WE SURVIVED!!!!!

Our hotel shuttled us to the train station at 8:30. I got about 4 hours of very warm sleep last night, and dreamt that I fell asleep on the train and ended up in Portugal. Keith says our train terminates before that (oh, it terminated all right), so I would be fine. Mike and Mary were on our shuttle and it felt completely normal for the four of us to be traveling along together. They are off to Ghent, Brugges, and Amsterdam. Our train was supposed to leave first, but it was delayed an hour right after we got there. We waved good-bye to them and sat down to wait. I fell asleep with my head on the suitcase (no picture because I wasn’t awake to tell Keith to take my picture) and I woke up when I heard Mary talking. They had a delay, then a track change and got there in time to see their doors close and the train roll away. They got rebooked, then re-delayed, then on their train as we had another delay, then another delay. Our 9:40am train was set to go at 12:21. That is some time I would rather have been sleeping.

We left at 12:21 to go to our first train change at Freiburg. The interesting thing about Freiburg is that it isn’t very interesting. And it was hot today. It was 100°, which sounds really hot, but in actuality is REALLY HOT. The train wasn’t air conditioned – or maybe it was, because the windows certainly didn’t open and that makes me think they thought there was some kind of comfort-making going on, but there wasn’t.

We were supposed to go from Freiburg to Ihringen to meet the guy who made Keith’s trumpet. He was ready to give us a tour of his one man shop and had some toys for Keith to play with. We were both really quite looking forward to it. We thought we would still make it after the first delay, but after the third we had to give up.

We had 3 hours to kill in Freiburg. I thought if we found a grocery store we could shop for wine gums. I also thought a grocery store would be air conditioned. Poor Keith had to drag the suitcase on the cobblestone sidewalks. Remember everything is much harder when it is 100 degrees. I found a restaurant that showed a lovely sit down inside and thought we could linger over lunch as long as they would let us soak up their air conditioning. Mmmm. No air conditioning. We sat outside, because our waitress thought we might get a breeze out under the big umbrella. There were a few wisps of wind. It was unbelievably hot. After eating, I went in to use the restroom. There was a woman using up all the counter space putting on make up. I could not even imagine. I had been planning to do some swimming in the sink and I had to just lean over and wash my hands. Go away make up woman. I had giggling when I thought I had melted into my chair.

I had kasespatzel. Keith was going to have it as well, until Mya (our waitress) said he could have Tom’s Trio – crunchy chicken (with chili sauce!! so good!!), kasespatzel, and a salad. It’s not on the menu, but the locals know it. We both got a soda and it was served with a glass of ICE! I rubbed mine all over my arms and legs for a few moments of relief.

ONE HUNDRED DEGREES!

We took turns in the grocery store, since we didn’t want to roll the suitcase around. It was slightly air conditioned, in that it was not 100, but it was in the high 80s. We bought wine gums. Alexander is scoring on this trip.

We went back to the hot train station and tried to find our train. It was tricky. It wasn’t there. Then it wasn’t over there. Then it was there and we had to hurry. We settled into our really, really hot train car and started off to Olten. Funny thing. We went about 3 miles down the track and they made an announcement that our train was going to terminate at the next stop and we should all get off.

WHAT NOW??

Keith had 12 minutes to research quickly how we could switch it up and still get to Geneva. We got off the train with everyone else and literally ran across the platform to get on the train that was about to leave. We went one more stop and were in Switzerland. There were some kids traveling as a pack. They looked like campers. They looked like there were about 12. Where were the adults? What was happening? I don’t know.

Switzerland! We haven’t been in Switzerland before, so that should have been exciting. Instead, I was about in tears. Keith is having swollen, red eyes today (and if he closed them for more than five minutes, they sealed shut) – every day a new symptom but still another negative covid test last night – and gunky lungs and he was a HERO – figuring everything out and always going forward. The heat just crushed me. After our train was cancelled with us on it, we found out we had to buy another ticket. Another ticket to the same place that we had been going. What? I mean WHAT?! Keith said it is best I do not ever know how much these new tickets cost. So, so, so true.

I don’t even know what happened after that. We got rescheduled on 4 trains, with at most 8 minutes in between, to get to Geneva. We made it!! We made all four trains! One of them was air conditioned!!! I almost cried. Keith asked the agent what was the likelihood of the trains getting delayed or cancel, and he responded, “It’s Switzerland. Have you not heard of fine Swiss timekeeping.” And he was right.

I tried to take pictures out of the window when it looked all Switzerlandy outside, but the lights were reflected on the windows and I didn’t get much worth looking at. I will add some for you to look at anyway. Switzerland seems very pretty.

We got off our last train and were the only ones on the platform. There was nothing around. I mean, there are a few buildings, but no cars, no people, just dark. Oh my. We walked around one building and there was our hotel. WE MADE IT.

OUR ROOM IS AIR CONDITIONED. Air conditioned like United States air conditioning. I cannot believe it!! I am so happy and so tired! It took 15 hours to get here – the side trip was cancelled – we had to buy something we already bought – it was HOT – but none of it matter now.

Happy, happy birthday to my brothers! I really, really, really hope you both had a better day than we did!