Despite a gray and rainy day, we walked back down the mountain from the gasthof to the village of Baad. I felt like Heidi in the book of the same name. We paused to step into the highly embellished St. Martin’s Church before going a brief distance to the town’s only traffic circle where we caught a bus to Riezlern. We mingled with festival-goers celebrating cows going down to winter pastures. Different groups of decorated cows came into town at various times during the morning and early afternoon. A large beer tent provided live music and refreshment, and other tents sold wares ranging from honey to sausage to hats to wood carvings.

I was amused at the many mirrored street signs which assist drivers in seeing past thick hedges and blind corners. Also, I took a photo of one sign reminding drivers that school has started again and brakes need to be used.

After shopping at a couple of stores and eating pea soup in a local cafe, we jumped onto a very crowded bus (filled with both tourists and school children) which happened to thin out considerably by the time we reached the last stop at Baad. It had stopped raining by this time, so we walked back up the mountain path to our gasthof. 

A few hours of relaxation and a traditional Austrian/German meal ended our day of exercise and rest.

Today we drove through southern Germany and ended up just over the border into the Austrian Alps. On the way, we stopped at Breitachklamm, a beautiful river gorge in southern Germany. (The river is named Breitach, and the German name for gorge is klamm.) Even though it rained, the scenery was splendid.

We stopped for hot chocolate in the first Austrian village we came to, Riezlern. I was fascinated with seeing a shop and a street name, Kessler, which may be the original spelling of my maternal ancestral surname. The Pennsylvania Kistlers came from the Alps region west of here.

We came into the small town of Baad, which literally dead ends into the northern side of the Austrian Alps. From there, we parked our car, and the son of the Alpinewald Gasthof (guest house we are staying in for four nights) came to pick up our luggage. We then had to walk up a mountain path for almost a half hour to the lodge. It was still raining, so the Zurich umbrella purchases continue to be appreciated. Even though it is cloudy and cool this evening, we can tell that our views the next few days will be spectacular.

After a hot meal of chicken, baked potato, and spinach, we played a German board game called “International Cafe” before retiring for the night. We understand that we will be awakened tomorrow morning by many cows coming down the mountainside from their summer pasture to winter meadows.

After a late night (or early morning) of celebration, we drove nephew David to the Nuremberg Fluhagen (Airport). He’s wandering to other European locales, and he seems to have amassed enough buddies in these other places to garner free lodging. That’s an example in both friendship and frugality! I’m still grateful for David helping me decorate the wedding vehicle yesterday. It would have taken three hours without his help. We took a selfie to remember the experience, and the entire heart wreath never fell off the car when it transported the bride and father to the wedding. Yay!

We then drove to the Nuremberg Hbf (main train station) where we returned our rental vehicle. Taking a local train back to the airport (only seven stops away), we met Tom and Petra, who will drive their van for the four of us to spend a few days’ vacation in the Austrian Alps. They were dropping off Daniel and Damaris for their honeymoon flight to the Canary Islands. These islands are under Spain’s jurisdiction but lie closer to Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. I thought how appropriate it was to go there, as D & D’s marriage symbolizes an African-European union. So we had a chance to hug them good-bye before they flew off into the sunset….

After saying good-bye to a nephew, a niece and her new husband, and another niece who had to return to her medical internship in a nearby town, we are spending the afternoon resting and reflecting. Part of that reflection is pointing out some interesting social constructs while here.

If you throw away a drink bottle or can in public places in Germany, a “gleaner” will come by the trash can and almost immediately snatch it out. We saw five different gleaners within an hour while sitting at both the airport and train station.

In Switzerland, people openly and randomly smoked cigarettes. Marijuana is also legal there. But in Germany, smoking in public places is usually in designated areas. Both countries have special cigarette disposal bins so that you don’t cause a trash bin fire. Heaven forbid you throw a cigarette butt on the ground!

And I have to talk about the bathrooms. “WC” (water closet) is the designation throughout Europe. The signs that say “WC” are often next to another sign of a running figure with an arrow marking which direction to exit in case of emergency. At first, I thought this sign meant “here’s where you head if you need to run to the WC,” but my brother laughed at me and set me straight. In trains and airports you can find free WC’s, but most public spaces have Euro-operated toilet stations that ensure they’re fairly clean. It costs between one-half Euro to two Euros to do your business. Some are marked “McClean,” which really tickled me for some odd reason.

Speaking of “McClean,” that reminds me of McDonalds. We see many fast food chains, including the aforementioned, as well as Burger King and Subway, but we’ve tried more local fast food chains–buying a Turkish/German taste blend of gyro, red cabbage, and cucumber at one place. Today we had a pretzel sandwich, with ham, mayo, and lettuce on it.

I must say that some of the shops and restaurants in the airports and train stations are unusual. I saw a wig shop next to the WC in the train station today. Never have I seen so many head mannequins in one place!

Everywhere we go, I continue to see people from many cultures and hear a wealth of languages. It’s still comforting to be connected with our friends back in the U.S., and we’re connecting right now by tuning in to Redeemer OPC’s live stream back in Atlanta. It’s 17:00 in Germany (5 p.m.) and 11:00 a.m. in Georgia.   

The wedding day has been a joyful blur. 

In the morning I helped my sister-in-law decorate the hood of a borrowed, bright-red Volkswagen that would carry Damaris and her father to the church. All the flowers we used came from her garden. Nephew David assisted in attaching the heart-shaped bouquet to the hood.

Other than the bride being slightly late to the ceremony and some audio-visual glitches, the wedding went well. While German was the main language spoken, two women served as English translators. The bride’s three younger sisters performed a recessional on the same piano. I captured the last fifteen seconds of it on a video.

After the ceremony, we went directly to an adjoining reception hall for donated cakes and champagne. We endured family photos, then drove in a convoy over to a hotel restaurant for an elegant meal and entertainment. The party lasted past midnight, but John and I left around 11:30. We used the excuse that we needed to help carry all the gifts back to my brother’s house so they would be available for the couple to open on Sunday before leaving on their honeymoon. 

Weary feet but happy hearts.

My brother Tom spent the morning merging errand-running for wedding preparations and sightseeing for us. We walked the cobbled main street of Ebermannstadt, learning that the first public documents of the town were recorded in the 1100’s. It probably existed well before that time. The River Wisent flows through the village.

Tom took us (John, nephew David, and me) to Castle Greifenstein in nearby Heilegenstadt. In the words of our guide, it was built circa 1160 as “a fortress for defense and later converted into a castle for display.”

The exterior didn’t seem too spectacular, but the interior was amazing. An inner courtyard has been used as a movie set, and the weapons collection, torture instruments, antique furniture, old books, and archaic paintings took me right back to the Middle Ages. The water well is quite deep–almost 90 meters until the water level begins!

We spent a bit of time in the afternoon assisting with church set-up and flower decorations.

On the way back to the house, John drove while Tom directed us through his memory lane of various houses and work places of his past. One of his former homes was just around the bend from Castle Egloffstein, perched on a mountaintop with many restored, Elizabethan-era homes in the Egloffstein village below the castle.

All four of my nieces finally arrived, and we were able to enjoy one of my sister-in-law’s specialties, onion pie, served with a light, white wine.

We ended the evening with me putting on the wrong left shoe and not realizing it until I walked out the door, having to sheepishly return when I noticed my two feet felt vastly different. I’m glad I can provide some comic relief during busy times.

The wedding is tomorrow!

Leaving Zurich in the morning via train, we headed for the German city of Stuttgart, three hours north. It was difficult to take photos from a fast-moving train, but I did manage to grab one at the Rhine River right before we crossed from Switzerland into Germany. One of the advantages of traveling in most of the European Union (or disadvantage, according to your perspective) is not having luggage checked or going through any form of customs. We did have our train tickets examined by a conductor at the first stop in Germany, but we didn’t have to rise from our comfy seats.

Even though the day started out sunny, it grew increasingly gray and rainy. We traveled past tangled forests, cultivated farms, rolling hills, and small towns. Most of the scenery could be described as pleasant but unremarkable. The oddest part of the train ride occurred in a rural area about an hour south of Stuttgart. A person seemingly stood at attention in the middle of a road parallel to the train tracks. Nothing was around him. He didn’t move and just stood, staring into space. He was attired completely in white head to toe. I looked at John and said, “Did you see the white dude? What was that?” John nodded in the affirmative and shrugged his shoulders. That was certainly unexplainable!

In Stuttgart, we changed trains to Nuremberg, where John rented a car for our final destination: Ebermannstadt. He navigated skillfully out of Nuremberg, but because of confusing construction work on the main highway, we missed our turn-off and took a less-traveled route through the hills.

In this quaint Bavarian town nestled among the mountains, the sun came out again right when we checked into a guest cottage just down the street from my brother and his family. Their oldest of four daughters, Damaris Campbell, will marry Daniel Dafam in a church wedding on Saturday. As is customary in Europe, a civil ceremony has already taken place. They went to Denmark a few weeks ago for that event, meaning they’re already “officially” married. Damaris holds a special place in our hearts. She lived with us and did a semester of study in Anamosa, Iowa, when I taught there. John also instructed her in first driving lessons! Daniel and Damaris will be returning to mission work in Africa.

Let the festivities begin!

We rode a train to Lucerne today. It’s less than an hour from Zurich, even with four stops along the way. Billed as the Swiss counterpart to Venice, the river and lake definitely play a huge part in the life of the city.

A two-hour walking tour provided a good overview of the region and the city itself. We dined in a medieval bakers’ building that was purposefully placed on the other side of the River Reuss to keep commonplace fires from spreading into the city. We then walked along the top (remaining portion) of the ancient city wall and climbed the waterclock tower for wonderful views of the town.

Here’s a list of the top ten most interesting things I learned:
* The town’s modern cultural center was designed to channel lake water into the building. It hosts a large summer music festival.
* There are four linguistic regions of Switzerland, most predominantly a Swiss-German dialect, followed by French, Italian, and even a small Latin-speaking area. I thought Latin was a “dead” language!
* The two most-recognized landmarks of the city include the medieval pedestrian bridge, Chapel Bridge, which has old historical paintings in its interior roof trusses, and the eight-sided water tower formerly used as a dungeon and now as a wedding/event center.
* Located near the geographical center of Switzerland bordered by the beautiful Swiss Alps, over 50,000 people move to or from Lucerne every day.
* A Jesuit church, built in the gaudy Baroque style right after the Reformation, symbolizes the Catholic stand against the Swiss Protestant reformer Zwingli.
* Castle Gutsch sits on a mountaintop overlooking the town. Rumored to have been wanted by Michael Jackson to purchase right before he died, it is now owned by a Russian family who charges over $1,000 a night to stay there. The castle has a Muslim minaret and a Christian tower to celebrate unity of religions.
* Much fresco art work is painted on the town’s buildings to show uses; for example, a hotel popular for lovers sports a Cupid statue and intertwined wedding rings.
* Many “squares” connect the cobbled streets, and a garishly painted water fountain is centered in the square where Lucerne’s parallel to Mardi Gras starts every year. (The guy who started this tradition in the early 20th century is supposedly buried beneath the fountain.)
* Chocolate flows down a wall in a favorite chocolatier. Their hot chocolate comes straight from the chocolate fountain that “feeds” the wall. I know, because we imbibed!
* Large-leafed, knobby chestnut trees line the riverbank. They are so uniform in their ugliness. (At least, that’s my opinion.)



Today we walked in Old Town Zurich–meandering brick streets centuries old with shops and restaurants and apartment homes above shops.

A pedestrian bridge had fencing filled with locks demonstrating everlasting love.  I understand this is a commonplace European practice.

