together.
We are going on our honeymoon. This is an incredible time of our lives.

Today we devoted the whole morning to tying up loose ends related to the wedding and
packing for our trip. Last weekend was the wedding and Taste of the Danforth,
a yearly food festival that happens in the east end of Toronto. The Danforth is closed
between Broadview and Donlands, and the streets are filled with various delicious street
foods. We were so caught up in the wedding that we only experienced the festival as a
serious obstacle to travelling to and from downtown and the Meeting House.

This morning our first errand was to deposit the cash money received at the wedding.
We wanted to make a stop for breakfast at Motorama, our local diner, but they were
closed in the wake Taste of the Danforth. There was a strong smell in the air,
the Stench of the Danforth, as we paced around, hungry and sleepy, waiting for
the bank to open.

Once the banking was done, we picked up some groceries to make breakfast and
headed back home. The packing began. It was surreal. The previous days had been
so intense that we barely remembered our home. The thought of travelling 6500km
around the world to Switzerland (and further adventures) was barely imaginable.

We dashed around the house. What are we supposed to pack? It always seems like
such a conundrum at the time. In the fog of packing, I forgot to read the advice
that I had written to myself regarding packing on the way back from Switzerland
in 2015.  Hopefully, I'll remember to look this kind of thing next time. I do
not travel much.

-- Travel snacks!

This time we made the rule that we'd limit ourselves to "two books each and one
game". When packing my bags, I bent the rule a little bit. We also teamed up a bit
in our choosing. Book-wise we packed:
	Foundation by Asimov
	Foundation and Empire
	The Silmarilion by Tolkien
	[Short Stories?] by Peake

I also cheated a little bit and packed a couple pamphlets:
	The Practice of the Love of God by Kenneth Boulding
	[A Guide to 1652 Country?] by [A Friend?]

For our game we packed a two sided plastic board with Slither by [??] and
Catchup by Nick Bentley. The latter is one of my all time favourite games.
Megan and I played about a hundred games of it together a couple years back.  It
is a really dynamic and pleasing game to play. We both have a lot of experience
with it, and it will remind of us a good time from our past. It has been a long
while since we played games together with any regularity. 

There was the curious problem of choosing one book about the string to bring with
me. I was half-way tempted to bring Self-Working Rope Magic, but settled on
String Figures instead. There was a long-standing toss up between Hawaiian and
Gilbertese Figures. Ultimately, it does not matter too much. It will be nice to
play with the string in any case. 

-- Gave the eggs and peppers to our next door neighbours Tony, Rachelle, and Nila
-- Sent the garden tour video to Lou
-- Missing my hat, borrowed Meg's Big Brown Hat
-- Hopped on the subway to Yonge-and-Bloor
-- Bought socks

-- Took the UP to Pearson
-- Checked in to Pearson in record time.
-- Very easily distracted due to lack of food
-- Ate veggie pad thai at the Lee Kitchen
-- Drank Henderson's Union Pearson Ale (UPA)

-- Little baby distracted by maple syrup stand near our gate (E75)
-- Formline art on souvenirs near gate

-- Meg watched Gifted (intense math prodigy film)
-- The maple syrup baby was really floppy and cute in the aisle of the plane
-- An astronomer was doing some work on Linux (star photos)
-- We made a small cowl around our window and were greeted by the stars
-- Great view of the Big Dipper out the window.

-- The guy sitting beside us, Rolf, asked us to take lots of pictures.
-- He is a young man, with girlfriend, and was just travelling Canada for five weeks.

-- Played the game "Hue Drops" (Flood-It + topology + special tiles)
-- Figured out that the flight map could be used for general exploring like Google Earth
-- Planned out a small travel itinerary for Switzerland:
	-- Make a day trip to La Chaux-de-Fonds (CDELI)
	-- Visit the Quaker family in Chernex (via Montreux)
	-- Travel to Geneva for Meeting

2017-08-16 13:08:38 +6h (At the Glocke Hostel)

Yesterday, Megan and I arrived in Bern. We arrived in Zurich at 07:30 local
time. However, it felt like 04:30 for us.  The sun was rising, we were extremely
tired, and everyone was speaking German. It was surreal. I am still super-duper
jet lagged. Usually, I do not experience jet lag so strongly. I'm generally so
excited to be travelling that it does not hit me. 

