sunshine

getting up the final steps to Sammlung Reinhardt

at Sammlung Reinhardt - amazing impressionist collection!

now this is what I call a lovely table arrangement - straight from the garden

being silly at museum cafe

my favorite - water lilies at the museum garden

Janis (12 years old)  made this portrait of Mimi - she looks just like this!

of course it is summer, rain or no, and gardens are fabulous everywhere


Well we had a splendid time at the Reinhardt museum yesterday, although the hike to get there was long and, true to Swiss geography, always going up and up! In this case, we walked up and over a mountain (hill..) to the museum, which overlooks the city of Winterthur - coming down close to where we will be renting an apartment soon. It was a long hike and a worthwhile climb, even though afterwards my feet were killing me. Still it was a fun day and barely rained! The museum has a fabulous collection of Cezanne, Picasso, Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, etc.etc.

This trip followed on the heels of a lovely day Saturday, visiting with new friends - Andy and family - the man who roomed w/ Daniel is Basel hospital - who picked us up in Hegi, toured us up and around Kyburg Schloss (castle) and then on to their gorgeous home outside of Zurich, in Grut. They wined and dined us and we shared a wonderful evening, returning with Marianne by car to Hegi.I mention this because we have only been in a car 3x altogether since we have been here! We look forward to seeing them again when they return form vacation (to the Amalfi Coast!) in August. Thanks to them for showing us such a fantastic time, being so kind and gracious, and thanks to Nathalie (13) for being patient while we absorbed all of her parents' attention.

Today the sun shone! This is a miracle after a week of grey!!! Hopefully it bodes well for the future....

tomorrow is market morning in Winterthur...the farmer's market is only open in the morning so we have to get up and on the road early. This market has everything in the way of foods, breads, meats, cheeses, flowers & plants, whatever you need it seems....al fresh and much of it BIO label (organic). So it is worth the trip to town - bus service is so cool! We bought passes when we first arrived that cover all transit for a month - trains, buses, boats, etc. in the Zurich region...an amazing deal!

I hope all of you are enjoying a lovely summertime. We miss you and send much love!

rainy days

sometimes it is not raining!

 typical homes in this area

some of the many ducks swimming along the river nearby

Daniel by the Hegi horse barn - they drive them into Winterthur for tourist rides

Joya's famous cherry torte - yum!

Daniel waiting at the front door in the rain - I had the key

Here is the latest installment of Hegi life....we have been adventuring into town and to the market in the rain and sometimes in between storms. Our sunset walk last night was under a lovely rainbow! It seems tonight may be the same...at least it stopped raining, and the sunsets have been spectacular at times! This  unusual weather has been challenging but we do our best to keep ourselves occupied with cooking/eating/walking....could be worse ;)
Daniel is steadfast in his work and feeling well considering he has been through a lot. Killing off tumors is dirty business and he is pushing through it! I try to work and have had some real success with illustrations for the revision of our book, but it is difficult for me to get motivated. Perhaps it doesn't matter - time is different for us here.
Tomorrow we are to be picked up by our new friend, Andy, and taken for a tour of the area enroute a visit to his home/family outside of  Zurich. We are looking forward to growing a relationship and seeing new places.
Thanks to you all for your loving support....it helps so much. this life journey is quite different from vacation trips we have taken in the past - always the unknown ahead of us.
I want to dedicate this blog to my dear sister, Marie, who passed away 10 days ago. May her light continue to shine as she follows a new pathway, and may she be joined by loved ones who have gone before - to help her along her way. My memories, prayers and love follow along....ciao for now, Joya

Schweiz continued...

Such a lovely evening to share with neighbor, Francesca. Nik and Christina are great hosts - Nik cooks most of the time, and well too! The boys "do their thing" and we do ours ;) ...a little wine or coffee or tea, some conversation, sometimes an apricot tart to share....life is good!

Next on to hospital in Basel...this is Andy, Daniel's roommate. Turns out they have a lot in common as well as their disease. Both he and Daniel did quite well with their treatment and Andy took us a bit around the town, as well as accompanying us back to Zurich, where we look forward to meeting up with he and family soon! From there we went on to Winterthur and Hegi, where we stay now for 3 weeks.

Several times we have seen skies like this overhead - rain showers which clear up and come back the next day or so. Summer weather! It makes life exciting, especially when the thunder comes with it.

Meet the ever-clean Mimi...a "Kima" cat in larger size!  (for you Crystal)

This is the view from the front door of Nik & Christina's house, where we are staying. So very Swiss! The house across the way was a renovated barn I believe...very lovely. We are enjoying our privacy now while the family are away for 3 weeks - before we get our own place in town. Jo is coming in early
August, which will be wonderful.
So there's a taste of Switzerland and our life here at the moment. It is a bit hazy and unsettling since we have not established out own apartment and rhythm, but we are doing okay. Daniel has been doing amazingly well considering what he has been through. Everyone is being exceptionally friendly and kind and we are so grateful!
Hope you are having a great summer!
ciao for now.......Joya

Daniel writes...

I've gotten so many thoughtful emails from everyone, that I thought I should let you know how this is going, however premature this note may be.

