Sun. September 20, 1964

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well our digestive track withstood the change of countries very well. No one has gotten sick and all parts of everyone’s body are functioning normally. However our sleep track cannot seem to adjust. Yesterday evening we went to eat at the restaurant in the park near our hotel – Kenny and Mary Beth fell asleep before we got our dinner. Again we are ordering too much food. If Jim and I order a complete dinner we have enough to feed all of us. I guess the Swiss must eat a lot and yet I haven’t seen any fat people. Maybe all the walking they do explains it. After we got home no one was sleepy because we had all taken a nap except for Jim after our afternoon excursion. Kenny got a little homesick & asked why we couldn’t go home. Patricia was talking about Tio Don & I figured out she was looking at his picture that is sitting next to Kennedy’s on our desk. So you see you will have to send us your picture for xmas or before so they can look at it & remember you all.

We finally all got to bed and Jim had the alarm set for 8:30 to give us enough time to dress and eat and walk to church which has an English service at 10:30. However around 3 A.M. Patricia woke up ready to play and we were still wide awake.

When Patricia woke me up today I looked at the clock it said 3:00. I thought the clock had stopped and I looked out the window and saw people walking to church. I got the other children up & the maids came in to fix the beds. They said it was indeed 3P.M. and we had slept the whole day away. We just can’t seem to get on the right time. I guess it will take a few more days.

We dressed and took a car downtown to attend the 4:00 P.M. Mass that the Spanish waiter had told us about. It was in the crypt of a big church and it was packed with Spaniards. I guess we better admit that the Spanish are dark as I have never seen a church full of such dark haired, dark skinned, dark eyed people. The sermon was in Spanish and the people sang hymns in Spanish during the Mass. After Mass we went to the restaurant in the train station for breakfast or supper – whatever it was. Again the food was delicious and so much that it is a sin to leave it. The bread is very crusty and delicious and they slice up at least a loaf of it for our. Jim and I had chicken and the kids had eggs and bacon. After supper Jim went to the baggage dept to get the trunk and as we waited for him two men came up to us – the first man spoke French and he asked me if they were all my children and if any of them were twins. I told them their ages and told him I could only speak English. He congratulated me on the family and left say “Salut con tutti” or something similar which I guess meant good luck with all of them. Later another huge German man with vest and heavy suit, walking cane and sandals camp up and spoke to the children and asked Kenny his name. Again I explained and he said he only knew “little English” – then he tipped his hat and went off.

We climbed in the car with trunk and children and arrived home. Tomorrow is school. I hope we wake up.

Love,

Dina & Jim

(send to Jim’s folks)