Little House on the . . . Winterthur?

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If you visit Winterthur in Switzerland, one of Switzerland’s largest cities, you will be impressed and – generally speaking – the locals will be happy to have you.

But . . . that is only if you stay on the beaten path where all the other tourists stay.

If you decide to leave the tourists areas in Winterthur and to explore its deeper locales – you take matters into your own hands. There are areas deep, deep in the “old town” that do not just have Middle Ages buildings – but Middle Ages people! It is rumored that there are entire families that still live like they did hundreds of years ago – speaking a language that never evolved – not using electricity (because they don’t know it exists!) – and believing that the Battle of Winterthur is still raging, with the Habsburgs are fighting the French Revolutionary Army!

Because of the sheer danger I don’t do it very often, but recently I ventured deep, deep into this forbidden area – and I discovered a sight that is too amazing to believe.

It’s on my bucket list to research this little, strangely aligned house that is deep, deep within the Middle Ages “old town” of Winterthur:

Sète – Thoniers Senneurs

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Also known as “Mediterranean Thun Purse Seinners” – but I admit, I had to do a bit of research to learn about this:

From what I have read, very very interesting. The main ship goes out to look for a school of tuna. The other boat or boats are used to encircle the school with a huge net that can be closed on the bottom, thereby capturing the fish. I asked my Asian friend Chatji Peeti for a nice picture, and he is what he drew:

I have to ask myself the question: how many people live in the south of France and yet not know how these things work – and certainly, how many tourists visit here and don’t take the time to research the things they see?

Tuna are not something I normally see in Swiss grocery stores, so I had to look this one up as well: Atlantic bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, or “thon rouge” in French. They can be up to 2m in length and 200kg in weight – so that is a pretty big fish. Interestingly, I learned they travel great distances across the Atlantic, but they return every spring and summer to the Mediterranean to spawn. Hence the fishing season from 19. May to 01. July. And here’s the kicker: a French license to go fish these beauties will set you back a whopping 0 EUR! That’s because the only people who are allowed to fish this year are those that have fished last year – it’s a very tightly controlled group. Unless one of these groups stops fishing, there’s essentially no way for anyone new to start.

Saline-les-Bains

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Saline-les-Bains blows your mind, because it shows you an aspect of medieval history that you probably had no idea about. Or at least, that I had no idea before I visited it. Over a thousand years ago people discovered that the water flowing up from underground springs was salty. So even as far back as 1115 they created “saltworks” to collect the water, dry it, to obtain salt.  One interesting learning for me was: in the later Middle Ages, the workers here were treated phenomenally well. They obtained free salt (and remember, a family needed around 25 kg per year to preserve their food), free food, free healthcare, education for the children. They worked only around 12-14 hours per day, whereas 18+ hours was standard in the Middle Ages. They had an extremely good life, so that generation after generation of families willingly stayed and worked here.

Marvin, die Möve

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This is Marvin. Even though he is a duck bird and I am a human, still he likes to visit me when I am working in my home office.

However, Marvin is no ordinary duck bird.  He does strange things. He’ll stand for minutes with one wing extended out.

And here you can see him just relaxing, probably for nearly 10 minutes in this strange position. Why?  Sadly, probably only Marvin knows!

Eguisheim Storks

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Scientists have examined the storks in Europe and have said there are two categories, often living side-by-side: the storks that fly to Spain in the winter, and the storks that fly to Africa in the winter.  Apparently, what they do is influenced by their families. And amazingly, the storks fly differently: if a scientist can measure how a stork flies, even for a few seconds, they can tell to which category the stork belongs!

Sadly, I don’t have these skills. Are the storks here Spain-flyers, preferring to drink Xeres and enjoy tapas over the winter? Or are they African-flyers, preferring baba ganoush and hot black tea over the winter?  Or . . . maybe these are just LAS (Lazy-Ass Storks) that don’t fly anywhere for the winter?

Life really has too many mysteries!