Zurich : Temple and Interlaken

Well, we started out the day very early. We got breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then rushed out to the conference center. I presented my talk at 9 and was done around 10:30. The talk went OK. Hard to know sometimes with European audiences. I've been told that before ever presenting to them and now, having done it a few times, I understand. They always seem to laugh at stuff I least expect. Like for example, in Portugal, it's funny to degrade the Spanish. Anything derogatory you throw out there, they seem to like it. They can't speak English very well. They get lost a lot. They dress funny. They all get great responses.
Today I was talking about how data needs to keep pace with the world. Data that's pristinely accurate today, can be inaccurate tomorrow. People die, get married, have sex change operations and get divorced. Not necessarily in that order. They loved it.
Anyway, after all that fun, Christine and I went to the temple in Bern. We had some trouble getting there, but got quasi lost in the little town where the temple is outside Bern. I was glad that the lady at the gas station didn't speak English. It gives me a chance to stretch my German language muscles. It's painful, but fun. Anyway, it turned out that after looking at the map, we were no more than a block away from the temple. As we pulled out of the gas station parking lot, Christine said, "Ah! There it is!" Sure enough, you could see the Angel Moroni statue from there.
I had a great session. They gave it in French and we had the English language service through headphones. It's a cool experience to hear different people saying the same word in 4 different languages simultaneously.
What was really cool is the Father and Daughter couple we went through for lived in a little town not more than a few miles away from Bern.


After we had attended the temple, we drove down to Interlaken. It's the town between two lakes. :)
It's a beatiful place. We'll likely go back again tomorrow to do a hike or something.
We shopped a little, had an argument with the shop keeper and enjoyed a fondu meal until late in the evening.



I loved this scene. These kinds of scenes are all around here in abundance.

Christine enjoying the fondu. I liked it a bit, but swiss cheese is not my favorite. It's a bit too ripe for my taste and smell.

Now, the chocolate fondu. That was gone in no time...