Gruetzi mitanand.....

..... and that simply means "Good day" in that lovely Swiss German that I hardly understand.

Before I"ll be heading off to Canada I had another mission on my mind. I kept my word that I gave to my long time school friend Claudia to visit her in Switzerland, where she is living now with her boyfriend. She is working on her diploma thesis at the moment so time is short but she still did some extra work beforehand to find some spare time for me - so lovely of her!

I boarded a train to get to Switzerland and it took me about 7 1/2 hours and two unperceived border crossings (Austria and Switzerland) and when Claudia picked me up from the train station she smirked at me and said I had just slipped past the customs officers. Customs officers? Honestly I haven't even seen them so how could I have slipped past? Their fault anyway I would say! Nothing serious as they usually know who they are looking for (have they been tipped off or do people look suspicious when they smuggle stuff??). Anyway, it was good to see Claudia again and we had a lot to talk about, what we've done in different locations (while shopping, on her balcony having a cup of coffee or while going for a short walk through 'Wildhaus' - the little township where she is living).

The next day we had to change plans (what was to go for a hike in the mountains) as it was too cloudy and grey and so we made our way to Chur, the oldest township in Switzerland. Chur had been constantly populated for the last 5000 years but is even older than that. Quite impressive hey? Especially for you folks down under ;-)! Back in Wildhaus we caught up with two of their friends and had an entertaining dinner in one of the many restaurants of Wildhaus. These friends are from Berlin and I loved to hear that hearty Berlin idiom again.

Sunday came and my train would leave in the early afternoon. Claudia had decided she no longer can fight her bad conscience so she had to keep working on her thesis. So her boyfriend showed me around. The weather was adorable and so we took one of the many cablecars to get up the mountains where we had a fantastic view into the Swiss Alps. We hired scooters to take us downhill and that was exeptionally loud thanks to the squeaking brakes but nevertheless fun! He also showed me a waterfall that would have been very pretty if it had carried water but for some time now it's been dry.

Back at base both had convinced me to stay a day longer as weather was too good not to utilize it for another walk and so Claudia's boyfriend and I headed off again up another mountain by the help of a cablecar. From there we started walking back to Wildhaus and as we had heaps of time at hand we stoped a few times for a bite to eat and a coffee. Back in Wildhaus we again caught up with one of their friends and played minigolf what I haven't been doing for many years. Of course I lost but I did so honourably ;-).

Monday came and it was time to say goodbye and catch a train back to Germany. Again I've spend around 7 hours at the train trying to kill some time by .... doing nothing. Not an easy task. But I managed!