A favourite barn

It was hot and sunny again this morning - Gavin left early to play in the golf tournament at the local golf club, and he had an enjoyable day. He was one of few English people playing but the Swiss Germans all speak such good English and were very friendly and welcoming. With the Swiss Franc as strong as it currently is and the British pound as weak as it is, the numbers of English tourists are not at their usual numbers this year. 

I set off for a walk with Xena, and as it was so hot I did a trail that goes through a cool forest. It is known as the dwarf trail as it has been created for children with all sorts of hands on activities to do along the trail, and sweet little wooden dwarfs and fairies hidden amongst the vegetation. After that trail there is an area with many lovely old wooden barns, and this one is one of my favourites. 

After the walk we cooled down at the apartment, I made a coffee and then finished my book The House of Fortune, which is the follow on to The Miniaturist- it was very good. 

In the afternoon I was just about to go into the village to get groceries, when Gavin got back from golf so we went together. Then we went to the station to collect Luke and Meriel. Meriel has been in Paris for a week doing research at the archives for her masters degree, and Luke joined her a few days ago. They came from Paris by train - starting off with the TGV to Strasbourg which was so quick and then three more trains to get to us. All very efficient and a green way to travel.

Tommy and Inca are flying from London tonight but have just let us know that their flight is delayed and so they will miss the last train out of Zurich. I am not sure what we are going to do now, its a real problem.

I am totally fed up with the travel problems that have been happening at airports and ferry points. We were lucky and avoided all the long delays at Folkestone but some people had 21 hour delays! It is unacceptable and it is due to incompetence somewhere. As the CEO of Ryan Air said today, the airports have had months to prepare for the summer travellers and yet they still are not coping. The news the past few days has been about travel problems from all exit points from the UK. The other news has been about how the NHS is not coping - we all knew it was on its knees before Covid struck, now you just pray you don't get ill or need an operation. Let's hope the new PM makes fixing the NHS a priority, allow them to recruit more staff from all over the world to cope with the massive staff shortage in the NHS. (Sorry about the rant but I am fed up with all the problems that don't seem to be getting sorted)