The Window

One small window can mean so much to a traveler.  Our Gruyere room was very small but the window opened up an outside world that was so different for us.  Through that window we saw rainbows, ravens, pastoral landscapes full of cattle, sheep, distant villages, sunsets and storm clouds.  The sound of a church choir on a Sunday morning with an accompaniment of beautifully tuned church bells also drifted through that window to greet us on our day of arrival.  But most magical of all was at 3:30am during our first night's sleep in Europe.

With the time difference of 8 hours terrorizing our biological clocks, 3:30 am was 8:30pm the night before....for us.  So sleep was light.  I lay in bed in a half dream state, touched on the shoulder by Karen.  All she said was Dan...I responded I know.  We slept with the window open...the clean fresh undiluted Swiss air was too much of a temptation to resist.  What did I know?  Karen was wanting me to listen to the sound coming through the window....I had already been listening before she tapped me on the shoulder.  The distant soft ringing of cowbells tracking their nighttime movements  in the mountains just outside the window. I had not heard this since 1970...that last time I was here.  Hypnotized by the lack of sleep and the melodic beauty of the bells, I got up and actually recorded the sound.  We now have the sound of the bells to remind us of that first night in Switzerland and magical 10 days we spent there.

Now it was time to move to our next adventure....Colmar France.

Dan