This is the travel log of N’s trip to Switzerland in October 2018.
Monday, October 1st, 2018
Up before the light with plenty of time for last minute clean up of fridge and rinse/hold dishwasher. Juniper cat is upset as I am leaving and Jonathan has been moving some of his stuff in. Good Jonathan will be with Grace a lot while I am gone but cat does not like his house upset! Grace drives to the airport as it is still too dark. Raining, yeah, a little more of the monsoon moisture. Dear Grace has charge of our house as well as Josh and Zoe’s house (inc cats, chickens and goats) as well as WomanKraft till Josh and Zoe get back from camping.
Airport goes well till I get to Global Entry line. United has not printed TSA or my boarding pass so I have to go back to United or take the long like. Grrrrr- Elect long line and all goes well. Pick up sandwich and water from Beyond Bread outlet and check in with United at my gate. Attendant Grace is most helpful, checks all docs and reprints boarding passes but still no TSA Check. Grrr. Grrr. Seat mate is jolly “big guy.” We joke but the seats are so small I feel I have been snuggling in a twin bed with him by the end of the trip. Lucky he smells okay and has nice personality. Occupied by a film on his ipad. SF Airport civilized and United attendant (small Asian woman, very charming) gives me my gate in International Terminal and says I won’t have to go though security again if I don’t “get out”. Scope out the gate, find nice bar and sip a well deserved scotch and soda. Return to gate in good time for boarding but we are delayed almost an hour. No prob, I have potato chips and a really good mystery. This time I luck out and the flight is not full and there is an empty seat between me and the window and the young women on the aisle. So nice to have room for excess stuff and no 3rd pair of elbows. Watch the travel map, read mystery, enjoy wine and pretzel. More of same. Chicken ala King for dinner. Lentil salad with pumpkin spice- weird but interesting-more mystery, more watching flight path, we are going over Arctic Circle. Turn off lights, cover up with down coat and 2 blankets, use 2 pillows, slouch, squirm, sleep a bit. Finally, wake up gong and breakfast sausage and egg with potatoes, lots of fennel in sausage. They are trying hard for spices and not so much salt.
Land, usual efficient Swiss customs and my bag is on the carousel. Wheel it to arrival lounge and there is Marianne! Find her new car-white Mazda. She gave the old car to son Sebastian. Easy trip home to St. Gallen chatting to catch up all the way. Our theory is I should stay up as long as possible so I do some unpacking and settling in to nibble crackers with tapenade and sip nice Jadot unoaked chardonnay. Finally dine early on steamed vegetables, black rice and bits of local cheeses. Bit of amazing chocolate for dessert. Continue our discussion of politics, American and Swiss, and effects of global warming. In bed about 7. Read a bit and fall asleep. Awake at midnight, toss and turn, in and out of sleep till Marianne knocks on door to see if I am alive! Do glaucoma drops and fall asleep again. We end up eating brunch instead of breakfast. Lovely medley of cheeses, great bread, fruit and Swiss coffee! Off on the bus to shop- bus pass, exchange money for Swiss Franks, only 95 F for $100 – oh well. On the way to store Marianne drops off various recycling at municipal drop and some at the grocery store. There they can recycle batteries, water filter cartridges, cartridges to make fizzy water, so many things we cannot even think of recycling. Even though this is not curbside, compliance is 94%. Unbelievable.
Fill a little basket with fruit and veg, some dairy and head for butcher for chops. Home to Marianne’s calls and mahjong online and my journaling. Marianne cooks and I set table: veg and chops, incredible Swiss white wine. Chocolate for dessert. We research Trader Joe’s. I am right that it was an American company started in Morencia, California but has been acquired by a German chain ALDI. In US but mostly East of Mississippi. Off to bed- finish the black cat mystery and still not falling asleep. Bit of a restless night but probably get enough sleep.
