Arrived Safely in Zurich

My flight to Zurich was fine. It was about a half hour late due to something or other, but I landed just fine. Started to hear the Swiss languages. Someone at the gate saying on a cell phone, "Oui, exactemaw, exactemaw!" But mainly it is German here. The Swiss are very efficient with touches of south German. They greet each other with a sing-songy "Grus Gott!" We (the tour bus) got pulled over by Swiss cops. Not so much pulled over as they started flashing : "Folgen . . . Bitte . . . Folgen . . . Bitte" on an electric sign over the Polizei car as they pulled in front of us. No sirens, no loud speakers. Just very quiet and polite. And we followed politely to a truck stop area. It was a random inspection. I thought this was efficient, but the German driver, Kurt (pronounced, "Koort") complained as we left, "Zweite malle? im zehn jahre!" Zweite malle? im zehn jahre!" [only twice in ten years! (i.e. those guys are off their game!)]

Fr. Skeris is, of course, speaking German all over the place and it is coming back to me. He gave a talk on the bus (in English) about Charlemagne or, as he prefers, "Karle Grosse" - "as he really was a German." (when not "Carolus Magnus"). I will try to blog some on this tommorrow.

The Insel Reichenau is quite beautiful. It reminds me somewhat of Macinaw Island, but without some of the tackier tourist traps. However, they do let cars on the Island - but there ARE many bikes and bike paths. Obviously the hotel has a very good Wi-Fi internet connection.

We drove though Konstanz and I caught a glimpse of the Cathedral.

I must get off the Internet and take a short rest before dinner as I have been up since 5:30 AM London time. It is now 4:30 PM (Reichenau is actually just across the German border) - and I lost and hour between England and Germany.