When we arrived in Zurich, I made a quick stop at the duty free shop. I planned
on getting a small bottle of scotch, but there was none to be had. Everything
was a litre or more. We settled on a miniature bottle of wine, and three Romeo
No, 2 cigars. Shopping duty free is a funny business. The cheapness of the goods
points out the true scope of taxation. Only luxury items are taxed so heavily.
The government profits from our vices, because we'll pay anything to have them.
It's good to see that there is no bread, carrots, or butter at the duty free
shop.

It was a bit of an adventure getting to Bern. We bought tickets from the
SBB/CFF/FFS machine at the Zurich airport, but we were so tired that we could
not figure out how to use them. We stood around confused at the tracks, trying
to plan out our trip.  Turned out that I had totally forgotten how the trains
work. We went up to the SBB office and asked how to use the tickets. A pleasant
and mild manner officer explained to us that we need to check the sign above the
gates to see when the train would arrive. It was clear that this old fellow
thought that we were a little funny. He shook his head a little bit, and told us
that they work like all train tickets. He was right, of course.

I got a map of Switzerland at the SBB Office, and showed Megan our route. She
was impressed that we were going a third of the way across the country. It looks
like a long trip by Canadian standards. When we noticed that the scale of the
map, our voyage quickly shrunk to a mere hour or so. Switzerland is surprisingly
small by Canadian standards. A trip across a third of Canada would take several
days. In Switzerland, it takes a bit over an hour.

The train ride took us through the country side and we got a chance to look at
alot of different scenery on the route. We saw small towns, quaint brown roofed
houses huddled together among seas of green. This place feels like a something
book. Everything looks elegant, and well designed. We saw industrial buildings.
They had elegantly proportioned windows, and clean facades. There was nothing
that seemed ugly about them. I'm used to seeing big heaps of industrial material
sitting around outside buildings, left-overs tossed to the side. Not so here.
The industrial sites we saw were positively tidy. Oh yeah, and there were cows 
grazing on a hill at one point.

On the train ride to Bern, we rode beside a group of young kids. Meg estimates
that they were nine to eleven years old. We got a good view of two young
girls as they rode the train. Their brothers were right in front of us, but we
could not get a good sense of them through the back of the seat. It seems like
young ladies are everywhere the same, and everywhere a little different. One
would call out "Papi" and then act indifferent when asked anything by her
father. She was definitely too cool for her dad. There were dozens of selfies
that needed to be taken with her bestie, and she just had no time for old pops.
The boys made a contest of seeing who could yell "SALAT SAUCE" louder. The
contest ended when a ticket checker walked passed, I guess that they both won.

When we arrived in Bern, we set off in search of the hostel. We initially
misinterpretted the map at the train station and went on something of a 
wild goose chase. We went up a hill, and found ourselves getting in to more
and more residential areas. We passed by a nursing school. There were a lot
of young ladies out on a smoke break. At the café beside the school a bunch
of young men in military outfits were enjoying a cup of coffee.

Back on the train, Meg had been surprised to see a young man in military attire
carrying a gun slung across his back. We are not used to seeing guns. Switzerland 
is known for being peaceful, but it is a military country. There is a period of 
mandatory military service that everyone has to serve. Last time I was here one of
my hosts told my that it plays an important role in corporate life here. People
talk about what division they were in and what they did in training. I believe
that there are rules mandating that families own guns here. It would seem that
Switzerland is both militarized and peaceful, somehow.

Once we backtracked a bit, found our way, and got to the hotel, things went
great. We arrived at the hostel around noon. We got lucky, since our room was
already setup for us hours before hour scheduled check-in time. Our time getting
out of Toronto was so bad, by comparison with arriving in Bern.

Our room here is very spacious, with a doubled-up twin bed, a wash stand sink, and
two windows. The views are awesome. Out of one window we have a clear sight of 
Bernminster, an epic cathedral built in the 1600s, and out of the other we have
a view of a bustling city street. The hostel is right in the heart of "Old Bern".
We are about 30m away from the Zytglogge, a public clock built in the 13th century.

The views out the windows are truly amazing. It reminds us of Mervyn Peake's
novel Ghormenghast, which features an ancient castle as its main character.
Gently sloping brown clay roofs stretch out as far as the eye can see. Small
house shaped tops cap each chimney. The roof lines are uneven, and produce a 
sense of great organic development.