I've received everything now, and if I were to get sick, I should have felt that already.  So far, I haven't felt a thing.  Nothing at all.  I did flush heavily and felt light-headed when I was about to receive the shot, but this was purely from anxiety.  After receiving the shot, the only thing I felt was hungry, which I still do feel, even after my delicious Swiss hospital lunch. 

I have a hospital-mate, Andy, who is from Zurich, but speaks perfect English, and he's been through this treatment once before, and helps me adjust.  Most of what happens is really about obeying the rules about radiation.  For example, I'm supposed to wear slippers so that my sweat doesn't contaminate the floor through my socks!  Compare this to what happens with the same treatment in the US (in early, study form), where they just send you home, along with a helpful note about staying a few feet away from pregnant women and young children.

So, onwards, and feeling good and optimistic that this treatment will make a big difference for me.  It did for Andy...

with love,

photos

Schloss Hegi

Nik und Christina und Daniel

Julian w/ his band (sax player)

Schweiz

We are here in Schweiz (Switzerland).
It rained yesterday and afterwards we went to a lovely concert in the forest....young woman singing in English, very American-style. ink und Christina are being so gracious and kind and helpful! They have found us an apt. which we will see on Monday when we meet w/ the woman who will sublet to us. Hopefully it is as nice inside as out! We will move there in August.
Daniel's first treatment is next Wed. in Basel - about a 2-hour trip from here. It is great not having a car for the time being...walking a lot and bus service gets you anywhere.
got to go for now -breakfast!

To get back to the beginning:
We had a lovely going away party on June 26 - a wonderful gathering of many different friends who met and chatted and ate barbecue. It was a gorgeous day! Thanks to Irene and Dan for helping so much w/ cleanup afterwards!
On Saturday July 2nd, we flew off from SJC to LAX where our cousin and benefactor for the trip, Robert, picked us up, brought us to a hotel at the airport and then took us to lunch. It was lovely to see him, as always...such a sweet man and great dad to his 2 children. Also he is a generous person with a large, warm heart. It was sad not to spend more time with him, but he and wife Laurie had a previous engagement for that evening which they had planned long ago and couldn't cancel. Then we visited with KC, Daniel's long-time musician friend who lives in Laguna Beach - who visited, walked and had dinner with us.
Next morning we we're awakened shortly after 3 a.m. to get ready to be at the airport at 4:15 am. for the flight to Philadelphia, which then connected with our flight to Zurich - after a few hours layover in Phila. airport - fortunately Robert had gotten us first-class tix to Phila.which was helpful and allowed us to wait in the USAir lounge - then Business Class to Europe, which was a big deal, including seats that turn into beds, 5-course dinner, all you can drink, blankets, slipper sox, eye pillows, whatever needed to be as comfortable as possible. We did sleep - Daniel quite a lot, which was very important - he did so well altogether on the trip - it was amazing.
We landed Monday morning (July 3rd) in Zurich,where Nik picked us up and brought us here to Hegi,outside of Winterthur, which is 30 kilometers from Zurich. Hegi is a lovely "suburb" with green hills and forest around it, residential but also with some industrial areas....great walking! Each day we have taken walks around the area and take the bus into Winterthur where we will take an apartment for ourselves in August. This is a city of 100,000; very old with lots of modern construction as well. The apt we are looking at is in the older part of town, near the theater, museum, park, etc. and just a couple of minutes from downtown center for shopping, farmer's market, food market, train sta. etc.
The weather has been warm and mostly clear until yesterday's rain and continuing today - on and off, which makes the air clearer than before the rain, when it was humid. We went to a concert in the forest last night - lots of families, picnicking, enjoying the light of the long evening of this time of year. Today as I said, it is rainy somewhat but cool and refreshing. We go to a birthday party tonight in Zurich - which we visited several years ago
and look forward to seeing again. I hope this gives you a picture of what's happening here for us and I will try to keep you updated ;)
We think of our family & many dear friends in SC and send much love and good wishes for a great summer!!!
ciao.....Joya
Not many days later....
Clear skies after a somewhat wild day yesterday w/ intermittent thunder showers and then warm sunshine and later, cool, crisp air in the evening. Lovely summertime!
we traveled to visit Nik's parents yesterday, outside of Zurich. Transit system here is phenomenal people hardly need cars and we don't see too many on the road. Everyone rides bikes, walks and takes mass transit - all ages. It's wonderful and so healthy a lifestyle. People here look quite healthy actually. We have met some of our friends' friends and neighbors and look forward to learning more of the language, although most people speak English, at least somewhat. Daniel is hot on a BBC German language course he is taking via the Internet. I am listening,following my language guide and getting help from the boys with whom we are staying.
We took a long walk this morning, ending at a small cafe where we had tea and then walked back. Fnancesca, next-door neighbor just now showed me around her home, where I will take care of her cat while she is away next week. She is a lovely person - working as an administrator w. gender issues at a local university. The neighbors on the other side are also teachers - Melanie a middle-school teacher and Caspar a Hish School(?) gym teacher and Economics teacher as well. OK - enough trivia from Schweiz. auf viedersehen!