What Comets, Stars, and Moons are all about

This morning during my bike to work I came across an Orange Juice stand. At first I smiled, nodded, and rode past the brother and sister anxiously watching traffic pass. Many feet away the voice of my father, a postal worker, echoed in my head “I always stop for lemonade stands.”

Damn you, Dad.

I don’t recall exactly when he said this to me, but it was when I was driving and he was in the passenger seat and I had apparently chosen to not stop for kids selling lemonade.

I stopped, turned around, and watched the faces of the two towheaded kids light up as I made my return. The little girl was especially happy about it, the little boy was clearly trying to act professional and serious about our transaction. They said business was okay and thanked me for stopping. I paid $.50 for my orange juice and gave them a $.25 tip. The orange juice was good, freshly squeezed, but the point wasn’t the juice. Mostly, I hopefully delayed the development of cynicism in two little kids for a little bit longer.

If you are driving and it isn’t a dangerous road to break on, stop for lemonade stands. If you are walking or biking, there really isn’t an excuse.

Posted in Old Blog
Tags: advice

I don’t like the act of biking. The parts of the bike. The rotating of the pedals. The going up hills. Don’t like it.

What I do like is that I don’t like biking, so it takes an extra push to make myself do it. I can make excuses. Too far. Might rain. Schedule might change. However, when I can break that wall that is so easy to build and get on my bike, I feel good.

Yesterday all of the weather sites and weather channels were predicting storms. First they were going to start at 9 a.m. and as the day moved on that start time moved later. Most of my Sunday was built around the threat of storms. This morning, same deal. I had planned to bike to work today, but with rain possibly coming I was hesitating. In the end, the bike won, because I wasn’t going to let the threat of rain ruin what will hopefully become second nature. It wasn’t raining when I left for work and if it is raining on my way home…well…I’m on my way home so it won’t matter if I’m drenched at my destination.

To go to work on a bus it takes me 35 minutes if I catch the bus before 8:15 a.m. and nearly 50 minutes if I catch the bus after 8:15 a.m. It also costs $4.

To drive my car it takes roughly 25 minutes, but that doesn’t include finding parking and doing the “Beat the Meter Maid Shuffle” at 11 a.m. so I don’t get a parking ticket. Cost of a ticket $30. Cost of gas, not sure, but I end up filling my tank at least every two weeks at an average price of $25, so let’s say $2 per day.

To ride my bike it currently take roughly 30 minutes. I think I can get that down to 25 minutes once I get better accustomed to going up slight inclines. The cost? Maybe some bike maintenance in the future, but no gas and no bus ticket.

Additionally, in the interest of personal goal setting, I’ve decided that I want myself to be in good enough biking shape to bike the Elroy-Sparta State Trail in early August. I like old train tunnels. I decided this while pedaling in misery along Hammersley this morning. Oh, how I hate Hammersley.

But biking? I don’t like it. Not one bit.

Posted in Old Blog
Tags: biking

The benefit of a restless night in a hostel is when you are up you want to be up and out. As soon as we woke from the little bit of sleep we were able to capture we were downstairs for breakfast and out the door for our big travel day across Geneva. The morning had us catching a bus that would take us as close as possible to Cologny, Switzerland. The goal: Villa Diodati, birthplace of Frankenstein and arguably the horror/science-fiction genre. Prior to the trip I had been obsessing over the new comic book series The Unwritten and one of the major scenes in the comic takes place in the Villa. It is where Lord Byron and Mary Shelley make a bet to write the first horror novel. Shelley, obviously, won the bet. We took the bus to its terminus and had a long walk up from lake Geneva to Cologny which sits on a hill overlooking the lake and the city of Geneva. What we discovered at the top was a charming little village where we couldn’t resist but to pause and drink espresso and eat pastries.

The Villa is still occupied, so the closest you can get is the entry gateway. The best view you can get is from a nearby park. I believe it was worth the trip to the Villa simply for the hike and the view. Maddie and I paid our homage and made our way back down. Next destination: CERN.

Much like our trek to Cologny this trip required taking a bus route to its terminus and walking for a couple of miles. We went so far West we could see the mountains of France in the distance. If we had walked one more mile we could have actually walked across the border.