2017-08-17 02:00:36 +6h (At Volver Cafe in Rathauplatz)

Okay. There is no way to keep this travelogue current. Too much has happened and
now it's time to jump to the present. There is going to be a bit of a gap in the
story, because it's too hard to get caught up once things have happened.
Instead of dwelling in the past, let's talk about bells! 

There are a lot of bells in Old Bern. Every steeple has some bells in it.  The
Catholic church (Chistkatolische Kirche St. Peter und Paul) at the end of the
street rings its bell every fifteen minutes, and hourly. One kind of bell rings
out the quarter hourly times, and another rings out the hour. Three high bells
signals it is fourty five minutes passed the hour. Five low bells indicates
that it's five in the morning, and makes you wish that you were asleep. The
bells provide a very mild reminder of the passage of time. One gets a slow
moving but accurate sense of time from their ringing.  They ring morning and
night. 

The ringing is musical and a little hypnotic. Last night the Catholic church at
the end of our street rang its bell for a solid five minutes to signal the call
to Mass. Megan took this time to get dressed and hustle down the street. (I did
not go with her to Mass, but stayed home and rested in bed. I think that it is
good to do some activities seperately while travelling since it gives us
something to talk about when we are together.) The uniform ringing as a call to
Mass was enchanting. Each chime of the bell ran in to the next and produced a
deep throbbing sensation.  After the ringing was done there a bit of a ghostly
sentation that remained.  I wanted to keep hearing the bell. 

Meg reports that Mass was very pleasant. She went to the Wednesday Mass at 18:30.
It was attended by about ten people, and she said the the effect was something like
going to Midweek Meeting for Worship. The small intimate group of people made the
Worship seem intense and direct. She says that there were familiar elements in their
worship, but that the order was different from what she is used to doing with the
Quakers. For example, they shake hands in the middle (!) of the service. There was a
period of Silence, but it was comparatively short at five minutes long. Overall,
she is happy that she went. The Mass lasted about a half-hour. When she visited
the convent in Germany, Mass lasted from an hour to an hour and half. 

On a different note, the food situation has been very good. When we left Toronto
we packed a bunch of travelling snacks: almonds, cashews, dried mango, peanut
butter granola bars, and some chips. It has been really handy to have food on
hand.  We always know where to get a snack. We went out to eat a really fancy
meal when we first arrived. High class pasta. I got a pesto dish, and Meg got
tomato basil.  The menu at the restaurant was in German and English, so we were
able to order food without difficulty. Our waitress did not speak English, but
we managed to get by without words. Generally, everyone has been able to accomodate
our lack of German. There are a lot of tourists in this part of town, and everyone
seems used to dealing with clueless English speakers. Meg only ran in to difficulty
at the Migros supermarket when she did not weigh her own produce before going to the
cash. A disgruntled cashier could not tell her, in English, what she had done wrong, 
but a young man came over and explained the problem.

Last night we cooked dinner at the hostel. We made a huge batch of rice and
beans with lentils, black beans, cucumbers, mushrooms, and onions. It was a joy
to eat our usual food, made with our own hands. We had totally stopped cooking
for ourselves about a week or so before the wedding. There did not seem to be
any time for our own food. It was nice to cook together. The hostel has a really
well set up kitchen, and we were able to prep a good meal without difficulty.
One fellow guest came by to use the kitchen, and he waited patiently until we were
done cooking. We offered him some food, because we had plenty, but he declined. 

After dinner, I asked the hostel reception about the beer that they sell. The
staff told me, plainly, that it wasn't worth the cost (3 CHF) and that I should
hustle across the street to the CO-OP where they had more beer for better
prices.  I thanked him for his honesty, hustled across the street, and  picked
up a couple cans of local beer (Feldschlösschen). When I got back to the
hostel, I gave the guy a big thumbs up and went to the lounge to write. I get
the sense that beer, wine, bread, and cheese are all quite cheap here compared
to Canada.  The beer were ~1.20 CHF each.  Meg came back from Mass, and we
tried out the beer.  It was pretty good for light beer. 