Thursday, October 4th
Alarm goes off at 6 and I do my eye drop routine then head for the shower- heavenly. Make a cup of coffee with the pod machine, add cream only to find it curdled. Dump, repeat with fresh cream and enjoy. Marianne is up and about and we enjoy breakfast of lovely whole meal bread with cold cuts. Thin slices of salami, mozzarella, olive loaf etc. Homemade apricot and sour cherry preserve. Get our act together and hit the road for Bad Ragaz, a town known for its healing thermal waters. Hence spas. We are going to see their triennial outdoor sculpture show BAD RAGARTZ. Pleasant approximate 1 hour drive. We are sometimes along the Rhine and just across the highway from Liechtenstein or Austria. Arrive 10:05, park, walk to sculptures- amazing array. We walk, enjoy and photograph till about 12:10 when we headed for lunch. Sculptures were figurative, abstract, interactive all in a lovely grassy lawn /flower bedded setting with magnificent mountains in the background. Most sculptures are from Germany and Switzerland and Continental Europe with a few from Argentina, India and Japan. Pictures must accompany this journal as words will not do.
Lunch from 12:10 to 1:45 at dining room of Sorell Hotel. Very elegant place but they have a fixed price lunch and we choose the salad bar and the ocean white fish with zucchini and tagliatelle noodles. Everything is cooked perfectly and the portion is reasonable so that even I can finish it and no one thought of dumping the salt shaker on the food. I have a glass of local white, Marianne has water with espresso after. Head back to sculpture show and park so we can see work around the lake which is on a golf course. Fun to see dog walkers, parents with kids in strollers and art lovers mingling and crossing paths with golfers. We complete sculpture walk (again, picture = 1,000 words) and head back 3:40. Walked 1 1/2 hours, art and physical fitness. Gotta love it. Home to a simple supper of the steamed vegetables, bread and cheese, chocolate for dessert. Try an old Swiss wine but its like a sweet sherry. Sip a little armagnac with Marianne but too harsh, don’t like it. Suddenly Marianne’s friend Lisa turns up. She is married to a man who works for the international Red Cross and they have been called to Senegal. She likes Senegal but is rather tired of the whole “heading for the next crisis” thing. I apologize and head off to bed as I am very tired and Lisa wants to talk to Marianne.
Friday, October 5th
Darned alarm goes off at 6! Forgot to reset it. Snooze off till 7 then do eye drops and get up. Breakfast coffee, bread, cold cuts, cheese. Head for farmer’s market where we get more cheese, lovely veg and fruit. Pick up a converter for my charger plug and meet Susie at the local coffee shop. Susie is a designer friend, mostly textiles. Last trip when Marcia was with us we went to her apartment as Marianne was house sitting, wonderful space filled with art, folk art, crazy installations. We have croissant. Marianne has espresso and I have mint tea- real fresh mint in boiling water. Friend Lisa turns up as we are leaving. More angst. Marianne says she is a bit of a “drama queen”. Back at the apartment we have salad for lunch with a bit of cheese and bread. Marianne has made bread in her new Kenwood stand mixer, a braided loaf, 1 large for Rosa and a 1 small for us. Braids 2 strands, very tricky. It’s in the oven. As we finish Rosa arrives for the bi-weekly cleaning. She speaks 4 languages but not English so Spanish is our only common one. I manage enough for a few polite exchanges. Soon Barbara arrives and has a coffee while I get my act together. Barbara likes the “map of Tucson” scarf I have brought her. She and I take off to walk to the Naive / Art Brut Museum, maybe 4 blocks past an arena for training horses. The show is wonderful, celebrating 50 years of the museum. It’s huge, hundreds of small works with intricate detail. We spend 3 hours and my eyes are fried! The docent says, “I was watching you. No one takes as long as you did!” She is working on a small watercolor of the woods with leaves turning. She lets me keep the gallery guide. Downstairs we collect my hat from the receptionist/ticket seller and she talks about the old days when they had no money and had to do everything themselves, get the art, hang the show… Now they get donations and have someone to hang the show, someone to work the computers, etc, etc.
Walk back home. I’m tired and the long flight of stairs almost does me in. Barbara did not think of it as she lives on the 3rd floor and runs her stairs all day. Back at Marianne’s M is sympathetic to my stair woes and promises to tell the town council to get better handrails so their guests do not get splinters from the decaying ones! Sit for a bit with wine and coffee and chat with Marianne who, knowing me, is not surprised we spent 3 hours at he museum. Get into discussion of difference between Machine art, Art Brut, and Outsider art. Marianne googles. Time to change clothes and head for Lebanese dinner. Pick up Barbara and meet Susie at restaurant. We order Lebanese white wine to start with a bottle of red for dinner. Dinner is buffet: mostly veg, some chicken, Dolmates, falafel of several kinds, baba ganoush, interesting little egg roll of filo stuffed with a light cheese like Boursin, parsley/tomato salad, lovely spices on all. Good food, good wine, great company. Lebanese baklava, 4 kinds for dessert, none of them like the Greek version but interesting. Head home, dropping off Barbara and Susie. I’m exhausted. To sleep.
