Riedergate!

We realize, of course, that no one reading this blog will put up with too much complaining from us. So, we try to look on the bright side of our experiences and leave out the occasional "downers". However, sometimes (often?) the "downers" are part of the whole experience of travel, and we have to just make a quick allusion to them, for memory's sake if nothing else.

For example, there was this one night in our Swiss chalet when were bugged!

We had been seeing and disposing of these little (little? they were each at least a cm. long) insects quite often. However, this night, a few days after the snowfall, we found ourselves leaping out of bed every hour, shrieking to each other of being crawled upon, pinched, bitten, or otherwise ... well, there's no other word for it ... bugged!

The entire story is really too horrifying (we think) for a public web site, but involved eventually moving our carefully-sifted bedding to the futon in the living room and spending the rest of the night there. (Jolene placed dishes of water under the legs of the futon to help assure us an uninterrupted remainder of the night!)

When I approached him about it the next day, our property manager was quick to assure us that these bugs are harmless. He suggested we treat them like flies and just brush them off. I don't think my German or his English were sufficient to convey that such advice was not going to comfort my wife when one of these little critters decided to pinch her patootie at 2:00 a.m.

For those with more interest than we had, here's a web site devoted to them: the Earwig Research Centre, no less! Or just ask us, and we'll give you a blow-by-blow description of that night, plus (no extra charge) an account of evicting these critters from our luggage and clothing. (Be prepared for shivers of revulsion.)