We tunneled our way to Switzerland: tunnel after tunnel, several of them 2 or 3 or 5 miles long, and one of them a full 10 miles. It is not our favorite way to travel. Really long tunnels give one too much time to think about exactly what it is that is above one’s head . . . and pressing down . . . and subject to shifting . . . and Europe has earthquakes, doesn’t it? Add to that the mesmerizing repetition of the lights and wall markings flashing past and . . .
Fortunately the longest tunnels did not have oncoming traffic to add to the drama, and generally the traffic was light. We stopped before leaving Austria and got a € 22 refund on our toll vignette; then we stopped at the Swiss border and paid a € 20 road tax toll for 5 days. € 233 for Austrian tolls; € 20 for Swiss tolls.
We drove towards Zurich to a campsite supposedly on a lake southeast of Zurich. It was a cramped, unshaded place full of old trailers and half a dozen short-stay motorhomes. It had about 20 feet of swampy, rocky shoreline and no good transportation into the city. But it did have accordion music and raucous singing at a party that quieted down promptly at 10 pm. So we stayed the night because we were hot and tired and in the morning moved to another Zurich campground 12 miles away. This one was pretty big, shaded, busy with touring vehicles and had good bus service right outside the gate. And at night there was always a group gathered to watch the “fussball” games on tv. Access to the city was so easy that we went in for the day and visited churches and a great art museum and the birthplace of the Dada art movement in 1916 (and subject of a play by David's favorite playwright, Tom Stoppard).
"We have Monet Water Lilies and Rodin sculptures. . . Cafe Voltaire, birthplace of Dada
I know--let's put them in the same room!"
We then returned and rested and went in again for dinner in the evening at a big beer hall restaurant. That night Switzerland was playing soccer, so there were tvs set up at the outdoor bars attracting lots of attention.
Zurich and Lucerne, our destination the next day, are both located at the end of a lake. Both city centers stretch around the end of the lake and make the most of their locations with tour boats and buses, fishing and swimming. Lucerne has the advantage of being surrounded by tall mountains. At Lucerne we were camped across the street from the main swimming beach. We could not make our electrical connection work and didn’t know exactly what wasn’t working, so we decided to give our house batteries some exercise and they performed well. We could see the top of Mt. Pilatus from our campsite, and we were able to walk to town along a paved walk all along the water’s edge, past homes and hotels, all of them covered with flowers. All of the waterfront is public. Once again we discovered we had come to a town on the day of its summer fest. As we get closer to the center there were food and drink booths everywhere and stages set up for musical performances that went on all day and half the night all over the city. We were especially intrigued by their new performance space (which we could not get into) since it was designed by the architect who did the new Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis--they share some of the same outward features.
We joined the crowds crossing the wooden bridge and walked all over town.
At night we walked back over to the beach at 10:30 pm to watch a half hour of fireworks over the darkened city. Even the fireworks were a bit unusual in that they tended to be grouped by color: red, red, red and then silver, silver, silver, over and over again, 20 or 30 in a row. After the fireworks were over we watched the city lights come back to life and reflect in the lake. It was a beautiful sight. We didn't learn until the next day that, while we watched, the US soccer team had lost to Ghana in overtime.
Today we left Lucerne and the mountains and drove our longest day yet--275 miles to Metz, France. We had two detours that frustratingly added to the length of the day, but since it was Sunday the traffic wasn’t too bad. We are camped along the Moselle River on an island in a city campground where we stayed when we first visited the city last year. We met a retired couple from Iowa who have biked around Europe for years--this year’s trip began in Amsterdam, will go to Rome, and back again. Even after having dinner with them and hearing their stories we can not imagine it.
The weather for the past couple of weeks has been either cool and even rainy or extremely hot and humid. The last few days have been the latter, which makes it hard to relax after driving or walking around. But by 8 or 9 pm the sun is usually behind trees or mountains, a welcome cool breeze arises, and, while the Europeans in the campground watch fussball or play petanque (?), we can log on and learn how far the Dow and the Twins have plummeted. Lately the answer, in both cases, has usually been "holy c---!"