International
Friends Week
(October
5 - October 30, 1998)
You can click on "photos"
to
get directly to the photo page.
I was working in the Chicago area just prior to this trip to Germany
and I got to visit one weekend with Charlie Vrabel, a boyhood friend
from my days on
Long Island and his wife Dee. It was pretty great to see him
again and
reminisce. It had been many years since we had seen each
other. He lives is
Springfield, IL and I've always wanted to get to that area. We
spent that Saturday
morning at a local, but large, Apple & Pork Festival. In the
afternoon, he
took me to New Salem so I could see where Abe Lincoln lived before he
made a name for himself. All in all, a short, but great visit.
Last week in Germany was INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS WEEK. We met and
had dinner with Manfred and Brigitte Boffo. Some of you may
remember that I
mentioned them in one of the May Germany travelogues. We hadn't
seen them
since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and this year we got to visit with
them
twice. We
met one evening last week for dinner and had a great time chatting
about various
topics. Brigitte invited Diane to go with her to a luncheon on
Thursday
afternoon. There is a group of four German women and one American
woman and they
alternate houses every week to meet and speak only in English.
Last week
the luncheon was at the American woman's house and Diane found out the
woman used to
live in the Atlanta area. Diane said she had a great time and the
lunch
was home cooked and top notch.
Over the weekend we drove to visit our friends Peter and Yoko in
Wollerau, Switzerland (pronounced Vollerau), which is along
Lake Zurich and about 45 minutes from Zurich. It was
also the first time we got to see their 6-month old daughter,
Naoko. Due to the fact that we had to go to north Germany in May,
we were not able to
visit with them during that visit, so this extra trip to Germany turned
out
to be a great opportunity for us to drive to Switzerland.
First,
a few words about how Peter and I became friends. We met in early
1993. I was on my first audit
(in Boulder,
CO), Peter on maybe his third or fourth audit. We ended up
working 3-4 audits in a
row together, including one in the UK which, for me, was my first ever
trip out of
the USA. It was great and I knew then I would like this worldwide
travel job,
although Diane hadn't yet started to travel with me. It got even
better when she started to travel with me. Well, as 1993 went on,
Peter and I worked several audits together and became close friends or,
as our manager at the
time used to joke
with us, "male bonding". We met up again in the fall of 1993 to
do
back-to-back audits in Japan, which meant EIGHT weeks in Tokyo.
It was the
first trip for both of us to Japan and it was the beginning of an
instant love affair that we both had with Japan. We had a great
time taking in the sights along with
other
team members, including many of the shrines and temples around Tokyo, a
trip to Nikko, and a trip to Mount Fuji. The sad part about not
having travelogues from my first tour in Audit from 1993 to 1996 is not
having stories about some of those places, especially the great Sunday
afternoons we spent in Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. As it turned out,
Peter met Yoko during an audit he
was working in 1995, which was the one Japan audit that we didn't work
on together. They got married in
1996 and Naoko was born in April of this year. The last time we
saw Peter and Yoko was during a 1997 vacation Diane and I took to
Europe, our only trip out of the USA that year that I was working
behind a desk again. So we were very much looking forward to this
weekend trip to visit with them again.
This was my sixth trip into Switzerland, having gone to Peter's house
on three successive weekends when we worked on an audit in Milan in
1994.
Diane was just starting to do some traveling with me then and was there
for the
third of those weekend trips. I also spent four weeks in Zurich
in 1996 along with Diane who was then traveling with me 100% when I was
out of the
USA. Last
summer we spent about four days with Peter and Yoko during our summer
vacation in
Europe and now this trip. I have to tell you that Switzerland is
one
country it is impossible to get tired of visiting and this trip was no
different. We arrived at their home in Wollerau on Friday evening
in time for dinner. Peter knew how much I loved learning about
racelette during one of the trips to his home in 1994, so that's what
they prepared for us. This
is a marvelous Swiss cheese that is melted and served with boiled
potatoes, pickles,
onions and, of course, some good wine. Peter also gave me some
kirsch,
which he said would help digest the cheese. Wow, if one is not
used to that
stuff, you would think you were drinking methyl alcohol. Strong
stuff.
