Patrick drove us over to the Old City where we parked in an underground lot (where there were special parking spots just for Damen and not for damen with children...just Damen aka ladies). We emerged from the lot to a cobblestone center square where Patrick led us along. Lots of tourist shops, bars, restaurants and cafés lined the streets. We stopped at the famous 'Café Knösel' with a sign above (and the chocolate's logo) of a boy kissing a girl as their signature...Patrick informed us that this place used to be dating central in the olden days where young people could go on a "supervised" date :) Brian took the photo op:
We were a bit hungry and Patrick insisted we stop at "Ginos"...not only to remind us of Philadelphia but also because it was a great mexican burrito place... they had gyro meat that was heated and spinning and actively shaving bits off behind the counter. I got the vegetarian version and we all sat down to eat. The stone walls were lined with dollars from around the world. Patrick said that we were lucky to be here this time of year to avoid the crowds...it usually is a 20 minute wait to get a sandwich here. We headed back and found a cafe that boasted "coffee to go" so Brian grabbed a (tiny) cup. We climbed back into the car and had about 13 minutes to pick up Carolyn (car's owner) to drive us to the train station for our 4pm train to Berne. We picked her up at the lab and she drove us around the city back to where we started our day at "DB". We ran inside with all of our luggage (Patrick kindly took responsibility for my larger bag) and were happy to realize that our train wasn't until 4:18...
As we waited for the train I heard little tapping sounds above us in the ceiling-then noticed the ground covered with bird droppings and asked Patrick if there were birds up there? He shook his head then said maybe so I pulled my hood up as a preventative measure. He laughed but then moments later a few "drops" dropped down...We climbed aboard the public train (# 1 of 3). The first ride was about an hour and we had uncomfortable seats so it was hard to fall asleep but I still managed a brief nap. We had 5 minutes to make our next connection and found more comfortable seats on that train...I snuggled against the window with Brian's fleece and when I woke up it was time for train #3. I tried to stay awake but it was useless...about an hour later we were at the station in Berne (after getting off at the wrong stop and quickly jumping back on).
The Berne station was bustling and smelled of cigarette smoke...everyone seemed to be in a hurry. We took the stairs down and found ourselves in an underground shopping plaza. We hit up the ATM for some Swiss Francs and then emerged at the street level to grab a taxi. The driver seemed surprised by the amount of luggage we had but piled it into the trunk anyway and wasn't worried that it wouldn't close...
We arrived to Yetta's about 5 minutes later and Patrick snuck us in to surprise her - she was slaving over the stove as she prepared a Swiss version of vegetarian lasagna (just for me)
as I tried to quiet my heels enough do she wouldn't hear me. She turned around and shrieked in her Yetta way and hugged us and was so happy we had finally arrived (it was 830pm). She had purchased fresh tulips and Patrick prepared us sparkling apple cider. We sat down to eat olives and rosemary bread sticks and chunks of Parmesan as appetizers. When dinner was ready we had champagne spiked with Elderberry syrup. The lasagna was chunky with tomatoes and vegetables topped with fresh mozzarella. The meat version was ready a few minutes later and soon we were stuffed and the fatigue of being up 36 hours was getting to us.
Yetta turned her living room into a guest bedroom for us and closed the external shutters so we could sleep in. We got ready for bed and I don't remember waking once...at least not until a single ray of sunlight shone through the tiny oval window and landed directly on my face around 10am. I shifted my position for another hour until Brian woke me up at 11...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Heidleberg continued
No comments:
Post a Comment