News Flash: Heat drives tourists to new lows.

Witnesses reported a crazy man who jumped into the fountain in Zurich's Stadlehofen district and danced while singing: "Singing in the Fountain what a glorious feeling" (in English, with a Bellingham dialect). The 32 degree weather and close proximity to a train station may have something to do with the bizarre behavior.

Beer and Ice Cream

Ruth and I had just finished a 55k bike ride past the Walenseen. With a few minutes to kill before the train, we headed to the store for the perfect after bike ride / riding home on the train treats. Can you guess whose idea it was to get ice cream and whose idea it was to get beer?

Playful Trinkenbrunnen

Within eight minutes of Zurich's main train station is this beautiful trinkenbrunnen (drinking fountain).

Boys will be boys

 Give two boys 8 minutes in a train station ... add a train with a poorly considered acronym ...  and this is what you get.

Sergio, Benoit, Beat, Brian and Paula

Our Bellinghamster friends took our challenge to find something to do with 8 minutes at the train station.  They had lots of creative ideas, but settled on joining in on SBB's (train company) marketing campaign - with Sergio, Benoit, and Beat.

Mission Apero

Mission: It is Saturday at 6:10pm. Find some wine and chips for apero before this train leaves. Half the town thinks they have a mad man running lose, but with the third store, mission accomplished.

Good Book: The Hunger Games

Ruth is on a reading craze thanks to my sister who sent among other things, the Hunger Games trilogy (she is reading the 2nd one here). She reads everywhere, include the 14 minutes between train connections. PS. Fiona, saw me run off to the left of the picture in search of some wine. She is still looking for me, 10 minutes later.

Hubba-Hubba! I'll have a plate of that.

On Sunday's returning home via the train, Ruth and I ran into a common problem, what to eat. Eating out is often a 40$ a plate slap in the face. And it is hard to get used to the fact that 40$ gets you a pretty average meal. The problem is on Sundays most grocery stores are closed. So, this Sunday I ran around the town of Bex to see if any place was worth eating at. Not surprisingly, everything was closed in Bex. Being the day before Valentine's Day, however, I did see something appetizing. Too bad for me . . this place was closed too, and the plate in the middle was only 100$ (really not in our budget).

Instead we got a baguette with brie and a weird butter concoction at a food stall in the train station. :(

In the wee hours...

What to do with 8 minutes at the train station #3: Find people with blue glowing horns in the wee hours of New Year's morning and convince them to let you take your picture with them.

Everyone is Ready

What to do with 8 minutes at the train station#2: With 8 minutes in Zurich Hauptbahnhof (HB) we checked out all the Holiday Cookies. Clearly the bakers are expecting large sales.

What to do with 8 minutes at the train station. #1

#1: Family portrait in the instant photo booth...