We Take Ourselves With Us

Our departure from Lausanne coincided with the first day of the Queen's 70th Jubilee, so it seemed fitting to break out my How Majestic Swatch for the trip to Zurich.  Once again, way finding in Lausanne foiled us: we had thought we were walking to the nearby Metro station to take the train to the train, having learned our lesson in trudging uphill on arrival. Nope. We somehow missed the station entirely. Oh well, at least the trip back was all downhill--every cobblestone of it. So much easier. The trip to Zurich would take a bit more than two hours, so we settled in to our train habits: Penn and I slept, Harper read, and Ned listened to podcasts. On our first day in Lausanne, we decided to switch up our Zurich stay from an old town hotel to an airport hotel recognizing a few truths: we were there for just one night; had to find time for COVID tests (offered at the airport); had to accommodate Penn's getting up at 2:30 am to watch Game 1 of the NBA finals; and had to get to the...

 We all got up around 3 am--except for Penn, who was still up and pumped after watching the Celtics best the Heat--to be ready for a 4 am departure for the Keflavik  airport. Because elves, we dropped our rental car at the wrong Hertz place and walked 15 min in the freezing cold wind to the terminal. Then found an eternal zig-zag line at Iceland Air that would put WDW to shame. Harper couldn't find any gf options and had to settle for Joe and the Juice again, which meant no real food for her before a three hour flight--not great. I woke up on the flight, surprised to discover there were just 45 minutes left. And, then suddenly, we were in Zurich. I had been to Switzerland before: as part of a 2019 US Dept of Education study trip that looked at the Swiss VET system, but our group never left Zurich (which was in the midst of record heat wave, hitting above 100 every day of our visit). So, Switzerland would be a new adventure for all of us. Somehow, our path out of the airport di...