Today was a highly anticipated day - Family Reunion (Mom's side).
Our train to head off to meet them only left at 10, so after breakfast Frank and I spend the morning walking along Lake Lucerne. Beautiful!
The plan was to meet at 11AM in the parking lot of the train station in Olten. I bumped into my cousin Marc by accident shortly after I got off the train, he was there with his 2 daughters who I never even met!
Soon thereafter my mom and her sister showed up, and we found the other group of people at the other side of the parking lot. 11 years later everyone was little older, (including me) but always recognizable. I met some more kids who I before or had only seen as babies or weren't even born yet.
It was great! Will it be another 11 years until the next time?
Lunch was at the Famous-in-Switzerland: Säli-Schlössli. An old Castle renovated into a restaurant and private banquet hall which my cousin Cosimo had reserved just for the 19 of us (only 3 couldn't make it). He really went out of his way to make it a special day for everyone.
The Castle itself has nice memories for me too, I remember as a child in 1981 trekking up there with my grandfather and laughing about my poor blistered feet. I am pretty sure that square box addition on the left wasn't there back then!
Once the fog cleared, the views from up there were beautiful
And in this one, still a little obscured by the haze, you can see the "Flower Pot" I remember from childhood. (Nuclear Power Plant Chimney)
By about 5:30 it was time to say good bye, and Frank and I went off to stroll around Olten a little bit before getting back on the train.
We got back to Lucerne around 7:30
The weather was so pleasant outside that we stopped for a little "snack" before calling it a day.
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