In and out of Zurich

In and out of Zurich - let's take the out first. The first week in February was certainly busy for all of us. Early in the week, I got the opportunity to travel to Edinburgh, Scotland. While the weather there was rather rainy and gloomy, it was, perhaps the best background to visit. Edinburgh is a very old city, rich in stories. The tower you see to the right in the first picture is the monument to one of the city's favorite son's Sir Walter Scott, a poet and novelist from the 18th Century. You can climb up the tower, but I had little time or inclination (inclimbnation?). There is also Edinburgh Castle (to the left in the first picture) which sits atop an extinct volcano and is the sometime home of the "royals". Many good and gory stories there about beheadings, public executions and seiges. While this trip was mosly work, I did get to experience some of the flavour of the town. I took a tour of the Real Mary King's Close. This was a sort of underground street now below the buildings in "old town". Here, people had residences, shops, and the like. It is named after one of the more promement residents, Mary King, a successful business woman of the time. While out for dinner, I came across more recent successful author and business person. J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, was having dinner at the same restuarnt as my group. Our host, Allister, told us that the resdents here in Edinburgh, take a ho hum attitude with the rich and famous. He told us of how Sean Connery was his mum's milk man before he decided for a different carreer. This was also a week for Teri to travel to Munich Germany. She took a train there Thursday and came back friday with a glowing report on the things she saw. Makes me want to travel there as well. My Mother's family originally came from Germany (Scheu, Vogelsong, Hurford) in the late 1800's. I remember Great Grandma's Vogelsong's speaking German and telling us of our relatives there. In fact, my brother Don, while studying in Germany, looked these relatives up and spent at least one Christmas with them. We will have to get back in contact with them. Of course, the week's highlight was Katie's visit with us. She came over to help us with Tara while I was in Scotland and Teri was in Germany. While only here a short time, we managed to walk her legs off. We walked all over the sights here in Zurich. Once Teri returned, we also took a trip to our new home in Kilchberg. We wanted to see if we could find the shortest way from th train station in Kilchberg to our new apartment. As you might guess from the pictures, the most direct route is down the various pathways. None of us could move the day after this walkabout! My guess will be that we get a car. Otherwise, we'll all develope legs the size of Clydesdales. Next week, Teri, Tara and Katie head back to the US. Katie back to Maine, where she is starting at her new job, and Teri and Tara back to the land of Oz to pick up the dogs and other important things. I'll be here in Zurich, finally getting into my new office and working at getting things ready at the new place. We finally ordered our beds and will be staying there upon their return. We spent three weeks looking and had some trouble actually spending money! This is a new experience for both of us! Now that we are over that, there are a lot of other things we need to purchase. While it may take some time to fix things up the way we want them, we expect our friends and family to come our way when they can. Here's hoping all is well with each of you. Until next time........ Bob