Chapter 12: Shopping in Old Town

I showered and dressed for dinner. No one had mentioned company so I skipped the tie and just wore the sport coat. When I arrived in the dining room, I discovered that it was just the four of us.

“I thought the Grunder’s were coming with their daughters,” Sofía asked.

“I postponed our dinner considering what happened last night. We certainly don’t need a repeat of that tonight. Especially with Hans,” Cynthiana said.

“He has a reputation as something of a hothead,” Isabella supplied.

“Alex, you once mentioned something about pheromones. Have you looked into that anymore?” Cynthiana asked.

“No, Ma’am. We had no way of doing that on the yacht,” I told her.

“Oh. Okay. I’ll look into that first thing in the morning. When was your last physical?”

“I had to have a sports physical for golf last February, and then there were all the tests they ran in the hospital. And of course, Carina had to examine me periodically, but I’m not really sure that would count as a physical. In general, I try to avoid them because of what they may discover about my abilities.”

“Oh. Right. I hadn’t thought of that. How did you do on the driving range today? Any problems?” she asked.

“You should have seen it!” Sofía said. “It was amazing! First he taught me to hit the ball, then he put on a clinic and all the other golfers were standing around him, watching. When he finished, they all clapped.”

Cynthiana looked at me and arched an eyebrow.

“You know, we may want to re-consider entering him in the country club tournament next week,” Isabella suggested. “He’s likely to blow them all out of the water. How would that affect your plans if they all resent him?”

“You may have something. I’ll think on it. I should probably call Mr. Wilson at the PGA and see what he thinks, Cynthiana mused.

Suddenly Cynthiana stood. “I think I need to call the states,” she said. “Goodnight everyone. Remember that Captain Franc will be here at eight-thirty for breakfast, Alex.”

“Would you like to watch the new Avengers movie, Alex?” Sofía asked.

“Sure. What about your sister?” I asked.

“I think I’ll pass on that one,” Isabella replied.

Sofía took my hand and I followed her out of the room. I know that somewhere in that house was a theater room complete with big screen TV and a fantastic audio system, but Sofía didn’t take me there. Instead she took me to her bedroom. As she closed the door with her foot, she began unbuttoning my shirt.

“What about the movie,” I asked her.

“Already seen it,” she replied.

Oh, well...

By Thursday morning, I found my life settling into a routine. A routine that I was really beginning to enjoy. Six-thirty in the dojo with Sensei Itsuki, breakfast at eight-thirty with Captain Franc, working on sailing stuff until lunch, then a quick bite in the kitchen with one or both of the girls, followed usually by testing of some kind and then two hours at the practice range. Dinners were still in flux, but that was okay because I wasn’t looking for a bride just yet.

The only slight variance this day was that Captain Franc took me to the marina to see his sailboat. The Catalina 22 is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of fiberglass, with teak wood trim. It has a masthead sloop rig, a raked stem, a vertical transom, a large self-bailing cockpit, with under-seat lockers, a transom-hung rudder controlled by a tiller and a folding swing keel. It has two winches for the jibsheets. Her sails include a jib, a 150% genoa and a spinnaker.

His Catalina 22 also had a small 6 hp outboard motor for docking and maneuvering.

The accommodations include a forward “V” berth with a privacy curtain and a port berth with the optional head that was stowed underneath. The main cabin area included a dinette table and a molded fiberglass galley that rolled away under the cockpit space. The foredeck featured an opening hatch for ventilation. The companionway hatch had a ‘pop-top’ fitted for additional headroom.

We never left the marina, instead we sat in the cockpit and went through the books he had brought me. He would have me read a passage in the ‘How to Sail’ book and then have me try to find all the things they mentioned. Of course, there was much that was similar to what I had experienced on the Serendipity, but there was more that I didn’t know. We ended up crawling all over that sailboat, looking at how it was put together and even the upgrades he had made over the years.

We finally got back to the house about one-thirty and I made a dash for the kitchen for a quick bite to eat. Isabella came in shortly after I arrived.

“Take your time, Alex. When you finish and get changed, Sofía and I are going to take you to old town for some shopping.”

Parts of Zurich’s old downtown are said to be more than six hundred years old. These days, many of the paved streets have been closed to motorized traffic, except for the electric streetcars that run on rails embedded in the pavement and electric bikes or electric scooters. But the best way to get around is on foot.

We parked the BMW in the car park near the Grossmünster church, which is a landmark of Zurich. Legend has it that the church was built on the graves of the city’s patron saints, Felix and Regula.

From there we walked over to one of the two main streets that run through downtown, called Limmatquai. The other main street is Bahnhofstrasse, which is one of the world’s most expensive and exclusive shopping avenues and definitely not somewhere I wanted to shop today.

We soon turned off Limmatquai and began to explore the myriad side streets and alleyways. Everywhere there were small café’s with sidewalk seating (although not in use due to the cold), and hundreds of shops selling everything from clothing and jewelry to pots and pans and other household goods. There were plant shops, and candy shops, and even a pharmacy. It was like a Hogsmeade (near Hogwarts) on steroids.

I found some earrings for Jenna, and Isabella found a comfortable pair of furry slippers for me to give Kelly Ann to wear in the dorm. For mom, I got this Swiss flower that had been preserved in some kind of hard plastic. It was the kind of thing she liked to collect. And for dad I found a wood and acrylic case to display the hole-in-one ball that I planned to give him. Mom and the girls had already given him the picture. I also picked up a small carved plaque that said ‘World’s Best Caddy’ on it.