Joyful Journey

One of the joys of moving home, apart from the obvious joy of being reunited with family and friends, is things that we've missed while living abroad. My first trip to the grocery store, although disappointed that I could not find creme fraiche (nor probably will!), I found myself gravitating toward things we couldn't get in Switzerland, like sharp cheddar cheese, bagels, Lebanon bologna, and Wheat Thins . We've enjoyed many simple things like: working in the yard again, sitting on the screen porch and enjoying the beauty of the trees around us, listening to the radio and understanding everything that is said. Tomorrow we'll be able to read the comics and be back to our home church (order of importance different than the way I ordered that sentence!!) But for me, one of the things that I was looking forward to was being able to play my piano again. I was too tired the evening we arrived, although I considered it when we both awoke at 3 a.m., but decided Bob might p...

On our last full day in Switzerland, I'm sure it would come as no great surprise to anyone, we hiked. Friday had been overcast with the forecast for heavy rain and thunderstorms, so we took the train down to Bellinzona to check out the castles there, figuring if it rained we would have something to do. But that trip will be another post. Saturday the skies were crystal clear and Bob started wondering if we could catch a flight a few days later to the states. My suggestion is that we plan a few return trips. That's the only way we'll manage to hike all the alps. ;-) We packed up our belonging, left our suitcases in the hotel and started out up the hill. We didn't have a specific route planned, but decided to head toward the towers on the mountain behind the hotel, figuring we could find a wanderweg that would eventually lead us back to town. Bob has 3 criteria before he feels that our hike can be officially called a hike. We have to get above 5,000 feet. We need...