(not necessarily in that order)
It’s been an extremely slow kind of recovery day — unpacking; watering plants; simple household tasks; some much-needed self-care; and just a little bit of work that couldn’t wait.
But my brain is feeling depleted to the point that I couldn’t focus on a topic for tonight.
Then I saw this photo of the view from Aldesago, where we stayed during our visit to Switzerland two years ago, and felt it was the perfect placeholder.
Here’s something I love about Switzerland.
You can look up as you exit the car on the way to visiting a friend, and see cows grazing on the other side of the parking lot.
Yet, as you can see from the buildings, this is not out in the boonies somewhere but in a rather densely populated area.
Yet another delightful thing about this beautiful country.
…are the many photos from our trip to Europe that I haven’t yet found the time to organize and share!
I was reminded of the fact when I stumbled on this photo of the house where Ramesha was living when I first moved to Switzerland.
We hadn’t been in that neighborhood in maybe ten years, but it sure brought back lots of memories.
It’s not that I’ve been actively thinking about Switzerland a lot; life’s way too busy for that!
But I had a dental appointment the other day and there was this beautiful video playing on the monitor. My first thought was that it reminded me of Switzerland, but I figured I was getting a little fixated. After all, there are many beautiful places in Europe, with castles and mountains and lush green grass.
However, I had to explain to the dental assistant that I couldn’t address the issue with my tooth sooner due to being out of the country. She asked me where and when I said “Switzerland” she immediately gestured toward the monitor and laughingly asked if I didn’t recognize the images.
Sure enough, it was all Switzerland!
Turns out she “visits” different locations during her workday by selecting these drone videos. I never knew such videos existed, but it’s actually really cool.
We can’t help feeling a little sad as we prepare to leave Switzerland and fly back to California.
It was really, really great to have an extra-long visit after not being here for so many years, but no matter how long we stay, it’s still hard to say good-bye.
This brief video captures our last cappuccinos, accompanied by birdsong and church bells.
And how perfect that it ends with a completely unplanned but totally serendipitous ARRIVEDERCI.
Here’s something I would never have expected to see in the parking lot of Villaggio Reka in Sureggio (or anywhere else in Lugano, for that matter).
Yep, it’s a Buick!
And yes, it has a Swiss license plate, so some Swiss person is obviously a vintage car fan. 😅
It was finally a day of truly beautiful weather, so we took some time this afternoon and went for a walk in the lovely town of Tesserete.
Below is a close-up of the group of mountains you see in the distance: Denti della Vecchia (which translates as “Teeth of the Old Woman”).
These are perhaps my favorites of the local mountains; they always draw me in whenever I see them.
Divine Mother gifted us with a stunning sunset display in Umbria last night, complete with rainbow.
This morning’s weather continued dark and rainy, which was a match for my slightly sad feelings.
And now — after a long day of driving — we’re back in Switzerland, enjoying a different though still beautiful view from our latest Airbnb. Located in Sureggio, it’s close to Ramesha’s family home in Canobbio, which will be nice for the final two weeks of our visit.
Does Mercury retrograde also affect laundry?!? All I know is I spent hours in the laundry room today and only got one load washed.
The washing machine looks deceptively normal, but pretty much everything about the process is a challenge.
The money goes into a black box that looks like something from the last century; the coins go in and it starts, but you really have no idea what’s actually going on.
For example, I came back expecting the load to be finished, but it still looked wet even though the door was open. So, I closed the door to see if it would resume. It didn’t, but I couldn’t open the door anymore. I finally pushed some buttons in frustration and…it started up again — from the beginning! Why, I have no idea.
Then, the symbols on the machine are different, but when you try to read the instructions they’re in Italian.
I spent a lot of time studying them because the second time I came back — after setting a timer to be sure and arrive before it finished — the machine had stopped, with the door closed, and nothing I did would get it to go again.
Finally, in desperation I added another two coins — and it started…at the beginning yet again. At this point I knew I couldn’t leave; I had to stay and try to catch the moment when I would be able to open the door and take out my clothes.
Actually, the instructions are in Italian if you’re lucky — sometimes they’re only in German! (The photo below isn’t very clear but it doesn’t really matter because most of us wouldn’t be able to read it anyway.)
I won’t bore you with every detail, but I did finally figure out how to get the washing machine to complete its full cycle and let me get my clothes out.
Bottom line? I truly do love the multilingual reality that is Switzerland, but it does make things more difficult when it comes to laundry.
We drove to Palo Alto; flew from San Francisco; switched planes in Munich; landed in Milan; were picked up by Ramesha’s sister and his Dad; had lunch in Canobbio (the village near Lugano where he grew up); and finally arrived at our little apartment in Aldesago around 4:00pm Switzerland time.
We slept very little on the plane, so the goal was to stay completely awake until at least 8:30pm so that we would be more likely to sleep through the night.
It’s now 9:30pm, so as soon as I finish this it’s lights out for me.