SwitZerland!!!!!!! Zurich!!!!!!

Dateline: Zurich, Switzerland!!! We interrupt this US blog of spring time fun. The breakdown between Picasso & Blogspot have put me w-a-y behind in the documenting of where I have been, & what I have been up to. I promise to get back to what I have just Zipped over (Titusville & Danielle/Linda, National Family Literacy Conference & Robin/ Gina, birthday party for my WonderPeeps & Sarah, IN-AEYC & Deborah JO) but I feel compelled to attempt to continue blogging in real, reel time from EUROPE!!!!

To say it was a long day yesterday would be an understatement. We left Sarah's house at 6:15 in the morning, left Columbus to fly to Chicago for an 8 hour lay-over (what's up wid dat?) and then flew to London where we had a 5 hour lay-over, and then we flew to Zurich -- arriving exactly upon schedule to pick up our rental car as per the plan.

I could write a whole blog post about the license [plate of our rental car alone..... and perhaps someday I'll have the luxury of reflecting back upon it in more detail, about the process that brought us to this day. Our license plate reads AL --911. My Allen has indeed made this trip possible. My book, which is my song, which is my small tribute to 911 has indeed made this trip possible. My Allen was the one who more than anything on earth, prompted me last summer to gut out the finishing of my quilts, for the finishing of my picture book, "Red, White and Blue." It was that effort, stamina, encouragement, energy, belief, prodding, goading, motivating that is what has merited the trip that has brought us around the world. To share my little experience with the children of our troops stationed aboad. How could there have been any more fitting a license plate on a rental car than the license we were given? "All things work together.........."

Shall I attempt to describe our trip from the Zurich airport to our hotel? Theoretically a 16 minute trip that took us 2.5 hours to figure out. What a combination of hilarious reality shows: The Amazing Race meets Survivor with Chutes & Ladders thrown in just for fun!! First time in Switzerland. No signs in English. Stick-shift car. STEEP hills. NARROW roads. Glorious spring day of blooming tulips, daffodils, every tree in color. We have a map..... but we literally don't have any idea where we are on the map! Seriously no idea. We stop at one point to ask a native where we are on the map -- to no avail, not that he wasn't willing AND he spoke some English. Much charades, a few pats on the back for luck & we were off again. It turns out that this particular Monday in Zurich Switzerland is the kick-off to a spring festival which pits the locals against the tourists in a match of wits that only the heartiest survive. (Our sweet blonde car rental gal had warned us of the impending excitement.)

Thru-lanes of traffic are unexpectedly blocked off for no apparent reason. Horse-drawn wagons decorated with spring flowers are in every intersection. Traffic circles where only the most aggressive seemingly dictate the flow of progress, electric street cars sometimes in triplicate navigate around curves leaving inches to spare, bicyclists hurtle down hillsides, motor scooters make up their own lanes for progress when all car traffic is at a standstill, crazy bloggers want to take pictures to document their unbriddled joy, pedestrians rule the roadway, every major road can abruptly end in a dead end with seemingly no warning, the one way streets aren't marked in any discerningly convincing manner....... well, let's just suffice it to say, "It was an adventure."

We made it safely to our evening's rest and I have the internet by cable!!! All is well. And on an up-tick, we were soooooooo close to the horse-drawn wagons, they could hand us bits of Swiss candies with a smile.

P.S. Was it just me, on a sleep deprived round-the-world jet lag mentality, or does the Swiss word for "exit" make you laugh, too, in a junior high, Saturday-Night-Live sort of inappropriate manner?

Now we leave for Germany!!!!