switching gears

as i strolled to the train station, i could sense myself mentally switching gears into hiking mode. i am much looking forward to abandoning the hustle and bustle of paris in exchange for wide expanses of countryside and mountains. how lucky am i to be in a position to pull this off?

i had a visitor this morning while sipping on a bowl of cafe au lait. from the first sentence she uttered, this dane was evidently bursting to tell someone, anyone. seems she'd been in a bike accident some years before - i swear i will never again ride without a bike helmet! - and had been drawn to paris to attend a "handicap conference" as she called it. there she introduced her invention: a kitchen implement for people with limited hand control. while i was happy for her and the success of her brainchild, i couldn't help but thank my lucky stars for the relative ease with which my trip plans had come together. how much more difficult - if not impossible - would this hike have become, given some of the challenges faced by my danish friend.