Papa's 70th Birthday

Wednesday was Papa's 70th birthday - and Zurich rewarded him with a picture-perfect, warm fall day. During the day, Kate and I went to our Moms/Tots playgroup and Jack had school, so Oma and Papa had the day to themselves. They shopped on Bahnhofstrasse, had lunch at their favorite bratwurst stand, and visited the Buhrle art collection - a private art collection located a few houses down from our own.

That night, we took Papa to dinner at a local Italian restaurant down the street from our house. It is a really small, quaint spot that had been recommended by our neighbors - but doesn't appear in any of the guidebooks or websites that rate top restaurants. Needless to say, the neighbors were right - it was one of the best restaurants we've been to. But what made it even more special was that sitting right next to us was none other than TINA TURNER, Zurich's biggest celebrity. She lives in the city and since she's been quoted as choosing Zurich because everyone leaves her alone here, I didn't feel like we could ask for her autograph.

I did however, think it was appropriate to have the restaurant sing Happy Birthday to Papa - and she did join along for a few notes. And I did think it appropriate to pretend to take pictures of Jay and Papa to get her in the background (click on the photos below) to see our celebrity dining partner. By the way, she looks awesome - 10 years younger than I would have thought!

On a random note, this week I was folding laundry when I looked out my window to see the scene below - the owner of our house was moving a HUGE statue from the yard to the front of his gallery (also located in our building) with a 100 ft crane. Having never seen anything like this before, I had to get a photo of it (see below).