twodoebs

My Dearest doebette,

Although we may still be separated by a large ocean and thousands of miles, you remain close to my heart. While the Swiss people are very kind, I continue to yearn for you, my true love.

I, actually, had a great day today and you would have been so proud of me. Our meeting was great. We made lots of good headway planning the case and arrived at some good, solid decisions that I think will really strengthen our position. Do NOT let Libby put that cell phone anywhere NEAR her head!

Anyway, we wrapped up early in the afternoon. So I put on my walking shoes and went for a LONG walk--over SIX miles (that's over 9.5 kilos, for those of you hip enough to speak foreign).

And I didn't get lost ONCE! (So if you see my mother, would you please tell her that I took rather indignant pride in myself?)

Actually, I took my iPhone along with me. And it was REALLY cool for the task because I asked it to follow my walk and it just drew a line for me of where I'd been so I could never GET lost. Kind of like a more modern version of Gretel's breadcrumbs (do you remember when we were going to name Heidi Gretel?)

Here's a map of everywhere I went. I realize that this doesn't do MUCH for you, but it gives a sense of the islands that I visited, the parks I walked through, and the waterfront that I explored:



The other cool thing about having my iPhone with me was that I could take pictures. I tried had not to be "that guy" and just take pictures of things that would have sucked if they weren't in Europe ("just because it's in black and white doesn't mean it's good") and I really wished I had my big camera with me, but I got some shots that capture the flavor.


First thing I did was ask the woman behind the front desk of our hotel where I should go on my walk. You know, to get some local direction. She told me to head WEST towards the "Old Town."
So--of course--first thing I did was head North to the "New Town." And what I realized there is that they have all the same things that we have in Shadyside. Or Georgetown. Or Ross Park Mall. Basically United Colors of Benetton. And McDonalds. And Earnst & Young. I even saw a City Mini stroller!





Having lived in New York for so long and always wondering what tourists were thinking as they wondered around the city (I don't get that so much in Pittsburgh), it was nice to actually BE one of those tourists and wonder what all those people were thinking as they went about their life in this cool city (I don't get the sense people wonder what I'm thinking as I go about my life in Pittsburgh).
I saw some youngsters playing a ball game that all the locals kept calling "football." But I stayed there for more than a few minutes and there weren't any concussive hits, so I must have missed something in the translation.




I saw the Royal Palace, the Official Apartments, and what was EITHER their Supreme Court or an opera house--I'm not sure (for some reason, every time I try to use that fancy new app I bought on my iPhone to translate signs from Swiss into English, it gets screwed up).
The ONE bummer was that the very cool nautical memorabilia shop that sells old sextons and stuff written in Eurpoean was already closed. And I just KNOW that's the place where I'm going to find a nice little gift to give Victor for sending me on this trip. So I'll have to go back there.
Anyhow, two hours later, I made it back to the hotel. This, by the way is OUR hotel: