Random Glimpses of Life in Klein Basel...

Our favorite authentic Swiss restaurant offered a special "Texas Week" dish of "Western Potatoes" that we found to be quite delicious and faintly reminiscent of home. The house specialty dessert was something called a "sundae" with hot caramel on it.  We hope that someday, some enterprising person decides to bring that quaint little Swiss cafe we like to call "McDonald's" to America...

Mr. H. decides to play hide-and-go-seek, forgetting that he must hide more than his head to be obscured.  (Mr. H. was struggling with congestion, so Mrs. H. prescribed some time with hot water and towels over the head.)

The Swiss Army was kind enough to bring one of its tanks to an exhibition at our nearby Messe (convention center).  (The other three tanks were elsewhere that day) :-)

Actually, the Swiss have an amazing level of military preparedness.  They are a totally self-reliant country and are not part of the European Union or the United Nations!  Every young Swiss man must put in six months of military training.  

We had the great delight of meeting a gentleman whose company makes incredibly beautiful plates using pressed Swiss flowers.  They create whole dinner sets, complete with candlesticks and wine glasses.

Mrs. H. spends the day biking to Lorrach, Germany for groceries with our friend Mary Blom from Basel.  The trip to Lorrach is about a 15 minute tram ride from Basel and a 30 minute bicycle trip.

A lovely canal surrounded by real timberframes.

These pictures are of the wall that once surrounded the city of Basel.

The Basel Cathedral (Muenster) from a distance

The Basel Paper Museum

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The paper mill is still in operation and is powered by this massive water wheel.  In side the building, the wheel powers large wooden hammers that pounds a mixture of cloth, old paper, and water into a pulpy substance to be made into new paper.  The sound of these large four-foot hammers crashing down on the stones is deafening!

Mrs. H. dips a frame of metal mesh into a batch of paper pulp.  Once the pulp has been caught on the mesh, the water drains off and forms a new sheet.

Mr. H. does the same.

The professional paper maker presses "our" paper in a warm iron so that it will dry evenly and quickly enough to be taken home.

Voila!  On the original mesh their was a small wire in the shape of the Basel insignia.  If you look closely, you can see that paper in this piece of paper.

Mrs. H. experiments with inks and some feather quills.  It is hard to believe the beautiful lettering of the Constitution was created with this type of pen.

This printer's box reveals why letters are called "upper" and "lower" case-- the higher portion is full of capital letters and the lower one is full of "lower case" letters. When assembling type for printing, each letter must be taken from its box and assembled on a frame to go into the press.  Many of the letters are quite small and easily confused, (such as p and q) hence the old printer's phrase, "Mind your "p"s and "q"s!"  Mark Twain did this job after leaving his apprenticeship as a steam-boat captain.  He despised the job.

Click on this thumbnail to see some beautifully done wall paintings.  Also notice the large timbers that form the structure of the room.

Idylls at the Reiterhof in Riehen (just outside of Basel)

We stumbled on this beautiful old estate after a hike through Germany.  The building on the left boasts a restaurant and cafe.  All the buildings on the estate are beautifully restored.

The Hinrichs spent several days reading and lounging and pretending to be Swiss nobility on this lovely stretch of lawn. We did not do a very convincing impression, but often thought how nice it would be to bring student's here.

Mr. Hinrichs preaches for the first time ever at Basel Christian Fellowship on the subject of canonicity.  You can access the sermon on the website at:

A Day at the Kunst (Art) Museum

Two Picassos.  Note the difference in style and content of these two pieces. Picasso could paint with such beauty when he desired to present his subject matter in a traditional form.  However, Picasso became obsessed with multi-perspectivalism.  He did not want to paint from a given fixed perspective, but from multiple perspectives at once.  In the picture at left, you can see him attempting to paint in this fashion.  Multi-perspectivalism was in interesting avenue to explore, but became a dead-end for this talented artist who squandered much talent and years on it.

Mrs. H. delves into an Alpine landscape.

Calypso: "Please, Odysseus-- I'm a goddess!  You can leave your wife for me!  I am eternally beautiful-- what does Penelope have that I don't?"

Odysseus: "Calypso, you are certainly beautiful, and I know my wife's beauty will fade away, but I kinda sorta made a vow to her and I miss her terribly.  Plus, she's a really good cook."

Calypso: "Humph."

Battle of the Centaurs

Hunt of Artemis

Mr. H.: "Can I PLEASE have the keys, Dad?"

"Dad": "Not until you promise to wash the car before you return it."

Later in the day at the largest Museum of ancient statue reproductions in the world, conveniently located right next to Basel Christian Fellowship.....

 There is not a single original statue in the entire museum, but you can find copies of just about every famous piece from antiquity.

Mrs. H. has a chat with Socrates.

Winged Victory vs. Winged Goofiness (Mrs. H's version)

Winged Victory defeated by comparison with incarnate beauty (Mr. H's version)

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Locked out of our chateau AGAIN.  Actually the administrative building for the city of Basel.

Tobacco exhibit at the Natural History Museum.  Only in Europe would you find a museum with an exhibit on the history of tobacco.  The picture shows many varieties of tobacco.

Off to Beautiful Huemoz in the Alps!

On the right is Huemoz as seen from across the valley.  It is a delightful little village perched on the side of the Alps.  Huemoz does not even have a grocery store!

In front of our two weeks' residence-- Chalet L'Argentine-- just above Francis Schaeffer's L'Abri.  Ellis Potter, the pastor of Basel Christian Fellowship, was kind to allow us to stay here.

Mrs. H. prepares to ascend the hill that leads us into town and groceries-- just a 45 minute hike to Villar!  The Swiss seem to think that switchbacks are for ninnies.  

