My day in the hills, has come to an end, I know.

Tonight I'm packing.  Today I said good-bye to the Alps I have come to love.  It has been an unbelievable experience to look out on my balcony and see The Eiger.  Right in my front door.  The green hillsides dotted with houses.  To walk to the bus stop and see a glacier, as clear as a tree in a yard, has been a most amazing experience.

Aug. 31 is still one more day in the Alps, but not in my holiday apartment.  I go to a hotel for one night and then on Sep. 1 I move to a shared apartment outside Zurich in a city called Kloten.

So I went to town and wandered around to say good-bye. 

I sat at this little sidewalk cafe and ate lunch.  And while I was eating, the clouds came in and sat on The Eiger, completely hiding the giant mountain.  And it began to rain.
 
But my lunch was untouched.  I had my first Swiss specialty, Rosti (hash browned potatoes).

After lunch, I walked up the street. I didn't get wet because I had just purchased my third umbrella.  I love it because it's red and has the Swiss flag emblem all over it.  I also bought a glass case with the same look.  I know.  I'm a total nerd.  Have been for years.  lol 

When I got back to my apartment, I found the package that Betty Ruth sent me (at my request) had arrived.  Just in the nick of time! TY Betty Ruth. (Btw, she's the one who gave Mate to me when I was in the hospital.  Holly is the one who named him.)  

The rest of the evening is all about packing.

My adventures for the last couple of days

With only a couple of days left in the Alps, I wanted to try and get another item checked off my list.  I decided a day trip to Gruyere to see the castle and have some cheese was the ideal thing.

On the train, I spotted this crazy couple of cars at one stop.  The first car is for size clarification and it is a COMPACT car.  The other two were micro-mini cars.  I couldn't believe them.  Wow. Talk about conserving energy.

I also had to have the dining car experience on the train.  Really.  Couldn't pass it up.

With only a 35-minute span from one station to the next train stop, I had to order something that was quick.  What else?  Chocolate mousse!

The entire trip to Gruyere was a 3-hour+ trip.  That gave me time to travel, see the site for a little over an hour, and then get back on the train to make it home before the last bus.  But the castle was quite interesting.  This black cape was war booty from a battle in 1476. The armour is authentic and made me think of, "We're knights of the round table, we dance when e'r we're able..." from Spamalot.

This was one of the attractive rooms.  Then I saw the table where we'd be playing dominoes or cards, right Mom, Betty Ruth, Sarah & Holly?

That pretty much wrapped up that tour.  Here's the outside view.

And that was Gruyere.  Oh yes.  I did grab a warm cheese tart before boarding the train to head home.  It was yummy!!! 

You know who was trying to pig it all up, but I wasn't having that.  Btw, I have an observation to make about the sodas I have had in CH.  You'll notice the Fanta Orange soda.  The first soda I had was a Sprite.  I was so thirsty and it looked cold and refreshing.  I hurriedly downed about 1/4 of it only to discover it was very tart.  I thought, "Hmmm....maybe they changed the flavor of Sprite since I had one last."  Then I got this Orange Fanta.  It was tart too.  My decision is that the Swiss might not like their sodas as sweet as the US.  Both were really tart.  I know.  Sounds like a drink made for me.  Ha ha.

One last observation.  I have spent all my time in the Swiss German portion of the Alps.  My trip today was to the French Swiss portion of the country.  The travel books will tell you that the French and Italian portions of Switzerland are much more relaxed and travelers might  find themselves enjoying those areas more.

I did not prefer them.

I found that I was annoyed when a train in that area was five minutes late.  I also found the hillsides which were unkempt to not be as attractive.  Also, the areas that had cows did not have neatly bundled hay waiting for the winter to feed to their livestock.  They just had piles of hay.  Unattractive piles of hay.

I am a snob.  I guess I fit in with all the disapproving Swiss Germans.  lol   My day ended with me noticing, at the penultimate stop before I had to get off the train and walk the 10 minutes to my apartment, the weather was getting drippy.

I am not pleased to report that it did not lighten up.  It worsened.  Oh great.

I had to walk in rainy and windy conditions.  Then, to top everything off, there were no less than six terrifying flashes of lightning followed by loud cracks of too-close thunder.

I am walking with a metal lightning rod in my hand--commonly called an umbrella.  The wind whipped it upside open, like you see in all the comedic movies.  It wasn't funny to me.  

That's why this morning I had to buy my new red Swiss emblem umbrella.  At least that was a plus. (pardon the pun)