All good things must come to an end.....

It is now really cold and rainy here and the Schneiders have left; So, alas, must we. We had some nice days even in the cold...watched a triathalon where these poor people were absolutely frozen. The lech team (you can enter as a team) won. We stayed to watch the Lech runner go, and it was something to behold. Her leg consisted of a 12 kilometer run around semi flat (and therefore, semi not) lech.  I cannot tell you how beautiful it was to watch her. We were standing in freezing rain and she was bouncing around in shorts and those high socks people wear now (compression socks) pony tail..bounce bounce waiting for her team-mate- the bicycle rider to come in. And then she took off like a little gazelle...like someone was chasing her. Up up this hill she went, past a man on a mountain bike (!) he was not part of the competition..and he was looking behind him as if to say Shit!!!! do I owe her money???!!!! and she tore past him, into the mountains out of view. It choked me up of course: Run girl run.

Before they left, K and I took the kiddies to a bridge. In typical K fashion, the plans were vague..something about a bridge..blah blah.....swim in the river after, blah. Ok I ask,....is there a walk? No she says. Ok, so I come in ballet flats. Because this is Austria and she is a Schneider, there was of course a walk. 30 minutes up hill in my flats. Then onto a suspension bridge that is swinging  in the wind...three hundred feet in the air. Swinging a lot. K was scared. I was beyond that. Something new: Naird. or Fraid. In any case, it was a whole new word.  The kids scamper across, then turn, and from 200 meters away at the end, start to yell and run at top speed towards us. Ok first of all this is forbidden..no running. second it is making the thing shake. Little girls start to cry. K and I scream STOP RUNNING!!! but I (due to dramatic nature) am convinced that something has gone wrong and perhaps someone has jumped off.  No..these geniuses wanted to try a 200 yard dash at speed, and we were in the way.
When I got to the end all of them looked at me and laughed because

Bridge 300 feet up

Lake Thomas saw on his hike 

horses

F and Luis

On Thomas' hike..looks like another planet in the fog

I was whiter than they thought humanly possible.
thomas took the kids to some park another day where they swing on bridges and ropes...I opted out. (there was no cafe..what can I say)
Also we went on a last hike to a little hut with Frederick and the manager here and her son whom F loves. It was first thing in the morning and both F and I were feeling slow and kind of hating it all. Why up hill all the time why why why. Pain always pain in the mountains. But there is often a reward, and sure enough we walked right into a huge open field up in these crazy hills where there was a group of insanely beautiful horses. It was like a movie...all five us of gaped.  Then we carried on along a flat ridge to the hut where there was of course wiener schnitzel and sausages and those crazy semi in-bred type of locals who live up there and perhaps, just perhaps are marrying cousins. But I am not here to judge.- I am here to eat topfenstrudel.
Oh! the Brighams are making plans to come to lech this Christmas! this will be something: all of Charlie Brigham's grandchildren skiing in one group, speaking a three languages between them-
The thought of it chokes me up.
But then again, everything in this town does. 

Lech ...

Let's see....the big story I suppose of this whole summer has been the weather: sun has shone an abnormal amount. Also Thomas is my new running coach; trying to get me to run something faster per minute than I do presently. He slips right into the Prussian track coach mode..(see photo of him on his bicycle) ...I am running around in front of him while he times me. Look how happy he looks!
Anyway it has been lovely....below some photos; but they never do it justice.

terrace at a hotel near us where we eat lunch

Ellie Checking pulse

Bottle of goo Thomas planted above me to keep me going

In front of Schneider barn

looking out of the Schneider kitchen..

Geneva

out of our hotel. 

Nice trip to Geneva to see our client and of course Geneva's newest residents! We...had a great time with the kiddies in their new home town. Everyone seems really relaxed and happy and starting to learn Frenh already. too cute. Frederick said on the way home how lucky they were to be moving there..We swam in the lake, ate in chic restaurants, saw their new neighborhood, saw the front of their schools, saw the single most insane firework show I have ever seen; the list goes on. Our hotel is this incredibly romantic place with tons of Arabs escaping the heat of their native lands. One group had a room reserved just for..I am not sure, entertaining the family. This was complete with a stove where they cooked their own food. Bizarre. Also they hung around in front of their rooms like it was a youth hostel. In their robes...
below some photos. Andrew's feet are featured because he remarked that his feet had "never looked better". Margaret and I could not disagree; so I recorded it for posterity. Feast your eyes on Brigham feet that are better than usual. Maybe it is the French influence. Speaking of which the entire family is looking wildly chic...all of them in cool outfits at all times even at the beach (lake). They fit right in

Was I lying? .. Poetry. 

scrawny legs all over town

Me in the most amazing train seat! they bring you coffee!

Fireworks

Thomas off 5 high dive...

Yodellayheehoo

Ok back in the mountains which have been rather balmy. On the way to Lech we stopped to visit the parents in Bad Ragaz, a place that is part five star hotel, part hospital, part spa: very strange and wonderful. I have many friends and relatives who would happily check in, and die there. It is filled with people recovering from hip surgery, or plastic surgery, or just lots of advanced Swiss beauty treatments. I have never seen anything like it.
There are doctors who will give you a new nose,  physical therapists, a golf course for the Russian husbands whiling away the hours after their wives' boob jobs, swimming pools, spas, many restaurants including one with a few stars, or hats, can't remember, on and on. And in an almost ridiculously scenic Swiss village.
Anyway we left, and are now in Lech, which has been really beautiful. Trudging up and down and then bathing in the the largesse of the Schneiders. The first day we got cocky, and went up something fairly long and steep; Thomas took the below photo of me passed out before I could make it to lunch.
Tomorrow we go see the Brighams (yay) and have a petit business meeting in Geneva.

Chico et moi on the balcony at Bad Ragaz

Pool

Me in one of many weird places to sit at BR hotel

Lech...finally a little downhill portion

                                                                                                                F playing baseball at Bad Ragaz lawn

Lech...looks like me, but it is our  friend Devon