Swiss wrap-up

After another day in the mountains, we went back to Charlene and Walti's house in Chur. Technically, we never really left the mountains. Chur is a biggish city farther from the snow but I certainly could not describe it as flat or anywhere near sea level. This year, as we discovered, that city played host to a battle of the Swiss marching bands. We thought we saw some sort of a parade and stopped our trip across town in order to watch the end of it. Groups from all around Switzerland competed by turns, and they marched along a city block closed for the afternoon from traffic. Since a judge followed each band and then returned to follow the next, we had to do a lot of waiting between shows but the bands we saw all did a good job.

Walti had been busy at least all day preparing the house and cooking a spectacular and delicious send-off dinner. We really enjoyed dining in their yard and reviewing the week. Yesterday morning we extended the review as Charlene and I exchanged photos. She didn't take as many photos as we did, but her compositions impressed me and I'm very glad to have them.

Yesterday we returned for another day in Basel, where we received a warm welcome back at the Hotel Basel. They had already gotten out the big bag of stuff we'd left behind to bring to Minsk and put a tea kettle into or room. Amusingly, they call the tea kettle a "water cooker," and since Alla had asked for one last time they assumed correctly that we'd want one this time too, along with big cups and a selection of teas. We really like that hotel.

Apparently it rained all day in Chur, but we enjoyed beautiful sunny weather in Basel. We took a tram to the Foundation Beyeler, where we saw some contemporary art in a beautiful building. We weren't convinced about the value received given their unusually high admission fee, but I guess it demonstrates the value the Swiss place on art.

I wrote this post on the plane while returning to Minsk. We won’t see any more mountains for a while.

In the mountains

The weather suddenly turned warm and we're taking advantage of it. After our adventures in the Heidi Village, we headed off with Charlene to the Engadine Valley. I've wanted to come here for many years, and feared that I'd be thwarted once again by bad weather. In fact, the bad weather just made the mountains extra pretty, capped in fresh snow. We came to a place called Diavolezza, at the top of a cable car ride up a steep mountain. Last time we rode a cable car, we looked with our binoculars at the chamois below us. This time, we saw ski tracks instead, the result of a few intrepid skiers.

At the top, we didn't have to put on all the clothes we brought because the sun shined brightly and kept us warm. After admiring the great views in all directions, we sat down at an outdoor patio to eat a delicious lunch. And after lunch I figured out why I had a greasy spot on my pants: I'd absentmindedly put a couple of little chocolate bars into my pocket and the melted chocolate had coated my leg and the inside of my pants. I'm sure it was delicious, but I didn't get to try it.

We did see our chamois, but not so far away as last year. Today, for example, we surprised a couple of them as we walked near a nice clear mountain stream as we hiked above S-charl. I heard an animal in the bushes and turned to see a chamois about two meters away. I remarked to Alla and Charlene, "Well, look who's here!" The chamois didn't want to stay around for introductions, and bolted across the trail into the woods along with its partner.

We're staying in Guarda, at a wonderful inn called Hotel Meisser. Somehow Charlene found a deal on the Internet at about half the usual rate, and we jumped on it. Alla and I have a wonderful room with a balcony and a view. After checking in yesterday, we hiked to the next village, which involved lots of smelling the flowers and photographing the changing views. Spring has arrived in force around here, and wildflowers fill most of the meadows. Today we saw more big meadows, leading to steep snow-capped mountains.

Tourists

Switzerland got snow in the mountains last week so we couldn’t start with our planned itinerary. A couple of days ago, then, Charlene took us to Stein am Rhein because it’s cute and not so high. While we were wandering around the town she found a fish restaurant with one big pike still unreserved. She booked it. Wow, we concluded our day with a delicious dinner. Too bad we didn’t think to take a picture of our fish before we ate it. It looked just as delicious as it tasted, but we didn’t look at it for very long before the waiter dismantled it and laid the meat onto our plates with butter-herb sauce.

The next day we took a boat to Schaffhausen, intending to ride back on rental bikes. When Alla got onto her bike, however, she decided she didn’t remember how to ride a bike. She’s used to riding on the back of our tandem, where she sits with both feet on the pedals until I push off and we get underway. Somehow she couldn’t work up the courage to push off before putting her feet onto the pedals, so she returned her bike to go home on the boat. Charlene and I, meanwhile, rode down to see the Rhein Falls, which took a little longer than we expected.

We worried about whether we’d have enough time to ride back to Stein am Rhein before returning our bikes at 6 p.m., so we pushed ourselves a little bit on the way back to Schaffhausen, where we stopped to check the boat schedule. The last boat was about to leave, and we found Alla on it. We said hello and goodbye to her and rolled ahead onto the bike path meandering near the riverbank. Still worried about our late start, we rode hard until we recognized we didn’t have much farther to go before we’d reach Stein am Rhein. We stopped on the riverbank and ate apples and avocado, looking at our destination not too far ahead. We still had over an hour and a half, so we soaked our feet in the cold water and enjoyed the view of an old church across the river from us.

Finally, by 5:00, we decided to ride down to the bridge and get a close look at the scene we’d been enjoying across the water. As I set up my camera on a self-timer to take a picture of ourselves, Alla’s boat came up the river toward us. We waved at each other, returned our bikes, and swapped stories of the day.

Today we stayed closer to Chur because the weather is suddenly warm and sunny. We visited the village from the children’s story Heidi at the suggestion of Charlene’s daughter Nina. We came there with Nina and her infant son, who fussed very little and entertained us all while we waited for lunch. I’m glad he took the wait so well, because we didn’t receive our meal until over an hour after we placed our order. At least we enjoyed a fine view while we waited and the food was great. I ordered asparagus again since it’s in season here and delicious. I also know that I’ve never seen such good asparagus in Belarus and that it’s hard to find any asparagus at all.

