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So, from Karlsruhe, Germany, we headed to Switzerland. We didn't have a clearer goal than that, we just headed south. when we got to Basel, we looked at the board with transfer information and noted that the train heading to Luzern left in 3 minutes, and got on that. On the way, we figured out exactly what we want to see in the next month, and how long to spend in each place. So if you check out the main page, you'll see what the plan is. Got to Luzern. Walked into Tourist Information. Said "where can we stay?" They said "...well.. there isn't anyplace to stay." ah. alright then. it turns out that there's a huge rowing compitition (olympic semi-finals?) going on right now, in addition to the annual "Luzern Festival". There were 2 options - for 165 dollars a night, we could stay about an hour out of town, for 300 dollars we could stay in town, or for 10 dollars, we could stay in the campground. they have bunks, provided we have sleeping bags. we don't have sleeping bags, but we have sheets, a wonderful rainjacket that unfolds to about the size of a bed sheet, and a wraparound skirt. that's almost like having sleeping bags, and it's so hot here that it's almost warm enough for this to work.

So, we got into Luzern yesterday, and are heading out tomorrow. It's a very touristy sort of town. Today we went to the top of Mt Pilatus, taking a journey by boat, the steepest cogwheel train in the world, and 3 of those cable car/ski lift thingies that I can't think of the word for. It was also very touristy, but at least it has a nice view. We were going to spend a day here in town to, but after wandering around yesterday afternoon, we decided to skip it. Too crowded, and we saw the picasso museum and the old covered bridge, and we think we can get the one other tourist attraction in before leaving tomorrow. We are going to go swimming though. It's a million degrees during the day here, and the lake water is pretty warm, considering that we are in the mountains in switzerland.

I've found that I have a difficult time remembering any words in any language now. It's a little weird. I can't even say things in english without thinking the sentance through first. blarg.
--christi

Shockingly, Christi neglected to mention (or photograph) the coolest thing so far about visitting Switzerland. It is not the chocolate, the knives or the watches (although I find myself wanting all three), it is the alphorns. Those are those long wooden horns guys in Lederhosen blow, like in the Riccola ad on TV. They make nifty harmonies. And, it you speak German, and tell them you are a tuba player, you too can blow an alphorn. So they were playing for the tourists by the train station for the cogwheel train and after they finished, I went to talk to them and one of them had an extra mouthpiece so he said ok. Everyone in the trainstation was laughing as I tried to get a note to sound. I sounded like a seal hanging upside down wearing a blonde wig might sound. It has a big bore like a tuba and is in a similar range, but the mouthiece is like a trombone or a bariton, much smaller. Finally, I got some notes out. It was cool. I think I need an alphorn.
oh yeah, and the picasso museum is mostly photos of picasso. He likes weiner dogs and younger women. In fact, I have a theory abut how he invented cubism or whatever, but I wont post it here.
The rain jacket that it functioing as my blanket isnt actually a blanket, its a red riding hood hood except its blue and shibouri and was made by Donna Joslyn who specifically said it could be used as a blanket or a tent when we bought it. It is very nifty.
Judy from Karlsruhe is really cool, and you should scroll down to the bottom of that page and listen to her music.
--Celeste

August 28
My god i've memorized the american keyboard and can type in american mode on german keyboards even tho all the key are mislabeled. it's amazing!
Uhhh... We're in Zurich now, staying in a very reasonably priced hotel called the Hotel Splendid. The room is... well... splendid. But the piano bar directly downstairs with the screaming people is not quite splended. oh well. we could probably sleep through the apocalypse now. Everything here is super pricey, like Norway, but worse because it's not like you can find cheap pants or tuba mouthpieces. Although Christi got covetted made-in-the-usa converse high tops in camo print. camo print is all the rage around here. any color. camo pink, so you can hide in lipstick isles or rose gardens. camo blue. camo is cool. she's got regular army camo, so her feet can hide in medium high grass. i am jealous, but she got the only pair in that size. not that i could try any on anyway because some nasty moldy hostel shower gave me athletes foot. bleah. i had to try explaining to an assembled crowd of perplexed pharmacists in a mixture of english and german what i was talking about. they were all making guesses. passersby were making guesses. ok, no passersby, but still, the whole pharmacy staff was staring at me and talking amoungst themselves in Suddeutesch, which is a dialect of German that only Swiss people can understand. But, you know, this could have been much worse as it was just athletes foot and not hemerroids or something. yuck.

Zurich is very historical. We saw houses that used to be inhabiyted by people like Lenin, James Joyce, Goethe and Charlamange. Yeah, Charlamange. He founded a church here. It's kind of a nice church. We also saw the site of Cabaret Voltaire. We thought maybe we should leave flowers, but it didn't seem right, so then we thought maybe flowers in bird cages. But bird cages are probably darn expensive around here, so we just took a picture. Cabaret Voltaire, is, of course, the birthplace of Dada. John Cage was a Dadaist of sorts. Fluxists were really Dadaists. Christi is a Dadaist. But not me. I have my own movement called Weirdism. Actually, that's kind of a Dadaist concept. It's the most important art movement of the 20th century and its why modern art looks so weird and new music sounds so weird. This is a good thing. But there's only a plaque on the window. The local art museum is really good, but the Dada room could fit in the Denton Family's bathroom.
The Kunsthaus has the largest Munch exhibit outside of Scandinavia. It's mostly his post therapy stuff, so no screaming people on bridges. We saw more Van Goghs there than we saw at the Van Gogh Museum. And there was a heck of a lot of Monet. It was cool.

I mentioned earlier that everything here is expensive (don't they make enough money off banking that they can give deals to tourists?) You have to pledge your first born child for fondue. Christi likes fondue. It's kind of unvegan, you know. When I get back, I'll deny having tried it. But the banks need databases. They're really good at databases. When you sign into a hotel, it pulls up a list of everyplace else you've been in Switzerland. I expect that someplace Christi's shoe purchase has been noted and linked with the hotel record. I met a guy who was a part time truck driver and he needed a special permit to take a semi through Switzerland after dark. He called for the permit and asked where he could pick it up. Thay said, don't bother. We'll find you. And there he was driving through the countryside and a cop pulled him over and handed him the permit. It gives me a paranoid feeling, but, as they know, I'll be headed to Venice tommorrow and satying for three nights.
--Celeste

so, if you need to get ahold of us in the next 24 hours, just call switerland. they'll be able to find us.
--Christi   (Celeste adds: that's true, actually.)