Aug 23, 2008

my big adventure - swiss miss

Today we didn't even hardly start our day until 1:00 pm. I guess jet lag hit us hard. Mom and John slept until 10:30 or so. Then of course we had to have our coffee talk, which centered mostly around the author of some e-mails that Bethany has been receiving. That took a while. John probably knows more than he wants to about the subject. We had planned to go to Switzerland to visit Basel and Interlacken, places we'd go often as a family when we lived here. But when we looked at the weather in Interlacken we saw that it was overcast and cold with a good chance of rain. We decided not to make the two hour trip if we might not even be able to see the Alps. Besides, all Johnny seemed to care about was visiting the Eis Cafe again to have a Donald Duck sundae and seeing the Roman ruins that we passed on our extended drive here. Bethany didn't know which Roman ruins John was talking about and there was no way that we could find our way back there because we'd been lost in the first place. We decided to go to Basel then the Eis Cafe. As we prepared lunches to eat on the steps of the Rhine River, we were hit once again with jet lag. Just the thought of walking around Basel was a little overwhelming. No one argued when it was suggested we take a nap and get going once we were more refreshed. Everyone took naps, but I don't know how refreshed we were. Bethany suggested we hike to a gazebo on the top of a hill to "get the blood flowing." It started to rain about three-fourths of the way to the top. Fortunately we were almost to the woods which protected us from the rain until we got to the gazebo where we waited until the weather cleared. By the time we got back down to the bottom of the hill, we'd decided against going to Basel at all. Instead we'd get the Donald Duck ice cream and coffee, then find an Imbiss somewhere for dinner because Johnny needed to experience bratwurst and pommes while he was in Germany. So we drove to Weil-am-Rhein where Bethany knew there was an Imbiss. We parked and realized it was quite a bit further than we thought it was. While we walked, we joked about the Imbiss being closed when we got there. And when we did finally get there it most certainly was. As long as we walked that far, we stepped in a nearby store and did a little souvenir shopping. As we were driving home we happened to see an Imbiss at the side of the road where a temporary carnival was set up. Johnny got his German pommes with mayonaise and his brat. I enjoyed the best Frickadel on broetchen. We filled up the car with gas just across the border in Switzerland because it was cheaper at one-fifty Euro per liter than in Germany. We figured out that was about $9.00 per gallon! And I've been complaining about the gas prices in America. No wonder they walk and bike everywhere over here. So we didn't get to the Alps or the steps of the Rhine, but we did get into Switzerland to fill up on gas. It wasn't a Swiss miss after all.

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