Taubenlochschlucht (3/27/1983)

Sunday, March 27, 1983

I went to church this morning for Palm Sunday, and started packing for the Côte d'Azur trip.

At some point Marsha C and Ruth D invited me for a fondue dinner, and later Ruth invited her boyfriend and another guy. I then said I didn’t want to go, and Ruth got upset. I tried to explain (without saying that I didn’t tolerate all the smoking, drinking, and late hours) that I was too shy with strangers and would put a damper on the evening. Even Marsha got mad and said I should at least try it, and Ruth would drive me home early if I wanted. I would never ask anyone to drive me home in the middle of her party! Then Ruth and Marsha acted like I didn’t want to go because I didn’t want to be with them. Where does that come from? As it turned out, Marsha had a great time, and stayed out until 4:00 this morning!

But all seems well and this afternoon Marsha invited me and Sylvia W to go to Taubenlochschlucht/gorge. Sylvia wouldn’t be ready until 13:30, and we went with her to the hospital to pick up her beeper radio. We set off past the Tagesheim/Boarding School in Ried and into the woods. Marsha had been to the gorge last week and thought one end was at the Tierpark/animal park. So we followed signs to the Bözingen Tierpark. The path followed the railroad to the gorge. Then we had to go up to the highway to cross the gorge and on the other side was the Tierpark.

View down into Taubenloch Schluct/Gorge

View down into Taubenloch Schluct/Gorge

There were fenced enclosures scattered throughout the woods. The first couple appeared empty, then we saw a large compound with deer.

Tierpark deer

We seemed to be heading to the right which took us farther from the gorge, so we veered left past a chamois and a couple more deer compounds. We came to a road and debated which direction to go. Sylvia felt she had to get back to the hospital, so she took off. Marsha and I headed north on the road which was above the gorge. We passed a rough-hewn tunnel that seemed to open up into a quarry pit, but it was blocked. Then the road headed down into the valley and we ended up in Frinvillier, the town at the other end of the gorge. We had to scramble across a construction site and down a grassy hill (Marsha stayed safe and rütscht down on her bottom!).

Marsha sliding down the hill

We were able to follow signs to the gorge, having to cross a canal and then along it where the canal water level was at our waists or higher!

Raised canal

Marsha found some pussy willow and got several branches. We had to walk along a narrow cement ledge of the canal as the canal crossed the stream. We ended up at Restaurant des Gorges, behind which was a bear pit with two bears and an enclosure with deer and goats.

Bear

We entered the Taubenlochschlucht, in which during the tourist season we would have to pay 1.20 CHF/60 cents, but today there was no admission fee. The canal let off water into the stream in a couple places for producing power, but none of the power plants seemed to be in use. There was a lot of water in the rushing stream and there were a couple trout fishermen in waders. We followed the path along the stream, which narrowed in a couple points between cliffs.

Schüss/Suze stream

Schluct/Gorge under the highway bridge

Gorge under Tubelochbrügg/Taubenloch Bridge

Rushing stream

There were a couple waterfalls and moss was growing everywhere.

Waterfall in the gorge

Stream waterfall

Rushing stream

End of the gorge

It was pretty cold, but soon we were at the other end where the stream/river Schüss/Suze gets canalized to travel through the city of Biel.
We walked back along Bözingenstrasse to Juravorstadt, then turned up Rosenheimweg where we met Jan & Kirby on their way to the movies. They let us know when the movie started, and we had time to go to the Personalhaus/staff residence before going downtown to the Rex Theater to see the movie “Ordinary People.” We bought our tickets and had to wait for the first showing to let out before entering the theater.

"Ordinary People" movie ticket

Jan & Kirby came later and sat farther back behind us, even though there were only a total of six or eight people in the theater. I thought perhaps they did not want to sit with us, so I didn’t turn around or say anything. Jan & Kirby then started talking to somebody else they knew, and Marsha turned around and saw them. She didn’t say anything either. I later was flabbergasted when Jan told me they were in the theater first, and Marsha and I came in later and passed them to sit up front. Jan felt that we didn’t want to sit with them! How did that get turned around?!