Bus 374 to Brugg

The Postbus from a neighboring village heading to Brugg. In the background is the village of Rüfenach. The ad on the rear of the bus is for a steel cable manufacturing company called Brugg.

20090307

The intrepid Pöstler

The show must go on... Pöstler = post office employee.

20081217

Spring cleaning

Some high pressure water cleaning, a new coat of paint... This is the Villigen post office. Click on the 'post' label below for other posts about Die Post.

20080412

Village bus stop loo

Across from the post office.

20071012

View from the bus

A view of Besserstein from the bus that goes to Villigen from Brugg. From the location where I shot this, the bus first stops in Stilli and then in Villigen Post before heading off to the PSI and beyond.

If you're going to zum Hirschen (as has been the case for several visitors I've noticed on the bus), then get off at the Villigen Post stop. You'll be standing on Hauptstrasse. Walk in the direction in which the bus drives off. The hotel/restaurant Hirschen is a couple of minutes on foot (after Gasthof Schlossberg) on the right.

20070915

The international scourge that is junk mail

Here's a photo of a local mailbox. The first sticker says "Please, no advertisements in this mailbox, thank you!" The second reads "No junk mail (I feel compelled to add please!) except for the latest Ikea catalog. The third sticker declares "Mail from Sweden? That's for me!" Ingvar Kamprad (who makes his domicile in CH) must be so happy! We have no such stickers on our box, mainly because I never remember to write such a note and carry it over when I fetch the mail.

I got the idea for this post from a blogger in Zürich who recently wrote about a piece of mail she received from the Swiss postal system asking her to reconsider her "no" stance.

20070909

Block house

I think this is the largest (by quite a bit) apartment block in Villigen. You might recognize the bus stop next to the post office from an earlier post (20070604).

20070603

The post office as seen from the hill

On Sunday I went up to Besserstein, the hill you've seen many times on this blog (click on the Besserstein label below to see some of the other posts), to take some photos. There's not a lot that's new here: the post office, the bus station and the kartoffel.ch sign were all visible in the post from 20070420. What are new are the chess board and the bench (in the lower right hand corner, look up from "kart"). Some of you might recall my "men at work" theme day post where I showed you this area and told you that I didn't know what they were working on. Well, this was part of it. There's also a new house further to the right.

20070603

The post office and the bus stop

We're back on Hauptstrasse after yesterday's diversion to look at the stream, heading further into Villigen. This is the bus stop where I catch my bus to Brugg. And the post office which serves Villigen and Stilli. Swiss Post is self-described as a "public company owned by the Swiss Federation" required to "act in a manner compatible with antitrust laws." Swiss Post's fields of activity include Mail, Goods & Logistics, Financial Services and Passenger Transport. Source: www.swisspost.ch

Previous posts related to Die Post or this view:

Men at work 20070301
Waiting at the bus stop 20070307
The post horn weathervane 20070306

20070420

The (die) Post horn weathervane

In the old days of the horse-drawn post coach, it was a horn that announced the arrival of the post/mail. While those horns are no longer used (nor are the horse-drawn coaches, though after some of the photos I've been posting, maybe it wouldn't be so surprising if they were) the symbol remains. This is the weathervane/roof ornament on the building that houses our post office (see the airplane I caught in the frame?) A view of part of the front yard with the Post post can be seen in this photo from the first of the month.

Tü-ta-to goes the three-tone horn on some of the newer (since 1924) Swiss Post busses, though you're unlikely to hear it except on the rare occasion. The motif was inspired by the Overture in Rossini's 1829 opera Guglielmo (Wilhelm) Tell (that's another important Swiss topic), and you can sample it here (it's a link to an MP3 clip via the post.ch website). There's more to the Overture than just the Lone Ranger theme song!

I've heard the horn twice so far, both times on narrow and winding mountain roads in Kanton Wallis (Valais). It's used to notify other drivers on the road of the presence of the bus when it enters a blind turn.

20070304

Mail delivery

Looks like it could be a lot of fun, except in weather like this.

20070213