The Neutral Zone

Zurich, Switzerland - Dear reader, I'm sorry to have neglected you over the last few weeks. Work has picked up lately and Hannah and I have begun cautiously venturing out of our apartment and its immediate environs as COVID-19 has been on the retreat here. So, between those two things, I've been a little busy. Regardless, I'm back in the saddle and ready to regale you with some of our recent adventures.  The Situation Before I jump into the specifics of our adventures, I'll give you a quick sense of our evolving situation here vis-a-vis COVID. (As he so often does,) Willie Nelson captures our spirit well in his essential  "On the Road Again,"  selected lyrics of which are below for your convenience. On the road again Goin' places that I've never been Seein' things that I may never see again And I can't wait to get on the road again Here we go, on the road again Like a band of Gypsies we go down the highway We're the best of friends Insi...

Zurich, Switzerland - Switzerland is home to a remarkable number of enclaves and exclaves. The mountainous territory has left various peoples stranded from their cultural mainland and these folk are, by nature, independently minded and unwilling to assimilate. Switzerland, to its credit, has accommodated the nationalist and sub-nationalist predilections of these groups by creating various bizarre geographic carve-outs for them. Below are some examples. Büsingen am Hochrhein Büsingen am Hochrhein  (population: 1,450) is a German town surrounded entirely by Switzerland. According to Wikipedia, it has, since the early 19th century, been separated from the rest of Germany by the Swiss village of Dörflingen - at its shortest, a distance of approximately 680 meters. Going back several centuries, the town was historically part of Austria. Austria stubbornly held onto it even after selling the nearby villages of Dörflingen and Ramsen to Zurich in 1770. After the congress of Vi...