Swiss Misses

Today is a rainy, gray day in Lucerne. We had a wonderful time in Alsace but couldnät find any place to upload pictures. We will try again here today. Alsace was full of tiny medival towns. Our hotel was outside the walls of the sity of Riquewihr. Our room looked out the back to a hillside of vineyards. there were wineries and vineyrds everywhere. Also strawberry fields and fields of corn starting to grow. we would see castles in the Vosges Mountains. A favorite stop was at Ribeauville where re returned to a couple times. There are storks that live in giant nests perched on the top of the houses. We went to a stork rehabilitation center outside of the town. Apparently in the 70's the storks were becoming endangered. they were being killed in their migrations to Africa. so the center was established to keep the storks from migrating. if they were keep in one place for 3 years they would lose their migratory instinct and stay in place and have babies. when the baby storks hatched they would be born with the migratory instinct. it was quite a fascinating place and just lovely to see giant storks gracefully soaring overhead and landing onto trees that were full of nests. It was in Alsace that Bob could have his beloved Tarte Flambe, a regional favorite of cheese, onion, bacon on a very very thin crust. wash that down with some alsacian wine and your have a lovely meal. cinnamon is unexpectedlz ( to us) used to flavor a lot of food. We bought a bottle of liquer that has the flavor of anise and cinnamon. Kelly ordered a hawaaian pizza at a little rerstaurant in Ribeauville and it had cinnamon sprinked on it.
We have decided that the French must have a screening process to limit the waiters and waitresses to only very voilatile personalities. (similar to the way you check a puppy to see if it is passive or aggressive.) We had stopped at the Autopark for a snack on the way to Lucerne. I walked up to the coffee bar and asked for a cup of tea. When the waitress poured the hot water into a big china cup, I said "no, take away, sil vous plait." You would have thought I had called her mother a horrible name! Her eyes widened - she expelled a lot of air, grabbed a regular coca cola paper cup and dumped the hot water into the paper cup and shoved it at me with great flouish. Luckily the cup didn^'t melt in my hand. Tres interesting. Just when we were starting to minimally function in French, they are speaking German here in Switzerland and we just stare blankly when people start talking.
We were not even stopped at the Swiss border, we were just waved on through. We drove between rolling green hillsides and through long tunnels. the tunnels here have exits or escapes which surprised us. the Alps loomed ahead as we drove into Lucerne. Our lives( and marriage) have been saved by the GPS system that we brought with us. We heard it is 90° in DC It's about 50° and rainy here. We are off to have fondue and raclette for lunch today. K and I will try to uplad pictures - but we canät promise anything.