Back in Switzerland (5/31)


This morning, I had a leisurely breakfast with several people from the conference. Two of them had to rush off to a board meeting, so I had a long talk with the husband of my old friend whose acquaintance I renewed at the conference. He and I share some interests in community organizing/service learning/NGOs, so we talked a long time about our mutual interests. It made me remember how interested I was in all of this stuff until I got buried in politics and grading. It’s nice to find those interests again.
I packed up, checked out, and made my way to the Munich train station, only two blocks away. I needed help with my train ticket since the ticket from Switzerland to Munich had been a train-and-bus combo that was complex to set up. This time, I got a ticket to keep my order in line, and saw one of the “helpers.” She was puzzled because she was able to put me on a train immediately – no bus – and it went to Switzerland via Austria. (I’d been told you couldn’t do this trip by train because of the geography of the lake.) Anyway, I got my ticket, hopped on board, and had an easy trip of about four hours. The train went through beautiful countryside – fields that could have come straight out of Ohio farm country, rolling hills with beautiful, but Austrian, chalets, and small towns, including St. Gallen and Winterthur, which I had visited earlier. I really enjoyed the trip, the views, and seeing Lake Constance – the Bodensee – again. Enroute, I did some writing about one of the TV programs in the conference that made me angry. I may develop it into a piece to submit for publication, but whether I do or not, writing about the program helped me to get my thoughts about the program – and my anger about it – into perspective.
Once I got to Zurich, I had sort of a sense of where I was going. I had looked at Google maps, so I “sort of knew“ the direction I needed to go. I reserved a room in what turns out to be West Zurich, which is apparently a “hot area” of Zurich. It was farther than I had hoped to get to the room from the train station – and it was HOT! (temperature-wise) Finally, I got there, and received some help finding the key and the entrance from a person who already lives in the building. (These are short-term rental “studios” – mine doesn’t have a kitchen, but it does have a refrigerator.) Again, I got settled and tried to get organized in terms of what I want to see in Zurich. I went out and grabbed some dinner while it was still HOT outside.  After I got back, the temperature dropped and it started to rain.  What a relief as it cooled everything down! I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep so I can get back to my adventure tomorrow!

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