Week of August 2nd: Swiss Airlines destinations of the week: Porto, Santorini, Valencia
On Monday Swiss Airlines wrote to us proposing getaways to mouth-watering destinations that are not in flames or, we hope, too risky. Hit the button and you're in Porto in a quick hour, feet in the water or viewing the Douro river, sipping local port and juggling languages. Easy, so easy.
Or exotic Santorini, awash in blue and white.
Or Valencia for a big dose of Spain, dense beauty and history.
The airline dangles these destination-temptations before a surfing clientele fed-up with reading about the variant-du-jour.
Apparently as long as you have your Covid 'passport' you should be able to travel easily, and for under 100 francs why not? A getaway is also an attempted escape from fear.
Much of France has retired to the coasts, foregoing the habitual intense dedication to administrative work. More time to discuss our bodies, Covid status, families, politics of course, recent operations, climate change, upcoming operations, births, deaths and other human activities.
We continue to welcome friends (with masks), do a bit of gardening, we're eating at outdoor restaurants and taking dips in Lac Léman.
However there are planetary problems:
Alpha a torrential rains, flooding summer
Beta a hot, fiery, devastating summer
Gamma the continuing tragedy of the world's refugees
Delta that nasty, international, fast-moving variant
The devil is in not in the details of smaller concerns, but in the suffering of planet earth and the devastation this suffering brings on.
One continues to seek other frontiers and other messages, but it's our world, and we're still in it.