Pretty views along the way to Villar.

There are more Swiss wildflowers than I have been able to count.  We think that grazing in meadows like this must give Swiss cows the rich milk they are famous for.  These flowers also gave Mr. H an allergy spell rarely equaled in ferocity.

Many Chalets are elaborately decorated. See if you can read the mottos in French.

The Hinrichs put a bid on this lovely state-of-the-art chalet.  The bathroom facilities are supposedly all very well ventilated.

Groceries and wildflowers-- what more could a pregnant woman want?

We had the great privilege of hearing Jerram Barrs (left) speak on Calvin and the Reformation in Switzerland in the L'Abri Chapel.  He is now a professor at Covenant Seminary, as well as head of the Francis Schaeffer Institute.

In his overview of the life of Calvin, he spoke at some length about Calvin's positions on Education.  Calvin himself was classically educated (anyone who has read his Institutes and sees how often he quotes Seneca, Aristotle, et. al. knows this!) and instructed the teachers in the schools he set up to teach the Roman and Greek classics.  He even instructed them not to teach the classics just to destroy them from a Christian perspective, but also that the students would be able to learn from the truth they did present.  Mrs. Barrs has done a paper on Calvin's view of education that we hope to distribute soon.

Mr. Barrs is a wonderfully wise and gentle fellow.  Sitting under his teaching quickly brought back the fire for presenting a Christian worldview that originally inspired me to go into teaching.

The highlight of my trip was the opportunity to eat lunch with Edith Schaeffer and talk to her for about an hour.   She has written many encouraging and insightful books on the Christian faith and is a very warm-hearted, godly woman.  We enjoyed sharing pregnancy stories, though I must say, hers were much more entertaining-- what a story-teller!

Mrs. H. basks in the glow of her time with Mrs. Schaeffer! 

On one hike, we saw a para-glider enjoying the views.  Only crazy people paraglide!

A quaint little farm, one of the many we have seen prettily scattered about the mountains.  The Swiss make wonderful use of their mountains.  Almost every inch is used for something.

Bonding time with a real Swiss dairy cow and some less-than-friendly, but quite cute, sheep.

WILD forget-me-nots!  They are everywhere!

The remains of Heidi's grandfather's chalet.  Well, we can't verify that for a fact, but our people are working on it. 

We wish we could install a device that would blow fresh Alpine air into your lungs as you look at this!  The mountain in the center is the famous Dents De Midi- "The Teeth of the South"

Wild buttercups!  Amazing.

This slate-roofed chalet was obviously built without an expense cap.  It is brand new and quite exquisite.  Every piece of wood on the chalet was beautifully designed and formed.  The slate on the roof was in very large sheets and about an inch thick.  It must have been very heavy.

This copy of Della Robbia's "Ad Timpanum"  is the only one that exists and it hangs outside of Chalet L'Argentine.  Pastor Potter was quite blessed in his being able to obtain this copy from the art school in Florence.

The Huemoz Chapel

This 13th century chapel is the most dominant building in Huemoz.  Farel, the great Reformer of Switzerland, preached here long ago.  Farel was responsible for persuading John Calvin to come to Geneva and work there.  Many L'Abri weddings have taken place here.

Ideas for our timber-frame home.

Mr. H. : "Wouldn't this burl make a wonderful bowl?"

A walk through vineyards down to Chateau Dimes wine museum.

You can see the Chateau in the background.  The chateau was built in the Middle Ages.

Pewter wine vessels in the Chateau museum.  The Swiss love pewter and we often saw it for sale in the second hand shops.

Timberframe detail.  (Can you guess who took this picture?)  The Chateau was built in the middle ages.  If you look closely you can even see the marks left on the timbers from when they were hand-hewn.

The wine-making process!  These large presses squeezed juice from the grapes.

A hike down the hill to Bex

We stopped for lunch outside of this very well-kept utility building.  The roof has a very special design that uses a Hammer-mill truss.  This special truss carries the weight of the roof line to a lower supporting beam.

Mrs. H. enjoys a rest in front of her favorite chalet.  A lovely meadow blooms to the right of the picture and a steep hill leads you up to it on the left. 

Wild strawberries!  Very yummy.

The amazingly powerful (and steep!) tram ride up from Bex.  The train is drawn along by means of a toothed track and gear.  You can see the toothed track in the middle.

Paragliding!

On the tram ride up from Bex, we met some girls from Delaware, Liz and Jessica, who mentioned they were going paragliding the next day.  It did not take much for us to think seriously about doing it!

Mr. H. prepares for take-off.  Liz and Jessica are in the background and actually "flew" with us! 

Pictures from Mr. H's flight.  

Our very gregarious and capable instructor, as well as the owner of the school, Christophe Smith. 

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More in-flight pictures.  The town most often pictured is Ollon.

Mr. H got to put his hands on the steering levers for a while.

Christophe waves triumphantly after a very soft landing right in the middle of the target zone.

Jessica comes down for a landing.

After Mrs. H. heard that Christophe took his wife paragliding two weeks before she gave birth, she decided it would be fun to try paragliding.  (Knowing that Christophe had been doing this for twenty years was also a great help!)

Up, up, and AWAY!

There's no turning back now!

Paragliding is a very relaxing and enjoyable sport to do, especially on a day like the day we went.  It is incredible to be high up and relying upon the force of the wind as you look down on what appear to be toy villages and trees.  We actually heard birds chirp from where we were.  Birds are a great help to para-gliders because birds often circle in the thermals that para-gliders need t find in order to gain altitude.  Thermals can generate air moving upward at a rate of nearly 30 ft per second.

What a view!