As this is a warts and all epistle I need to share with you my day today (17 September) as I spent some of it in the local emergency room. Do you like that for a dramatic start??? What happened? Was it a bar fight? A hideous skiing accident? An incident on board when I did not get my allocated seat or the champagne was too warm? Well, it could be any of those but in fact I seem to have got some stupid eye infection (eyelid eczema apparently). Whilst I was waiting I did find the poster in the waiting room very amusing which included a bunch of photos of broken limbs and an airlift helicopter and it was signed by the.....wait for it......wait for it.....the "Notfallteam". Too funny!!
Anyway, enough of this and my swollen eye....that is going to look very glamorous on the jet to Paris tomorrow.
Tuesday 11 September 2012
As it is a Hildi cleaning day I like to make myself scarce and head out on a little day trip. Any excuse to see a new city and take a choo choo ride. This time I elected to head to Basel which is in the north west of Switzerland and near the German and French borders. Had a lovely ride on the TGV and then it was time to find a spot for some lunch. First impressions is that it is a very beautiful historic town.
I timed my lunch perfectly as just as I sat down a thunderstorm rolled in. That was not on the forecast I had looked at.
After lunch I took myself on a little walking tour of the city (in the drizzle) using a handy little app that Kate had shown me with offline city guides. I would have done a couple more but it really was not touring weather. I also stumbled across the local natural history museum and went in to keep dry. It was very small but did have this neat little piece in one of the stairwells...as an art critic would say....I just looove the juxtaposition of the ancient and the medieval.
I took myself back to Zurich where I was meeting another visitor from a land downunder, the delightful Jeremy Chitty who is also taking an extended leave of absence from "working for the man". S also came to join us after his day.
Had a lovely beer at the park Hyatt and then wandered through the streets to have dinner Swiss style at Kaiser Reblaube. You will be pleased, or disappointed that somehow I forgot to take pictures of the food!!
The rain had pretty much set in by then and was coupled with a very loud thunderstorm. I normally sleep pretty well but there were a couple of thunderclaps that made me jump!
Thursday 13 September 2012
I know I have skipped a day but there was nothing really to report. There is only so much you can describe about being prostrate on the couch listening to the rain!
That said, for most of Thursday I did not do too much either. In the afternoon young Jeremy ventured down to the mystical town of Einsiedeln for a little time in the countryside. Who can resist the sound and the smell of cows?
Once he arrived we took a wander through the fields to see as many animals as possible which included cows (of course), goats, sheep, dogs, rabbits, donkeys, ducks, geese and horses (Jeremy grew up on a farm so may not quite share my enthusiasm for the local animals. The scenery on the other hand is still very pretty). A veritable menagerie! After all that farming (!) we needed a manly beer so off to the pub we went for a local brew. There is in fact a local beer. The marketing team spent some time on the name, endless focus groups and to-ing and fro-ing before they finally settled on Einsiedler Beer - genius!
It was then time for some dinner and more Swiss fare was the order of the evening and we headed off to a local restaurant. It was also here that Jeremy stayed the night.
Friday 14 September 2012
Jeremy joined me for breakfast where I provided the traditional continental offerings. We headed out to hit the town and paint it red and noticed that it was pretty quiet. I just assumed the shop keepers were having a little lie in.
We wandered up to the Abbey and headed inside to discover there was a service taking place and it was packed!! On top of this the service was in Latin - when was the last time you heard that????
It transpired that 14 September is the anniversary of the consecration of the Abbey and so a pretty big deal. It is also told that Jesus himself had been here (not today of course, that would be a pretty big draw card). We had a bit of a wander outside and then discovered that the entire town was closed to recognise the anniversary.
So we both took a little down time before we took trains (me to meet S and then head to the airport and Berlin and Jeremy back to Zurich).
So folks, next stop is Berlin...stay tuned.
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