All articles filed in Thorgrim54

After my outing during the week, I am back to walking in the city again. But somehow, I don’t feel as confined now, knowing that I can go to the mountains again soon. I walk as substantial circuit within the city each day. As I do, there are signs of the changing seasons. When I…

Breakout! It is now four weeks since I returned to Switzerland from the US, and immediately went into a kind of quarantine because of Covid-19. Things were falling apart so rapidly in the US that I was worried about bringing back infection with me, and so I went out the minimum in the two weeks…

Here in Basel, the abnormal has become the new normal as the inhabitants of the city follow government recommendations to avoid the infection of Covid-19. The weather throughout the last week has been fine, which is both good, and a cause of frustration, both at the same time. The good weather has meant that I…

My last posting to these pages was written while in the US. But life in that country was rapidly closing down. After writing on Sunday, by Monday, bars and restaurants were closed, the gym in my hotel was closed, and the people I was working with were all advised to work from home. There was…

I am on a business trip at the moment. I must confess that most of my business trips are like a military operation: get in, get the job done, and get out again. There is usually no hanging around, and no leisure time. But occasionally there are exceptions. Occasionally there is a trip that goes…

It had snowed since I had completed section 2 of the Höhenweg, and the day was colder when I set out to complete section 3. I reached Staffelegg early in the morning, perhaps too early. I say that because there was still glatteis on the roads, making them slippery underfoot. The sun had not yet…

There are direct trains from Basel to Brugg, and so I arrived there early in the morning, just as businesses and schools were opening for the day. Because I was early, I took a little time to wander around. I found the Lateinschule, or Latin School. It was associated with the church and the learning…

The Jura Höhenweg (Jura Crest Trail) is one of the Swiss national trails. It runs from one of the suburbs of Zürich in an arc all the way to Lake Geneva. Marking of the route began as far back as 1905, so the route is more than 100 years old. As the name suggests, the…

There are several mountains called Weissenstein. There is one in Austria, and another in Germany, but it is the Swiss one that is closest to me, and therefore of most interest. It is one of the higher summits in the eastern Jura at 1281m above sea level. It must be said that what is known…

The Jura mountains sweep in an arc westwards and southwards from near Zurich down to Geneva. The highest peaks of the Jura range are at the southern end of that arc, along the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. Chasseral, not far from the town of Chaux-des-Fonds, is the most northerly and easterly peak above 1500m in…