Reunions and a Roadtrip

We relocated to Basel for Matt’s work, but our ulterior motive is to reunite with our old (many years of friendship, not aged) friends Bart and Whitney. Bart and Matt are on a magical trajectory, continually coming together: growing up in Toronto, college at Queens, young lawyers in NYC and now living in Basel. Maybe it’s not magical coincidence, but love sold to unsuspecting wives as magic. Bart and Whitney have made a wonderful life in Basel with their three boys — Ben, Charlie and Thomas — for the past decade. We are grateful for their counsel and welcome.

The last time we lived in the same place, we were getting married, starting careers and having babies in New York. Much has changed.

Another reunion: my high school friend Rebecca was in Austria and Switzerland, visiting her family. Rebecca is a wind of positive energy and kind enough to swing by Basel with her two kids Maille and Griffin. It was too brief.

Saturday morning after these reunions, we began our first road trip to Italy. Thinking about the hours of traffic that can precede the Gotthard Tunnel in central Switzerland on a summer weekend, we decide to spend Saturday night in the Swiss mountain town of Andermatt, get up early and be the first through the tunnel in the morning.

We strolled around, admired the vistas and discussed returning to ski in the winter.

The alphorns were lovely.

The next morning we mistakenly took the Gotthard Pass instead of Tunnel, drove to Lugano for breakfast croissants, parked illegally and found our car locked in, escaped that calamity and drove on.

Next… Venice!