Our guests left this morning after a very full 10 days of Swiss touring: they walked Bern, rode the Golden Pass Train, toured Chillon and Lausanne, visited Murten and Avenches, hiked to Kleine Scheidegg, snow-tubed on the Jungfrau, hiked in Zermatt, toured Neuchatel and Lucerne. And most evenings found them eating very well: either they were making Indian-style food for us or were invited out for BBQ.
Patel Family cooking in our kitchen
Jon knew Anil from working together in San Rafael. But neither of us knew his family: wife Beth and sons Zachary and Austen. They have traveled a lot, including trips to India and China that were decidedly not luxurious. So having a home base to work from made it a relaxing vacation for them. And they are easy to be with, consistently agreeable and considerate making it a relaxing visit for us.
Anil and Jon outside Autodesk in Gumligen
Jon and I were able to join our guests on the weekends:
Typical Swiss Farmland, taken from the Golden Pass TrainAt Chillon, Jon & I consider the benefits of a larger kitchen
Vineyards above Lausanne by Lake GenevaWe happened to arrive at Lausanne at the end of a World Orienteering Race
Lucerne's Kapellbrucke "Chapel Bridge"Lucerne's famous covered bridges are decorated inside with 16th cen. paintingsLion Memorial commemorating Swiss Guards massacred during the French Revolution
BBQ at Hugues'
After a week and a half of guests and touring, we enjoyed a brisk 20 km on the bike through Swiss countryside.
This week we’re preparing for guests. We borrowed an air mattress. Which then necessitated borrowing a transformer to pump it. We’ve sent emails back and forth about what to bring us (Jon’s choral clothes) and what they want to do while here (cheese, chocolate, Alps). We finally took the last of the suitcases and bike boxes to the basement storage unit. And Jon, through much struggle, installed the dining room chandelier!
I had a full day at last: filled with cleaning everything in the house, setting up beds, and grocery shopping (two visits, couldn’t carry it all in one). It felt good to have a clear and physical function. Even though my ‘job’ as ‘vacation planner‘ is theoretically always there to be done, it’s elusive and frustrating with many dead-ends and lots of sitting. So, we’re ready.
Well, we’re ready for the coming two weekends with our guests. Then there’s all the weeks and weekends beyond that. In the last two days we’ve finalized travel plans for our Paris trip (7/28-8/1) and gone through 14 permutations of possibilities for a trip to Scandinavia (potentially August or September). Somehow the planning has not, as I had hoped, become easier.
It has been a soccer summer with the European games going on. For weeks it was everywhere. You pass a bar and hear a game. In the restaurant in Konstanz (an otherwise elegant place), the game was showing on a big screen TV. At Turnhalle, a bar in the courtyard of an old gymnasium where Jon’s co-workers like to go on Thursdays for a beer or a ‘Cuba Libre’ (rum and coke), a tent was set up with a TV and waves of cheers and moans washed over those outside. So it seemed fitting that Autodesk held its annual Soccer tournament in Switzerland this year and we were able to attend. The Neuchatel AD office is quite large and fields two teams. Gumligen is quite small and has no one who is even interested. Thus it was that Jon and I were able to borrow the company car and drive by ourselves to Neuchatel for the all-day event Saturday 7/7.
Autodesk Soccer Tournament in Neuchatel
Once again, the theme of the year played out: things foreign may be interesting but they are also stress-inducing. After a week of facing minor everyday foreignnesses like not knowing what someone is saying to you or whether the change you’re getting back is correct, driving a strange car to a new place on roads with different signs wasn’t exactly a fun time. The games themselves were fun. We’ve begun to understand the rules a bit and although we knew almost no one there, we managed to meet a number of people and have some nice conversations.
Lake Neuchatel
Sunday was bike repair day. The tandem’s front tire had gone flat from a slow leak, the result of a failed old patch thus requiring a new tube. And it was caked with dirt from the muddy paths we’ve been on. All 3 bikes needed cleaning and oiling. And we needed a bit of body repair as well, a quiet at home day was definitely due.
Our 2nd weekend being driven into Germany by our friends Simon and Michaela, this time to stay with their parents and go to the local ‘Weindorf’ or ‘wine village’. This is somewhat different from an American style wine event. We are accustomed to tastings where you take a small sip of each wine to see if you like it. Here they sell small glasses–1/10th liter—of their latest vintages for 2 Euros ($3). By each of us getting a different variety, we could each sample 4 wines at a time. However, it’s hard to throw out wine, so it was more like going out drinking, than like sampling to find what you want to buy. Unfortunately, none of the wines were very impressive, although Jon did find a varietal he had never heard of which he liked: Muller-Thurgau.
On our way to the wine festivalWine Festival
Saturday I stayed in bed with a sore neck, while Jon ventured out shopping with our friends. Prices are generally lower in Germany, so a lot of people try to stock up while there. Unfamiliarity with the stores and the products proved a major hurdle, but he did find me a yoga mat (so I can take better care of my sore body).
Saturday night it was back to the Weindorf (which carries on for 5 days) for Jon and the others. But the weather gods were not in a good mood and they all got soaked by a classic Iowa thunderstorm. The entire area, with its rolling hills of corn and heavy humidity has reminded Jon of his home in Iowa, so this just capped off the experience.
We broke up the long drive home by touring the Schloss at Ludwigsburg and having dinner in Konstanz by the Bodensee. This palace was modeled after Versailles, but is in much better condition with grounds to match. While pictures are not permitted inside, Simon managed to sneak a few. But they only hint at the phenomenal decorations. I asked in particular about some of the vases I saw and was told most were authentic 16th/17th cen. Chinese and Japanese. Many exquisite pieces of furniture, wall coverings, embroidered chairs, etc. One of the places you never hear about but are so glad you got to see.
Perhaps you have read our earlier blog entries: our wonderful weekend adventures. Our weekdays, however, are not so exceptional. Jon is working as he would back home, with all the challenges and frustrations that has always entailed. I (Mary Carol) am living the quiet life, where the nearly daily trip to the grocery store is my big thrill. I have begun to accept the high prices of food. Of course, I try to shop carefully, but when I get to the counter, I just stick Jon’s credit card in the slot and press “ok”, barely looking at the total. We have TV, mostly watching either BBC or recorded shows from our home set via slingbox.
Jon has joined two choruses so some nights he’s off to Bern to rehearse. Occasional Thursdays he or we join a few Autodesk employees who hang out in Turnhalle, a cafe-bar in downtown Bern.
Jon in Cantos Classico
I water my few veggies on the balcony, spend some hours every day researching possibilities for our trips, listen to a little German TV or translate part of the newspaper, and often partake of that most popular Swiss activity: walking. Jon and I are starting to say the Swiss drive and ride bikes like they have no place to go but walk like they do. Nordic walking—with poles and a sense of determination—seems quite common.
