Meeting me at the Zurich train station on a Saturday afternoon several weeks ago, college friend Carrie said “welcome to Disneyland.” That was interesting, since Mom had commented that perhaps the French were unwelcoming of Eurodisney because, after all, pretty much the entire city of Paris is “Main Street, France.” That said, it’s true: Switzterland is almost too good, too beautiful, too clean, to be true. Great place to live, if you can get a job or afford it otherwise!

Yes, the town church where they live has settled into the ground unevenly. Picturesque, no?

After Switzerland came sections of the north-sea coastal zones in Germany and Holland, where Jens (exchange student chez moi in HS, with whose family I then lived for a year post-HS) and his family now live. The region (like a county) in Germany is east Frisia; in Holland it’s Frisia. They have a lot in common, historically, geographically and linguistically. Flat green fields and fresh sea breezes everywhere, canals dotted with little boats, modern and classical windmills all around – these can be counted on in this part of the world. Highlights: overnight camping in Groningen, Holland; overnight camping in the fields behind a friend’s house after a party and campfire to celebrate his 50th birthday.

What did we do in Groningen? Camp, eat “Mexican” (it tried, really it did) food in a really fun restaurant and finish the evening by playing dopplekopf (German card game that’s easier to learn than bridge, but probably harder to play well than bridge) together; began the day by drinking tea outside our tent, then sat in the main town square eating sandwiches, drinking more tea…and playing more dopplekopf. Now that’s my kind of weekend!

Although I spent a year living in an outer suburb of Hamburg after high school, and have visited that village many times in the intervening decades (gotta get used to viewing my life in terms of intervening decades…no sense beating around the bush on that one…), I really hardly know the city and have spent little time there. This was the first time that I went into the city with the sole intention of simply exploring it, and I found it utterly delightful. (In the past, there had always been a purpose: a movie, a concert, the art museum; this time the agenda was “explore the city.” It has not only a very busy and beautiful harbor front along the Elbe River and the Alster, a series of lakes that feed (I assume) into the Elbe, but also some beautiful old town squares, a gorgeous and beautifully-landscaped city park in the heart of downtown, and, oh yeah, one of the largest gay communities in Europe. Gotta like a city with those attributes.

Hamburg is the largest harbor in Germany, and what’s cool about it – compared, say, to LA and Long Beach, the largest and second-largest harbors in the US, is that it’s on a river which is also actively used for commuter and other transport. All of these pictures of the harbor were taken from a ferry trip I took on a one-day Hamburg transit pass, which also took care of my subway and streetcar rides, everywhere in the city.