The Switzerland Report
Prepared by Anne
Executive Summary
Background: Emma moved to Lucerne, Switzerland in July 2008. Not a day has gone by without someone asking me for information on Emma’s new life. It wasn’t until this year, July 2009, that I was able to investigate and write this report for her constituents in the United States and England.
Engagement Objectives:
1) Travel to Switzerland
2) Meet Emma’s Swiss family and friends
3) See how she lives
4) See what she eats
5) Take a side trip to the Riviera
Scope:
Full
Methodology:
The subject of this report is very forthcoming, hospitable, and gracious, so I did not need to employ any fancy methodology to retrieve my information.
Recommendations: Go to Lucerne now if you haven’t. Go again now if you have. Make sure to go to Pilatus, Eigenthal, Rotsee, the KKL, and Wissifluh. Catch a train to Liechtenstein. Meet our relatives there and don’t leave without schnapps. Don’t forget the Riviera is close by so go down there if you can.
Engagement Results:
On July 27, we arrived in Munich on a 10 hour Lufthansa flight from San Francisco. Next up, a short hop to Zurich on Augsburg Airlines. Augsburg Airlines? As a completely paranoid passenger with an equally neurotic husband (who visits airsafe.com daily), I travel on a few choice airlines and don’t even like those. Nor do I like being bussed out to a tiny plane on a tarmac in the middle of n-o-w-h-e-r-e. Our stewardess with eyes and nose swollen shut from collagen didn’t exactly calm my nerves but she did distract me. We made it through a turbulent, mountain thunderstorm and landed safely in Zurich. At baggage we could see the sweet faces of Ilia, Emma, and Kaleo waiting for us on the other side of a glass wall. We spent 10 minutes waving and blowing kisses while waiting for our bags to unload. We expected a wait at customs too, but instead walked to freedom through an unmanned customs station.
The drive to Lucerne is black night punctuated by thick bolts of lightening holding their poses across the sky. It is pitch darkness at the country house where we arrive to stay, a night of thunder booms and bright flashes. We are beside the Red Lake and I am startled by the first commuter train that blows by in the night, a reminder that I am in a place where bovine rub shoulders comfortably with modern transportation.
Emma and Kaleo arranged for us all to stay in a farmhouse on Rotsee Lake and spent the previous two days moving in the necessities. What a place to land. After quesadillas and some delicious salsa Kaleo made, we tucked in for the night.
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