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Schwanen-Adler coach


A coach that was used to transport guests to the Hotel Schwanen in the spa area from the train station. In the 1830s, it used to take four hours to make the 24 km trip from Zürich to Baden. A river journey on the Limmat took half as long. Then, in 1847 a huge change came about. The first railway line in Switzerland, the Nordbahn, was built between Zürich and Baden. Now, people could travel between the two towns in just 45 minutes (compare with about 20 now)! The people called the line the Spanischbrötli-bahn, after the Spanish bread that was apparently the rage in those days.

To see a photo of an old drawing depicting the first station in Baden, click over to my overflow site: Baden station, way back when.

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Roman mosaic


A reconstructed floor from the ancient Roman baths, installed at the Baden Historical Museum.

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After the party


The last of the construction from the Badenfahrt festivities, which ended on Sunday, were being removed yesterday. I found these two-level eateries and performance spaces impressive in their robustness. They took a few days of long hours to put together and seem to be as time consuming to dismantle.

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Spa town Baden


Two thousand years of healing. I've been meaning to do a series on Baden, and this seems like a good time. Baden is about 10 km (6 miles) from Villigen and 24 km from Zürich. The name Baden (to bathe) refers to the mineral-rich thermal springs there, springs that have been popular dating back to the Romans who called the place Aquae Helveticae. The 47° Celsius (116° F) waters feed 18 springs (total of 1 million liters a day) around which there are now hotels and sanatoria. In fact, the building in yesterday's cat ladder post is the Hotel Limmathof. People such as Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse came to Baden for the waters. Hesse (who lived in the Italian-speaking Canton Ticino) was a regular, making annual visits for almost 30 years.

Wikipedia: Baden
The public thermal baths and swimming pool website in German: ThermalBaden

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Baden cat ladder


Possibly the fanciest cat ladder I've ever seen! Though, there is the other one on the other side of the building... see my overflow post Baden cat ladder II. Which one do you prefer?

I featured a much simpler Villigen cat ladder in the following posts:
Cat and cat ladder, with lavender
Cat and cat ladder, with herbs

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Badenfahrt 2007


This 10-day long street party in Baden happens once a decade and dates back to 1923. We visited yesterday, but during the daytime when things were still quiet; the real party started around 8 pm and went on until 4 in the morning! None of my photos turned out to my satisfaction, so unfortunately this photo of our entrance badge is all you get here of this mega event. I've uploaded a few photos on my overflow site - Badenfahrt 2007 supplement - and will add to it as I sort through my collection.

The official website (German)
NZZ blurb on the Badenfahrt (German)

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Wood


My originally planned photo for today isn't ready yet, so here's another plant-themed photo afterall. This pile of logs sits next to a barn on Hauptstrasse.

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Wildflower: Mountain cornflower


This will be the last of the wildflower series, at least for now. Centaurea montana (Berg-Flockenblume) is native to the mountain ranges of Europe, though now it has spread around the world.

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Wildflower: Blue buttons


Knautia arvensis (Wiesen-Witwenblume) is one of the most common wildflowers here. They seem to be very popular with the bees and the butterflies.

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Wildflower: Ribwort plantain


Plantago lanceolata (Spitz-Wegerich) or something similar. Tea made from the plant is supposed to be a good cough remedy. The butterfly might be a holly blue (Celastrina argiolus).

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Wildflower: Scarlet pimpernel


I've only ever seen two of these plants. Anagallis arvensis (Acker-Gauchheil) is also known as the poor man's barometer as the flowers close when the atmospheric pressure falls.

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Wildflower: Common yarrow


Legend holds that Achilles carried Achillea millefolium (Schaf-Garbe) into battle to treat wounds.

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Wildflower: Himalayan balsam


Yes, Himalayan. Impatiens glandulifera (Drüsiges Springkraut) is native to the Himalayas. It was brought to Europe in the 1830s (Dresden, Germany in 1837, and Kew Gardens, England in 1939) and soon achieved invasive weed status in many parts of the world. Some other names for the plant are Indian balsam, bee-bums, stinky-pops, policeman's helmet and poor-man's orchid.

Update on the blue car post: A reader identified it as an Amilcar, produced in France during the 1920s. Thank you, Richard (SAN)!

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Wildflower: Love-in-a-mist


Nigella damascena (Jungfer im Grünen) is native to southern Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia.

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Wildflower: Queen Anne's lace


Daucus Carota (Wilde Moehre), native to Europe, is the wild form of the carrot plant. These plants can be seen all along the edges of fields and roads around Villigen.

For the next few days I'll be featuring wildflower macro shots.

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From the region ...


