Wednesday, October 18- We were finally adjusted to Swiss time because we woke up without an alarm. We packed our luggage and checked out of this guest house because we'd be back in Zurich by evening.
We were following the news of what was happening in Israel; the situation was not improving. Hope of rescheduling our trip in the near future evaporated.
Our first stop of the day was Beatenberg so Duanes could check out a hotel at a Bible College as possible lodging option on future tours.
While Duane did that, we walked across the street to take pictures of the outstanding views from up on that hill. We had clear views of the Alps for 180°, including Jungfrau & Jungfrau Joch (maiden yoke) and Monch.
Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps. 11 billion tons of ice. If it were to melt, each citizen of the earth could be supplied with one liter of water a day for 3.5 years. 😮
The Swiss air show was in progress...
As we were driving along, Ernst pointed out things in this valley along Lake Thun, but I couldn't tell you anymore what they were except the village of Aeschi, where his wife was from. Just beautiful.
Still in Sigriswil area...
What a view!
Geraniums grow profusely in Switzerland! Frost hadn't nipped them yet.
Onward to Thun, where we drove by the Thun Castle, dating back to the 1100s...
Thun, gateway to the Bernese Alps, is as quintessentially Swiss as you can get. Or so we've been told.
Smart cars are perfect for Swiss roads.
We snooped around this Reformed church in Reutigen
...and the cemetery behind it. We found a Stauffer & a Miller grave, but like everywhere else in Switzerland they were recent headstones due to plot recycling.
We stopped at Migros for lunch in Steffisburg. With a little help from an attendant, we were able to place our order at the kiosk. We were managing German better now.
The pork cordon bleu and spinach ravioli were so good!
Topped off with chocolate cake for dessert.
We stopped briefly at Evangelical Reformed Church of Schwarzenegg in Unterlangenegg. The date on the outside is 1693. We're told the church was built with money from the sale of [confiscated] Anabaptist farms.
Some of the group wanted to see the Yoder homestead there. Joderhuebel (Yoder hill)!
That's a lot of bells on the Yoder house.
...through a very muddy spot, and dodged "Alpine pizzas" that Ernst apologized for, but he found the cave -in spite of only having been there once before.
I just loved the view. And felt a kinship with my ancestors who very likely worshiped here in secret a long time ago.
Everybody's got a water buffalo
Yours is fast but mine is slow
Oh, where we'd get them, I don't know
But everybody's got a water buffalo -Veggie Tales
We stopped in Lucerne. I was amazed at the palm trees growing in front of this hotel. How do they keep them alive in the winter? (Actually I just Googled it- it has to do with the protected micro climate along lake shores.)
It was a bustling city, hard to find parking, so Ernst dropped us off by a coffee shop. We all were in desperate need of a Water Closet by this time. We had been warned in advance that public WCs are not always readily available in Europe, but this was our first experience with that. We inquired at the coffee shop, but they not-so-politely showed us the door. We politely left without buying any coffee. 😛 We were right by Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), but being on a mission, we crossed it at a brisk trot. I didn't have time to take the pictures I would've wanted and actually enjoy the experience.
Chapel Bridge is a covered wooden bridge spanning the Reuss river in Lucerne. Named after the nearby St. Peter's Chapel, the bridge is unique for its interior paintings dating back to the 17th century, although many of them were destroyed in a 1993 fire. The restored bridge is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, as well as the oldest surviving truss bridge in the world.
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The city of Lucerne from the bridge
The bridge from the city of Lucerne. 😁
We inquired at a bakery next- where is a public toilet?? They directed us to the train station 2 minutes up the street. We made haste to the train station, but alas we discovered we additionally had to ride the escalator down into the station, which was much like an American mall, lined with shops, except with a train running through it. The signs for the WC pointed and pointed till we got to the very back corner of the station! Unbelievable! I'm pretty sure we don't make our toilets that inaccessible in America! Adding insult to injury, we had to PAY 1.50 francs to get in!!
No cash, cards only. Actually till we swiped our card and the international fees were added on, we paid almost $2 to use a toilet. #shakingmyhead There was a vending machine right outside the WC with these WC passes. I never!
Our local guide said the purpose of pay-to-pee is so people take better care of the facilities. Apparently it is a real problem because we saw a lot of signs like this-
When we decided to extend our stay in Switzerland, there were 2 things I really wanted to do. 1. Go to the Heidi/Spyri museum, and 2. ride an Alpine slide. I've ridden an Alpine slide before, but this was my chance to ride a real genuine one! #1 was a bust as I mentioned before. As for 2, I read the article "20 Best Mountain Coasters In Switzerland" and kept waiting. But when you are the sole passionate person in a tour group about doing a certain thing... well, it got pushed to the bottom of the collective bucket list. On this -our last day, it had turned a fall-ish chilly and drizzly. If we had been on our own I would've powered through anyway, but I didn't let myself impose on the rest of the group. I am deeply disappointed that I didn't get to do either one though. I have a choice to be either an Anne of Green Gables (Anne sighed. "Well, that is another hope gone. My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.") or Pollyanna (“there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.”) about it.
