out and about

Happy summer!  Maybe it’s just because my birthday is coming up soon (hey, 31, how you doin’?) or maybe it’s because all the sunshine has gone to my head or maybe it’s all the ice cream I’ve been eating … but this summer is shaping up pretty well so far.

To start things off, Nadine and I met up in Berlin — which seems like a long time ago now, though actually it was only about 10 days ago — and what a nice welcome it was to see a fellow knitter.  She saw the sights, I went to the library, we both enjoyed dinner together.  Not a bad start at all.  (Though neither of us remembered to take pictures.)

Then I went to Switzerland.  It rained.

This church is across the border in Germany, on an island, and very old.  The weather played nice, the rain stopped, and we all — all seven of us — enjoyed a walk around Reichenau Island.

It was a lovely way to end a too short visit.  A visit that nonetheless managed to include a new bag for me:

It’s so pretty and green!  And made of truck tarps and seat belts!

My suitcase, however, proved decidedly less rugged.  The zipper broke just as we were leaving for the train station … uh oh.  A little engineering magic saved the day and nothing exploded on the night train.  In fact, the only surprise was that my “ladies compartment” contained four men.  And me.  So that didn’t go as planned.

I did, however, arrive unmolested and with a functioning suitcase.

I was very happy to find “The Third Man” still playing in Vienna.

Today, I visited a museum then enjoyed some café culture, which included a little reading and a whole lot of sitting and watching the world go by while sipping coffee and enjoying Kaiserschmarrn … which is pretty much dessert disguised as a meal: a sweet pancake cooked in butter.  This time with plum sauce and lots of powdered sugar.

But the best part of summer?  Freckles!

I’m back home soon and, I promise, knitting will commence.