Switzerland in the rain revisited

       Driving from Liechtenstein to Italy through Switzerland we learned that every cloud can have an even darker lining.
      It was raining so hard that the driver (me) kept asking what wonderful things we were seeing. It was miserable to drive an unfamiliar car on a fast unfamiliar highway in a torrent. I become very unpleasant when I think I may be responsible for everyone’s death. It was not easy for anyone.
      After what seemed like several hours, the car nearly automatically took an off ramp from the autobahn to find rest and refreshment.
      Here, in a village much smaller than Vernalis, California we came upon what the Swiss think is a supermarket. It was just slightly larger than one of our 7-11’s. Well stocked, it was a lone refuge in a moving sea of precipitation.
       Pulling in, I did not care that I did not speak their language, have their money or even know what they offered. I was in need of the caffeine that Coca-Cola provided. I knew they would have Coca-Cola; it is ubiquitous.
       In the well-lighted place it was obvious that this was more than shelter. It was a place that was both designed to sell groceries and to give people a sense of connectedness.
      Taking in the wares displayed, a person could circle for a while and imagine that it was not raining hard outside and that soon the sun would come out. I stayed and lingered and read labels and hoped to kill enough time to learn some vocabulary.
       My wife – and driving navigator – came in to see if I had become a political prisoner of the neutral Swiss. But, instead of being angry to find me free and healthy, she got into the spirit of the place. The look in her eye put me at ease.
      Do you know how many kinds of Swiss chocolate there are? Do you know how much time you can spend attempting to figure out what chocolate to buy for all of your relatives? This surely was better than running headlong into a downpour.