Saturday October 6
Up at 6 so I can shower. Breakfast and head for train so we can be in Zurich and see Sebastian, Patricia, Zora, and Albin. Always fun to view Swiss countryside. Trolley to Sebastian’s house goes through a Hasidic Jewish neighborhood. Some of the men are wearing really elaborate tall fur hats instead of black felt I usually see. Sebastian’s apartment complex is designed for families that like to use public transportation so cars allowed only when moving a lot of stuff. Community gardens on roof, birthday party in progress in community room. Sebastian and Zora and Albin wave as we arrive. Albin who was 1 year on 7/4 is walking really steadily and Zora is quite the charmer. Enjoy an hour visit as Albin climbs around and rides his car. Zora opens the package of 3 T-shirts and enjoys the desert animals on the ones from the Desert Museum and the fox reading from Literary Connects. She can wear the 2! Likes it because it glows in the dark. Ties the blue ribbon on S as he coaches her in knots. Then she ties it on herself and races around with it flying behind. Kids. Often like the packaging better than the present! Bid farewell and head for lunch at 100 year old vegetarian restaurant, HILTL. Great fun! Huge buffet with well over 100 dishes: well stocked salad bar, usual Mediterranean veg offerings, and tofu 7 ways from Sunday. I choose mushroom sauce with gnocchi, guacamole, egg roll, Dolomates, several types of falafel, German potato salad and several of the tofu/meat selections. You weigh your plate and pay that way, nice for small eaters. Lots of healthy juice available but I have a glass of wine. The place is packed so the Swiss enjoy their well-prepared veg fare. After lunch we walk to the old neighborhoods of Zurich. See the church with the biggest clock dial in Europe. Big hand is 4 meters(92 kilos). Wander old narrow “ways” now pedestrian only. Marianne points out the hoods that were upper class and the more modest hoods. Many guild houses still in use. Shops retain their original names on the facade even if their use has changed. Historic markers alert us to CAFE VOLTAIRE where Dadaists hung out. We arrive at GOSSMUNSTER, the church with Augosto Giacometti stained glass at the altar and Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) windows all around. He is known for using slices of stone, mostly agate in his windows. Really unique and contemporary. No photos allowed but I will include a brochure. Marianne talks to the young man at sales desk. He is a theology student and works to pay his tuition. He tells us we can go up by the altar and see a bible from 1531. It is in Old German and Marianne has a hard time reading it as I would Old English. Luther translated the Bible from Latin to German as part of the Protestant Reformation. The 2 pages we can see have 2 illuminations by Hans Holbein! The church itself was Romanesque remodeled as Gothic, when it changed from Catholic to Protestant. The paintings were removed but we can still see the vestiges.
Head to a special train station designed by Santiago Calatrava so we can head to Rapperswill to see Christiane. She meets us at the stairs from the underground and we walk though her lovely neighborhood to her new flat. We use the lift which is not really an elevator Marianne explains. An elevator stops and starts itself after you punch the floor. This lift, called a paternoster, only works when you hold the the button so it can stop between floors. C’s new flat is very modern and has some funny details. Toilet has its own little room with a tiny sink. Kitchen has all built ins- even the fridge and freezer look like cabinets. Old armoire built in in living room holds more kitchen gear and dishes. Christiane made a Swiss specialty for us. Its like stroganoff with loads of lovely mushrooms in a white sauce with little strips of veal. Served with rice and a simple salad of tomatoes and lamb quarters. Interesting white wine from Portugal. Eat and catch up. Marianne has not seen C since Marcia and I visited last year! Finally time to catch our train. C tries to talk us into a later one but we are tired. Meet a friend of Marianne from St. Gallen on the platform. He’s retired from the symphony. Played tympani for symphony but now is practicing the organ every day. Nice, interesting man with very good English so makes the trip shorter to enjoy his conversation. Home at last. Take the bus to our door and I’m in bed very shortly.