Later in the evening we went to the Trappiste Bierkellar down the way. It is a
very recently established bar, having only opened in April, and we chatted with
the owner a bit. He is a British guy, and approves of our plan to visit England
next. The Bierkellar has a lot of sour beers on hand. Meg ordered a Swiss beer,
brewed by Trois Dames, which was a jalapeño raspberry sour. The server asked if
she likes sour beers, and when she admitted her ignorance of them he gave a
concerned smile that said: "Well, you're in for a trip!" It tasted like it
should.  Very sour, more of a champagne or wine than beer, with strong notes of
jalapeño and raspberry. I do not like sour beer, and I'm impresed that Meg
managed to finish it. As for myself, I got a coffee porter and an imperial stout.
Both were exactly to my taste: dark, strong, and heavy.

2017-08-18 12:08:26 +6h (La Chaux-de-Fonds)

Last night we realized that our travel plan was a little patchy, and decided to
solidify the schedule for the next couple days. We quickly decided that it would
be best to fly from Geneva to London, and skip over Paris entirely. The trip is
now going to be a week in Switerland and a week in England. I'm perfectly happy
with this change of plans. We will be checking in to hostel in Geneva tomorrow 
morning. Today, we're on the Chaux-de-Fonds adventure. It's been a good one!
Full of wacky surprises.

We came to Chaux-de-Fonds with the intention of visiting the Centre de
Documentation et d'Etude sur la Langue Internationale, a large collection of
Esperanto documents held by the public library. We also wanted to visit 
the International Horological Museum. 

Today we made the trip over to CdF by train. It was a nice ride. We got to see
some agricultural activity on route. The crops look small by Ontario standards,
but they are very well maintained. We saw a couple people out schlepping in the
neat organized rows.  We took the train from Bern to Neuchatel, and then
Neuchatel to CdF. It was a pleasure to see Neuchatel again. Last time I
visited, I made several trips in and out of the city, and got used to the feel
of the place.

When we arrived in CdF, the adventure began. On the way in we saw a sign
pointing to Centre Esperantiste KCE (Kultura Centro Esperantista). It was nice
to see such a sign on the way to hostel.  Unforunately, and this was only the
beginning of our (mis)adventure, the reception at our hostel was closed from
12-1pm for lunch. We arrived at about 12:08 were shut out. We decided to hike
back, under full load, and follow the signs pointing to the KCE. We headed back
towards the Esperanto sign, and it directed us up hill. It should be pointed 
out that we are both heavy laden with serious back-packs. My pack contains
about 40L of stuff and Meg's contains 50L. We have a food back with a bunch of
snacks and groceries, and I've got my laptop bag with a couple books in it for
extra weight. Uphill is not the right direction for us to be walking at this
point.

The signs lead us up a hill towards the Esperanto Center. Towards the top of
the hill the road, we began to doubt and considered heading back. There did not
seem to be any follow up sign, and the hill was steep under our heavy loads. We 
foolishly decided to press on. We saw another sign that pointed to a way that 
went even further up hill. Again, lured onwards by linguistic idealism and naivety,
we went up the hill. The signage was clear, but infrequent, and lead us in a bit
of a winding route. Eventually, all signage stopped, and we stood around on a 
corner looking confused. A runner, passing by, asked us where we were headed and
he told us to go down the hill a bit, when we answered him.

Going downhill did not help much, except we ran in to a group of tourists who
were willing to help us out. The encounter with the tourists points out both
the potential utility of Esperanto, and the fact that it has been eclipsed by
English. Initially, I approached the group and started speaking French. We got
along alright in French, and they were able to figure out that we were lost and
that we were looking for the Esperanto Center. We chatted a bit more, and I
learned that they were in town to see some architecture by Le Corbusier. In
fact, we were all standing in front of a house, La Villa Turque, that he had
designed.  I should say, in passing, that it was not ugly in the usual sense of
modernist architecture. It seemed stately and classical, but different somehow.
It was not all rectangles juxtaposed together in some heap, but had a nice flow
to it. In any case, the tourists knew what Esperanto is, and that CdF was an
important center of Esperanto activity, but they could not directly help us in
our quest.  Eventually, they figured out that I speak English, and we all
immediately flipped over to speaking English. It turned out that they all speak
German. The excursion in to French and English was all out of sorts for them.