Old friends

I've known Charlene pretty much all my life, but we didn't know each other well until high school, when we became classmates under an especially-gifted Sunday School teacher. We talked about EVERYthing, and became good friends. Unfortunately for me, though quite fortunately for her, she fell in love with a Swiss guy and emigrated to Switzerland right after college. I haven't seen Charlene and Walti nearly much as I'd like since then, and so it's been a special pleasure to vacation in Switzerland last year and this.

Last year we all had the same week free and we spent it together in a mountain town called Murren. I really enjoyed reconnecting with my old friend, especially because at the same time I rediscovered how much I like her husband Walti. She could have justified emigrating to Walti's country regardless of where he lived, but still we're all glad he was born in such a beautiful and progressive place.

This year Walti's at work while we're in Switzerland, so they invited us to be their guests in Chur. We got a special bonus because their daughter Nina, along with her husband and their infant son, are living with them while transitioning from one home to the next. I remember Nina best as a little girl, though I've watched her grow up through pictures in the family's Christmas cards. Nina also married brilliantly, and their son is the outcome and expression of radiant love. I feel blessed that we're this family's guests.

Chur is great too. I'll try to write something about it later. But friends are the greatest

Welcome to Basel

We didn’t sleep as much as we should have slept on the plane last night, but we managed to stay on our feet all day long. We took a self-guided walking tour leading us on both sides of the Rhine River. I wish I’d thought to take a picture of the ferry we rode. It’s powered by water flow. The boatman points it towards the other sore and the river’s current pushes it across, dragging along a strong cable stretched across the river.

We thought we’d be inside of museums today because of bad weather, but the rain was very light all day and we really felt like walking. We’re pretty excited to be back in Switzerland.

Back from San Francisco

Last time I posted, I wrote of my frustrations during a day-long trip from Boston to San Francisco. The trip should have taken just a few hours, but several different problems stretched the trip. Here’s the good news: I arrived in San Francisco exactly in time to get to the ballet as it opened, and I arrived in a peaceful state of mind. I’m very pleased about the peaceful state of mind. I’ve traveled enough to know that life goes on, often quite well, in spite of setbacks along the way. I still aspire to export that more of calm to the non-traveling parts of my life, but these laboratory experiences help me to do that.

We only spared ourselves a few days in San Francisco, but enjoyed ourselves richly. If you get a chance to see the new San Francisco Ballet production of Cinderella, you should do it. We loved it. We also enjoyed numerous walks with relatives in various parks, especially the Presidio, and we luxuriated in a couple of fine museum visits. We see the Museum of Asian art often because Nika works there, but this time we saw some of the 2000-year-old Terracotta Warriors from China, which we considered extra-special. Maybe even extra-extra special. I had to see their faces in order to appreciate their artistry and individuality. We had a great time with Dutch Masters at the De Young Museum too.

We wanted to see relatives from several different households, and during this trip everybody’s schedules meshed almost perfectly. We got to spend time with almost everyone, and really enjoyed renewing our connections with so many wonderful people. Nika even proposed that we should move to the area. I welcomed the idea, but Alla is not yet ready even to consider it. She thinks it’s too far from Belarus, where we also enjoy spending time. And of course we value our connections in Boston.

We haven’t come so close to seeing “everybody” in Boston, because our “everybody” here is so big. But we’ve had great times with quite a few good friends and we’re happy about that. Unfortunately, being “home” means that we have to devote lots of time to things we can’t avoid, including bookkeeping and administrative matters as well as those pesky home-maintenance projects. We hoped to sit down for a meal with all of our neighbors, but people are so busy that we’ve had to settle for piecemeal visits. But we’re happy to see everybody well and doing well. That’s always pleasant.

Lessons learned while traveling

I am presently stuck in Philadelphia. I would prefer to be on my way to San Francisco. Failing thus far, I will try to learn from the many things that went wrong.

My first mistake was that I don't like to get to the airport early before my flights. Usually I get away with it, but today would have been different if I'd started earlier. US Airways has lots of flights from Boston to Philadelphia, and I'm confident that the one 30 minutes before mine left with empty seats. I wish I could have asked to board that one, but they closed the gate as I got there. Leave home a little earlier.

I never did like US Airways and still don't. I took this free trip to use up my frequent flyer miles, but I'll try not to fly with them again. When they learned that our takeoff would be delayed due to weather, they quickly locked the door on the plane and moved away from the gate so we couldn't get off. Don't fly US Airways.

We arrived in Philly five minutes before my onward flight to SFO. I ran to the gate, but got there two minutes late. They sent me to an overcrowded customer service desk. I should have opened the Kayak app on my phone and asked for a list of options getting to my destination. Instead, I talked to a not-so-helpful agent on the phone while waiting to reach a more-helpful agent at the counter.

The agent at the counter found me a way to San Francisco that gets me there almost in time for the ballet, but if I had known to ask, I would have pressed her to send me sooner via Las Vegas. She didn't offer that, I think, because it would have put me onto a partner airline and may have cost them some sort of a fee. But I didn't even ask. It was only after this that I discovered the Kayak app.

By the time I went to ask, the agent on the Las Vegas flight wanted to close the doors and she wouldn't let me in without properly-printed tickets. Once again, I needed that app on my phone. Next time and ever after, it's going to be there.