LAST NIGHT, LAST MORNING....

On my last night in Switzerland, I took my dear
friends Irene and Res out for dinner.  My apartment
was part of their house, just upstairs, and they had 
been the most wonderful friends, neighbours and 
landlords you could wish for.  When I said I wanted
to take them out for dinner, they suggested a place 
in Zurich, a typical Swiss place, in the old town.
It's called the Oepfelchammer, and is a very, very
old building.  I think Irene told me it was from the
1200's, or maybe even older!!  The wooden beams
and the low ceilings and the cramped room where
we sat had contained so much!  

The perspective is a bit off, his left hand is not really that big!  We had such a good time, and
the food was delicious.  The menu is considered to be "traditional" and our waiter was possibly one of the most bizarre looking men I have ever seen, with long curly
white hair and a waxed moustache about six inches wide, and the face of a gnome.  He was
unquestionably the boss of the place.
We had the strange experience of being here the same night as
a group of "singing students".  No, not students of music, but students who are
training to be engineers, or lawyers, who go to this restaurant and eat and drink (lots), and
who have a bizarre set of rituals and traditions which include singing very old songs, in harmony,
with no accompaniment, when one or the other is inspired to sing....

I was sad to leave the peaceful, beautiful and deeply 
nourishing life I had been living in Kusnacht.  My last 
morning, before leaving to catch the train to Paris, was 
a beautiful one, and I took this final photograph sitting at 
my gorgeous big work table where I had spent so many 
hours, reading, researching and just staring out the window...