And there is the rub. In a more ideal world, we would have all been speaking
Esperanto. They wouldn't need to bow to my language preference. No one would be
speaking a national language, and we'd all be on some kind of common linguistic
ground. Esperanto is much simpler than English or French, and would not be
difficult for people to pick up. The Swiss Esperantist, Claude Piron, advocated
for it being used at the United Nations, where he was a translator. Of course,
if Esperanto were adopted as the lingua franca of the UN, then Piron would be
out of work, but the world would be a simpler and more egalitarian place. In
any case, the tourists got along fine in English. I got along passably in
French.

One of them eventually called up the Esperanto Center and passed me the phone.
Instinctively, I started speaking French to the person on the phone. He
inquired why we were coming, what business we had, where we were from, etc.
Eventually, he asked whether I spoke Esperanto and we immediately switched over
to "La Internacia Lingvo". He directed us to the Center and we were on our way.
We thanked the tourists and left. It turned out that KCE was back uphill and
we had missed a cleverly hidden sign pointing out the correct route.

When we arrived at the Kultura Centro Esperantista, we figured out that the
building was closed until 3pm because the administrator was out to lunch.  A
French speaking fellow who was staying there spoke to us from the window.  He
was not an esperantist, but was just renting a room. We chatted and got in to a
bit of a mix-up about the word toilet. When he asked if there was anything that
he could do for us, I said that I needed to use the toilet.  It was much
needed, and had been for a long time. There was a bit of confusion, and he
eventually figured out what I was asking and then went back inside. He looked
around the house for someone who could speak Esperanto and, about five minutes
later, produced the most curious character in this tale thus far: the
Esperantic Gnome.

The Gnome is of usual stature, somewhat confused, but essentially pleasant.
He appeared at the front door and asked why we had come. It was clear to him
that we had no real business being there, and he warned us that in these times
one must be cautious of unannounced guests. With the internet, and telephones,
it is so easy to announce yourself in advance that no one (who is up to any
good) would have reason not to announce themselves. I told him simply that I 
needed to use the bathroom, and that we had no other business. After some
humming and hawing, he directed me to the bathroom and started chatting with
Megan.

Essentially, the Gnome does not like anything. Any topic Megan introduced was
subject to mild criticism. The Esperanto Library in CdF? Boring. How about the
KCE? Also, not very good. Well, we're heading to London next.  The Gnome
assured Megan that London is a drag. Canada? The customs officers at the
Vancouver Airport are mean. This is the nature of the Gnome. He is, ultimately,
a really nice guy but everything displeases him. He's not a troll. Or an ogre.
Not even a grump. He is just mildly displeased with everything. So, we left 
the KCE, happy to have seen it, and pleased to have met the Esperantic Gnome.
We took the bus down hill, back towards the hostel, and checked in our bags.

One last thing that I'd like to say about the KCE. Originally, it was called
Gastejo Edmond Privat, or the Edmond Privat Guest House. I don't know if Privat
owned the house, or whether it is named in his honour. Privat is an interesting
character. He was born in 1889 and learned Esperanto in his youth. He made a
600km journey, on foot, to attend the first Universala Kongreso in 1905. What
is most interesting to me is that he became a Quaker in 1936. He was very
active both in the Esperanto movement and Swiss Quakerism. I'd like to track
down more information about him at some point, since he seems like a kindred
spirit.

Our current hostel is HéberGement du POD, minutes away from the main train
station. When I was booking the stay, I felt a bit rushed and was worried that
we would not be able to stay in town. It turns out that I rented an absolutely
enormous apartment. This apartment can sleep fourteen people in seperate beds.
There are three bedrooms, each with several beds. It is wild. We could play a
reasonable game of hide and seek in here. We wish that some friends were here
to stay with us, since it feels too big for us. The place is well build, and
comfortable, but not especially well set up. It has a bit of a "Russian" feel
to it. Things functional but cobbled together. The furniture is practical, but
not especially showy. There two story curtains that conceal a backyard
containing a car with a smashed out windows. We're moving on to Geneva
tomorrow.  Luckily, we have a place to stay tonight. The Esperanto Centre rents
rooms, and if we ever come through again, we'll try to stay there. It has that
same quaint "eclectic niche hostel" feel as Quaker House in Toronto.

After checking in to the hostel, we headed out to visit the International
Horological Museum. We found it quite by accident. I went down a side street to
look at a pretty bas relief on a building, which turned out to be the Musée des
Beaux Artes, and we found the Horological Museum right next door.  Wow! It was
a truly amazing place. The museum is built in to the side of a gently sloping
hill and shows a beautiful brutalist facade overgrown with moss and vines. 