CERN, you may or may not know is birthplace of the World Wide Web and home to the Large Hadron Collider. We were there only a couple of months before the had the LHC up and running. Unfortunately, in order to tour the LHC you need to book many, many months in advance. Still, there is plenty to see in and around the compound. There is a reasonably sized museum dedicated to physics and the experiments that have happened at CERN. If I were to do it again I would book the LHC tour. We ate lunch at a lonely Indian restaurant that was the only place to eat in the area. It was like any Indian restaurant buffet I’ve eaten at.

On the bus ride back to Geneva proper we decided we had our fill of the city and wanted to make it back to Zurich so we could be bright eyed and bushy tailed for our flight back to the States. The train ride was three or four hours. Being a Friday night it was fun to see the train fill up with young people travelling from one city to the next by train to spend the night out in a different town. For much of the trip the train was packed wall-to-wall on both floors. It was inspiring to see such an exuberant use of public transportation. I envied it greatly and lamented, as I often do, the lack of rail from Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison to Minneapolis.

I was glad we made the trip back to Zurich. We spent a romantic evening exploring the city for a second time. the added bonus was that we knew it a little bit better than the first time we visited at the start of our trip. We had delicious dinners at Ristorante Liguria. I had the Saffron Risotto with Wood Musrooms and Seafood and Maddie had the Octopus Carpaccio with Tomatoes. My dish came piled upon with shellfish still in the shell. It was perplexing, but delicious. After dinner we meandered through the Zurich streets one last time, peaking through the windows of all the shops. Lamenting that our plane was leaving so early we would be losing one last day in the city. Before checking into the hotel we paused to breath in the Swiss air atop Lindenhoff. After that we checked back into the Zic Zac Rock Hotel. This time they gave us the Led Zeppelin room and unlike the Talking Heads room it actually had Led Zeppelin memorabilia on the walls.

In the morning we hurried to our flight and found ourselves homeward bound.

Posted in wanderlust
Tags: switzerland

The final city on our journey was Geneva. I recall we didn’t enjoy Geneva all that much as a city, but in retrospect I’m finding myself quite smitten. We were starting to get road weary and while we had quite a few destinations planned in Geneva, we were having a difficult time make decisions about food. Plus, the hostel was a nightmare.

We arrived in the city and checked into the hostel. Hungry, we headed out and found ourself at a tavern called Caribou. I believe we had Elk stew or something of the sort. After enjoying out lunch we headed out to the Rhone. It was cold and windy. The Jet d’Eau fountain wasn’t running at the time, so we missed one of Geneva’s most iconic sights. However, we did walk out on a jeti to a tiny light house. I played with the birds, as I’m apt to do. We took some windblown, river sprayed photos.

From the jeti we wandered along the Rhone and across a bridge to a statue of Rosseau which was actually hidden behind a giant purple ball. Knowing Geneva’s history with philosopher we couldn’t help but think this was on purpose.

From Rosseau we wandered the streets to one of my favorite parts of the trip, The Patek Philippe Museum. The museum is dedicated to 500 centuries of watch making history in the Swiss region. It was dazzling to see such a vast collection of time pieces and to learn just how long ago people were experimenting with clockwork. It definitely helped inform the steampunk novel Maddie and I have been casually crafting when the moment strikes us. Anyone visiting Geneva who is interested in the slightest about clock and watch making should be sure to put the Patek Philippe Museum on their list.

After the museum we found our way to the Plainpalais Cemetery where we paused at the grave for Jorge Luis Borges.

From the cemetery we did some serious city trekking to find “Les Schtrumpfs.” The official Swiss website writes: “Named after the French word for the ‘Smurfs,’ the Schtrumpfs is a modern architectural landmark located in the funky Les Grottes neighborhood behind the train station. The apartment complex was designed by three architects determined to create the most unconventional building possible. The result is a Gaudi-esque amalgamation of colors and styles that has to be seen to be believed.”

After that excursion I believe we paused at a cafe to figure out what to do next. We were definitely getting a little bit grumpy at that time of the day, but decided to take a bus out to the United Nations. That is what we did and we took a picture of the Broken Chair sculpture facing the UN and meant to represent the devastation created by land mines and, of course, pictures of one another in front of the Palais dse Nations.

We took the bus back downtown. As a worldwide seat for diplomacy, Geneva is perhaps one of the most global cities in the world. This was reflected in the bus ride back as I heard American-English speakers for the first time during our entire trip. I eaves dropped. They didn’t say anything terribly interesting.

