Fondue!

More cheese please

The food has been amazing and plentiful on our trip. Every restaurant
has served from-scratch, fresh food and excellent coffee and bread.
We've had Bockbier last night, Swiss wine, Scotch whiskey, and plenty
of water "without gas" (carbonation).

We've also had so much good cheese. I think it's was served with every
meal, including the breakfast buffet. But the cheesy highlight was
visiting the old medieval town of Gruyere and eating a giant pot of
fondue. We dipped fresh French bread and boiled potatoes in the
perfectly melted blend of wine, Emmentaler and Gruyere cheese. And it
was so good, and we just couldn't stop eating, no matter how full we
felt until all the fondue was gone.

All except Charlie, that is, who loves cheese but has a lactose
intolerance. She tried a few glorious bites and vowed that next time
she comes back to Europe, she will pack more lactaid than CDs.

Oops, gotta run! Our host at this country guest house is arriving with
our breakfast. And look, he has cheese!

Travel Day

Today is the first big day of my trip and it involves many modes of transportation. Car, train, subway, taxi, and then airplane to Zurich. Leg one is done. Gonna try to catch a few Zzz on the train, but not too many, because I do want to sleep a long time on the plane.

I'm really excited to go - in a way that I hadn't anticipated. I've been so caught up in the details of planning and thinking about work that I forgot how profound international travel can be. It really rocks your core to be in a different culture, so that every minute is vibrant and special. I'm really looking forward to living in that heightened reality for a bit.

Also, I'm really excited to meet the people I have been emailing with and talking to on the phone. And to meet the local people at our shows! I feel lucky to travel in this way, not really a tourist.

AND I'm really excited to play music every night and get the band rockin' and just feel the commraderie of making art with friends.

Ok, my ticket is punched, sleepy time for me.

Making sure/Final preperations

Hi!!!!!!!

I'm so excited for my European tour, so all those exclamation points are warranted. I'm running around packing and getting everything ready. This message is just to make sure that I'm all set up to post blogs from my phone. Now I have to figure our how to get pictures in here. Maybe Facebook. I don't know. Better check my packing priorities and see what I have time for.

!!!!!!!!!! Just for good measure.