Sunday, October 7th
I’m late out of bed and we have a lazy morning but have to hurry to pick up Susie for our adventure to Turgan to the Ittinger Museum. They are having a show of Helen Dahm whom I discovered on an earlier trip. Swiss artist, very, very interesting. Born 1878 died 1968 at age 90. She was a contemporary of Gabrielle Munter, Vassily Kandinsky and the Blue Rider group but suffered the usual fate of women artists without a male mentor or mate. Being a Lesbian probably didn’t help nor did being poor. So good her strong work is now archived here. The museum is part of a complex, now owned by a foundation that used to be an old monastery for Kartusian monks (a silent order). They were self sufficient: gardens, herbs, cows, sheep, goats, pond for fish. The complex still produces wine and cheese and wood crafts and has retreats and classes and a sheltered workshop for the challenged. (Mostly downs syndrome). All in this fabulous old monastery complex. View show, tour monastery, have lunch and enjoy the back road back to St. Gallen
Monday, October 8th
We are heading to Basel to the Foundation Beyeler Gallery to see the Balthus show but my alarm does not go off and I sleep late. Marianne says, “Don’t worry, be happy” so we have learned something from Helen Dalm’s guru Meher Baba. I shower and dress and we breakfast and are in plenty of time for the next train. Usual interesting ride through the Swiss countryside. Surface transport in Basel is a bit tedious due to construction but we arrive at the wonderful museum building. Marianne has made little sandwiches and we eat on a bench in the garden and finally enter the museum. I am not familiar with Balthus who was born in Paris in 1908, was self taught as an artist by copying masters in the Louvre (Massaccio and Piero) and hung with the biggies: Picasso, Giacometti, Rilke, Malraux, Camus, Pierre Matisse, Francis Bacon, De Sade. I’m not crazy about his work. He has a tight realistic style I only forgive in the surrealists like Dali, Di Chirico, Devereaux. He really likes young girls as models and this is causing controversy in the era of “Me too” as it did when he first painted them. I find most of the young women erotic but he says he paints only angels, “I am a religious painter”.
Leave the museum and tram downtown where Marianne knows a Canape Restaurant. Large selection of 2 X 3” rectangles of bread with toppings. I select tongue and a Russian salad of veggies in mayo. Marianne has shrimp and celery root salad. Usual local white for me and coffee for M. If we eat in 20 minutes we can make the next train to Basel but I know that’s impossible! Enjoy our meal and are early for the next train so we can window shop and buy some bread: round loaf with 4 peaks studded with sunflower seeds. Change trains in Zurich and get an old train but its comfy and we have only a little delay with door closing problems. Again early for our bus in St. Gallen so M can get some Euros directly from her ATM. (I’ll wait till Milan otherwise they will charge me to change to Swiss Francs then Euros.) Back home M makes Rosti (Roesti), basic hash browns and we finish our steamed green beans and have berries and a bit of chocolate for dessert.
Tuesday, October 9
This is our “do nothing” day. M has the laundry in by the time I get up so we have breakfast and head into town to pick up my Christmas stars, one more bottle of Swiss white wine and chocolate. We also find some venison we will have for an easy meal when we get back. Also stop for postage stamps. Sibylle is waiting for us when we get back so we spend some time on computers and phone trying to get me a seat but no luck. At least Swiss no longer has me booked twice on the same flight! M has prepared lunch: sausage, sauerkraut and boiled potatoes. Sausage is like a boiled salami, garlicky and delish a bit too salty but the potatoes absorb a lot. It is called Saucisson Vaudois, a speciality from the French part of Switzerland. Yum. After lunch we decided to visit the local equivalent of a Salvation Army store. Wow! Much better organized and spiffy than any I’ve seen in the U.S. Some nice, old interesting furniture: set for a breakfast nook in a chalet, painted chest, old slate top desk, wonderful salt glaze crocks, fondue stuff galore. You can buy a Tissot watch for 245 Swiss Francs. S buys a candle holder for 1/3 retail and I get a tin for springele cookies and a really strange ball of yarn I think Zoe will like. We also shop the Migros outlet below but no sale. On to a spot on the river where there is an old wooden bridge and we can get down to the beach and select a few unique stones, dark with a white matrix that looks like drawing. Back home we have coffee and farewells. M and I sort the clean laundry and start to pack for Milan. I’m borrowing a small suitcase from M for our 3 day trip. Raclette for supper! (Melted cheese from a special appliance served over boiled potatoes with cornichons). Early to bed.
