Pre-Gaming with the Bride & Groom
Basel, Switzerland
December 12, 2021
We visited the Sheffers over in Basel, about a week before the wedding, to wander around town and the Weinacht Markts there.
Sadly or fortunately, there are no photos of the most dramatic moments of our day trip to Basel: the minor nightmare of driving an overpriced but underinsured Audi A6 through the confusing streets of the city center.
I learned that I didn't quite understand all the European traffic signs as well as I thought I did, despite years of training playing Mille Borne at the cabin. At the most tense point, we found ourselves on tram tracks in the middle of a mostly pedestrian plaza, suddenly alone without any hint of where the other cars went or how we landed here. Hold it together, I thought I said to myself, but learned later from Ellie that I had actually said it aloud.
That night, just to be sure, I emailed our State Farm agent, Barb, to confirm that I was insured for car rentals overseas -- although I knew from past experience that I was.
Preoccupied with the trip, I forgot to check email for a few days, and when I finally scanned my messages, while we were in Colmar, this subject line jumped out: Re: YOU NEED TO ADD THE INSURANCE FOR THE RENTAL CAR IN SWITZERLAND
Unable to reach the agency, instead we oh-so-carefully drove it to the nearest Alamo counter at the Strasbourg airport and handed the keys to a novice attendant -- who very unreassuringly joked about stealing the luxury wagon since "we don't get many of those here in Strasbourg."
