Christopher takes 5th place in Biel Chess Tourney U10

As they say, when in Switzerland...play chess!

Today (7/24/11) Christopher played in the famous (to a certain sort of person) Biel International Chess Festival.  He took 5th place in the under 10 years old category, beating someone rated 1670 in the process. Not too shabby for his first international chess outing!

Now, there are some of you out there who are wondering: who plays in a chess tournament while vacationing/living in Europe?  But probably the less said about that, the better. But, if there is chess to be played, somehow we find it.

While Christopher played and Mark chaperoned, Matthew and I hung out in Biel and tried to take in the sights.  But, alas, it is Sunday and almost everything was closed.  Therefore, much like we often do at other tournaments, we walked around, ate some snacks, found a playground, read books, and took a nap.

Yesterday was a bit more active.  We traveled by the fabulous Swiss train system to Schaffhausen and then by bus to Rheinfall.  Rheinfall is a waterfall on the Rhine River (get it, Rhein...fall....).  In any case, it is the largest waterfall in Central Europe and it is very impressive.  As Christopher said "not quite Niagara" (which, by the way, he has only seen in books) but still a significant waterfall.

After a picnic lunch while admiring the waterfall from a distance (we decided not to take the boat that takes you into the spray), we hiked back to Schaffhausen (about 55 minutes).  It was a great day for a walk along the Rhine.  There were lots of people out strolling and riding bikes and just enjoying the day.

An observation about the Swiss:  they don't smile or make eye contact or say hello when you, say, walk by them on the hiking trail or in the hallway of the hotel.  The guidebooks comment on this and insist that it doesn't mean they're not friendly, but it sort of comes off that way by American standards.  On the other hand, that cultural style is more than balanced by Mark's colleague here who is letting us stay in his family's country house for a week, starting tomorrow.  What could be more friendly than that?