Wednesday, October 10
Alarm off at 6. Eyedrops. Snooze off and M awakens me at 7. Shower, breakfast, finish pack and we’re off to Milan! At the bus stop I take out my camera to take a pic of the political ads: The right wing in Switzerland wants to stop matching EU laws ( necessary for trade).
Neighbor Albert arrives with his shopping cart and we chat about Milano. Get on bus. Suddenly I realize I’ve left my pack on the bus shelter bench! Panic! We decide to continue on and M will take a cab back to the shelter. It is very likely we will miss our train- its a disaster – I wait chanting appropriate incantations and M arrives back with my bag but we have only 2 minutes till our train departs. Rush to platform. Barbara is there at the door and we jump on. Find our seats and the train is underway. I apologize profusely and M is forgiving. I thought she would never speak to me again. The ride to Zurich is familiar now. We change trains there and our new train is very spiffy, reclining seats and all. Last year we went to Lugano so this route is familiar including the longest tunnel in Europe. We sit for a while at the border- Swiss inspectors, Italian inspectors. M thinks they also change crews from Swiss to Italian. No one asks us for a passport. EU. Gotta love it. The train station in Milan is huge but we find our way out and M has excellent directions to take us to our hotel. We certainly know we are no longer in Switzerland. Beggars on every corner, homeless camp sites. Our hotel is great, nice old hotel with the rooms very modernized. Nice high ceilings. Kettle for coffee or tea, bathrobes and slippers. Relax a bit and look at our maps and guides. M got a suggestion for a restaurant for dinner and I suggest a walk. Maybe the Piazza Della Republica will be interesting. It’s not. Just grass and trees. Not even a statue. Anyway, it’s fun to window shop. There seem to be a lot of Thai massage parlors and several Thai restaurants, also Chinese, Sushi and “Organic”. Find the recommended restaurant but its not open. The one on the corner looks good. We order a bottle of regional red wine ( Lombardy). The pasta selection looks good. M has spaghetti with squid ink and shrimp. B gets a veal sauce on her linguini but I hold out for a pizza: sardines, capers, mild cheese and fresh mozzarella. It’s amazing- just like my first pizza in Naples in the 50’s. M has parfait but its a mousse, not ice cream. Take our stuffed selves back to the hotel and bed.
Thursday, October 11
I’m awake before anyone but do my morning drops and mediate and cogitate a bit. Eventually we are all up and head down to breakfast. Wonderful buffet. I fill up on fresh fruit then have a bit of frittata /some Russian salad (veg in mayo) and a croissant. Head down to the station to exchange $ for Euros, really get ripped off at less than sixty Euros for $100. I just can’t waste 1/2 a day finding a bank for a better rate. Head for “hop on, hop off” bus so we can get a tour at our own pace. It’s raining but we have borrowed umbrellas from the hotel. Stop at the Duomo and it certainly is magnificent, larger and more elaborate than Notre Dame.
Long line to get in so we skip the interior and head to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle. Fab building filled with designer shops. My camera has malfunctioned so M is using her phone to take pictures she will email to me. The inlaid marble floor has depictions of Romulus and Remus and the wolf that is especially nice. Decide to head to the Last Supper convent though it is hours early as we don’t know what traffic will be like. Turns out not so bad and we arrive early and elect a lunch in an Italian cafeteria. You pick a prepared plate and they heat it up for you. Barbara has spaghetti with tuna and olives. M has piadina, sort of a quesadilla with cheese and veg in a whole wheat tortilla. I select a plate of veg: carrot, green bean and spinach with a slice of what looks like crustless quiche with a topping of crumbs and anchovies. It’s ricotta and egg called sformato de ricotta. We have merlot from Venice. Spend an hour our so wandering the hood, peeking into gated gardens and admiring balconies and ironwork. Walk around the convent. Spend time in a wonderful bookstore where they still make books – handbound leather journals and scrapbooks. I buy a T shirt with DaVinci machines. Meet our guide Allessandra and get fitted with earbuds and wi-fi radio. Works really well. You can hear her from wherever you are. We sit in the church for a while then are called for our tour. Alessandra explains some of the problems with the preservation of the Last Supper. Leonardo used an experimental technique instead of the traditional fresco technique and it didn’t work so over the years it deteriorated and had to be restored. The convent was bombed during WW II but the wall with the Last Supper still stood and was protected by tarps and sandbags. The present restoration has muted color with only small patches of original paint being brighter. Finally we enter the sealed room and I am in awe. I’ve seen many reproductions but the original in its original scale is awesome, I just stand and stare as Allessandra talks about the figures and the dramatic moment. Finally our time is up- Allessandra offers to take us to a nearby church, San Maurizio, which was painted by Leo’s students among other artists. It was a rich convent church as the wealthy families saved dowry money by sending younger daughters to the convent. It is overwhelming- paintings everywhere, walls, ceilings, every available space. Next we head for the castle and get a history. It seems that Michelangelo Pieta is housed here and we can come back tomorrow to see it. The room in which it is housed was once a hospital so it is filled with prayers and an appropriate home for the Pieta. We are exhausted and take the metro back to the hotel. Decide to dine at the restaurant next door. B and I decide to have a swordfish with tomato/olive sauce and M has a pizza. Bottle of merlot. Quite good. Back at the hotel I’m barely undressed before I fall asleep.
