Monday, March 9, 2020

Switzerland - Family Time


We planned a week in Switzerland to visit sets of old friends.  The drive from Nice was beautiful, through stunning mountain valleys, passing Lake Como as we approached the southern border at Italy.  The temperature dropped and we started to see quite a bit of snow.  It was winter again.
We approached the Gottard Tunnel knowing we would be traveling underground for at least 20 minutes.  It is 10 miles long and still one of the longest tunnels in the world.  The transit was fine with enough turns in the road to prevent being hypnotized by the monotony.  



Once on the other side we wound through sleepy villages and small towns, got lost up in the mountains by our GPS misdirect, and ended up making it an 11-hour drive.  We reached our friend's home late in the day and settled in.  They live in Glarus, a lovely village nestled within a high mountain valley.
For three days we wandered the little town, took a few hikes, enjoyed the cheerful howl of a three-year-old and one-year-old, and reminisced about our many years of friendship.  This was the first time we got to meet Grace.  Marc was an employee of ours, one of our most skilled comedy tour drivers, and, eventually purchased the company and made his fortune.  He sold it two years later and moved to New Zealand where the Kreiger love story began.  Now living in Switzerland, they had a lovely family and it was a grand time sharing quality family time with them.  Getting off the road n such a loving environment was a true gift for us.

Sofia, Grace, Marc and Valentina Krieger
We got a small snowfall while there and it had been a long time since we shoveled a driveway.  In reality, we watch Marc shovel.
We took a full day and drove to Vaduz, Lichtenstein.  We walked around the very quiet city, it was an early Saturday morning and few shops were open.  We took a few photos and then headed into Austria for lunch.  There we wandered the streets of a small city (I failed to note the name) and enjoyed each other's company. 


Late in the day, we drove back home to a wonderful home-cooked meal with Grace and the kids.  In the morning we said our goodbyes and drove to Zurich.  We dropped Marc off at the airport where he departed for London and a new assignment.  And...met up with John and Constanza, old travel friends from many, many years back.  John is one of our brothers and this is the fourth time we have hooked up with him since departing Alaska.  We settled in quickly into their home in Baden (Bath) and joined then for a dance class that evening-they danced and we watched.

The next two days went by slowly as things got progressively worse in Italy with the COVID-19 blockade.  We barely missed getting stuck in Italy and were thankful we had changed our route into Switzerland.  John took us out on a long day hike along the river in Baden and we ended up at a really nice hotel for a fancy lunch.  Later that night we drove into the Zurich city center and met Constanze for dinner at a really historic hotel that specialized in fondue.  It was a spectacular dinner.
We did a day trip into Zurich with John and visited the history museum.  It was quiet and the displays were great.  After a few hours, it was time to head back home.  That night we cooked a traditional Mexican carnitas dinner and had "street" tacos which Constanza ate with a fork and knife...LOL.

In the morning we left early for the airport, met sister Andrea, said goodbye to John and headed north into the safety of Germany...or so we thought.

Posted by at

1 comment:

Grace said...

Thank-you for the lovely words Tom! We really (100%) enjoyed your visit and hope to see you both again! (Sophia still asks occasionally where Tom and Bobbie are and thought you were both going to come back with Marc after his trip to London! :))
xox
Grace

March 19, 2020 at 11:23 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)