The Switzerland Traveler

It’s time for another theme day here on the travel and culture channel of b5media. And this time, the theme is time itself.

I think all of us writers on the channel thought "Ha, that’ll be easy" but it opens up soooo many possibilities.

My initial thoughts were of wristwatches and clocks.

Everybody knows there are two types of watch: those that are Swiss, and those that aren’t. And frankly, there’s no excuse for choosing one from the second group! Am I promoting my new home land too heavily here? Fear not, this is not going to turn into an advert for Rolex or Longines.

Nor am I going to try to sell you a cuckoo clock. For they are not Swiss, but originate in southern Germany. Of course we sell them here. Shop keepers would be crazy to turn away business, but it’ll be cheap foreign versions you find here.

So let’s take alook at how a group of bloggers have chosen to view this month’s theme:

Filipina Soul explores time as a concept (reminds me of that great quote from the Young Ones where in answer to the question "Is that the time?" Mike replies "No, time is an abstract concept, that’s a watch). Here we get to understand how  Filipino Time works, and frankly, that seems to be how most people in my office react when it comes to attending meetings.

Moving from concepts to philosophy and poetry, Lynn at The Paris Traveler thinks it’s  time to avoid writing about time . Clearly she put enough time and effort into the piece, so please take the time to go and read it. OK, I’ll try to stop all these "time" puns…

If that sounds a bit too much for you, Alex at Sirened clearly has his head screwed on properly, as he thinks it’s time for a beer and in October (Oktober if you prefer the Munich spelling) you have to admit he has a point. Personally I think he should be trying a nice pint of Harvey’s Sussex ale, but that’s tricky to find unless you are in the South of England.

On that note, Jed at the London Traveler reminds us that Big Ben is in fact a bell, not a clock, but as it strikes every fifteen minutes it’s one of the most famous audible means of marking the passage of time in the world. His post also has a great photo of the palace of Westminster, which you’d be crazy to miss. 

Speaking of photos, Jon at the DC Traveler always has great pictures in his posts. And he’s decided it’s finally time to do something he’s been putting off. And that something sounds like a great thing to do – taking a trip along Skyline Drive. And as he’ll be taking his camera, that means more great photos so keep coming back for more.

Here in Switzerland the children have gone back to school, but down under, Lauren at The Sydney Traveler tells me it’s school holiday time and provides great recommendations for restaurants to visit if you have kids, or presumably, restaurants to avoid if you don’t.

Melissa at Europe String:  knows that  saving money takes time and similarly Ruth at Lets Visit Asia points out that  timing is important when it comes to booking travel. Two different viewpoints on a similar theme, which just shows there are two sides to a story.

Mary Jo, our illustrious channel editor and task master, has come up with two pieces. At Flyaway Café she describes an annual Halloween Time event:  Terror behind the walls. This just shows how much the Swiss have to learn, we still think that Halloween equates to Pumpkin Time, and don’t get any scarier than making a statue of a crab out of gourds.

For her second piece, Mary Jo (at The Seattle Traveler this time) demonstrates the one time it’s okay to be thinking about Christmas this early in the year. I’d have to agree with her on that, which reminds me I need to check the schedule for the Zurich Ballet, as I think the Nutcracker might be being performed here this year.

Sherry at The Geeky Traveler: tells us about a great new clock/timer/pill holder which seems astounding value. On the downside it reminds me of the device my friend uses to feed his cat while he’s on holiday, so I might not buy one just yet.

Clocks (of the non-cuckoo variety) can be beautiful things. And Matt at The Chicago Traveler would like to tell you about clocks in Chicago. I certainly learned something about American culture from it, but I’m not telling you what!

Finally, Heather at The Las Vegas Adventurer proves that nostalgia is in fact what it used to be, and takes us all to a drive-in movie. We never had that in the UK when I was growing up, so maybe a trip to Vegas is called for.

So, that’s about the lot for this month’s theme. And while discussions about the nature of time, when it began and other similar matters are best discussed with friends over a bottle of wine late in the evening, one definition always works for me: Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once. Use it wisely.

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