Friday, October 12
We sleep a little later and have the lovely hotel breakfast. Today I take a small piece of a tart that looks interesting and find its the renowned Linzer Tarte. Almond flour in the crust and strawberry jam filling. M used to want it for her birthday cake when she was young. We’re off to see the Pieta and are supposed to meet Ambra, my Italian architect friend there at 12. We wait a while for Ambra then go in. Wonderful large room with vaulted ceiling, some original painting still remaining. Pieta in the center. Really special as you can see Michelangelo’s chisel marks as you can’t in the finished, polished works. So different from the St. Peter work.
As we emerge Ambra appears! Greetings, introduction. We decide to have lunch and Ambra and I will take off for a little tour of the modern architecture while Marianne and Barbara go to the Pinacoteca Museum after their “hop on hop off” tour. Plan to meet about 5. Ambra and I take the metro to the new business area where the modern buildings are including my favorite “green building” with trees planted on all the terraces.
The architect is Stefano Boeri and Vertical Forest residential towers were completed in 2014. They are developing a big park which will have an inventory of local trees, a dog park with training course, children’s playground, natural meadow, walking path. Plans look as if they are thinking Millenium Park in Chicago.
Decided to walk thru the Breira, artists neighborhood, to the Pinacoteca Art Museum and School and enjoy the old neighborhoods. At the museum call Marianne and they have just started so Ambra and I will have a drink and be back at 5:30. Ambra is re-inventing herself, personally and professionally so we get into a deep discussion and are late getting back to meet M + B. They were early to our rendezvous so M has been on a cement bench with her aching lower back and Ambra has had her phone off. Ouch. We smooth things over and Ambra leaves. She wants to pick me up in the AM for a quick trip to her home town but it is bad timing. Ambra leaves and we metro back to the hotel for our welcome drink- choose Prosecco and enjoy in the very pleasant bar of the hotel. They have Happy Hour snacks. Too bad we never made use of them. Try a new restaurant but its not so pleasant so come back to our Osteria next door. I have spaghetti carbonara, B has lasagna and M has seafood pasta which looks really great. M shares some of her seafood and salad. Again we brush our teeth and fall asleep!
Saturday, October 13
Last day in Milan so we enjoy breakfast, pack, check out and store suitcases. Buy a new metro ticket and head for Novecento Museum near the Duomo. Modern art in the Mussolini era building. It has been nicely redesigned inside in a sort of Guggenheim spiral. I’m especially interested in the futurists of whom they have many works. Their Di Chirico selection is not his famous period as his work was “politically incorrect” when he produced it and most of it went to French and other foreign collections. When it was no longer “politically incorrect” it was too expensive! They really like Mario Marini but not so many great works. Strength of the museum is that its all Italian and shows the other artists not as famous internationally.
