I am sitting on a plane in Switzerland waiting for take-off, which has been delayed due to the fact that it’s snowing, and I’m bored, so you get to read about my trip.
After a weekend spent mostly sick in bed, except for a trip out to see Liz’s band perform at a Christmas Fair (yes, she’s here for the same program, and yes, she joined a samba band while she was here.) and presentations on Monday morning, we abruptly packed up all of our things. Apparently the Finance Office had changed the dates that we had paid for to stay in the B&B, but had forgotten to tell us, so we had to move out sooner than expected. That afternoon Hilary and I took a train to London, then the Underground to a hostel to stay for the night. We got up at 5 the next morning to get on another train to the airport to fly to Basel, Switzerland, where Hilary’s relatives live. They were kind enough to let us stay in their gorgeous apartment for four days. We went out to lunch and picked up the kids from school on Tuesday, then went to the Christmas Market in the afternoon. Basel is home to the largest “Weinachtstrasse,” or Christmas Street, in Europe, if I translated the sign correctly. There were tons of cool but overpriced handmade craft-type-things. For dinner, we had Raclette, (sp?) which is a traditional Swiss meal of a type of cheese melted in a type of pan then poured over potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower. Yum.
They’re done de-icing the wings, so I’ve got to take a break to put the computer away.
Back now. On Wednesday, we wandered around the city for a while. (Warning! Random story! It was not as lame as it sounds.) At one point, we came across this fountain that was pouring water into a bucket with a spout, and the bucket was full, so the water was pouring out of the spout. Sitting on the edge next to the fountain was another, very similar bucket, and for some reason, I felt the need to switch the buckets, so after some deliberation, I did. I have no idea why they were there but it was greatly satisfying to hear the new, empty bucket fill up with water. We then took the tram to join Hilary’s aunt and uncle for lunch at the company where he works. It’s huge and basically has it’s own town to support it within the city. There’re restaurants and even a supermarket. We stayed around the house in the afternoon, then went to pick up Liz from the train station that evening.
Thursday was the most exciting day, as we took a train into Germany, to the city of Freiburg. It was only about an hour train ride and that’s with stopping at most of the many stations. After acquiring a map and some Euros, we went to a café, where I successfully ordered our drinks and snacks in German. We had the giant, amazing pretzels that I practically lived on when I was in Germany in high school. They are still really good, even though I forgot to order any sauces for them. Freiburg has a Christmas Market too, so we wander through that, then around the city. We did a bit of shopping, but only a little, as none of us has any room in our luggage to add things. Just before we left, we went to another café, where the other girls had Gluehwein, the traditional Christmas drink. I think it’s disgusting, so I had ice cream instead.
We had grand plans for Friday, but when we woke up to rain, no one really wanted to go anywhere. We haven’t had access to a kitchen or living room in three months, so we sat around and ate and watched movies and played games, including Looping Louie, an amazing game Liz bought in Germany. The premise of the game, as Hilary later explained it, is that Louie is a crazy pilot who is flying so badly he is knocking chickens off of barns. Players try to protect their chickens by hitting a lever that knocks Louie back up and away from your chickens. I’m not very good at it, but it’s fun.
And now the computer has to go away again. I’ll post this when I get back to the B&B.
