Gary BUTTERWORTH Online

SCHILTIGHEIM, FRANCE

The weather here has been absolutely beautiful for the past two days, and it’s supposed to stay that way for most of the week. High 50s-low 60s and sunny. It’s the nicest weather I’ve seen in months, and I’m really enjoying it. I rented a bike a few weeks ago and it was so nice yesterday that I just went out and rode around for a few hours. I rode downtown with the intention of taking in some of Carnival, but I gotta admit, just like in Bern and Basel, Carnival didn’t really do it for me (also, isn’t Carnival supposed to be before Lent? Isn’t having Carnival now contrary to the whole idea of Carnival? I don’t know nearly as much as I should about religious things, but that’s the way I always understood it. I could be wrong.). Anyway, I just rode around town and tried not to think about how Charles-esque my actions were. I rode to Germany, cruised through a couple of neighborhoods, and then came back. Apparently the new bridge between Strasbourg (France) and Kehl (Germany) opened sometime within the hour or so that I was in Germany, so as soon as I got back to France I rode back to Germany via the new bridge. It was something else. It looked like work on the bridge had just been completed that morning. Safety rails were still not in place, and there was construction equiptment everywhere. But there were several hundred people climbing over bug chunks of metal to be among the first to cross the new bridge. So I joined in. If you’re counting, I’ve now crossed the Franco-German border 23 times. So that was Sunday.

Saturday I took the train to Mulhouse (mul-OOZE) to watch a hockey game. Yes, even I have to admit, I might be getting a little bit carried away with all of the hockey games, but Mulhouse is only 45 minutes away from here by train. Tickets to the game were only 10€, and since Mulhouse is still in Alsace I could take the train there and back for 12,50€ on an Alsace weekend discovery pass. So I went. I had a little bit of a hard time finding the arena, but lucky for me the game started at 5:40pm, not 5:30 like the website said, so I made it just in the nick of time. Mulhouse plays in the Super 16, the highest level in France. There were probably about 2,000 fans there, and the game was better than you’d think. Mulhouse is #3 in France and they were playing #2 Amiens. It was the final game of the regular season and Mulhouse won. The crowd wasn’t Swiss, but they weren’t bad. The seating sections were filled, so I stood at ice level right on the glass. Mulhouse had a group of about 20 Ultras (I really need to write that entry that I’ve been promising explaining European hockey) who tried to get some songs and chants going, with a little bit of success. Like I said, it wasn’t Switzerland, but it wasn’t a bad way to spend an afternoon. I bought a scarf while I was there too. I swear, every time I go to a sporting event I come back with something new hanging off of me. I’ve acquired 5 scarves in Europe. So yea, it was fun. I’d actually like to go back to Mulhouse at some point to check out the French National Railroad Museum. I wanted to go on Saturday, but I slept too late.

This weekend I go back to Switzerland. Not for hockey, though, at least this time. One of my classes is spending two days in Geneva to visit the United Nations, the Red Cross, and the World Trade Organization. It should be interesting. (There actually is a hockey game, but it happens to coincide with our group dinner on Thursday night.) We’re supposed to leave to come back to Strasbourg on Saturday morning, but I think I might hang around on Saturday and Sunday to visit Lausanne and/or Montreaux. We’ll see.

Not much new to report on from here. I hope everyone back in the States is having a good week back to school after their Spring Break.

Current Mood: Tired.
Current Music: None