It rained a bit too hard for our jackets to handle, so we stopped at an Espirit store to buy umbrellas. And of course, it stopped precipitating within a few minutes after unfurling the new purchases. It did rain off and on the rest of the day, though, so we’re we’re thankful nonetheless for the purchases.

Some of the old churches charge admission to enter, so we only took exterior photos of those. One of Europe’s largest outdoor clock faces is mounted on the side of one church steeple. We did go into Grossmunster, a very large cathedral with stunning stained glass windows. They only charged admission to walk up the stairs into the tower, but our tired legs couldn’t take the climb.

John, the wonderful trip planner that he is, pre-ordained that if it should rain, we would duck into the Kunsthaus Zurich Art Museum. What a good idea that was! With over 4,000 paintings, sculptures, and installations, we viewed art ranging from 12th century frescos to 21st century pop art. Most of the titles and descriptions were in German, but the handheld audio guide tool assisted immensely. We could type in the corresponding exhibit number to hear information as needed. I remember Dutch masters including Rembrandt, vanDyk, and vanGogh; French impressionists Monet, Manet, Degas, VanGogh, Chagall, Gaugin, and Cezanne; the Italian artist Giacometti; the German artist Munch; and a fairly wide representation of 20th century art including Picasso and Kandinsky. Many Rodin statues filled the exhibition rooms and niches. One stood outside (“Gates of Hell”) with a miniature version of “The Thinker” at the top of the installation.

We found a trolley to take us back toward the hotel, stopping for a brief rest. We regained our strength before sunset, walking back into OldTown. Deciding on the Ristorante La Pasta by the east side of river, I enjoyed eggplant parmesan, and John had pasta with spicy sausage and tomato sauce. We shared whipped cheesecake with strawberries, and returned along the shining riverbank. Sleep awaits.

Other than occasional turbulence, our leg from Denver to Washington, D.C. proved to be uneventful. By the time we extricated ourselves from the plane, we had only a half hour to catch the overseas flight to Zurich. Thankfully, we didn’t have to leave the concourse; our gate was only seven away. As we hurried along, John said he saw John Boehner eating. (I didn’t spot him, but hubby John reported he must have flown on our flight to Zurich, because he mentioned seeing him again as we walked past the airport smoking lounge after arriving in Switzerland. If it was him and not a doppelgänger, perhaps he was taking his secret lobbyist monies to a Swiss bank account. At least I have a great imagination! 😜)

I digress. It took awhile to actually take off from Dulles–long line of planes waiting to leave, and dull, cloudy skies to match the field’s name. The flight itself lasted 7-1/2 hours. United Airlines served both dinner and breakfast, along with free wine. We observed one guy downing two glasses of wine with dinner and another glass at breakfast! Announcements came in both German and English.

I occasionally watched nature videos enhanced with pan flutes and orchestral music, but then I nodded off while John watched a Bollywood musical and some Asian crime mystery. He didn’t sleep at all.

I like to follow Flight Tracker when we travel long distances. I just happened to open my eyes when technology reported it was 3:48 a.m. in Zurich with 3 hours and 48 minutes of flight time remaining. Weird crossover!

We flew over the southwestern part of Ireland, the very tip of England where the Atlantic Ocean meets the English Channel, and we watched the sun rise over France. Thick clouds obscured Paris.

When we landed in Switzerland, my body said it was midnight, but those super-accurate Swiss clocks synced with breakfast time.

We waited in a queue to buy a day’s pass around Zurich’s train/bus/trolley system, managed to find a train from the airport to Europe’s largest train station, promptly got lost trying to make our way out through the multiple underground levels, but finally wandered down the right side street to find our “boutique” hotel room replete with gaudy gold and red wallpaper. We’re resting there briefly. Now we need to find some energy to walk around the town. Jet lag is hitting!

What a surprise to see four branches of the military represented at our departure gate today.  A welcoming committee saluted a Medal of Honor recipient as he deplaned. He’s a Vietnam vet who served in the Marines and is headed to Pueblo, Colorado to be honored and memorialized

at the museum there. I shot a video of the brief welcoming ceremony. It makes me proud to be an American!