At this point in time it was time to eat. We had no plan. We didn’t know what we were craving. We didn’t even know good places in the city to eat. Pretty much every other Swiss city we had visited we had recommendations or at the least did a little bit of research in advance. I had researched sushi restaurants, but we took care of the Swiss sushi requirement way back in Zurich. OH WHAT TO DO.

Spying a place touting “FOIE GRAS” in big letters on a blackboard and knowing Madolan’s love for the delicacy I figured I could do worse than this random place on Boulevard du Pont d Arve called Cafe Universal.

Cafe Universal is now my most favorite restaurant on the globe. The decor is filled with various tchotchkes including a gun toting Scarface, a Super Mario, the head of Ultra Man, and various other characters. In one corner is a phone booth with a television inside. Throughout the establishment is a variety of Victorian candelbara. Scrawled on one wall are the words “KILL BAMBI.” And the bathrooms are peppered with post-it notes left by visitors. No, the decor doesn’t scream “DELICIOUS FOOD,” but that is exactly what you will find when you do eventually get around to ordering.

Maddie had veal in honey with rosemary. I had monkfish with trumpets of death. We shared the foie gras with marmalade and six perfect snails in burgundy and herbs. We left on a gastronomical cloud and floated all the way back to our hostel.

Sadly, the night didn’t end as delightful as the dinner. One of our companions in the shared dorm room was the world record holder for loud snoring. As I spent the night awake I was sure it was a gigantic man, the noise was so loud. But no, such a noise bellowed out from what we would find to be a dainty and friendly young girl in the morning. A sleepless night in Geneva.

Posted in wanderlust

Our morning in Lausanne started with devastation and tragedy. After arriving too early at the Collection L’Art de Brut we decided to meander through the city and up to the cathedral that overlooks it all. On the way there I decided to check to see how much space I had on my camera and somehow pushed the wrong button and deleted everything. My soul was crushed. All of the spirit torn out of me and spit into the ether. All of those memories. All of those fantastic images I captured of Maddie journeying throughout the country. Lost. Lost. Lost. I didn’t want to go on. What was the point? Zurich, Bern, Montreux, Meringen, Thun, Luzern, and our first night in Lausanne were now dependent on however long my internal memory system could hold onto those moments. Maddie pushed me to go on. We went up to the cathedral and it was very difficult for me to work up the energy to start taking pictures again. The joy was gone. That…at least…was until we were actually able to get into the Collection L’Art de Brut and I got over myself.

When I shoot photos while traveling and come across art I like to take it out of context or try to find an aspect of the piece that maybe even the artist was intending. Essentially, I like to make my own art out of the art. I know many artists would hate that, but I don’t know them, so they can suck it. My vision of your work is likely better than your vision of your work (I kid).

Anyway, Collection L’Art de Brut is a collection of “outsider art.” The collection aims to highlight artists who were never formally trained and in many cases were accidental artists. We were pleasantly surprised to find a sizable collection in the back room of work by Chicago’s Henry Darger. Darger is best known for The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. After his death his landlords discovered thousands of pages of a manuscript and massive drawings that accompany his story of the Vivian Girls. He has become a cult sensation inspiring musicians like Natalie Merchant and poets like John Ashbery. It was an exciting exhibit all around and a must stop for anyone who visits Lausanne. You can see my photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calistan/tags/lacollectiondelartbrut/

We decided to make our way down to the very bottom of Lausanne that abuts Lake Geneva. Instead of walking, as we did the first day, we took the fantastic tram that runs up and down the city making stops at various levels. Our quest at the bottom of the city was to find the Roman ruins that established Lausanne as a port. The Roman ruins of Lusanne aren’t very well marked, but after an adventure through soccer fields we eventually spotted them beyond some trees. They date back to 15 BC when the Romans founded the port of Lousonna at the site of a Celtic settlement. Throughout the ruins were viewfinders and if you looked through them you could see silhouettes of what archeologists suspect the buildings that used to stand on the remaining foundations. It was a neat way to put it all in perspective. After the ruins we ate lunch on the pier and made our way back up to our hotel for an afternoon nap. I ventured out on my own for the first time to try and find us some watch batteries for our travel clock. While out I also picked myself up a new package of contact lenses. Switzerland is the birthplace of the contact lens and is also one of the few countries where you can buy contacts or glasses even if you don’t have an eye doctor’s prescription called in, all you need to know is your strength. It was a little intimidating to strike out sans Maddie, because I left my French lessons in high school, but I accomplished my mission.

