Family Fridays

Greetings all. A little bird (McGillus McCabbeous) tells me that this little ole blog is widely read in some specific, Montreal-area locales. With that in mind, I want to assure everyone that the McCabes are all safe and sound. At the moment, they are/should be in Basel, Switzerland, which is not too far from here. So far they've endured the tour well, and even feigned a gratifying enthusiasm for some of my more involved Medieval anecdotes. It goes without saying that it has been awesome hanging out with all of them again, despite the youngest's disquieting habit of throwing invisible guacamole in my eyes.*

I don't want to go into too much detail of their visit so far, both because I don't want to steal the joy of telling their own travel stories on their return, and becase I'm hoping that people will be curious enough to come visit themselves.

But why be curious? Here's a couple of teasers: The Mark Reynolds Babble-Tour Galacticca of Strasbourg and Surrounding Environs (TM) has reached a level of such professionalism and glory that I am now receiving tips from strangers that I keep meeting at the local sights. The wine cellar lady (this particular gem of a Medieval wine cellar is off the beaten track, rarely visited by the tour buses and little-known even by native Strasbourgers. It's a definite highlight of the tour) gives me tips about un-advertised degustations. Even cooler, in the Cathedral, an 88-year-old gentleman saw me pointing out an obscure decoration on the Cathedral organ to my visitors and, impressed by my enthusiam, spontaneously told me about how he had been the Master Glass worker who had recovered the stained glass in Notre Dame from the salt mine that the Nazi's had stored it. Very cool.

I'll leave it to Daniel and co. to describe their time in their own way (and who knows - maybe they're hating it) but I've been having a great time showing everyone around, and hope that they will inspire others to pack their bags.

_{* I'm afraid I might have created a nascent Papist out of the youngest girl - she insisted that Daniel buy her a book about the life of St Odile, whose shrine we visited on Tuesday. In the convent there she turned to me at one point and said "I feel sad and I don't know why." Give that girl a rosary! On the other hand, she did turn down the water from the miraculous spring, probably suspecting it to be the Catholic version of the proverbial Kool-Aid.}