Goodbye Europe; for now

 A few days before I left Ireland I went to Switzerland one more time to say goodbye to some friends and family. It'll probably be the last trip to Switzerland this year, but I'll be back and more frequently then when I used to live in the USA the last time.

 Although I had only four days and had to carefully plan my schedule to see as many friends as possible, I did have the opportunity to go on a day hike with Stef and Ursula. From the pictures here you can see it was well worth it. I've never been this close to the Matterhorn. What a fitting excursion to remind me to come back soon!

 We had to get up early and take the train into the Wallis. The week before it had been cold and rainy, and, it turned out, the week after was also cold and rainy. Ruining my brother's family's and many other's vacation. But, the day we went on our hike, it was gorgeous. It was also quite hot, in the 90s, but we were at a high enough altitude for most of the hike that that was not a problem. We even had a breeze for part of the way.

 Stef kept pointing out flowers and naming them for me. I like flowers to look at and to photograph, but I can never remember their names and pertinent characteristics. Stef tried his best, but it seemed to me he kept pointing out the same ones over and over. At least he was consistent and gave them the same name every time; except when Ursula corrected him.

 The hike was scheduled for seven hours, but because I'm not used to that altitude and long distance hikes anymore, we took it more easy and spent nine hours. Quite a bit of that extra time went into taking pictures. A map and some technical details about the Höhbalmen trail can be found here. The trail is also called the Edelweissweg, and near the end we were indeed rewarded with some Edelweiss along the way. They, and most other alpine flowers in Switzerland are protected. Don't pick them. If only a small fraction of the hikers did, most people would never see flowers along these trails.

 You can see all the pictures I took on this hike in this picasa album. For the remainder of this trip, I took much fewer pictures. Mostly of people and scarecrows in Trubschachen.

 On my way back to Ireland I got stuck in Munich for a while and got back home late a night. Something I had wanted to avoid, since I still needed to sell my car and get ready for the packers and movers the next day. I had two hectic days but finally managed to get everything done the last minute, load the cats onto an airplane, myself onto another, and find our way to Portland.

Our stuff leaving Ireland. Still need to sell the car.

 I thought I had sold the car, but when I met up with the would-be buyer he couldn't stomach the scratches and dents. I bought it with some and a bad paint job on one door, but then Lee Ann and I added quite a few more learning to park in narrow spots and driving on the left in Ireland. This guy, or I should say travelling circus -- he comes from County Clare with his wife, infant, pierced teenage son, and grandfather to Dublin to find cheap cars he drives back to Clare to sell to travel averse locals. So, he didn't like the scratches.

 Finding another buyer quickly was just a matter of lowering the price. A (I hope) deserving grad student at UCD ended up with a great bargain. Bye, bye Ireland. I'll miss you.