Where others come for vacation...
where others come for vacation ...

Hmmm.. it's Monday and the best part is: I don't have to go to WORK!!! What an amazing feeling.. However, we need to do some errands in Lucerne. It's Huere Heiss (extremely hot) here and we take a swim in the evening to refresh. Today Aishna also swims with us.

Claudia and Armand (our friends) join us for Dinner. They relish the simple Chole, Aalu-Methi, Kheera/tamatar Raita. They really love the Indian sweets that Aishna has brought.

We discuss some possible hikes while relaxing in the balcony. Every peak looks very easily attainable from the comfort of the balcony ;)

 

Picked up our sweetheart Aishna at the Zurich airport. She was a li'l exhausted, but excited to be in Swissy land.

We take a scenic route to Lucerne and as we make our way to a farmers market, the heavens open up to bless her with some showers. She loves all the colorful variety of fruits and vegetables on display and is excited to try each one of them.

We enjoy the sweets and other thoughtful gifts that Aishna has brought from the family back home in India. We take Aishna to a local cheese shop. She's in love with the cheese wheels (loaves as they call here). Next stop is a local grocery store..

We relax the remainder of the day at home.  We devour the Mushroom Risotto for dinner and of course the day isn't complete without a swim in the lake :)

Read more: Weekend July 18-19

We wake up to a warm sunny day and head out on the lake on Dolfin for some easy sailing.

It's a wonder how a beautiful sunny day ends with another spectacular thunderstorm on the lake in the evening (Abend). Nature's dramas...

 

 

Hmmmm.. it's Freitag (Friday) Frei in German means Free, so i take it very literally and decide to have a Free Day cool

Some paperwork check for the B-permit; organizing bedroom for Aishna's arrival takes up most of the morning. Lukas finishes the wedding bands by Lunch. I would sure love to try my hand at making jewelry. More exciting than LTE for sure.

I'm treated to a spectacular show of thunder, lightning, rain and hail in the afternoon. While the construction workers next door take cover, the ducks and the seagulls continue on with their lives amidst the drama.

Read more: Freitag July 17: Day 11

 The rain provides some welcome relief from the heat. Even Nellie and Skylar (our cats) seem to have sprung to life after the downpour. They were laying half-dead on the floor earlier. We go for a quick swim under a colorful evening (Abend) sky at 9PM. All the surrounding mountain peaks appear closer and clearer after the rain, like we could reach out and touch them.

 

It sure is a hot and humid summer here in Central Switzerland. The hottest in a couple of years, I've been told. cool

I decide to start the day with a run before die Sonne (The Sun. Interestingly Sun is feminine and Moon is masculine in German) decides to wake up from Slumber. Just a short 5k run before 6:30AM leaves me panting and i appreciate the refreshing alpine water fountains here and there.

I'm famished and would love to relish a BIG breakfast by the lake, but we have an appointment (what, another one?) to keep. After a quick Muesli breakfast and shower and we're off to get keys to our apartment. The views are lovely from the balconies and I'm excited, but it's one thing to live on the lake and another to view it from a distance. Lukas will definitely miss being part of the lake for the last 7 years -- Me, i haven't ever lived on water, so i will just enjoy our last few days on the balcony as much as i can. We will be moving in July end.

It's ~11AM by the time we get back home. Lukas makes ein Espresso mit ein Schokolade and we enjoy it on the balcony watching the seagulls, ducks and paddle boarders enjoy the hot summer morning. I make a simple khitchdi for lunch. It's too hot for anything else, so i decide to have a siesta while Lukas slogs it out in his workshop on the wedding bands... I slowly get back to Earth from my la-la-land and wonder how i ever functioned at Work in NJ without a siesta!! Siestas should be a part of Life.

Some more errands in the evening and then it's time for a swim.. it's already 9PM. It's quite surreal to swim in the lake in twilight zone. I enjoy the peace and serenity mehr (more) now than in the evenings. We have a simple mediterranean salad on the balcony along mit (with) ein Glas Rotwein.

It's just 7 days, 16 hours and 05 minutes to the registration and i think i have some bones rattling here & there and some butterflies flying round in my stomach as i write this blog.. because i promised someone that i would make an attempt to write everyday.. no matter how drunk, how tiRed or how rattled my bones are tongue-out