Around the World in 13 Days...part 1

With time off between contracts, and a severe itch to get away from the pollution and slow walkers of Hong Kong, I embarked on an epic journey to Switzerland to visit my friend Alison. First stop, Zurich:




Alison is living in Ermatingen, a small town about a 90 minute train ride from Zurich. The main attraction:



We explored Zurich, Switzerland's largest city, upon arrival. The next day, we walked the entire area of Ermatingen in about an hour, including the time we took to feed the sheep. Basically, small-town Switzerland is like a sophisticated vintage cartoon:


I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, so instead of attempting to post them here, I'll just plan to host a slideshow next time I'm in the U.S. I'll somehow force all my estranged neighbors to come to it and feed them cheese on toothpicks while I spew interesting annecdotes about the Swiss Confederation. Do people still do that? I remember being dragged to one when I was a kid. Apparently, it scarred me for life because I keep talking about it.

Anyway, Ermatingen is really close to the German border, so we walked across to the charming German town of Konstanz. There's no border control there, so it felt really rebellious to do so. And the obligatory photo of one foot in Switzerland, one in Germany:



On Day 3, we took a train to two other quaint towns, where I bought chocolate and took more pictures, including this one of the largest waterfall in Europe:



We had an interesting time getting to and from this waterfall. It may or may not have involved missing a couple trains, a bus, unnecessary running, and a fear of missing the all-important train to Geneva, which we did, but were able to take another one later. That night, we made it to Lousanne, which is on the French side (definitely a linguistic plus for me), where we basically climbed a mountain to get to our hotel.
We trekked through Lousanne the next morning--I love this city--historically preserved with an artistic and youthful vibe. Later on, we went to Geneva, where Alison, photographer extraordinaire, took pictures for an X-games type event. I went off to check out the sights. First on my list was of course the UN European headquarters:



So much more to talk about, but I need to go. Rehearsal tonight for "Millie"--5 more weeks to opening night!