About noon on Saturday we set out for a drive with no particular
destination in mind other than Einsiedeln, which is a small tourist
town with the
Kloster Einsiedeln (a monastery) as its main attraction. It
houses a
statue of the Black Madonna and has been visited by Pope John Paul
II. Peter went to high school
there. We walked around the town, then out to the lake outside
the town, then
along the lake for a while and back to the car. Peter did the
driving as we
headed to Oberiberg to get something to eat. Needless to say the
scenery
was breathtaking. It's hard to describe the beauty of the hills
and
the mountains and the chalets and it was SOOO green due to the large
amounts of rain
Peter and Yoko said they have had this year. The trees had their
fall
foliage and some of the distant mountains were snow-capped. We
stopped at the
Restaurant Sager in Oberiberg for lunch and it was so pleasant that we
ate
outside. It was another one of those 'I can't believe they are
paying me to do
this' feelings as we sat with good friends, eating rosti (I can't even
begin
to tell you how to pronounce that, but there are two dots, an oomlat,
over the
'o') outside on a pleasant 72 degree day, in Switzerland, in
October.
Wow!
After lunch, Peter continued the drive as we went over the Ibergeregg
pass, a 2 lane road that is only 1 1/2 lanes wide. ;-)
Thanks to
the beautiful weather, the motorcyclists, bicyclists, walkers, and
motorists were all
out in force. I have never seen so many motorcycles on one road
in
a
continuous stream as during that drive, and they ride their bikes fast
and lean them way
over as they twist and turn on this narrow road. Not for the
faint of
heart. In a couple of spots we had to stop and make sure both
cars could pass each
other without touching. In another spot a bus was coming up as we
were going
down and we had to back up the hill to a place we could pull over and
let the
bus pass. In yet another spot cars would have to decide who was
going through
what became a 1 lane road. Thank goodness Peter was
driving. I could
never have enjoyed the scenery if I was behind the wheel, but I'm sure
Peter knew that
when he offered to drive. Again, the beauty of the countryside is
beyond
what I could adequately put into words.
God, Diane and I do love this traveling. I once asked a colleague
early on in
my travels if she ever got tired of it and her response was a simple,
"the no, the
more you see, the more you want to see". She was right on and
that is
exactly how Diane and I feel about traveling which, I'm sure, is why we
still have plans
to travel full-time in an RV and travel the USA. When you see
things like
we
saw this past weekend, the minor inconveniences of lost luggage,
delayed planes
and, yes, even people who want to spritz us with mustard and rip us
off, do
not make us want to stop traveling. We totally love taking in the
local culture and food. Needless to say, it helps to have
someone paying all of my expenses and, for Diane, her travel expenses
from home to site to home. We only have to pay for the hotel
(which usually doesn't cost more for an extra person), food and laundry.
For some of my colleagues, this is a back-to-back trip because Germany
is followed by Paris. Due to a slip in the dates for these two
audits, I was not able to get on the Paris team because my nephew is
getting married
November 7. See how important you are Michael? ;-)
Just kidding. I
wouldn't miss your wedding for anything and I can hardly wait.
Well, as things would
have it, we are finishing up here in Germany this week and my manager
asked me if
I'd like to go to Paris until I have to leave to return to the USA for
the
wedding. Ha! As if she really needed an answer. It
was like, when do we
leave for Paris. Diane and I are tickled pink at yet another
opportunity to get back to
Paris, which we both love.
On a final note, Peter had his sights set on a digital camera and asked
me if I could bring one over for him (saves the shipping). So
this is a
first for my travelogues - PHOTOS. He sent me a few that he took
with his new
toy. His first two photos were of me and Diane. Also
included below are a
photo of Naoko, the monastery in Einsiedeln, of me and Diane along the
lake. Some of you who get these notes have never met me or Diane
so now you get to
put a face with the note. Probably not as good as putting a face
with a
voice, but it's a start. I hope you all have what you need to
view these photos
with your browser or other appropriate software. Sorry, but Peter
is a bit
camera shy and knew that I would include his photo if he sent it to me,
so no
photos of Peter and Yoko. ;-)
Until next time.
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NOTE: Little did Peter imagine
that almost seven years later I would have a website on which I would
publish these international travelogues, and that I could scan the
photos that Diane took during our visit. :-) The photos of
me and Diane in Peter's house were taken by Peter. The photos of
me and Diane along the lake and of the monastery were taken by Diane as
they came out better.
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