Switzerland II - ho hum...more wine and mountains

Friends' old house on the Aare with daughter in the rear looking for her cat!

Rance and I spent the next day with special Swiss friends who took us to the new Paul Klee museum here in Bern. Klee was from Bern, and they have a special center dedicated to his work and for the other art forms influencing him. He died in 1940, and you can see his concern for the times reflected in his very allegorical work, but also his fundamental optimism, despite the wasting disease that took his life prematurely – if you get a chance, check out his “Ad Parnassum” on line. Our friends then took us to their lovely old family home for a lovely lunch of vitello thunello – cold veal slices covered in a tuna fish sauce - delicious. The weather was perfect, their home and garden are equally beautiful, and the alps were very much in attendance.

In front of the Alphorn player

That evening we piled again into a bus and were taken back up into the Grindelwald area for an apero (drinks and appetizers) outside and then an incredible dinner. We were greeted by a man in full “Berner Oberland” dress playing an alpenhorn while we watched the sun set behind the Alps. Dinner was to the accompaniment of a yodelers’ chorus, a truly marvelous sound in those settings – 10 men and two women entwining their voices from bass to soprano together – watch out or we’ll play the video for you. It was just so incredible to once again enjoy all those things we loved so many years ago, it certainly brought more than one tear to my eye.

Susan next to Israel Baharev - Israeli ace!

It really felt as if nothing had changed – many of the same friends were there, both Swiss and foreign; we traveled like we did before in style, and heard interesting briefings on the state of the Swiss military (I had to resist the temptation to write a report afterwards!), and enjoyed the fantastic Swiss countryside and scenery. Walking around Bern the next day was more of the same – we wandered by our favorite haunts, met other friends, enjoyed great meals (and yes, the occasional drop of wine, like the Gigondas I’m enjoying now as I write this), walked by the Embassy (now a bit more barricaded than before), through the Tierpark where Susan and our dog Punkie would walk me to work, by our old house in Dufour Strasse and its tree in the backyard where JoAnne and her friend Jenny demolished 3 bottles of my best Morgon, into town along the Aare to a little lunch in the shadow of the Munster (Cathedral) and back to the hotel. Switzerland seems to be an unchanging oasis of calm and beauty, always ready to welcome us back (if we bring enough Swiss Franken – boy is it expensive!), and always giving us joy.

Tonight we will go to our favorite restaurant, the Brasserie Bärengraben, where the menu will, I promise you, be identical to that we knew by heart so long ago. We will have our favorite steak pommes frîtes, washed down by another bottle of Gigondas, a wine we introduced Christien to here when we made our European vacation in ’03. It's also the wine we served at our 25th Anniversary, so it's sort of special to us all. It’s not that the wine is the best on the menu, but I enjoy the thought of Christien biting his finger as he reads this.

As we said in the beginning, this may be a 2nd home. First in our hearts is always the USA!