Bern and beyond

It is Friday morning here; and I am in bed with my laptop in my lap - of course - wherre else would it be?  I have a bronchitis that I am sure my daughter gave me over the phone from California - I just don't know quite how she did that; but I sound pretty much like she did when I talked to her on Wednesday.
I took Nancy with me on a drive to Port, Switzerland yesterday for a business meeting.  She walked around, watched birds, and read "Emma" while I conferred with a soon-to-be client (I hope).  Then we drove the rest of the way around to Bern, had lunch, and enjoyed this beautiful Swiss city that is the federal capital.  The city burnd to the ground in 1405 and was rebuilt with a local greeninsh sandstone.  As a result, it has over 6 miles of shopping arcades at the base of the old buildings.  I showed her the lobby and restaurant of the Hotel Bellvue - THE hotel where the national delegates stay when their congress is in session.  There was an outdoor skating rink active in the square.  Nancy puts it a close second to Paris in charm.  Natually, the Swiss made the rebuilt city very organized and elegant at the same time.  (No cattywampus streets - large streets, etc.)
We ran in to our biggest traffic snarl yet on the way home last night just as we arrived in Grenoble.  There is one section which can, on bad days, have a speed of 100 meters per minute for about one kilometer.  After that, it is usually just ordinary traffic speeds the rest of the way home.  Last night, it was about 25 meters per minute in that section, and slow/blocked much of the rest of the way.  It didn't help that I was coming down with this whatever I have- so I crashed shortly after we got back to the apartment.  (The weather in Switzerland and most of our ride in France was beautiful; but we arrived back in Grenoble just near the end of a sudden drop of 2.5 to 3 inches of snow - accidents, no road clearing, end of rush hour, etc.)