Burg Rötteln, Germany

Burg Rötteln, Germany Throughout Europe, one can find scattered piles of stones. These are not like the stones that are seemingly thrown up by New England’s cursed soil; that some bent-back farmer may have fashioned into a crooked wall, a mill or a snake condo. These are the stones that went into the construction of elaborate castles by royally anointed land barons. They were generally built on high ground from where it was easier to protect... [Read More...]

Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, CH

Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, CH I grew up in Fahrnau, a small town in Germany, just on the fringes of the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). It is one of a handful of villages that sprung up along the Wiese (River) with Zell at one end and Loerrach on the other. Just south of Loerrach, the river crosses the border into Switzerland to then empty into the Rhine at Basel. A rail line parallels the river all the way from Zell to Basel which is the main transportation... [Read More...]

Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland

Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland I entered 1st grade in Arlesheim, Switzerland, a small rural town in canton Basel Land.  My mother had placed me with a family there while she was working full-time in Basel (Stadt) and was unable to care for me.  My stay there was cut short by an outbreak of polio – from which I fortunately suffered only minimal effects – after which my mother decided to remove me from the household.  During the brief time... [Read More...]

Basel, Switzerland

Basel, CH Most people have a special place where they imagine they would be blissfully happy.  The subject usually comes up in connection with talk about where best to vacation or retire.  Sometimes, it’s a place one might have seen only in pictures; sometimes it’s as obvious as returning to the place of one’s birth.  Those who are truly satisfied with where they presently find themselves are the lucky ones.  Statistics, however, show they’re... [Read More...]

Normandy, France

Normandy, France, Gold Beach, Allied landing, D-Day Arromanches lies along the stretch of coastline designated as Gold Beach during the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, one of the beaches used by British troops in the Allied invasion. Museum of Disembarkment – Arromanches, France. The Museum is dedicated to the history of the artificial harbours and contains scale models of the same. The Arromanches Shoreline Historical Data of War to be... [Read More...]