So, last Saturday, Greg and I were sipping coffee, contemplating our weekly outing to the Oerlikon Saturday market, when our friend Dottie calls (that's her on the right above). She and her partner Laurie were driving to the town of Disentis in the Graubunden region to see a paragliding contest. Would we like to come? Hell, yes!
Knowing that Greg would never agree to miss his market, we agreed to meet there. Sadly, the market was a shadow of its usual self: with only a half to two thirds of the usual stalls. Even our favorite meat market had given in to the European (no doubt Communist) notion of closing shop in August and (gasp!) actually taking some time off. Still, we were able to load up on veggies and fruit, which we dropped off at the apartment enroute.
The drive through the alpine scenery was awesome.
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| These are avalanche fences, near the mountain summit. |
Arriving at Disentis, there was no sign of paragliders so Laurie drove up a random road and we just happened to stop at a small roadside restaurant/hotel with a breathtaking view.
The food wasn't memorable but our host was. He was from Berlin and his wife from Zurich and he really wasn't all that hepped up about this area in which they had chosen to plant themselves. Mein Gastgeber (host) was particularly incenced that the local school district with only a few thousand students had decided to teach each kid in one of their four distinct dialects of Romanisch. It seemed pretty strange to me, as well. I'm all for helping to preserve ethnicicity but, although Romanisch is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with Swiss German, Italian and French), only 1% of the population speaks it, the dialects are unique enough that people in one valley in Graubunden may not understand someone from a neighboring valley, and Romanisch is spoken nowhere else. So it seems to me that the decision to provide instruction solely in Romanisch severely hinders the mobility of the students. On a more self-centered note, our obliging host gave us maps and showed us two spots he said we shouldn't miss. The first one is the one pictured below.
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| The little town - if it could be called that - had a closed hotel and a farm ... and a church. This is the beautiful little cemetary beside the church. In Switzerland, you only rent the grave for 25 years. Not sure what they do with the bones after that. |
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| Greg, Dottie & Laurie |
The second highlight was the Ruinaulta Rheinschlucht, also known as the Grand Canyon of Switzerland. Take a look at the pictures below and see what you think. To give Laurie a rest, Greg took over the driving down the very narrow road into the canyon, with its incredibly sharp switchback curves. I was smugly happy that it was Greg who was driving and not me and I have to confess there were a few spots where I closed my eyes.
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| For much of our journey, the road paralleled the famous Glacier Express tourist railroad. |
A few other wanderings:
Lucern Transportation Museum with Greg. Really good simulation of building the Gotthard RR Tunnel and Greg enjoyed the old steam trains. There is an amazing outside play area for kids. Next time, we need to see the planetarium and the largest movie screen in Switzerland.
Strasbourg France with Greg. Short overnight trip. Somehow, I thought the fabled storks built their nests on chimneys all over the quaint medieval town but nope! They are to be found in a beautiful park a short bus ride from the town center.
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| not exactly shy |
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| The tower to the right is the church spire for the cathedral. You can see it from all over town. |
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| There are many beautiful old canals. The Rhine River runs through Strasbourg. |
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| One of the tourist boats going through a lock. |
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| We stumbled upon the Church Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune, a real little gem. |
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| Eating dinner at an outside cafe. Just as we were paying "das Rechnung", the skies opened up and the rain fell so heavily, we thought we were swimming back to the hotel. In spite of our umbrellas, we were soaked but it was fun and the rain on the canals was beautiful. |
Luzern with Dottie. We spent a leisurely day wandering the old town and having lunch. I think the Swiss weather gods gave us such a beautiful day just to tease us. Most of the summer has been rainy and/or overcast and/or windy and/or cold.
Watching the fireworks from our balcony on August 1st. Swiss National Day is a huge deal here. Wonderful professional and citizen firework displays lit up the sky well into the night.
Every time I passed the University of Zurich's Irtchel Park on the tram, I vowed that I would go check it out one day. One day, I actually did. I went one way up a short hill and suddenly before me was a panorama of open farmland. Zurich is amazing that way: a compact city surrounded by easily accessible countryside. Turning back and heading the other way, I came across a peaceful lake with cement block stepping stones and an arena type sitting area made up of cement blocks on a grass and wildflower covered hillside.
So, I'm keeping busy here in Switzerland, impatiently waiting for the 13th of October when I fly home and see our new grandchild. Katie's delivery date is the 28th of September and I've made her promise not to let the kid come early. It's going to be hard enough knowing I won't see Alp until he/she is two weeks old - any more than that would be just too much!
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