Monday 13 Sept We awoke this morning to dense fog rising out of the valley; it looks like white smoke rising from a very large fire. Not very good for mountain viewing, but it made it possible to see the updrafts the para-sailors and hang-gliders use. We have seen them everyday since arriving. It seems this area is know for a great place to for gliding or sailing and we watched them take off right below us on the hike to Fiescheralp. The fog cleared about noon and we hiked back up to the Pro Natura Villa Cassel to a new trail through the Aletschwald (Aletsch forest) and along the Grosser Aleschgletcher (or Aletsch glacier). There is no noises along the trail except for the sound of our steps, the birds and the occasional waterfall. I ... read more

I've made it to Italy, but only for 30 minutes and since they are EU members, I don't even get my passport stamped, darn! We took the train from Poschiavo south to see a famous circular railroad bridge in Brusio Switzerland. It didn't seem all that spectacular, but since it was built 100 years ago the engineering was pretty impressive. It was much closer to Poschiavo than we knew and since it such a beautiful day, we decided to ride the train to the end of the Bernia Express in Torano, Italy. We actually never left the station, but Italy is Italy. My only regret is I forgot to get a picture of my feet in there!! On the return trip we stopped at Mirlago which is at the far tip of Lake Poschiavo and walked ... read more

We took a trip to Heiden on Saturday for the local Biedermeir festival with lots of local food, beer and crafts and many of the locals dressed in the style of the Biedermeier time period (i.e., 1815-1848). The festival celebrates the architectural style of many of the buildings in town which were all rebuilt in the Biedermeier style after a fire destroyed the town. We also visited the local museum which had a special exhibit of pictures made by intricate cuts in paper called papierschnitt. Sunday we hiked along the Wanderweg (a series of hiking trails throughout Switzerland) to Eggskriet. From this section of the Wanderweg we we supposed to see Austria and Germany, but we only saw Austrian and German fog. Lovely anyway! A local farmer stopped me to chat (a futile endeavor since I ... read more

It seems only just that 2 people who will be late for their own funerals almost missed their transatlantic flight because their flight out of KC was 3.5 hours late taking off. The good news is that I now have a stamp from Holland in my passport; the bad news is we didn't arrive until after 5am KC time (almost as good as being on call). We were rerouted through Amsterdam and then to Zurich. This did allow got a quick running tour of the Amsterdam airport free of charge and since it was daylight I could watch as we approached the Dutch coast and the beautiful countryside as we flew over Germany. We met our friends the Wilhelms for dinner tonight in St. Gallen and and despite the 40 minute power nap I had when ... read more