Sheilaclapkin's Blog;

YESTERDAY’S RAINBOW

Yesterday’s rainbow experience really set the stage for highlights in Switzerland, land of beauty extraordinaire. The organ. Oh my goodness, what an opportunity the organ concert was for us. I just can’t stop thinking how we were the only two privileged guests for this soulful performance. I will never forget that performance for the two of us. It was a gift from a higher place or more than likely it was his time for practice; who knows.

We had all Asian travelers on our bus today. They passed around a sign up and we read countries of origin. So, I could see the countries were Korea, China, Japan (they do think they can go to the head of the line, be late for the bus, and think nothing of it) India, Bhutan and Taiwan. Some of them brought sick coughing little kids. It was awfully annoying. I had to move my seat to the back of the bus because the kids kept kicking our seats and coughing. Our guide was especially well versed in languages and did the tour in 3 languages. Of course, you know who talked and disrupted our ability to hear the English part. ARHHHF.

It is autumn here in Switzerland and the changing of the leaves is in full swing. It is so beautiful and something so unexpected for us as visitors from a place where leaves do not change. The farms, valley areas, the mountains and the cities are all in full transformation of variegated colors. You feel this is a set design and you are a player on the stage. The reds are brilliant, the yellows are staunch, the oranges are hot, the hues blend as nature intended in this part of the world at this particular time of year.

I also roused myself out of bed to tell you this. I kicked myself around the corner many times before and during the first days of our trip thinking we should have done Switzerland at the beginning of the cruise. Now, I see that if we had chosen the earlier time, we would not have seen autumn colors and would not have been in two snowstorms. Being a west coast, Southern California kid, I didn’t see those little white softly falling flakes until I was fifty.

Many of the houses in the cities and valleys of the parts of Switzerland we saw have window boxes in full bloom. This is the time of year where the flowers have been growing all season and now they strain their last effort before they are taken over by death. Full bloom is a strain.  Some of the houses have 8 or more windows facing front and ALL of them have window boxes full of flowers in full straining bloom. I didn’t have my camera ready for most of them so I will have to impart a feeling about one of them in particular that sticks in my memory.  The house was brown and the shutters were red. There were 8 windows in all. Each had a window box the exact size of the window opening. Each box had red hanging flowers, all straining with full bloom, and all striving to be the best. It was a sight I want you to picture.  It made me groan with ecstasy. It was the house, the flowers and the countryside, the quaintness and the sheer beauty of the terrain that brought the groans. Do you think these Swiss ladies have secret, unuttered contests on window boxing?