Swiss and Switzerland

Les mystérieuses voies d’eau de Bienne

kenritley

One of my passions is finding “hidden canals” – and in the Swiss city of Biel/Bienne, there is quite something going on that I just don’t understand.

There is an interesting spot where waterways converge. This is how it looks on Google Maps:

And this how it looks in real life:

But this Schleusenweg (“lock-way”) to the left just runs for a bit into the city, then disappears altogether.

Like Capt. Kirk said, “I don’t like mysteries. They give me a belly-ache, and right now I’ve got a beaute.”

Entreprises horlogères suisses: Omega

kenritley

I am by no means a fancy watch person – but this place has a little showroom, open to the public, where you can see one example of every watch this place makes.  I literally spent 30 minutes looking at the watches – an absoluting amazing, amazing experience.  (Well, it was pleasant for me. Inside the showroom there was a woman and a man — working there — dressed impecabbly. I think it’s more than a showroom and you can actually buy watches there. Anyway, I was wearing a dirty old T-Shirt and shorts. They didn’t complain – probably a lot of ultra-affluent people such as myself dress the way that I do!  I keep some nice clothes in my Gulfstream IV for special occasions – but nothing beats comfort.)

Anyway, continuing the series,

Why is there a lunar lander in front of the building? Well, Omega is pretty proud that astronauts wore Omega watches to the Moon. If you ask me, that was 50 years ago – there is such a thing as milking a cow a bit too much. But having said that, once you buy a lunar landar there is no point in putting into a storeroom. And, it’s really cool to get up close and imagine what the astronauts felt like. So, good job Omega!

Hôtel de Ville, à Le Locle

kenritley

I had a very intense bittersweet moment here, just as I was taking this snap. A big black crow came up to me – which crows very rarely do. Somehow we connected, albeit briefly, on that part of consciousness where man and crow overlap. After this spiritual bonding I tossed him a huge pecan nut from a bag I was carrying. Instead of enjoying it, he just carried it off to one of the bushes you see in this snap, and promptly buried it.  Did he truly think it was his nut – maybe a nut so good it could not be eaten today but best saved for a more festive time? Was he just showing me how much he cherished the nut, only to return to eat it after I left? Or . . . was he contributing to the foodstocks of all the crows in Le Locle – and if he was, would that somehow reduce the pleasure I took from this man/crow nutgiving gesture? Or rather, should I judge a community spirit like that to be both admirable as well as somewhat lacking in mankind?

What is worth mentioning now is that the famous science fiction writer Stephen Baxter has postulated that after the evolutionary fall of man, crows will ascend and become the dominant species. Maybe this little man/crow event today is a little evolutionary kick along that inevitable journey?