Notes from Hades

L
ast month, I had the longest trip of my recent travels. Two weeks in Geneva. The reason for the longer time was the fact that I was actually attending two different sets of meetings, one for two days on the first week, and the second all the second week. This allowed me the unusual feature of a weekend free for sightseeing – which I took full advantage of. On the advice of a colleague who had been to Switzerland many times before, I bought a 4-day Swiss rail Flexipass, which allowed me unlimited use of the trains during any four days in a 30-day period. We first tried something Friday afternoon of the first week. The plan was to go to Chamonix, France, where if the weather was good, we would be able to see Mont Blanc. To get there, we took the regular train to Martigny, and from there there is a special train to Chamonix. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Martigny, we discovered that if we continued on to Chamonix, we would get there too late to take the train back to Geneva. So, we wandered around Martigny and had dinner.

The next day, the weather dawned clear, and we got up early for our trip. The plan for this day was to go to the Jungfrau region south of Interlaken. After changing trains in Bern, we arrived at Interlaken and got on a separate train to Lauterbrunnen. From there, we took a bus to Stechelberg, from which we took a series of four cable cars to the summit of the Schilthorn. At nearly 10,000 feet high, the Schilthorn offers an incredible view of the surrounding Alps, and the weather definitely did not disappoint. Some of the pictures I took are here. The Schilthorn was also used in the filming of the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service for you 007 aficionados. We had lunch there, then on the way back, got off after the second cable car in the village of Murren. Murren is sort of the stereotypical Alpine village, and the view of the valley from there was gorgeous. We walked down to the lower end of the village to take the train back to Lauterbrunnen, and made our way back to Geneva.

On Sunday, we decided to try Chamonix again, but we didn't want to get up as early as on Saturday, so instead of catching the 6:45 train, we waited for the 9:30 train. Unfortunately, once again, we were too late getting into Martigny to catch the right train into Chamonix. So, instead, went to Sion, the next sizable town down the track. There, we walked around the town, which was quite nice, and had lunch. A pleasant, if uneventful day.

I still had one more day on my pass, so the following Friday, after we had concluded our meetings, we decided to go to Montreaux for dinner. Montreaux is a city at the opposite end of Lake Geneva from Geneva itself. It is probably best known for its annual jazz and rock festival. It has been holding the festival since the 1960s, and in fact, an incident that happened there was immortalized in the Deep Purple song “Smoke on the Water.” Overall, it was a very good trip, and I would recommend Switzerland to anyone, particularly if you love mountains.

Malamute ends up this issue, and Andy York is the winner. Congratulations to Andy on his victory. Next issue, we will start up the Robo Rally game.

The next deadline is Tuesday, November 25 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Please do not call or fax orders after 10:00 p.m. Pacific time. My wife and I tend to retire early. Also, if you want to fax in orders, call first. We hang up on unannounced faxes.

Game Openings

Frontier Dog. Gunslinger .Scenario to be determined. Have Paul Bolduc, Chris Geggus, Mike Scott, and Andy Lewis, will take up to 3 more.

Pateel. Kremlin. Will start after Flea Collar ends. Have Ward Narhi, Mike Scott, Bill Scharf, Bob Robles, Pasquale Giovine, and Gina Teh. This game is full.

Hunter. Silverton. Will start after Terrier ends. Have Dave Partridge, Michael Longdin, Ward Narhi, Cary Nichols, Bill Scharf, and Dave Hooton. This game is full.

Procyon. Merchant of Venus. Have Dave Partridge, Bob Robles, Chris Geggus, Gina the, Dennis Cain, and Andy Lewis. This game is full.

Robover. Robo Rally. Have Dave Partridge, Bill Scharf, Chris Geggus, Dave Hooton, Gina the, Ward Narhi, Michael Longdin, and Chris Geggus. This game is full. Starts next issue!

Husky. Power Grid. Have Andy York, Michael Longdin, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton, and Brad Martin, will take up to 1 more.

Dogbreath. History of the World. Have Chris Geggus, Dave Partridge, Gina The, and Andy Lewis, will take up to 3 more.

Basset. Outpost. Will start after Hound ends. Have Andy York, Cary Nighols, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton, Eric Brosius, Andy Lewis, and Michael Lowrey, will take up to 3 more.

Wish List

Industrial Waste. Have Andy York and Dave Partridge, will take up to 2 more.

Machiavelli. This game will start after the next Machiavelli game ends. Have Ward Narhi, Bob Robles, and Pasquale Giovine, will take up to 5 more.

Machiavelli. Gunboat. This game will start after the second Machiavelli game ends. Have 4, will take up to 4 more.

New World. This will use the exploration variant, plus the Non-Player Nations variant in the event I get less than 6 players. Have Andy York, will take up to 5 more.

In general, game ownership is recommended, but not required.

Note that a subscription to S.O.B. is not required to play in a game run by flier, but that a game fee will be charged to non-subbers.

S.O.B. is a zine of unusual postal games, and anything else I feel like including. Your publisher is:

Chris Hassler a.k.a. Cerberus

2000 S. Armour Court

La Habra, CA 90631

Phone: (562) 690-7827

Fax: (562) 690-7827

chassler@roadrunner.com

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