Migros (meegro, the "s" is silent) is one of the two main grocery store chains in the country, and is the oldest and the largest. Aus der Region, fur die Region -- from the region, for the region -- is their slogan for locally grown produce and locally raised animals. Villigen's own agrobusiness Schwarz supplies salad greens (and reds, as seen here) to Migros. This sign says "we're producing for Migros".

Migros was started in 1925 in the Zürich region by Gottlieb Duttweiler. At first, there were no shops, just one Ford Model-T van driving around neighborhoods, selling just six basic items at very low prices. The business took off from there, with many set-backs along the way, to become the largest retailer in Switzerland. They even have recreational "schools" for adults, with classes that range from language instruction (I attended German lessons there for a time) to vegetarian cookery to oil painting to Microsoft certification. Another interesting aspect is that the supermarkets don't sell cigarettes or alcohol. To read more about Migros in English, you can try this Wikipedia article.

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Schulanfang: Achtung Kinder!


Schulanfang = start of school; Kinder = children. Actually, the Fall school semester started several days ago. Signs like this one which is located at the entrance to Villigen remind drivers to look out for children.

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The white car


Any ideas as to what this car is? I certainly don't. Previous posts about other interesting cars:

27 May -- The red car (French Deux Chevaux)
07 July -- The green car (British MG A)
22 July -- The blue car (as yet unidentified)

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Schifflände from across the Aare


A follow-up on yesterday's post. By the time I got around to taking this photo yesterday afternoon, the high waters had receeded quite a bit. However, some trees that are normally not submerged are still in the water, and the water is a lot muddier than usual.

For a look at the restaurant and how it's oriented with respect to the hill, Besserstein, in Villigen, visit my overflow blog:
Schifflände with Besserstein in the background

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Restaurant Schifflände in Stilli


Restaurant Schifflände in Stilli is great in the summer for its riverside terrace. They specialize in simple fish dishes and we like to go there once in a while. I took this July June photo from the bridge across the Aare at Stilli. Right now the river is very high from all the rain we've been having and I'm waiting for the weather to clear up a little to take a new photo.

Stilli is a neighboring village which has been a part of Villigen since January 2006. I don't go over too often, but I have a collection of photos that I've been meaning to show. Did you catch the painted hydrants in Stilli?

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Street corner


The building on the left is the the same one as seen through the Hirschen window in the post from July 12th. The chapel and a barn I've shown previously are barely visible in the background, at the end of the street that snakes off to the left. The building on the right is the Schwarz outlet center where I buy vegetables sometimes. Next to it, but not visible in the photo, is the house with the buntings from a couple of days ago. The fountain in front, with the red geraniums, is Meierhof Schmittenbach.

NB We're actually having rather gloomy weather right now and this blue sky is from a week ago.

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Violet geraniums


Not everyone cares for red geraniums. Which color do you prefer?

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Buntings


I took this photo for my own collection, but then decided to publish it after seeing Richard's Augustinergasse post. This is the same house as in my July 16th post, but in this August photo it's decorated with the flags of the 26 cantons for the National Day celebration. Also, there are lots more geranium blooms!

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Bäckerei-Conditorei


This old building on Hauptstrasse near Hirschen is no longer a bakery, but it is occupied. No idea what the apartments look like.

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Preserves for sale


Strawberry, cherry and pear jams for sale in front of another house near us. Should try some of these too.

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Bee on a swing


This weather bee is installed in front of a house near us. The owners sell honey but I've yet to try some -- must do something about that soon. The legend on the frame reads:
Biene trocken = schönes Wetter || Bee dry = nice weather
Biene nass = Regen || Bee wet = rain
Biene weiss = Schnee || Bee white = snow
Biene schaukelt = Windig || Bee swinging = windy
Biene am Boden = Erdbeben || Bee on the ground = earthquake
Biene verschwunden = Diebstahl?! || Bee missing = theft?!

For a look at the whole thing, there's my overflow site:
Swinging bee, the whole story

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One dog in the fountain


Nothing like fresh cool spring water to soak in on a hot day... lucky dog! Don't miss my overflow post featuring dogs being transported:
Going to the dogs

This fountain and barn have featured here before:
First snow of the year
Barn door
No Posters!

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August moon and tree


6 am on 01 August 2007 from Hauptstrasse, Villigen.
1/100s f/5.0 ISO80 47.8mm (35mm eq:287mm)

The moon the next day at my overflow, much closer:
I wonder what the moon saw

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Bonfire by the stream


Another bonfire from the 1st, this one down by the stream that runs behind our building. Since I don't usually get to do any night-time shots - they would just be a black rectangle for most of the village - I'm dwelling on these for a little bit. An old post about the stream:
The stream in the backyard

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Höhenfeuer


As part of the Swiss National Day celebration on the 1st, the village organized a bonfire up on Besserstein, the hill behind us. I took this photo from our balcony at 12x zoom. For a daytime look at the area, see this old post from May on my overflow site (compare the flags in the two photos for orientation):
Red car in the Geissberg vineyard, II

Update. Visit the link below to read here about the official events that took place yesterday and about the legend of the Rütli meadow, where the original pact for the Swiss confederation was supposed to have been made on August 1, 1291.
Swiss President calls for more integration (Swissinfo.org)

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Daily photo theme day: breakfast



Updated to the most current list with permalinks generated by Gerald in Hyde (see below). Thank you Gerald!

