Daley Ponderings

We missed our intended tram for the morning, but the next one got us to church just barely in time.  In fact, we met the Dutlers coming up the sidewalk.  It was nice to visit Janet's church.  This is, in fact, where she met Stephan.  Jon told Jonathan he could go to Sunday School if he wanted to, and he did.  This was his first time.

During the fellowship time afterwards, Jonathan made a sword out of paper to go with the Roman helmet that someone from the other Sunday School class gave him.  Then he went running around the courtyard playing Roman Soldier.

After that, Stephan took us on a scenic walking route through Basel to an American-style diner.  On the way, we saw a very interesting kind of beggar.  He was dressed all in a gold suit, with a little toy dog next to him that wagged its head.  At first, the man looked like a statue, but he moved just slightly as we passed.  Noah was fascinated with the dog, and when Stephan finally tossed a coin in the bucket, the man stood up and gave a very animated performance.  Noah did not want to leave him, but I felt he was kind of creepy.

Noah and I lagged behind the group because the sights were so interesting.  After a detour to see a fountain (with a Lallekönig on it) we went on ahead and then discovered that there was no longer anyone to follow.  It was bright sunny and hard to see ahead, but I was pretty sure they were gone.  There was an intersection there, but I didn't see anyone down that street either. I decided the only thing to do was to stay put until they noticed we were missing.  It turns out the diner was right on the corner of that intersection, and eventually Jon came out and found us.

It was fun to have the Swiss version of American fare without the fast-food/McDonald's aspect.  I had a burger with raclette cheese, walnuts and an apple.  It was yummy.  We also had some of Mom's favorite ice cream (Mövenpick.)  I liked the sorbet the best. We sat there eating and talking for quite some time, and then it was time to say goodbye to everyone except Janet and Stephan.

We walked to Tinguely Fountain, which had several giant ice formations, but some of the smaller moving fountains were clear and running.  My favorite was the spoon-walker.

After that, we walked to the Hammering Man.  It turns out we had been at that intersection before on a tram, and if I had just known what direction to look, we could have seen the Hammering Man.  But on foot, we got to see him up close and get silly pictures taken.

Then it was goodnight to the Stücklins and we took the #10 tram back to the Dutlers.  We had dinner with the Dutlers again and spent the evening packing and spending time with them.  Sarah helped Jonathan and Noah make sturdier swords and shields out of cardstock and newspaper.  Jonathan colored a Swiss flag and then Sarah printed out one from the computer for him.  We went to bed, our last night in Switzerland.