I was not at all sure how this was going to go, but Gabe travels like a champion. He was totally fine with us in the airport, we got through security no problem (Gabe got to spend some time being held by the security person while mom and dad went through the metal detector), and he was great on the airplane.
He slept about half of the trip, and the other half he was very excited to look out the window and explore various things on the plane. He found the airline safety card particularly delicious, to the point that we had to move everything out of the seat-pocket in front of him. I thought for sure we'd get a crying jag on takeoff and landing due to the pressure on his ears, but he was totally fine for both. No crying at all.
Speaking of people who were excited to be on the plane, I was really impressed with Swissair. The food on the flight was freaking amazing, as good as what you'd get in a decent restaurant in LA. And they gave us Swiss chocolate for dessert, so you can't beat that. All in all, a lovely experience. I had been half dreading taking this flight, but everything went better than I could have hoped.
Welcome to Switzerland!
We are staying with a friend of Io's, Alina Paduranu. She's an old friend from Bucharest, who now lives in Switzerland with her boyfriend Christian and Christian's two kids, Robin and Roxane. This is great, because otherwise staying in Zurich would be mega-expensive. I had never met any of these people before, but they have been very welcoming and we feel right at home. And all four of them are crazy for Gabe the Babe, so that's nice.
Our first day in town we pretty much just got back to their condo, had dinner, and crashed. Our hosts "threw together" an evening meal that was outstanding...as a food-lover, I can tell I am going to like it here. Great breads, amazing cheeses. (WITH THE HOLES.) So that was all good. I spent much of the evening playing Indiana Jones on the Wii with the two kids. Holla!
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| Sunrise in Zurich |
The only dark spot was that Gabe would not sleep at night. He's been having problems sleeping pretty much since I got here, I think because of all the stress that there's been in the house. Or maybe because he's going to start teething soon. Whatever it is, he wakes up every hour or two all night long, which is hell on me and Io. Fortunately, our guest room is isolated enough that the rest of the family was able to sleep okay, or at least they were polite enough to pretend that that's the case.
On Sunday we headed out to Lucerne, a town about an hour from Zurich. It's an old-timey tourist town, famous mostly for the long 16th-century wooden bridge and tower that crosses the local river. "You've probably heard of it," Christian said. I was too embarrassed to tell him that the only thing I had heard of in Switzerland was chocolate and cuckoo clocks, and those pocketknives with the corkscrews on.
Lucerne was very pretty, and we had a great day there. We spent several hours walking around the town just looking at various buildings and stuff, and then eventually stopped for some drinks and ice cream on the river. It was such a good day.
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| Gabe knows what is best in life |
We finished up our visit with some hot roasted chestnuts, right off the fire from a street vendor. This is apparently a Lucerne specialty, like getting soft pretzels in New York or hot dogs in Chicago. I had never had roasted chestnuts before and didn't even know what they looked like, and frankly had started to think that Nat King Cole had made the whole thing up. It turns out roasted chestnuts are quite delicious.
And after that, it was back to the condo in Zurich for a light dinner and then off to bed. Gabe blessedly slept pretty much through the night, so Io and I got our first real night's sleep in about a week. Today we're on our own most of the day, as the adults are at work and the kids are at school. We're going to take it easy and go for a leisurely walk. Yay vacation!
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