Dear friends,
Another year is soon coming to an end. Quite unbelievable how time ‘flies’ faster than ever before….
We are thoroughly pleased, health- and otherwise, with what the year 2005 has had in store for us. In fact, had it been any better, we would have started to worry… especially since we were able to keep those occasional hiccups, common to our vintage, down to a distant rumble with the help of a gently increasing array of pills, potions and tinctures…
The return from Nevis came in late March with our Swiss garden in good shape and already flowering with forsythia and other smaller plants. Uschi went to see her mother in Germany on April 20 and on her way home, she was already able to visit our second granddaughter Keana Marie, born on April 26 in the same St. Gall hospital where her older sister Leonie saw the light of the day some 3 years earlier. Keana was baptized in the church of Pfungen near Winterthur on July 10 – she is growing steadily after a nasty spell of diarrhea in August, and is a real darling though entirely different in character than her older sister. For more details on our grand daughter, please click on:
http://www.bosshard.net/main/index.php?topic=Granddaughters
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| Nic & Keana shortly after birth | Oma Hilde holding sleeping Keana, Opa Hans, Uroma Hilde |
Leonie blowing out the candle during Baptism |
Our highlight this year was undoubtedly the 3 week plus trip to Japan. After Uschi had decided that she would come along, too, I started working on our Nevisian neighbors, Joe & Martha Murphy, to join us. For years we had talked about such an eventuality and 2005 was the year it finally happened.
The Murphys flew in from LAX, where they had visited their youngest son, and were ready for our first Teppanyaki on the top floor of Royal Park Hotel. During the next days we made sightseeing and shopping trips in Tokyo, visited Kamakura and its Great Buddha, as well as the various minka and the gallery of Takishita-san with its still fabulous collection of old imari (porcelain) and byobu (6 panel folding screens). We visited the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko where Tokugawa Ieyasu’s Mausoleum is kept; he was the first shogun of the Tokugawa Dynasty which is also known as the Edo period (1600-1868). Unexpectedly there were few visitors that day and we had the shrine virtually to ourselves. As we had a comfortable car, we drove up the winding Iroha saka road to Lake Chuzenji and saw a number of cherry trees in full bloom late in May…
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| Joe & Martha Murphy on the stairs of Tokugawa’s Mausoleum in Nikko |
Golden Pavillion in Kyoto | Daimyio Joseph Murphy at the Tawaraya |
We stayed at the old traditional Tawaraya Ryokan in downtown Kyoto where we had an outstanding Japanese dinner served in Joe’s & Martha’s room. After we encountered some difficulties at Hotel Okura’s Japanese restaurant with the narrow seating at the counter, we arranged for the Tawaraya to serve us in a comfortable way. They solved this very nicely by putting 4 armchairs around the traditional low table, placing an indigo runner over it and 4 individual lacquer banquet tables on top of it. Never had anyone dined better at the Tawaraya, or especially as comfortably. Even at breakfast they had found a good solution for sitting more comfortably.
The next day our first visit was to the newly renovated Katsura Imperial Villa, where Uschi ran afoul of the imperious Imperial Household Agency guide – he had twice caught her taking pictures where it was not allowed. I got even with him at the end of the tour when I set him the riddle about when the Great Buddha of Nara was built – of course, he gave me as his answer a (wrong) date, but I came back coolly with: “But he is still sitting, sir. I actually asked you, ‘When was he standing?’†(play on words in Japanese). The 40 or so Japanese visitors broke into loud laughter…
Of course we had all kinds of fine meals at the Apicius, Fook Lam Moon, Mitsui Club and others. Kappabashi was visited twice, and the ladies went out shopping on their own too. They also braved the early hours one day, getting up at 5 in order to visit the famous Tsukiji Fish Market.
In June, Uschi and I departed for London for our usual trysts. This year, we also flew north to Edinburgh, where we stayed with James Smith and his wife Julia in a former mill, wonderfully renovated, with the water still running under the house. This can be viewed inside the house because of a cleverly built floor of thick glass. The garden is also a beauty and James’s cooking is still great.
On the day of arrival, we visited them way back in their fishing cottage on the side of the river Tay, the longest (193 km) in Scotland – it was very tough to catch any of the fine Atlantic salmon.
We also paid a visit to Glamis Castle, family home of the Earls of Strathmore and a royal residence since 1372. It is the childhood home of HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, birthplace of Princess Margaret, and legendary setting for Shakespeare’s famous play ‘Macbeth’. I was amazed how many Chinese and Japanese objets d’art, porcelain etc they had, all brought over by the Dutch. You can rent it for corporate meetings, banquets and of course for great weddings.
As golfers, we could not leave Scotland without a visit to the famous Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. We had no time to play a round of golf there – we had not planned this visit, but we had sufficient time to enjoy a fine luncheon with the Smiths and buy various paraphernalia in the shop.
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| Glamis Castle with a famous history | A small harbour south of St. Andrews | Willi, Julia & James Smith |
The City of Edinburgh itself is a wonderfully kept medieval town with lots of interesting old buildings, and a large castle overlooking the city – we could see it from the windows of our Caledonian Hilton room. We also paid a visit to the m/s Britannia, which has been decommissioned and is moored at the nearby port for anyone to visit or to hire for expensive private functions.
On 21.8, we all traveled to Kempten, where we celebrated Uschi’s mother’s 91st birthday.
On Sept. 23, Willi left for San Francisco, where he joined the bi-annual Netsuke Convention. There he renewed many old friendships and also made new ones. Some of the netsuke for sale were just outstanding, albeit also quite expensive. Willi returned home on October 5 after some days visiting friends in the LA region and enjoying an encounter with his former Otoman snarling tiger at LACMA.
In October, Nic came with Alexandra and the two granddaughters to visit us for a long and most happy weekend in La Tour-de-Peilz on the shores of Lake Geneva.
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| Alexandra & Keana in La Tour | Omi Uschi & Keana | The Matterhorn from Alp Findelen courtesy DIAGENTUR Elke Stolt |
In early November, both of us flew to Thailand for our annual vacation there, first a few days in Chiang Mai to get our teeth in perfect order again, and also because of those beautiful surroundings, by now quite familiar. Later, we were a week on Phuket which has been remarkably well rebuilt following the disastrous tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, this followed by another week in the Santiburi Resort on Koh Samui which this year turned out to be a completely washed-out affair. We could not even leave the island as planned because on that day all flights were cancelled due to poor visibility caused by the monsoon type rains. Then it was time for our annual ‘spa’ week, in a brand new mountain to near Chiang Rai, in the Golden Triangle between Thailand, Laos and Burma. On the last day we surprised two former spa-friends from Hong Kong in The Legend of Chiang Rai.
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| Welcome back to the Santiburi | Satay vendor in style of old Floating Market | Various curries from the stall |
From The Legend in Chiang Rai, we returned by a most spacious 10-seater Toyota van through the lush yet very mountainous countryside back to Chiang Mai for 2 days from where we hopped over to Luang Prabang in Laos for 4 days – this will be written up with photographs on the website – please click on http://www.bosshard.net/main/index.php?topic=Trips-Thailand – it should by then be the first article on that page, entitled LAOS 12.2005 and followed by the Tooth Saga – hopefully before the end of the year.
After returning from Laos, we wound up the trip with a few days in Bangkok before returning to Switzerland to be with the family and our 2 grand daughters for the Christmas Season.
In closing, Uschi joins me in wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a most wonderful, successful and healthy New Year of the Dog 2006.
Willi & Uschi Bosshard