Head back to the hotel and sit in the lobby to catch our breath before heading for the station. Our favorite doorman/greeter gives us coffee and water. Revive, say goodbye and wheel our way to the station. Find our gate but track is not posted yet. Time for a little lunch. Pino Grigio for B and I, coffee for M. M and B have risotto and I have Tagliatelle, (noodles) with fungi. Head for our train and finally the track is posted and we get on. Madhouse. Seems every seat is filled and there’s no place for all the luggage. We have both barking dogs and screaming kids but everyone settles down and it’s a smooth ride. Change in Zurich and get good seats but its another madhouse once we stop at the airport. People are sitting on suitcases in the aisles! The Swiss like to come home from their holidays on Saturday have Sunday to recover before work on Monday. Makes sense. Farewell to Barbara at the station in St. Gallen. Her son is picking her up. We stop for bread and take a taxi home. We are really tired but M makes roesti with an egg and stewed tomatoes so we have a hot supper. I sleep until 8 am straight through.
Sunday October 14
We declare a day of rest and I hang out at home to shower, do laundry, look at books and magazines. I start packing and it looks as if I can make my weight limit if I discard mindless mysteries I don’t need. Finish my postcards. Time to get ready for supper with Susie. M has made a lemon tart, Susie’s favorite. Susie’s apartment is as wonderful as I remember, art, folk art, and the things she picks up on her walks. She has decorated the table with autumn leaves and some berries on the most improbable red stems. Susie used to be a textile designer for a big firm,Fishbacher, but in her 50’s they fired her as she cost too much. She then worked with the handicapped doing art projects until she was able to retire. We have appetizers on the terrace. Great view and we can see the Olma Ferris wheel. Canapés are smoked salmon on rye and a local hard cheese Schabziger, grated and mixed with butter and sprinkled with chives. We recount our trip and enjoy the view and the pleasant evening air. Dinner is wurst, (Appenzell boiled veal sausage you can only get in Appenzell) roasti and cooked curly cabbage (more like kale they say) with little specks of ham and onion and cream. White wine. The tart for dessert is wonderful. It’s really tart! Susie has a good selection of books on women artists. I recognize Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe, Sophie Tauber Arp, Merit Oppenheim, Gabrielle Munter and several more I don’t recognize. Susie pulls down a book on Anne Loch and I go through the pictures of her work. She does indeed have a period where her work resembles O’Keefe! She’s a German born in 1947, I may find more info on her. Died 2014. Bid goodbye and return home to a good night’s sleep.
Monday October 15
Awake at 7:30, up at 8 after eyedrop ritual. M is up and we have coffee and chat. Today we are going to the Olma, the regional State Fair. We are going to meet Patricia’s parents Lucia and Urs. Enter the Olma and head for the arena. They are judging goats-all kinds and sheep. Fun to see the young kids with their animals. As we watch Lucia and Urs walk up we visit and watch the animals and agree to meet for a drink later. Check in at Kenwood but they do not have the part M wants for her stand mixer. She also checks in at Tupperware as she has not gotten a replacement lid she ordered. We wander tasting chocolate and cheese and sausage and a nice white wine from the border region near Bregenz, Austria. Finally meet L and U and head for wine tasting area. We sit and have some water and some cheese toast and taste probably a dozen white wines. Urs is buying about 2 cases which he will split with Rouillers. He orders at the fair and they will deliver. The wine area is fun but maximum decibels.
We pick up some bread and nibble some more samples and head home. Tonight we will have an already prepped dinner: venison ragout and red cabbage. Then I must be early to bed, setting my alarm for 6 am for final pack and departure to the airport by 845 am. We’ll take bus and train.
Tuesday October 16
Arise and finish my packing. I have to leave some chocolate and mustard and rocks once I put my house shoes and toiletry kit in as my fish scale tells me I am over 50 pounds. I finish the venison, spatzle and cabbage for breakfast and we head off by bus to the station and train to Zurich airport. At check in I am still on the United flight and the Swiss flight and the rep cannot figure out how to check my baggage through Tucson. Grr. She finally has to call a supervisor. He’s quite pleasant and relaxed but it still takes 1/2 an hour. Marianne is glad we allowed plenty of time. Finally we part at security. There are tears in my eyes.
All goes well through security and boarding and seats are pretty comfy. Good food and snacks. My seat mate is a 22 year old young American from the Bay area. She just finished a year of globe trotting after college graduation and is home for a while before starting job in Munich working for Birkenstock. Her father is German and her mother Peruvian. She’s home to vote in the midterms and head down to Peru for her Grandfather’s 80th birthday. Her major was poli sci, her speciality Eastern European languages. Maybe there is hope for the U.S. yet! Intelligent political conversation makes the time pass.