In Zug, by contrast, I have a nominee for the title of oddest monument in the world. I've attached a couple of pictures. Take a look and then I'll describe.
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That's right: the Swiss made a monument out of a drinking fountain. Why would they do this? Because the Swiss do not believe in drinking fountains. The fountain you see in the pictures is the only drinking fountain I've found in this entire country. It's so unusual and, well, monumental, that they had to include a plaque to commemorate the occasion.
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Why do the Swiss not believe in drinking fountains? I have no idea. As one of those nuts who doesn't want us to trash the planet like we're currently doing, I'm opposed to bottled water in principle, but I've had to throw principle out the window since coming here. I drink bottled water all the time because the other choice is to die of thirst. There's no drinking fountain at work, at church, and the airport, at the train station (other than the monument, which is located outside the Zug train station), nothing anywhere. It's annoying. So, for the Swiss, maybe the lack of free public toilets that I mentioned isn't a big deal, because maybe they never have to visit the restroom. I dunno.
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On a completely unrelated note, we had a Swiss moment at church today. We had some visiting speakers, and their native language was Italian. So the speaker would speak in Italian, and then someone would translate that into German for the congregation, and then someone else would translate the German into English for the Americans who were present. Nothing like getting the message third-hand.
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On yet another completely unrelated note, Gretchen is on her way to visit us even as we speak. She'll be here tomorrow morning. She and I are getting excited to go cheese shopping. Maybe we can get her to add a few words to the blog.
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