The archway leading in to the museum reads "L'Homme et Le Temps" or "Man and
Time". That is the great theme of displays. The relationship between humanity
and time. The museum catalogues our changing relationship with time and the
cosmos. It has everything from candle clocks and clepsydras (water clocks) to
astronomical telescopes and atomic clocks. Meg pointed out there was a good
showing of astronomical material. She had not connected the two subjects in her
mind yet, and was a little blown-away. 

There was a reconstructed model of the Astrarium of  Giovanni de'Dondi which
demonstrated (calculated?) the Pytolomaic model of the solar system. My
favourite piece was actually a static work of art called The Conquest of Time,
painted by Hans Erni in 1958. It is an enormous fresco which shows the
progressive unfolding of humanity's relationship with time. It brings in
geometry, mechanics, cosmology, and mathematics. Famous scientists and
philosophers strut across its might stage. At the end, Einstein sits looking
somewhat puzzled and pleased. It is an incredible piece of art. 

The time pieces that especially attracted me were the large simplified models
of escapements. I got a good sense of how a crown escapement works by looking
at a large wrought iron model clock, with a stone for a weight, and long
crooked pendulum arm. It was just out in the open, ticking and clacking away.

2017-08-21 06:00:50 +6h (Geneva, at the café outside City Hostel)

It has been a three days since I last wrote anything in the travelogue.  We've
been in Geneva this whole time, and have enjoyed ourselves a great deal.
Usually when I write these travelogues, I am alone and can find a great deal of
time to commit my thoughts to writing. It is not so when travelling with Megan,
since we both enjoy each others company and can fill any amount of time with
chatting and reflecting on out experiences here.

Geneva has been absolutely fantastic. It is a great city. Each of the cities
that we have visited has been slightly different. We were in the core of Bern,
and saw a medieval city that has maintained its character in to modern times.
We visited La Chaux-de-Fonds and saw an industrial city, which was once the
center of the Swiss clock industry but has now fallen to hard times. Geneva is
something else entirely. It is the original home of the United Nations, and has
the feel of a bustling metropolis. People of all nations pass by on the
streets. There are lots of ethnic restaurants. It reminds us, more than the
other two cities, of home.

We are staying in the City Hostel, just off Rue Lausanne, about a five minute
walk from the train station Cornavin. The  hostel is excellent and very clean.
It feels like a converted and cleaned up university dormitory. Our room is
about 8' x 12' and has bunkbeds. At home we often sleep apart, for example:
when we've kept very different schedules or when one of us is sick. We've
considered buying a bunk bed several times, and now we've finally got a chance
to try it out. 

The hostel experience here has been exceptionally pleasant. On the first night
in Geneva we went out for Indian food. I had been seriously missing spicyness
in our diet and was happy to have some flavourful food. The service was great
and we ate bountifully. Afterwards, we picked up some breakfast food and beer
and headed back to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel we  went to go
hang out in the kitchen. In any community, the kitchen is where the action
happens. My friend Norman Taylor pointed out that all the alternative
communities he ever lived in were initially formed in kitchens. I am reminded
of a little wall hanging that I once saw, it went something like: 

	Women belong in the kitchen. 
	Men belong in the kitchen. 
	Because the kitchen is where the FOOD is!

In any case, the kitchen on our floor has a cupboard of lockers for people's
food. The fridge even has little lockers in it too. It is a pretty neat little
setup to keep people from messing with each other's food. We put our beer in
the tiny fridge locker and tore up some bread to eat. 

A couple moments later, a pair of people walked in and we started chatting. The
two were studying neuroscience in the Netherlands, and were in Geneva on
vacation together. The guy, Leo, was from Germany and the girl, Anya, was from
South Africa.  They were both in year one of a two year master's programme.
They were both very enthusiastic about their studies and wanted to continue on
to do doctoral work. Anya said that she wants to study the neurological basis
of mental conditions like schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety. I told her
that if she wants to doctoral work then she had better get very familiar with
depression and anxiety before it catches up with her. There was a bit of an
awkward laugh.

