Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Monday, July 20 - day 4 - stage 3 - Zero Day - White Noise

The campgrounds we have been staying in are busy. It is the high season and Europeans are on holiday. Of course, our second night out we were by ourselves, but the two nights we have spent in campgrounds have seen us surrounded by tents, couples, kids, cyclists, hikers and car campers. If I were camping in the U.S. this way, I would not enjoy it. But here, everyone is speaking a language other than English, so all their conversation are just "white noise". If it were in English, my mind would pick up on the conversation threads and it would interrupt my thoughts. But since I have no comprehension of what they are saying, the sounds just blur into background noise, like a gurgling brook or pounding surf and it is soothing and melodic. Just ambient noise. 

We have enjoyed meeting the people camping near us. They all graciously speak English for us mono language Americans. Knowing only one language makes us feel embarrassed. It seems an insult to require everyone else to communicate with us on our terms. However, no one we have met feels that way towards us and we have enjoyed their company. 

It was a lazy day today, by design. We rode into the city of Chur, bought groceries, toured the historic old town (very cool!), and had pastries (that is a daily occurrence!). Back at the campground we donned our swimsuits and headed to the gigantic, outdoor, public pool adjacent to the campground. The pool is the size of about three Olympic pools combined, plus there are a few water slides and acres of well tended lawns to lay on. It is, obviously, very popular, as it was well attended, but not crowded. 

A salad for dinner from our grocery store purchases was excellent. The wind was up all afternoon, and the thunder clouds gathered, rumbled and spit a little rain after dark, but not enough to wet the ground. 

We worked on the details of where we might stay tomorrow night and decided to spend the night in a campground in Liechtenstein, about 25 miles away. We were hoping for cooler weather, but the forecast is for 90° tomorrow, 2 degrees warmer than today.  




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