Feeling Naked

Today we begin the traveling-light phase of our trip. Mark and I will carry only our backpacks while we hike in Switzerland for the next month. We parted with our laptops and kindles today… it was a libblelit* scary, I must say. We were able to leave them in our Africa/Kili luggage in a locked storage area at the Ibis Hotel until we return in a month – for free! We each have an ipad mini and a cell phone which will be my blogging instruments. Please excuse any typos and formatting oddities, and while I`m asking, any bad writing.

We will have a 4 day interlude of motorcycling, for which we sent our luggage (helmets, leathers, etc.) ahead on the train to Thun, where we`ve rented bikes. They have an excellent system here; as long as you can show a current train ticket, you can send your luggage ahead to a train station where they will hold it for you for up to a month. A bargain at 12 Swiss Francs/bag since we didn`t need the same-day-guaranteed delivery service. One snag with the luggage, my leather jacket was ?stolen? from Pam and Scott`s luggage on the way over from Dallas last night. It had a big butterfly on the back, blue to match my Harley… Dangit! Also taken were Mark`s motorcycle pants and down vest, one of Scott`s flip flops, and a few other miscellaneous items (like a scruffy old water bottle, and some $1 carabiners). Most puzzling was a yellow sticky note IN the bag with Scott`s name, flight numbers and baggage claim number hand written on it. Weird.

We are traveling on the train to Meiringen.

The mountains are rising up into the clouds, the glacial-water lakes are catching the light misty rain that`s falling and the poison green pastures are dotted with Swiss chalets, bell-wearing cows and people out walking. Pics will follow this week as the sun is scheduled to appear beginning tomorrow. And things do run on time here in Switzerland.

* Libblelit: Granddaughter Emma`s word for `little bit` at age two; we`ve adopted the term

Sent from my iPad