Dinner was at a restaurant across from Place de la Riponne where we finally got around to having fondue in Switzerland. We had horse meat and honestly, eating Mr. Ed was delicious, he came with five dipping sauces. I wish I could remember the name of the place because I highly recommend it. After dinner, Maddie was kind enough to indulge me and journey back to Flon so I could retake some of my photos lost the night before. Once we finished that we journeyed to the balcony on the top of our hotel and listened for the Night Watch to call out from the Lausanne Cathedral. Lausanne is one of the few cities where the Night Watch is still called out. It was first established in the 1405 following a massive fire. Now, nearly every night from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m., a night watchman will call out “C’est le guet! Il a sonné dix…Il a sonné dix!” (It’s the night watch. It’s ten o’clock. It’s ten o’clock). Maddie and I listened and sipped champagne under the stars, lifting a toast to what has become our favorite city on this spinning globe.

Posted in wanderlust
Tags: lausanne, switzerland

During the previous day we had stumbled into a goth clothing store called Mephista where Maddie wanted to purchase a new corset. She decided to wait until the next day to make sure she really wanted to make the purchase so we waited until the following day. With time to kill until the store opened we wandered the streets and explored some of the back alleys. In one such alley we found a crepes restaurant where we both had a delicious breakfast, choosing crepes we weren’t exactly sure of the ingredients due to the language barrier. Maddie’s ended up being honeyed crepes with hazelnuts and fresh fruits. Mine, sadly, is lost to time…I think it possibly contained bananas. After eating and procuring clothing items for Maddie we headed toward the train station for our next destination, Lausanne. Before we hit the station we took some time to cross a bridge which gave us a new view of the entire city. Bern is truly one of the most charming cities I have ever visited, but a morning, an afternoon, and an evening were more than enough time for us to do everything we wanted.

Next stop…Lausanne.

After a quick train ride we arrived at our destination and were faced with a decision. Lausanne is a tiered city built on a hillside. it is also one of the most magnificent cities I have ever visited. Maddie and I immediately started weaving a steampunk story to be based on the city of Lausanne as it makes sense in so many ways. More on that later, but first, our decision. Our hotel that night was the Minotel Crystal which was located near the top of the hill that is Lausanne. Maddie mentioned something about a tram that would take us to the top, but I couldn’t be bothered to take the time to find it so I decided the best option would be to march straight up a road to the top. Not the best idea I’ve ever had. It is steep. It is not fun. If you go to Lausanne, take the tram, especially if you have luggage. It runs every few minutes and has the sole purpose of going to the top of the city and back down to the bottom of the city. You really can’t mess it up.

Anyway, we checked into our charming hotel and found ourselves with some idle time. As I’ve mentioned over and over again in these write-ups we found ourselves with more time than we thought we would. Having previously noticed that Montreaux, Switzerland was only a short train ride around Lake Geneva we decided to go have dinner in Montreaux.

Montreaux is considered the French Riviera of Switzerland. It is snug against the North Eastern side of Lake Geneva which is framed by gorgeous mountains. Along the lake is a lovely walk that is marked by a vast array of flora including the occasional palm tree. Visiting Montreux is worth it just to see palm trees in front of a backdrop of snow capped mountain tops. I took some great pictures of it, but those pictures are lost to time.

We did some of the touristy stuff in Montreux, including having our pictures taken in front of the Freddy Mercury statue. He lived and died in the city. We walked past the casino that once caught on fire after a fan at a Frank Zappa concert set off a flare gun. The incident inspired Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Dinner was perfect…one of my favorite moments of the entire trip (my list of favorite moments is several pages long). Maddie and I learned how to eat raclette while drinking Montreux wine and watching the sun set on the lake. It was postcard perfect.

We returned to Lausanne and headed straight for what we had read is the bustling party portion of Lausanne – Flon. Apparently, we were in Flon on an off night and sure enough a sign on a club explained DJ Richie Hawtin would be in town two nights later when we were scheduled to be in Geneva. So it goes. However, the experience of Flon on a calm night is not one to be missed. The section is living art with odd sculptures and structures peppered about. Metal chimes tingle as the wind blows through them, a series of benches are embraced by green and orange neon, a transparent toilet offers opportunities for exhibitionism, and alleyways are filled with garages painted with murals.

