Champers in Zurich

I landed in Zurich on Saturday morning to visit Kats!! Kats lives in a suburb of the city called Langnau on the Albis (I would have called it a mountain but wikipedia says the Albis is a range of hills).

Shortly after I landed, we planned our first walk.  George dropped us off at the base of a trail up the Albis and took Leo to the market.

 Along the trail there was an observation tower (good for Fitbit flights!) and this was our view.

 Kats' friend and neighbor Stephanie from Texas joined us for the walk.  Those of you who read Kats' blog know her as Texswiss.

 It's hard to tell from these photos but the sky was very ominous when we started out and it wasn't long before the clouds burst.  We were drench and had to walk the last 45 minutes home in a downpour.  (The sticks were for shlepping through the slippery mud terrain - the weather here has been pants for several days and everything is a bit soupy.)

 Our reward was a rainbow…actually it looks like a double!  I didn't even see that other faint rainbow off to the left until I posted this pic.  This was taken from the window of my (Leo's) room.

Next stop - the champagne bar for Kats' birthday girls night out.

 There were so many people there that I don't even remember all the names to put with the faces.  But some of you will recognize the name Manitu from Kats' blog.  She was the token Swiss miss - all the others were ex-pats, mostly from England and the US.  Manu was so sweet - it was easy to see why she and Kats are friends.

Look at the happy birthday girl!  Every time I turned around more of her mates were strolling in.  The bar has a fixed price deal for all you can drink champagne but this crowd threatened to put them out of business so at 11pm the lights were on and they said they were closing (early, according to Kats, to get us out!) 

 One of the girls brought her pal Ian.  Guess who I spent much of the night chatting with? Since neither of us knew anyone we quickly gravitated to each other.  I originally noted that he was gay but Bill said that it sounded like I wasn't "evolved".  He was the only man at a the hen night so figure it out for yourselves.

I can't believe that I'm already leaving Zurich in the morning - this weekend went way too fast but I'll be able to keep it alive for a few more days on the blog.