Thursday, October 12- This getting up at 6am thing does not come natural for me, but we wanted to make the most of our time abroad, so we did it. After loading all the luggage back on the bus...
...we were treated to a cuckoo clock demonstration in the hotel's clock shop, Steigen Haus. It was very interesting! Let's face it, some museum guides are interesting and some are not; this was one of the good ones. My grandparents had a 'real deal' cuckoo clock on their dining room wall for almost as long as I can remember, but I learned more than I ever knew before about these clocks.
Cuckoo Trivia: *No one knows for certain why the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) became the birthplace of the cuckoo clock, but the theory is that farmers in the area had to come up with ways of making money in the offseason. *Intricate and composed of many parts, Black Forest cuckoo clocks can take anywhere from three days to three weeks to make. *Traditional Black Forest cuckoo clocks are hand carved from lindenwood (also known as Basswood) from the linden tree, which is part of the lime tree family. These trees are native to northern Europe and are perfect to whittle or carve, as their grain does not split or run. *Each weight serves a different function of the clock. One is for the time and one is for the cuckoo and movements. If there is a third weight, it is for the music. *A pair of bellows set to different pitches creates the cuckoo sound. There are also many sizes of bellows, creating different volumes.
Just look at that detail!
These make me feel nostalgic. The price tag, not so much. $100 just to ship it... pass.
I purchased a doily with a cuckoo clock embroidered on it instead.
At 9am we watched The World's Largest Cuckoo Clock, Höllsteig, there on the hotel grounds, chime the hour. Side note: when we got home, our children questioned the "World's Largest" title. Sugarcreek Ohio also claims to have the World's Largest. Further investigation on the internet turned up at least 19 "World's Largest" in 7 different countries. Therefore this was one of the Largest.
After that, we climbed back on the bus and drove out of Germany, back into Switzerland. We were given a tour of a working Swiss farm, a Troyer Tours special.
Richard took pictures of his equipment...
...I took pictures of her flowers & garden. 😄
(We saw a lot of dahlias in Europe, apparently they are as trendy there as in the States.)
The family treated us to a picnic lunch on their farm. The grilled sausages were delicious!
Something to ponder... I'm not a foodie. But I noticed that most of the meals we were served in Europe were very basic, like this. Adequate certainly, but not a big spread. Personally I would feel pressure to serve some sort of side with a meal like this, probably more than one. It makes me curious where/when the American Mennonites started putting so much emphasis on food? It apparently didn't come come over on the boat with us! Interestingly enough, the Swiss don't have as much of a weight problem as Americans either -generally speaking.
From there onwards, Ernst traveled with us as our local tour guide. We went to Zurich next for a walking tour of Anabaptist history. Zurich is known as the banking
capitol of the world, but we Anabaptists know it as the birthplace of the Anabaptist Church. It was during this drive that Ernst informed us that the weather was unseasonable warm- Indian Summer (or whatever they call it in Europe). He believed God was blessing us with beautiful weather because we couldn't go to Israel.
Limmat River -where Felix Manz was drowned for his faith in the 1500s
Zwingli statue
The plaque above the door mentions Oct 11, 1531 so here we are exactly 492 years later.
we trooped through an alley where construction was in progress to get to this fountain. It is thought to be the fountain where the first adult baptisms may have taken place. The construction workers surely thought "crazy tourists! there's nothing back there."
Walking the streets of Zurich...
This is a house where Konrad Grebel & Felix Manz lived in the early 1500s.
We climbed stairs to a park overlooking Zurich & the Limmat River. A plaque has been installed "Here Felix Manz and five other Baptists were drowned the middle of the Limmat from a fishing platform in the Reformation period between 1527 and 1532. The last Talifer to be executed in Zurich, Hans Landis, in 1614." So we were here, reflecting on this solemn piece of our history, while a completely oblivious girl was nearly sitting on "our" plaque and butt-bombing our photos. I was quite tempted to ask her to have some respect and remove her behind from our photos! A good reminder to watch where I sit, especially if a swarm of tourists show up with cameras in hand.
The water is very clear. If you look close you can see the stones in the bottom (behind the plaque) above.
Something I have been thinking about- we hear so much about whites should apologize to the Native Americans for mistreating them, and to blacks for slavery. I'm not saying we shouldn't regret mistakes in the past. But when do you ever hear anything about the Germans & Swiss apologizing for the way they mistreated the Anabaptists in the past? Our people paid a heavy price for their faith right here. If we weren't the "quiet in the land", we could launch our own Anabaptist Lives Matter campaign. 😉
Münsterbrücke (bridge connecting two churches, Fraumünster and Grossmünster)
We got back on the bus and headed towards Interlaken, a 1.5 hr. drive. Along the way we saw some amazing scenery and got our first glimpse of the Alps. We drove over a couple more mountain passes, stopping at one scenic overview to bail out and take pictures. This is Lungern.
The Instagram shot...
...then this is what you really see when a tour bus stops at a scenic overlook. 😂
Brienzwiler, Switzerland (if you look close, there is a waterfalls in the center) I sound like a broken record, but pictures don't do justice.
Richard's sisters had been telling him (when he was less than enthused about the trip), that Switzerland is so beautiful and he's going to love it. This afternoon is where he first said "now I know what they were talking about."
Meiringen, Switzerland 😍
This is a 'drive-by shooting' of Lake Brinz. The water is so clear and blue! Our guide told us that there are very few fish in the lake- it's too clean! Nothing for the fish to feed on. Switzerland is a very green country.
Our room was the single balcony in the center of the photo.
View of the Alps from our hotel balcony, Jung Frau is on the left
Our group walked down the street to a pizzeria, Vacanze Romane, for dinner. 
Good pizza. Lively fellowship.
We had smidge of trouble figuring out the light switches initially. The room key card had to be in the slot to turn them on. Removing the card to leave the room turned them off automatically after a few seconds. Brilliant technology.
Zoomed in view
Our Q to tour leaders: Are all your groups this loud?" A: No. 🙊
This was the day our flight to Tel Aviv was officially canceled by SwissAir. We knew for sure we were not going to the Holy Lands. We heard of another [Mennonite] tour group who were in Israel and confined to their hotel rooms. We all agreed that we're fortunate to not be stuck in an unsafe situation, or had spent the money to get to Israel only to be sitting in a hotel, not able to do any of the things we came to do. We still had 4 more days scheduled in Switzerland, but we did not feel satisfied. When our tour leaders offered the option to extend our stay several more days and see more of Switzerland with them, we jumped at the chance. If we did not have to figure out transportation on our own and Ernst volunteered to be our tour guide, why would we not?!
-to be continued-
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