We ended the evening at Nomade, and this is where I began my current habit of ordering house drinks and specials on menus. I’ve never thought much of sangria, but they call it the house sangria on the menu, so I figured it must be worth a shot. Was it ever. I don’t think I will ever find a sangria to top it and I’ve been trying ever since returning to the states. It wasn’t too sweet and each piece of fruit was allowed a moment to shine in my glass. It was so good that Maddie, a dedicated wine drinker, broke from her normal consumption habits and joined me for two more glasses.

We loved Lausanne, but this is only day one in the city, so more love to come.

Posted in wanderlust
Tags: switzerland

Our next scheduled destination was Bern. As mentioned in previous entries we had been careful when planning our itinerary to make sure we left enough time to fit in the top things on our list that we felt we needed to do. As a result we ended up abandoning a number of items of interest. One of the items we had crossed off our list was a visit to Thun. Maddie was attracted to Thun because if you prepare far enough in advance you can set up tours of the underground garrisons in the mountains that surround the city. Thun is also the location of a 12th Century castle that overlooks the city. During our journey to Bern we noted that we were ahead of schedule, so when we pulled into Thun we looked at one another and decided that we might as well as get off and do some quick exploration. Switzerland had proven to be easy to navigate and the cities had proven to be easy to get into and out. So we hopped off and the first thing that struck us was how metropolitan the city of Thun actually is. It is a mixture of the old with the castle on the hill looking over the tiered streets with shops at street level and a second level above with raised sidewalks.

We headed straight for the castle…well…as straight as one can go up the winding streets to the castle. It was straight out of a fairytale with the ivy and the circular towers calling for Rapunzel to let down her hair. We climbed up to the top where we could look over the wall at the city sprawling below us. In the distance the mountains were green and gray clouds could be seen rolling in on the horizon. We saw a sheet of rain headed our direction and while we could have spent more time in Thun, that threat and the need to get to Bern and check-in at our hostel kept us moving.

We arrived in Bern and made our way from the train station hostel. On our way we passed by the beautiful Swiss Parliament building. Our hostel was in the lower section of Bern so we had to make our way down a long path way to reach it. After checking in we headed back out and up. We chose to take a long wooden staircase back to the upper level of the city. Two suspicious characters in the stairwell fairly well convinced us we passed through a drug deal, which was exciting, what with Switzerland being all clean and low crime. The top of the stair case emptied out in front of the Münster of Bern. It is only one of many beautiful and striking cathedrals in Switzerland, but this was definitely our favorite. Every inch of the architecture, from the pews to the windows to the ceiling were ornately decorated. One of the most interesting pieces in the cathedral was the 20 paned stainglass window “The Dance of Death.” The purpose of the window and the various depcitions of life reaching out to everyone no matter their station in life is that was, indeed, we are all going to die someday.

During my lifetime of adventuring I’ve learned that one should always look up as ceilings can often hide rare treasure that not everyone can see. Looking upward in the Munster of Bern will reveal lovely scroll work covering the entire length of the cathedral. I can’t even begin to imagine how long it must have taken to detail the ceiling. It was so inspiring that it acted as an inspiration to Maddie who has since begun the process of having scroll work inspired by the cathedral detailed onto her back.

After wandering the cathedral we wandered a few streets over to the section of Bern that is filled with shops and promenades. We somehow kept missing the clockwork animitronics in the Zytgloggeturm, but when we eventually did catch the hour turning we were a little unimpressed and underwhelmed, but hey, we saw that. We poked into some shops and stood outside of where Einstein spent some of his days and allegedly worked on the Annus Mirabilis papers. From there we wandered down to the Altes Tramdepot where they are building the new bear pits. We ate here and were shocked by how much of a pure tourist trap it is. I felt like we had wandered into a second rate American chain brewery like John Harvard’s. It was off putting, but Maddie did use the opportunity to have her first serving of Rosti in Switzerland while I had Bavarian sausages in broth with a pretzel.

After dinner we returned to our modest hostel room with some items we had purchased in the arcade area of the city. The items included Castello di Ama from 1991, olive crostini, and some parmesan cheese.

