Weekend Update Sans Liz

In an effort to keep the blog running while Liz is in Greece (she is doing very well by the way and gets back to Zurich on Thursday - just in time to meet Mags in London on Friday), I have posted a few pictures (see below) of my rafting adventure on the Inn River on Sunday. No captions for the pictures (sorry), you will just have to read on to get the scoop.

I did a full day, two section run of the Inn, which starts in the Swiss Alps and flows toward Austria. It was much better than the outing on the Luetschine as the Inn actually feels like a river, and the drops are better. Further, the weather was perfect, high 70s and not a cloud in the sky, one of those days that makes you question working in an office everyday. The travel time was 3 hours each way, but worth it as I was headed into my favorite Swiss canton to visit, Graubünden (the only canton where they speak Switzerland's fourth language, Romansh). The views were spectactular, however, when I arrived the laid back management (always Aussies or New Zealanders) didn't really confirm what trip I was on and next thing I know I get tossed into the Family Tour section. I'm not an expert rafter or anything, but didn't plan on 6 hours roundtrip travel for the "Family Tour" with 8 year olds. Things got resolved and we were on our way, I was even able to confirm my seat for the more challenging afternoon run, which put me in better spirits.

All and all the rafting was pretty fun. The highlight for me as captured in the pictures below (I can be seen, for amoung other reasons - aka height, in the yellow helmet) as we "surfed" a wave on the second section of the river. I wouldn't call it surfing myself but I'll explain and you can decide. Basically, we paddled quickly upstream into a rapid causing our boat nosedive into the cascading water, shooting the rapid back into the boat, especially to those sitting in front. I would like to add that other safety boats are around for any problems. After spinning in the rapid for about a minute (I am in back of the boat at this moment), our two front guys fall out. The guide then asks if I want to give it a shot, and before he finishes his question I am up there. So the majority of the pictures show me nosediving into this rapid (that's me holding the paddle) for what was probably 2-3 minutes before we turned sideways and I, in turn, fell out as well. All and all pretty fun.

The long train rides gave me plenty of time to observe the Swiss in their element, including one lady who had her Sony Discman, yes that's right, Discman on the train with her. Now I know that I didn't latch onto the whole iPod thing right away, but really a Discman and CD case? Wow. Secondly on the way home I was tired and really didn't want to sit right next to anyone, so I purposely picked a section of seats (two on one side and only one on the other) that I thought would have a low probability of being filled by anyone else - I thought wrong. I put my bag next to me (normal protocal for everyone) and then began to slouch like only Duchek males can in an attempt to further cement my personal space. Well a Swiss lady with horribly dyed violet / purple hair (is that the same color?) and her companions boarded the train a few stops later, and I think purposefully picked my set of seats and the ones across the aisle solely as if to stay "no, you are not going to take up all three of these seats and I don't care if you give me no leg room, I am sitting here", which is all fine, but the slouch came to an and any chance of sleeping was out of the question now... Then it got worse - about 20 minutes into the her ride, she stands up and calls her friend over to pull the train window down. We were already knocking knees and now she moves to within 6 inches of me (remember personal space is not a right in Europe), side boob right in my face at eye level and I don't even get an excuse me. I thought about moving, but that would be conceeding, so I just stuck it out...

Good weekend here. Next up - Viggiano's arrival. Have a great week everyone.