I am going to do a series of posts today that highlight my peculiar mode or tourism.

People seem to like my pictures of the trip I took to Europe with my daughter, so I am going to show them in groups that sort of show the things I am interested in.

I like dogs…

I am not just a ‘dog’ person, I like all kinds of animals, but I have had some fantastic friends in my life that just happened to be dogs. In fact, you should remind me someday to tell you about some of the strange things that dogs have done just to spend time with me. But that is for another time. I was taking one of my early morning strolls that I like so much in Crans-Montana Switzerland, and I met a nice lady walking a St. Bernard. I asked if I could take a picture, and ended up petting this beautiful creature for quite a while. (The dog, I mean) I have met a lot of St. Bernards, and they all seem to be very sweet natured.

Just a few minutes later, I met this unusual group of furry friends…

The three owners met every day in the park so the dogs could play. The big one is a Bernese Mountain dog, and they are, if anything, even sweeter-tempered than the St. Bernards. The little white dog is, according to their people, the big dog’s girlfriend. Or at least he really, really wants her to be. Their people spent a lot of time making sure he didn’t get too friendly, if you know what I am saying. I helped out by keeping the dogs busy getting their ears scratched.

The Swiss love their dogs. Here are a pair of pals I met strolling through the town…

Just to clarify the issue, I do not go around taking pictures of just any dogs. That would be weird. I only took pictures of the ones that I spent time petting, because at that point, we were friends.

I leave you with one last picture of a friend I made. This little guy lives in Rothenburg, the medieval walled city in Germany…

He had a thing for fresh rainwater.