On our second day in Geneva, we got up early in the morning and headed over to
the Geneva Quaker Meeting. It was a fourty five minute walk away from the
hostel and we trekked over for Meeting at 10:30am. It was nice to saunter
across the city and get a sense of its various parts. We walked through some
down to earth residential areas and could get a feel for how people live around
here. There were plain convenience stores and daycares along the walk.

The Meeting House itself is tucked away in a small suburb planned in the 1920s.
After Meeting, I picked up a pamphlet on the history of the house. It is a
complicated story, because the main house holds QUNO, the Quaker United Nations
Office. I understand that QUNO is something like an "embassy run on Quaker
principles." It is a place for UN officials to come and meet informally, to
feel comfortable, and conduct their business. The majority of the house is used
for office space, with only a single room used by Geneva Monthly Meeting (GMM).
The situation is very much like the Toronto Quaker House, except that the roles
are reversed.  We hold CFSC, the Canadian Friends' Service Committee in a
single room, and use the rest of the house for activities related to the
Monthly Meeting. I think that we have a lot to learn from QUNO in this
connection.

We arrived about five minutes early to Meeting, and it was enough time to greet
and hug some Friends who I remember from my last visit. Meg was able to meet
with someone who she'd corresponded with through her work at CFSC. I was very
happy to see Michel Mégard, the librarian at GMM, who I stayed with during my
last visit here. Michel is a computer programmer by trade, and a very gentle
and loving man by disposition. We both are fans of Pierre Cérésole, a Swiss
Quaker who trained as a mathematician and engineer before moving on to found
the International Voluntary Service for Peace. 

2017-08-22 08:24:38 +6h (Geneva Airport)

I would like to dwell on our time in Geneva a little bit more. I'll pick up the
thread of talking about Cérésole, Meeting, and Michel. We had a nice Meeting in
Geneva. I felt really welcomed by the people there, and was happy to get in an
opportunity for worship. In GMM, they read out a passage from Advices and
Queries once everyone has arrived and got settled in to Silence. They stick
with one passage for a whole month, which I think is a good practice. This time
it was about the relationship between economic wealth and spiritual progress.
The query inspired most of the ministry that followed.  Initially someone
ministered about the death of a famous comedian, and then, much later in the
Meeting, there were two pieces of ministry about the query.

The Meeting Room at GMM is a lovely space. It is a semi-submerged basement room
and one has a clear view of a sloping garden out the window. The effect is
wonderful. You get to see the grass at eye level, and there is a gentle slope
leading up to a stand of trees. A patch of ivy and some flowers lends variety
to the scene. I found that being at eye level with the ground provided a strong
anchor for getting grounded and centered in Meeting.

After Meeting, we had tea and instant coffee. It was great to chat with various
people in the Meeting. I met a nice guy from Pennsylvania, who is here in
Geneva while his husband studies for a doctorate in epidemiology. Meg got a
chance to meet with Jonathan Woolley, the current director of QUNO. We gave our
travelling minute to one of the co-clerks and had it signed. There was a bit of
a scramble to figure out whose responsibility it was to sign a travel minute.
In the end, we got a nice little message congratulating us on our marriage and
wishing us a safe journey. After general socializing, I met up with Michel
again and we started talking about Cérésole.

I am especially interested in getting a copy of Cérésole's book Vivre sa Verite
(To Live One's Truth) which was compiled from extracts of his journal. Pierre
was an avid journaller and kept a small black book on him at all times. He
wrote down prayers and thoughts that came to him throughout the day in it.
This collection of notebooks is now held by the University of Lausanne. It
would be awesome to look through them. The next best thing would be to get my
hands on a copy of Vivre sa Verite. One of his prayers that really spoke to me
goes as follows: 		

	?? Eternelle, donne-nous le courage tranquille necessaire en toutes
	circonstances et propre a ce-lui qui ta consacré sa vie.

Michel checked the library catalogue for me to see what they have of Cérésole's
on hand at Meeting. We found a good number of things. They have a lot of
material about him, but he wrote very little himself. Michel showed me a copy
of Vivre sa Verite, but he was not enthusiastic about lending it to me for such
a short period. I'm going to look in to buying a used copy online when I get
home.

After Meeting, we dropped our bags off at the hostel and went to Old Geneva. It
was much like Bern, and had the feel of an ancient medieval city. We passed by
the house where Jean Calvin lived, and walked through an amazingly beautiful
old church the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de la Paroisse se Saint-Pierre-Fusterie.
There were a number of cartoons illustrating the socio-cultural aspects of
Protestantism (intellectualness, frugality, democracy, and others). 

