Articles
Le Corbusier in Bern
Well known for building the Unité d’Habitation in several cities like Marseille and Berlin, co-designing the UN building in New York City, and inspiring the concept of the Radiant City, Le Corbusier also had an impact in his home country of Switzerland. Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds near the French border, Read more
Articles
The Lyrics to “Edelweiß”
Having had the excellent opportunity to learn German while living in Berlin, I took to learning German songs to really immerse myself into German popular culture. Of course, the first song I wanted to learn wasn’t “Edelweiß”, I looked at classics from the NDW genre by masters such as Grönemeyer, Read more
Articles
Has flying become statistically riskier in COVID-19?
With a whole host of safety regulations in place, flying is statistically the safest way to travel as you are least likely to die of a crash when compared to other modes of transportation. But since COVID-19 has spread across the world, often through international air travel, does embarking on Read more
Articles
Transportation carbon tax
On a recent ICE trip from Berlin to Bremen, I read in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the German government will cut VAT for train tickets in 2020 to just 7% (about 10% off ticket price at present 19.5% VAT rates) and consider raising taxes for flights. I am in total Read more
Articles
Swiss Federal Railways
If I’ve written, complained, and praised the German railways, Amtrak, Vancouver’s West Coast Express, Thalys, the Euro Star, and China Railway Highspeed, I might as well do it for the Swiss railways while I’m here. Between June and Christmas, I’ve visited 57 Swiss cities, 3 German cities, and 5 peaks Read more
Articles
Swiss Mannerisms
In the first six months of my life in Switzerland, I was rather confused and disappointed with the behavior of the people here. Why would drivers in Geneva park their cars all over the place? Why can’t passengers just move to the window seat on the bus? Why don’t people Read more
Articles
Public Transport and Carbon Emissions
Recently, I’ve been averaging about 6000km by rail a month and have been reflecting on my levels of carbon emissions. One of my longest journeys took me from Geneva through Bern, Basel, and Frankfurt to reach Berlin on an overnight journey. While I was pondering on how much carbon I Read more
Articles
Frozen and Culture
I’ve been working and traveling so much these past three months that I’ve not had time to write about topics that interest me. Funnily enough, this topic came to me while on a train journey to Luzern, so I would not have thought of it if I had not been Read more