Life goes on

I wouldn't blame Gretchen if all she wanted to do was lay on the couch all day and complain...and, well, sometimes that's exactly what she does. But I have to give her credit: despite feeling like crap much of the time, the past couple of weekends she's been up for taking short day trips. I guess it beats the boredom and discomfort of sitting in a warm house with no air conditioning. Both destinations were ideal: within an hour's drive, small enough to walk around easily, but with enough to see to keep our interest. And both were places we'd never heard of until I started playing around on the official Swiss Tourism website.

Last Saturday we drove out to Laufenburg, a perfectly charming little town (like so many here) spanning both the Swiss and German sides of the Rhine (this is looking back toward the Swiss side...the yellow house toward the right must surely be one of the skinniest we've ever seen).



Since it was a warm day, Gretchen decided to do something she'd never done before--dip her feet in the Rhine.



Then today, we drove down to the French-speaking canton of Jura to visit the quaint little town of Saint-Ursanne. (As much as I love being able to drive so easily to France and Germany, I may love even more that we can drive a half-hour and everyone is speaking French...but we're still in the same country.) The town itself was really nice, but we were particularly taken with this interesting piece of art (it's a man! it's a pillow! it's blue!) that was suspended between several buildings.



Most of the time I try hard not to look like an American, but sometimes it just can't be helped. Today was one of those times--since it was so hot and sunny, I was in full tourist mode...shorts, goofy hat, man purse, you name it.



So, big ups to Gretchen for being such a trooper despite being past her due date...