Gruezi mitenand von Baar

I arrived in Zurich yesterday morning. The flight was fine- long, but uneventful. Herr Arnold (Jerry's dad) picked me up from the airport, and we took the train to Zug. We caught a bus in front of the Bahnhof that took us to Baar, where the Arnolds live. The two towns are right up against one another. I have been back and forth that way several times now, and still could not tell you where one ends and the other begins.

Jerry was still at school, but his mom drove me over to Einsiedeln while Herr Arnold went to work. We saw an old baroque cathedral that was pretty amazing. Inside, there is a small chapel build around a statue of Mary and Jesus. Apparently the church that used to house it burned down, but instead of burning up, the statue just turned black (the parts of it not covered in gold, of course). Now people say that it can work miracles- the back wall of the church is covered with pictures drawn by the grateful recipients of same. There are bundles of crutches hanging from the wall, gifts from those who no longer need them.

From there we went to the old part of Zug. The town grew up around an old castle, and some of the buildings date back to the 1400's! We came home to find Jerry back from school. He took me for a bike ride around Baar/Zug. We bought some schoggi (Swiss chocolate- yum!) from a nearby grocery store. He showed me the Pfaadi Haus, where the scouts keep their gear and hold programs on saturdays.

Switzerland is an interesting country. One of the first things you notice is how tidy everything is. Wherever you go, the grass is mowed and the people are neatly dressed and polite. In two days I have seen maybe a dozen pieces of litter, and not a single car that needed washing. There are little vegetable gardens all over the place, and when you get out into the country you can see neat little cornfields, or cows and goats graying away happily. Jerry says there are no really big farms in the whole country. Speaking of which...

The food here is good. It's different, but Frau Arnold seems to think it must seem more outlandish to me than it actually does. This morning we had a typical Swiss breakfast consisting of bread with cheese, peanut butter, or nutella, with orange juice or milch. For lunch we had pasta and Herdöpfel (potatoes) in something like alfredo sauce. You mix this with apfel sauce. The combination of flavors is unusual, but very tasty.

Auf widerluge for now. I'll post the rest of my adventures and upload pictures when I get to Hatfield.