We got on the Autobahn to get back to Zurich quickly. The Paris group had returned at 2:30 but then had some excitement over a phone accidentally left on the bullet train. Thankfully they were able to track it; someone had turned it in at the next stop. We got to the hotel at 5:30pm and got checked in.
This hotel was comprised of multiple buildings; we were the only ones in our tour group in the building we were assigned to. Possibly the only guests in the entire building. Our room was spacious and comfy. The best bed we had on the entire trip because it wasn't two twin beds shoved together -it was a real king mattress! In the spirit of Jesus first miracle, Switzerland also saved the best for last. 😁
Dinner was at 7:15 in the hotel restaurant. I was not one bit hungry but went along with Richard just to be sociable. Our waitress did not speak English, so we had trouble communicating that I wanted still water. Actually what they call still water comes in a bottle and is rather expensive, but conveying "tap water" was beyond our abilities so we usually ended up with still. Richard got the special- chicken alfredo, which he said was very good. We talked "a mile a minute" swapping stories with the Paris group.
After repacking our luggage for the flight home, we fell into that plush bed at 10pm.
Thursday, October 19- My 52nd birthday. Instead of spending it at the Garden Tomb like I had looked forward to for 6 months, I spent the day traveling. We set our alarms for 5:25am, but actually woke at 5. Now that we were totally adjusted to Swiss time, we were going home and starting all over with the jet lag process.
Breakfast was included with the hotel. Last time to enjoy those buttery, flaky croissants with Nutella, deli meats & cheeses for breakfast, and the ever present bircher muesli.
We went back to our room to brush our teeth and were surprised that till we got back out to the parking lot most of the others were already loaded into the vehicles with luggage piled high. We waited for Ernst to come back for us & Duanes, his 2nd airport run. Check-in went smoothly; we weren't asked any questions at passport control- just breezed right through.
We cruised right through security too. Different countries can be picky about different things so one never quite knows what to expect, but Switzerland was easy for us. Although someone else in our group had a slightly different experience. 😉We only had about a half hour wait at our gate.
Again, Swiss Air treated us well, serving us something pretty much every hour. From rosemary sticks...
...to spinach quiche.
For lunch there was a choice of chicken or vegetarian curry. Richard can testify that the chicken was good.
The only redeeming quality was the ice cream that came later.
I on the other hand was the very last person to be served on the plane. They were out of the chicken, so they offered me a special diet meal instead. I'm not sure what kind of diet it was intended for but it was horrible! Absolutely tasteless. WORST birthday meal EVER!
Flying over Quebec...
We landed in Chicago around noon USA time, 6pm Swiss time. We got through customs smoothly, but then we had to wait & wait on our luggage. We might have worried except our entire flight crew was waiting beside us.
As our group collected our luggage, we said our final goodbyes and went our separate ways. Richard & I rode the tram to a different terminal to check in with United for our connecting flight. It took us 2 hours to get through customs, collect our bags, recheck them, go through security and find our gate. After an international flight, this plane seemed tiny, and the short commute meant we got 0 service- not even a mini bag of pretzels. Since we had rebooked these tickets last minute, we didn't have seats together either, on a completely full flight. 
I had a new experience. We flew through a fair amount of turbulence. I was sitting beside a grown man who was freaking out. The lady in front of us, which I was guessing to be his sister or some such relation, was attempting to calm him. I felt sorry for him but I'm not the chatty type, who will strike up a conversation to distract a stranger.
When we landed, our son Jeremy was there to pick us up. It was 6pm our time, but midnight Swiss time. I was so tired I was nauseous, in spite of motion sickness patches. It was not a pleasant drive home for me. Richard was tired too, but he stayed awake for Jeremy's sake because it was raining/miserable driving. I must've dozed off in the back seat because I don't remember parts of the drive home. When we got home, our body clocks were screaming 2am; we went straight to bed without unpacking, without chatting with our children or grandchildren, or even acknowledging the birthday gifts from my children. It was a less than stellar birthday, but that came later. We were totally exhausted from 21 hours in transit. Of course, we were wide awake at 2am, 6 hours late.
That concludes my trip report. We have no regrets that we spent the money on Europe after all, and we look forward to traveling to Israel with this fun group of people whenever it's safe to do so.
1 comment:
Thun castle is where your Stauffer ancestor was imprisoned for his faith. At the age of 90, Christian Stauffer and 66 of his family members were deported from Switzerland and went to Germany where he died. At least you got to see the castle even if you didn't go inside.
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