Tripped

Leaving for Tuscany Today

The country house we're headed to with Beth & Jim and several of their friends isn't supposed to have Internet access, so posting may continue to be intermittent. And yes, I'm feeling normal again after my gut-emptying episode.

Things You Didn't Know About the Swiss

They like to fold up their clothes, place them in a waterproof bag with their wallet and watch, and jump in the Rhine to float downstream. This is especially popular amongst the senior citizen set. We emerged from a week-long hibernation at my sister-in-law's to wander around their neighborhood and saw this guy, his personal effects neatly tucked away, headed for the bank. He was one of several we saw jumping in the fast-flowing river just below the Basel hydroelectric dam on a weekday afternoon. Two days ago (Thursday) we were at lunch at a riverside cafe and I saw numerous heads bobbing in the current.

Lull

Our seventeen day MittelEuropa Odyssey with my parents ended on Tuesday when they boarded their JFK-bound flight in Zurich, and we've been chilling in Switzerland ever since. We actually spent Tuesday itself wandering around Zurich during a stunning day of sunshine, which is where the photo above comes from.

Eileen's sister Beth and her husband Jim live in Basel, where we've been lazing about since Tuesday evening on the couch, re-charging our batteries, our lethargy reinforced by several days of end-of-summer rain brough by the remnants of Hurricane Danny after it arced across the North Atlantic. Our adventure's not over yet - we've got several other destinations we're planning to hit here on the Continent over the next several weeks - but the finish line is in sight.