Nice Times in Zurich

Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008--Zurich (Continued)

We had a nice dinner in the evening. Claude baked sliced potatoes in the oven. And she stir-fried broccoli and cauliflower which were seasoned with soy sauce. It tasted great. Then she brought out a wonderful cake she had bought in the morning. It was a half-sphere (a dome) of sponge cake topped with cream and covered with a layer of marzipan. Delicious!

Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008--Zurich

Today was just gorgeous. The skies were completely clear. When I looked out the window there were no clouds other than a layer of fog along the river that was gradually dissipating.

After a breakfast similar to the one yesterday but including a special braided white bread (like challah) that the Swiss eat on Sundays, we headed out for a day in the mountains. Going with us were Losang, the teacher who just arrived here at the Buddhist center from England a few weeks ago, and Daniel, a friend of the teacher who is here helping him learn the German language for his work at the center. We took a street car to the edge of town and then a train most of the way up the mountain. We then hiked to the top where there is a restaurant near the TV tower. There, we each ate pumpkin soup and had something to drink. I had hot chocolate following my soup.

We continued to hike in the mountains with fantastic views of the snow and glacier-topped mountains in the distance, fields with cows and sheep, orchards, corn fields, small villages in the valleys, etc. Claude commented that she had never seen the mountains so clearly as we could see them today. We took a cable car back down to town where we caught a train and a street car to return to the neighborhood.

I talked quite a bit with Daniel who has been a Buddhist monk in the past. We discovered that we were in the same place at the same time last year--the town outside Leh in India where the Dalai Llama goes for a week each year to speak to pilgrims who come there to study and meditate. He travels to India often, so I gave him the address of St. Joseph International Academy in hopes he might stop there as a volunteer at some point in the future.

This is my last night away from home. Rolf is leading meditation in the temple early this evening. We will have dinner when he returns around 20:00. Then tomorrow morning I will go to the airport to catch my flight from here to Chicago which will be followed by a final flight from Chicago to San Antonio late tomorrow night.