Miscellaneous Serendipity

We backpacked in Europe this time.  Sounds very athletic but really it wasn't.  What we mean when we say it is that we packed all our junk into a backpack to carry on our back instead of wheelio-ing around with all the cobblestones.  I should have re-read my notes from last year that declared "next time only bring three pants and five shirts and wash things'.  I actually still brought too many shirts for layering and ended up being incredibly warm for much of the time in the two cashmere sweaters I had brought.  I wore my sleeveless shirt with a long sweatercoat over it and was the most comfortable in that.

The weather was warm.  One of the things I loved was that each day in Switzerland it was supposed to be gray, cloudy or raining.  And it mostly wasn't.  We would get clear skies day after day!  There was one day of rain and one day of cloudiness.  The rest of the time, wonderful weather to view those magnificent Alps and cows, and clocks.

We did get rain in Rome.  Richard marveled that the street vendors so quickly shifted their gear from toys to umbrellas and rain ponchos.  He paid too much for a poncho he used exactly once.

The night we left the bright green restaurant we stopped at at ATM for some cash.  Good thing because the next day our cards all stopped working.  Richard spent a good hour getting in contact with the bank once they were open (2PM our time in Rome) in order to have them free the cards up.  They had inadvertently marked one week of European use instead of the 16 days we were to be gone.  And we had cash.  Plus that morning we had grabbed a bread, meat and cheese to go from our hotel breakfast.   It just always seemed to work out, that was my experience in Europe.

Richard tried for two days to find a special shopping spot that he had visited before and then we stumbled into it in Rome near the end of day two.  The old area of Rome with streets the size of sidewalks.   Quaint and quirky shops and locals galore.  Antique stores that looked like they had looted Versailles.  Ornate and glittery objects packed one tiny shop we passed, I think it was good we found that area when the cards didn't work!

The tree getting placed in Lugano's piazza was a memorable moment.  What an amazing feat to copter that thing in and get the trunk down into the hole and how awesome that we just happened to pick that 15 minute stretch to be sitting in a glassed in restaurant with a birds eye view of the whole thing!

Following the walking tour in Zurich which included a visit to the police station.  Rick Steve's was right, the art in the police station moved me to tears.  From "inyourpocket" tour guides is this:  "In the entrance hall to the city's police headquarters, Augusto Giacometti's magnificent murals (1923-1925) adorn the vaulted ceiling and the walls".

They are joyful, bright and vibrant, painted in his gratitude fot he end of World War I.  Oranges, reds and yellows dominate.  No photos allowed but I found one on the internet...