A dual-purpose post as we're celebrating Swiss National Day today. Birchermüesli (Wikipedia) or just muesli is probably familiar to many people. Dr. Bircher-Brenner the inventor of Birchermüesli was born in Aarau (the capital of my canton, Aargau) in 1867 and and in 1904 he established a sanatorium in Zürich. The original recipe from around 1900 consisted of apples, rolled oats, sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice. Fresh milk wasn't used back then because of concerns of bovine TB and the like. Nowadays, yogurt is often used though what I have here is made with cream which is what I prefer.

The bread is called Weggen or Weggli and this one pictured here is a special edition for 1st August which explains the little Swiss flag. The Edelweiss is from a potted plant.

To my Swiss readers: If you're attending one of the August 1st brunches (www.brunch.ch) and have a blog post or photo about it you would like to share, please leave a comment.

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Go see what other people are eating for breakfast around the world:
1 Adelaide, Australia - 2 Newcastle, Australia - 3 Shanghai, China - 4 Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - 5 Paris, France [Eric] - 6 Melbourne, Australia [John] - 7. Rotterdam, Netherlands - 8 Wellington, New Zealand - 9 Saint-Petersburg, Russia - 10 Singapore [Keropokman] - 11 Evry, France - 12 Toulouse, France - 13 Hyde, UK - 14 Sydney, Australia [Sally] - 15 Haninge, Sweden - 16 Wailea (HI), USA - 17 Budapest, Hungary - 18. Naples (FL), USA - 19 Ampang (Selangor), Malaysia - 20 Saigon, Vietnam - 21 San Diego (CA), USA [Felicia] - 22 Stayton (OR), USA - 23 Rome, Italy - 24 Bucaramanga, Colombia - 25 Selma (AL), USA - 26 Sharon (CT), USA - 27 St. Louis (MO), USA [Strangetastes] - 28 Cypress (TX), USA - 29 Villigen, Switzerland - 30 Montréal (QC), Canada - 31 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 32 Bandung (West Java), Indonesia - 33 North Bay (ON), Canada - 34 Seattle (WA), USA - 35 St. Paul (MN), USA [Kate] - 36 Cleveland (OH), USA - 37 Greenville (SC), USA - 38 Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - 39 St. Paul (MN), USA [Carol] - 40 Prague, Czech Republic - 41 Stavanger, Norway - 42 Twin Cities (MN), USA - 43 Monte Carlo, Monaco - 44 Château-Gontier, France - 45 Kajang (Selangor), Malaysia - 46 Stockholm, Sweden - 47 Menton, France - 48 Albuquerque (NM), USA - 49 Mexico (DF), Mexico - 50 Cape Town, South Africa - 51 Boston (MA), USA [Fénix] - 52 Sequim (WA), USA - 53 Melbourne, Australia [Michael] - 54 St. Kilda, Australia - 55 Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - 56 Nottingham, UK - 57 Brookville (OH), USA - 58 Mainz, Germany - 59 Cologne (NRW), Germany - 60 Oslo, Norway - 61 Al Ain, UAE - 62 Inverness (IL), USA - 63 Manila, Philippines [Pusa] - 64 Zurich, Switzerland - 65 Toronto, Canada - 66 Bellefonte (PA), USA - 67 Mumbai, India - 68 Nantes, France - 69 Grenoble, France - 70 Calabria, Italy - 71 Paris, France [Jeremy] - 72 Moscow, Russia - 73 Lyon, France - 74 Austin (TX), USA - 75 Hong Kong, China - 76 Joplin (MO), USA - 77 Tokyo, Japan - 78 Seoul, South Korea [Sunkyoung] - 79 Kyoto, Japan - 80 Chandler (AZ), USA - 81 Kansas City (MO), USA - 82 Singapore [Andrew] - 83 Sydney, Australia [Nathalie] - 84 Miami (FL), USA - 85 St. Louis (MO), USA [Soosha-q] - 86 Arlington (VA), USA - 87 Selma (NC), USA - 88 Olympia (WA), USA - 89 Port Angeles (WA), USA - 90 La Antigua Guatemala - 91 Anderson (SC), USA - 92 Riga, Latvia - 93 Norwich, UK - 94 Baton Rouge (LA), USA - 95 Lubbock (TX), USA