House-sitting in Switzerland

Rob & Eden Derhan, the brother & sister-in-law of Marshall, my good buddy from high school, are living and working outside Basel, Switzerland. And to my fortune, their neighbors were out of town and offered me their house for two weeks!

We took a walk on [road above Nuglar] [road w/Rob+Eden] .

[Ken+Sondra's green townhouse] was my home for two weeks. A nice place, decked out in the finest Ikea. I slet in the attic bedroom which had a great [view from the window] [2] .

The town has a half dozen natural springs that come out in [water fountains] .

Up the street is [Rob+Eden's Flat: top floor of white house] . Their [backyard] [2] [3] is really beautiful.

Listal, the closest 'big' town, 10 minutes by bus, has a train station which is on the line between Basel & Zurich. Not much in the town. But the town did have a functioning check-it-yourself [weather station!]

I had a great time taking the bus and hitchhiking between Nuglar & Liestal (on the Basel-Zurich train route, where I took the train to Basel). I resorted to hitchhiking because the bus (Really slick & comfy Mercedes Bus) was every hour-and-a-half and the ride between was only 10 minutes. It wasn't too difficult because the towns are so small that there is a very high level of trust and safety. Everyone on the bus knows their bus driver and almost everyone else on the bus. The bus also doubles as postal transportation which allows mail to be delivered easily many times throughout the day. Sometimes there are large packages or baskets of correspondance traveling with you and at the destination stop a postalperson will meet the bus with a wagon and unload the cargo.
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» Internet access was much more difficult than I thought it would be in Switzerland, a place known for precision and technology. In Basel there was one icafe. In Liestal only the public library had internet access. And Rob+Eden didn't have a home telephone line because the Swiss regulations make it really difficult for any forigners to 'attempt' living in Switzerland; they had been using the one payphone in Nuglar to call home (USA) until they ordered a handy (mobile phone) under a Swiss friend's name...

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