What an amazing weekend I have had. It all started with the great news that Mark and Emma had got engaged. What a super couple!
I will be heading back at the end of the summer camps next year for the wedding in August and can enjoy the first spring in New Zealand for years!
Before leaving for my weekend of socialising, I caught up with Nik and Irene in Pfaeffikon. It was so nice to be back sitting on their balcony with them again.
Next highlight was my annual visit to Canton Uri to my friends of many years, Mario and Bernadette. I just love going there to such a warm welcome on the top floor of the most beautiful ,old , but immaculate, wooden chalet imagineable. With two creative people living there, it is no wonder that it feels as if you have entered a scene from a fairy tale. Not only that, the meals and accompanying food are just delicious,followed by tea and coffee under the overhanging eaves of the chalet, with views of Bernadette's wonderfully secluded little garden in the background .
Then back on the train to cross inner Switzerland to Thun, close to my very first home in Switzerland, Interlaken. It was an incredible evening, starting with being met at the station by Marlis and Urs, both of whom I have known for 25 years now!
It is hard to believe that I taught Marlis English in NZ so many years ago. Where did those years go?
And here I was in Thun, at yet another musical, this time Cats. Only one week ago I had been at Walenstadt watching Saturday Night Fever with Dennis. What an incredible number of amazing events in such a short time!
I have to say that this version of Cats was undoubtedly the best of the four I have seen, with its spectacular setting on a stage on the Lake of Thun, mountains all around us, its lovely set, colourful costumes and make up, brilliant singing and dancing, plus some truly breathtaking acrobatics.
The weather also played its part. The night before there had been some most impressive storms in many parts of Switzerland, but tonight it was calm and also a pleasant temperature. So fortunate!
It was great to be back in Tafers once again staying with Marlis and Urs. I have to say that the clothes drier reminded me of the hundreds of pairs of socks I used to wash, though I have to admit that they were never so white and never so perfectly hung up! I need to take a few lessons I think!
After a leisurely brunch with the family (I have enjoyed watching Larissa, Andrin and Kai growing up , as I have visited Tafers virtually every year for two decades! ) we set off for The Schwarzsee, a very picturesque and very popular lake, tucked in amongst the surrounding mountains. There were so many people out enjoying the walk around the lake, barbequing, SUP and paragliding even though this photo below would lead one to believe there was nobody ekse there!
The last time I was there was in mid winter when the walk around the lake was treacherously icy. I have to admit that I enjoyed our stroll today much more and also enjoyed the wonderful green hillsides of summer much more.
Once more a fabulous meal in the evening, accompanied by a great wine. Wow, I was being really spoilt!
Then today I visited yet two more friends near Bern, Beatrice and Andy. I thought I had met them only five years ago, but it turns out it was 10 years ago! Unbelievable. We sat in Andy's recently finished garden hut (he is a very talented builder) and enjoyed a scrumptious meal, with this fabulous , though a little hazy, view of the Berner Oberland, my home for four years when I was in my early twenties. Little did I know then that I would still be visiting Switzerland forty years later!
It was a fantastic weekend in every possible way. A trip down memory lane as well as fine dining and a marvelous musical, then hone to Russikon and a lovely meal and evening chatting with Trudi in her garden till late. It is so marvelous to have all these good friends here in Switzerland as well as back home.
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