Mountains.88
Alps in Switzerland or Austria on my way home from Rome, back in June.From The Air.38
2023 saw my first — and second! — visit to Geneva, with the second visit giving me the chance to watch the sun rise over mountains and lakes in France and Switzerland (above), with distant views including Mt Blanc back in France on the “far side” of Switzerland, as it were, from the side on which our plane had entered. The return flight from that first visit was an evening flight that let me watch the sun set over France and then watch cities over France, Belgium and NL light up (below) before we came in for our landing at Schiphol here in A’dam. One gallery for each flight, below.
Mountains.21
Mountains.20
Zurich: Many Churches & The World’s Largest Easter Bunny
A few random facts. In the process of returning from PNG to my US home on the west coast, I had to go the long way around in order to debrief at our HQ’s in Berlin and Amsterdam. That’s why you saw some Amsterdam photos recently – since I was in Berlin less than 24 hours, the camera didn’t come out there. In order to take a break from all the intensely long flights cramped into economy-class seats, I gave myself two weeks visiting friends in a few parts of Europe before returning to North America. These are the last Euro shots from this trip. They’re from Zurich & surroundings, where I was honored to stay with an Oberlin friend her family.
I’ll let the pics speak for themselves, and for those curious what stands out to my still-outsider eyes here in the US, I’ll share just two items noticed in the last 24 hours: on 3rd Street Promenade at a clothing store, the offer of a ‘survival kit’ which was two t-shirts and one pair of shorts for a special price – not quite sure where survival comes into it, but hey, knock yourselves out American consumers. Next: a very large SUV (noticed because it was large enough to squeeze me down in my bike lane on Main Street in Venice) called “Armada.” I sense a theme here, which I admit to my eyes and senses attuned to the neediest zones of the world seems, may I say, rather contrived and consumer-driven. Oh yeah, one more thing: my smart phone (first and only one, so far) is dying a rapid death so I went to T-Mobile where they try to finance all your phones. What’s the advantage to paying for the phone fully rather than financing it? Once you’ve paid at least half the value of your phone, you can ‘upgrade’ – this means, trade it in for a newer model. Planned obsolescence: it’s not just for cars any more! (And we all know how well that car thing has worked out for the world around us…) I really do want to take a full seven months off here, and I thought I wanted to consider working back here…but, sheesh, with such a consumer-driven culture, I really hardly want to settle in any more deeply than necessary to just see my friends and families & then get back to where things are more…well, whatever. You get what I mean, maybe. I’m not sure I do. I’m just sure I don’t feel like this all makes perfect sense yet.
(so much world, so little time....) 