Posted in wanderlust
Tags: berne, switzerland, thun, wanderlust

Posted in Music Blogging
Tags: pixies

The train ride from Luzern to Meiringen was breathtaking to say the least. Villages and farms were tucked into valleys surrounded by lush mountains. Most villages were near striking blue-green bodies of water. I wanted to swim in them. The train weaved through the countryside until we reached our destination.

It was a Sunday and it was also the start of the off season so nearly everything was closed when we arrived in the city. We popped into the bus station to see if what time we would need to leave in order to get up to the Trift Glacier. One of our main objectives on the trip was to cross the longest pedestrian-only suspension bridge in the world. It crosses a span on 750-feet. Sadly, we learned that we had arrived just a little bit too late to make the journey. As I mentioned above it was the start of the off season, so fewer busses were running. I have a great deal of awe and respect for the Swiss who make that region of the country their home. The ticket vendor made it sound like once winter comes you are pretty much stuck in your village until the season ends.

The ticket vendor was kind enough to suggest a nearby alternative – the Rosenlaui Glacier. He took him up on the offer and after checking into our hotel (Das Hotel Sherlock Holmes), buying meringue (Meiringen claims to be the birthplace of meringue) as big as our faces, eating lunch, and posing with the Sherlock Holmes statue, we hopped on the bus and headed up and over the Reichenbach Falls.

The route up the mountainside is exactly what you would expect. The bus hugged the edge of the road tightly, constantly threatening to tip over and send us crashing to our doom hundreds of feet below. Being one lane at tight passes the bus blasted a loud horn to warn cars or other busses that may be coming around the bend.

When we arrived at our destination we paused to use the bathrooms in the 200 plus year-old Rosenlaui Hotel. It is one of the oldest hotels in the region. It prides itself on having no televisions, radios, cell phone reception, or Internet access. The website touts the hotels nightlife – “the starry sky.” Although we didn’t stay there I think it is worth considering for anyone who is seeking to completely disconnect from life. One of the best things about this trip was that we had left our cell phones at home and our Internet access was typically very limited to cafes. I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I did note to Maddie that I was surprised by how much I didn’t miss having those luxuries at my beck and call 24 hours a day. It was eye opening as to how codependent I had become on technology.

Anyway, the glacier. We ascended the path up to the glacier and I think most of our time was spent looking up at the rocky crags poking the skies above us. I’ve seen mountains. I’ve spent time in Vermont, I’ve driven through the Lake Tahoe region of California, I’ve hiked the Appalachians, I’ve made my way through the Rockies, but none of that prepared me for the complete majesty of the Alpine peaks. Postcards do no justice to what towered in front of me. I hope I can forever hold onto the part of my brain that contains the emotions I felt being dwarfed by those mountains.

We passed through an iron door into the cavern that had been carved out of the mountainside. We followed the stream as it crashed over small cliffs and whirled around pools below. We came out on a path which was marked by literally 100s of rock piles. Someone explained to me what the formations are called, but it now escapes me. It was a man made alien landscape. Maddie compared it to Blair Witch.

We hung out with the rock formations and attempted to eat our giant Meringue. It was like biting into a rock made out of sugar. I dug the novelty of the world’s largest meringue, but it was a bit too much. One bite was enough.

We took our time descending the path down from the top of the glacier. Pausing at one point to sit on a bench overlooking the valley and at another point to analyze a massive patch of dark green moss. The bus took us back to Meiringen. After we arrived back in town we spent some time wandering the streets and were constantly charmed by the homes which were often covered in flowers. Maddie made friends with a cat. We also attempted to find our way up to the ruins of a castle, but we couldn’t find the path even though we saw a sign telling us we were going tin the right direction.

Dinner was at the restaurant near the Sherlock Holmes statue (I forgot to write it down, bad tourist). Maddie had jugged venison and grapefruit sorbet in Campari. My meal is lost to time because I documented mostly everything with photos. So it goes.

As darkness fell we made our way back to the hotel (I highly recommend it). In the distance we could hear gun shots. It was either hunters or the Swiss Army training in the mountainside. We never did get a clarification. The gun shots seemed too regular to be hunters. I don’t remember the time exactly, but all of the bells at the churches around the town began ringing. Maddie was in the room at the time so I brought her out onto our porch to hear. This wasn’t the only time Maddie and I paused, held each other, and simply took in the bells of Switzerland.

Posted in wanderlust
Tags: switzerland, wanderlust