After touring the cathedral, we stopped to get a coffee at a nice little café.
We played a round of 6x6 Entropy. Curious folk kept passing by and eyeing-up
our game. We purchased a board for playing the game back in Bern. Right near
our hostel was an absolutely amazing games store. It was well stocked and even
had juggling balls and unicycles. We were both over joyed. Interestingly
enough, they had a copy of Hyle by Eric Solomon, the commercial version of
Entropy. The original set for Hyle is really unfortunately designed, with big
clunky awkward pieces that are prone to topple over, and we bought a set for
the game Paletto instead, which can be used to play Entropy.

In the evening, we headed back to the hostel and picked up some supplies for
dinner. We had decided that we had to have fondue during our time in
Switzerland, and we bought the necessary supplies at Migros. When we got back
to the hostel we started to cook up the fondue. A pleasant young man from
Isreal was sitting in the kitchen eating and we chatted with him. He was just
about to start studying veterinary science in the Czech Republic, and had
recently finished his three years of mandatory military service in Isreal. He
was a really pleasant guy, with a sense of humour. Evenutally, after much
talking, it came out that he has been vegan for about three months. I told him
about my vegan adventures in Switzerland, and he agreed that it is difficult to
make it work.

2017-08-24 05:30:43 +5h (The Penn Club, London)

On our last day in Geneva, we visited both the Museum of the History of Science
and the Geneva Botanical Gardens. We walked down to the border of Lake Leman
and strolled along until we came to the Museum. It was awesome. A real gem.

Outside the museum there were a number of open air exhibits. There was a pair
of parabolic reflectors seperated by a hundred paces or so, which would convey
even the faintest whisper. Meg and I stood at opposite ends of the garden, and
were able to talk to each other comfortably using the reflectors. Elsewhere,
there were various kinds of sundials. Each sundial came with a clear
explanation in French and English of how to measure the time. I'm a bit of a
nut for sundials, and it was nice to see several models all in one place. A
sundial is a sort of miniature astronomical observatory that measures the
position of the sun. To make or use a sundial accurately, you need to know a
fair bit about how the world works. They're little cosmic marvels.

Admission to the Museum was free, and we happily went inside and looked around.
They had a number of displays about the early history of the physical sciences.
There were displays about electricity, hydraulics, and magnetism. Meg and I
were especially fascinated by the material on astronomy. We looked at the
notebooks of an amateur astronomer from the early twentieth century. He had
drawn very fine portraits of sun spots erupting in full splendor. It was
amazing to think that someone had sat beside a telescope in 1911 and drawn
something on the surface of the sun with such high precision. We were blown
away by the patience and precision it must have required. There were pages and
pages of neat and elegant hand writing in French about various observations.

After the Museum, we went to the Geneva botanical gardens with about an hour
and a half to take it all in. We were way off in our timing. The gardens cover
a huge area which could take days to explore. We checked out the major green
houses, and were thrilled by what we saw. I told Meg that it was like being in
botanical heaven. There was an amazing abundance of life in the gardens. One
feature that was especially pleasing to me was that all the plants were 
clearly labelled with their Linnean name, family, and place of origin. It was
awesome to see that information available for each plant. When I go to Alan
Gardens, I get frustrated that I can't identify many of the plants. 

Another nice feature of the Geneva botanical gardens is that they have several
smaller greenhouses dedicated to particular families of plants. It is neat to a
whole room full of genetically related plants. One can get a sense for their
kinship, and shared properties. Our relationship with plants is skewed by the
fact that they are so alien to us. Francil Hallé in his book In Praise of
Plants talks about the strong fauna-centrism of human beings. Most of our
intuition for living things is based on mammals, like ourselves, and not other
life forms. As a result, we can visually distinguish a cat from a dog, or a
walabee from a tapir, but we cannot distinguish much about the kingdom of
plants without extensive training. The two rooms that especially caught my
attention were: the family containing african violets, as I have two small
flowering specimens in my lving room, and the family containing pine apples.

Our time in Geneva was a real highlight of the trip. We got to spend a lot of
time wandering around and taking in the surroundings. The worship was quite
nice and it was a joy to be greeted by familiar Friends.