A True Diplomat

Today started in typical fashion:  Run-of-the-mill breakfast on the roof of a hotel overlooking an inland coastal town that's older than our entire country....you know, the usual.

Day off to a pedestrian start, I decided to go to church.  I'm not normally one to get in a holier-than-thou mood, but today I went to church 3 times....Where u at?  Ok, "Church" per-se'.  There were no Thursday services, but there are three large classically-built churches in this half of Konstanz.

Church 1:

Church 2:  (I'm working on finding out the significance of the bell, I'm not there yet though.

Church 3.  This was easily the most ornate and spectacular.  I believe it's also on top of Roman-era catacombs.

In between, I also wandered around Konstanz a bit more taking pictures of some other interesting architecture, talked a border guard into putting a Swiss stamp in my passport just for giggles, and ventured back out to the park I'd run though...taking the camera this time.

There is a restaurant/youth-hostel there, that is pretty impressively well-kept.

I also climbed a tower in the park and got a couple of higher-angle pictures of the bay area.

More pictures of the park are in the gallery.  It's pretty immaculately maintained, of course that seems to be par-for-the-course in the Germanic countries from my experiences so far.  Having walked a few miles, I decided to chill, watch some ducks, and cool off in the breeze for a little while.

Chillin'

 Ducks:

So, business as usual to this point right?  At this point you're no-doubt expecting me to report that I ate a pretzel and went to bed without much ado.  

Nope, Chuck Testa (worth a google if you don't already get it).  Richard suddenly developed a social life.

I'm pretty sure every male in Il Bocconi (Italian restaurant/lounge) was probably cursing me at some point as I ended up entertaining basically the entirely-female sales/marketing staff of a Swiss fashion house.  It was a pretty international table with an American, a German, a Swiss, a Korean, and an Italian.  It really is a diplomatic service I perform.  Someone should let the Hilary know I'm doing well for the State Department over here.

Anyway, tomorrow I may end up seeing a little more of Switzerland before I head back to Germany. 

More to come.