Our first stop was Rainer's hometown of Basel, Switzerland. Haley and her boyfriend, Eric, joined us for the first week and we hit the ground running. We went to an FC Basel soccer game the night we arrived. I've learned to share Rainer's heart with this team. It was an especially exciting night as they had just won the Swiss championship. After the game we joined thousands of fans walking a couple of miles to the city center for celebrations. Rainer also introduced Haley and Eric to their first Turkish Dueruem Doener (like a gyro, but different) which I think would be of great interest to Anthony Bordane. The next day Rainer gave us quite a tour of Basel. It's a great combination of old and new and clean is an understatement. I think Haley was the one that said the 3 second rule is the 20 minute rule in Switzerland.
Rainer's mother also joined us in Basel, and on to Grindelwald which was really nice. I felt like Heidi walking through a story book. Fields of wild flowers, chalets, grazing cows with bells ringing, and of course the snow capped Alps. I could not quit giggling. The Eiger was right outside our balcony! We took a gondola to the Männlichen and hiked down the mountain through magical forests and on to a train back to town. The next day river rafting in ice cold water (wet suits) and all survived.
The only thing that could have made those 3 days better would be having my mom there. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see this with all my friends and family, but I especially felt like she should have been with us. Maybe next year. :)
We then headed back to Basel to the Zoo (one of Michael Jacksons old hang outs), to the Muenster, and hanging out with Rainer's friends. After one short week, we had to say goodbye to Haley and Eric. What a bummer.
Rainer and I headed on to Zurich to visit more of his friends for a few days. We were spoiled by all and my pants were definately tighter. Züri G'schnätzlets! Google it.
