Day 3 - Lucerne by Ferry Boat

We hopped aboard (well not literally or the Swiss would really think we were crazy) one of the ferries that connects all the little towns around this huge inland sea. It took two hours to sail from Brunner to Lucerne. I think we made 8-9 stops. Now that's what I call hopping.


Mom really liked Lucerne. Here's the famous bridge and water tower that dates from the 13 century. The bridge burned in the early 1990's and they lost a lot of the original artwork that was designed to fit inside the trusses of the bridge as you walk from one end to the other.

After taking a bus tour of the city and walking around a bit, we got back on the ferry boat. Here the captain guides the steam-driven paddle wheeler into port.


Here's a window through which we could watch the paddle wheel.

Day 2 - Luzern

The weather is still drizzly and cold. So we drove to Luzern, about 30 minutes around the lake. We went to the Swiss Transportation
Museum where they had lots of old trains and planes and cars.


I'm not sure what this thing was.


Julie points to a wall of hub caps (funny people, these Swiss).


Nice day for indoor stuff.

Day 1 - Brunnen

We met our man in Switzerland, Franz Albisser, for lunch in our hotel in Brunnen. Unfortunately our hotel has ultra-slow Internet access. So I have to drive a couple of miles up the mountain to the hotel where I stayed for our conference in order to purchase high-speed Internet access.


It was good to see our Finland dealer, Kim Koskinen (on the right) with his new salesperson, Johanni Koskinen (center) -- no relation to Kim. In Finland, Koskinen is like the name Jones. We need to pray for Kim that God would heal him and lead him in a difficult time.


Brunnen is a small town located on a great lake here in Central Swizterland. It's a place where Swiss people come for vacation. Not many Enlgish speakers, however, so that's a bit of a challenge.


They do eat healthy here.

Arrived Zurich

It was a cloudy, gloomy day on Friday when I got to Zurich. Low hanging clouds all but obscured the mountains from the hotel where I'm staying.


We ate dinner at this Gasthouse Friday evening. Looks like it was built in 1740.


We were in the town of Brunnen about 100 km south of Zurich in what is considered the most beautiful part of Switzerland. Now, if I could see it through the clouds.

Julie Receives a Permanent Transfer

For those who may not have heard, it became official yesterday (although we knew of it a week or so ago) that Julie has been permanently assigned to the Social Security office in Fort Worth.  She had been given a temporary transfer but there was always the possibility that she might have to return to east Dallas.  But she is securely ensconced in the office closest to where we live. It's about a 35 minute drive, not much different than her commute from Cedar Hill to Pleasant Grove (her previous office). This is a wonderful answer to prayer.  We appreciate the prayers of those who interceded with us on Julie's behalf.

 

An Afternoon at Pecan Plantation

On Labor Day we drove to a part of Granbury we've heard a lot about but had never visited. Located on the opposite end of the city is a communicated called Pecan Plantation. It used to be the largest pecan orchard in the world, I think, or may just the US. You can see in this picture a group of deer feeding on the pecans in a empty lot. Pecan Plantation is now it's a large housing addition that boasts a world class golf course, marina, and a private airport.


In fact, the streets near the runway are actually taxi ways.


Houses in that part of the community have airplane hangers in addition to garages. Everyone ziups around in golf carts within the gated community. It was definitely up-scale and a very posh place.

Impressionists from Chicago

Julie and I spent Saturday afternoon at the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth where we saw a large collection of impressionistic paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago. We really enjoyed seeing works by Monet and Manet (I can't keep those two guys straight), Van Gogh (the Dutch pronounce his name "van goff"), Toulouse LaTrec, and lots of others. We rented those players you hold to your year to tell you what to look for and some historical background. You could just tell that the art snobs were looking down their nose at those of us who were so stupid that we had to use the things.


Wiggling the iPhone camera creates its own impressionistic technique, don't ya' think?