It has been a pretty low key week. I spent a lot of time cleaning the apartment since we are having visitors. The visitors won’t be around for long though. We will spend one day around Zürich then we head to the mountains for a few days. We finish up the visit in Salzburg and Munich.
My friend’s trip has not started off the best, however. They were flying from the US to Dublin, Ireland and then on to Zürich. They were supposed to be here about 7 hours ago, but the flight was delayed leaving the US; so they missed the connecting flight. It is pretty easy to tell that the summer holiday season is starting. The four of them then had to split up to actually get to Zürich. So I leave for the airport in a few hours to pick up two, and then about 2 hours later head back to the airport again for the next two.
It is just another example of why flying really is the worst. I realize that air travel has made it much easier to explore different countries, but the air travel experience just keeps getting worse and worse.
Last weekend was a good one though. I got the chance to see one of my cousins and her husband. I had not seen them for a couple of years even before we moved to Switzerland. Out of the blue she sent me a Facebook Message about what currencies she might need on her tour this summer. I found out she was going to be in a town about 80 kilometers away; so we made plans to meet for dinner. We had a really nice evening, and it was great catching up! I really hope she enjoys the rest of her tour.
Julie and I then decided since we were already going to be in the mountains we would go for a hike Sunday before we came home. We have finally figured out the Swiss method of rating their hiking trails. Easy means paved, gravel, or at least fairly level walking surfaces. Moderate means you really have to watch where you are walking there are very few level spaces on the trail, and if you are not watching closely it will be very easy to turn an ankle. Hard means NO stable walking areas. You are scrambling over and around obstacles, and for every meter you go forward, you might go .5 a meter in the wrong direction.
So when we looked for a hiking route, we looked for something about 3 – 5 miles, that was ranked easy. What I also should have looked at was the elevation change! It was easy walking, but it was a HARD hike. 🙂
We did have a good time and got some exercise in; so those were both good things.
Two last rambling thoughts
I am sitting here writing this staring at the Cuckoo clock we bought in Lausanne. I insisted that if we were going to buy one we had to buy a mechanical clock vs a quartz “fake” cukoo clock. I really like the clock, but getting it adjusted is going to drive me insane.
You see a real cuckoo clock is moderated by the pendulum. What I mean is that you adjust the pendulum to speed up or slow down the clock. There SHOULD be some kind of marking on the pendulum to show how many seconds are impacted every millimeter you change the weight. Unfortunately, there is nothing like that on the clock we bought. I figure I will NEVER get it exact, but I should be able to get it close enough that I do not have to adjust the minute hand every day, because the clock is losing or gaining 30 – 45 seconds every hour. I am getting close. I have it now where I only need to adjust the minute hand once per day, but even that is excessive.
The first week we had it I so so frustrated I contacted the company to see if they could tell me how much the speed changed every move the weight. They were very nice, but not any real help. They wanted to sell me a new pendulum that has a screw to hold the weight in place. You can be much more precise when you are turning a screw vs moving the the weight up and down which is how I have to do it. If I don’t get it figured out soon, I will probably bite the bullet and buy one.
My second thought is: Why are the bugs less of a problem here vs in the US? In the US we had screens on every window and door, and we had air conditioning so we did not leave doors and windows open all the time. Here no air conditioning, and the temperature the last week or so has been hovering near 80. Si we have windows and doors open everywhere. I do have some screens up but all of our doors have “walk through” screens and they do not close well, especially if the wind is blowing.
With that being said today I finally had to swat the first house fly. What is the difference? No way could I have left our doors open like this in Wisconsin, and we only have one fly. It boggles my mind.
Well that is about it for today. I won’t be writing anything next week, as we will be spending time with our friends; so I will see you in about two weeks.
Enjoy the pictures.
