The Adventure Begins!

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Hello everyone! Now I'm properly travelling I promise to update yuo all a bit more regularly...(especially once I get used to other people's keyboards!)

I'm now in Baden, not far from Zurich in Switzerland, staying with a good friend from camp, or her mother, to be precise. I arrived at 11 - precisely on the dot - having left Paris at 6:30am. Don't worry, I slept most of the way! Although I did see the sun rise over the flat, flat, empty East of France. There was nothing but fields and the occasional village, except for once between naps there were hills. And then more fields until Basel, about an hour from Zurich.

The train ride was beautiful after that. I passed lots of hills and towns, and small villages with colourfully-tiled clock towers. The houses are really lovely, lots of chalet-style ones but made bigger. When I got into Zurich I didn't see any of it, because Hallie met me immediately and we got on another train to Nuenhof (?), where her mother lives. Hallie affectionately calls it 'the ghetto', but it seems lovely - I'm typing this on a balcony overlooking other buildings and a church spire, and there are wooded hills not far away. And it's hot!!

Anyway, Hallie whisked me off to meet her mother, who brought out home-made muffins and tea, and we sat on the balcony and talked about books and travel and the places we've all been (it turns out she was in Stirling in 96 for about a week, and knows someone who went to Somerville!). Then we all walked back to Baden.

It's a beautiful walk. It takes about 3 minutes on the train, but the walk took us a lot longer, mainly because we kept stopping to take pictures. The path goes along the river, so we stopped to look at the hydroelectric dam, some sculpture, interesting buildings (including one offering classes in natural sculpture) and interesting trees (you could go inside one of them!). And we had a lovely chat, of course. The path went up away from the river through some woods, then suddenly we were in Baden, on Hallie's street!

It wasn't that sudden, really - Baden isn't huge, and it's right on the river too. Hallie and I had some cheesecake in a cafe (for which I had to work out what a Swiss franc is...much more colourful than euros, and shinier than any other coins I've seen!). We just took a walk through the city, and she pointed out the clock tower (which is similar to the more famous one in Basel, apparently), the medieval ruins, the thermal baths, the casino (!), the old town, the lift that goes from the town down to the river path...it was lovely! After that we wandered back again and saw Hallie's apartment, which is lovely, and we both napped, before coming back to her mum's house.

Tonight they have a family friends'dinner to go to, so I have the flat to myself and a stack of travel guides and DVDs, and full cupboards. Life is good! (and the chocolate is amazing...)

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