Joyful Journey

According to the weather forecast, eastern Switzerland was to be "partly cloudy," and so we decided to try to hike a bit in the region called Heidiland. This area is so named as the Swiss author, Johanna Spyri wrote her classic children's literature book based in and around the village of Maienfeld, a picturesque village with its painted buildings, towers and a very pretty square surrounded by lush pastureland. Finding parking near the train station we began walking through town, following the Heidiweg ("Heidi Path") signs. This path leads through town and into the little hamlet of Oberrofels and ends in what is called "Heididorf. " Although there is no real evidence indicating that Spyri had any specific house in mind, one house has now called itself the "Heidihaus" complete with gift shop and museum, which we skipped. We did, however, eat our lunch at the picnic table out front, feeding the chickens our scraps. Then we followed th...

As it appeared that today again would not be a good day to hike or visit the Alps, we instead visited Rheinau, Rheinfalls (largest waterfalls in Europe), Stein am Rhein (the well preserved Medieval city that is one of my favorite places to visit) as well as the Castle Hohenklingen located on the hill above that is not only interesting to visit, but provides a bird's eye view of Stein am Rhein. I had not been to Rheinau previously, so this little town was another one to add to my list of places visited. Rheinau's claim to fame is the Benedictine Abbey, considered to be most magnificent exampels of High Baroque architecture in Switzerland. Unfortunately, the exterior was being restored and covered by scaffolding. The interior church photo here is of the women's chapel located on the premises and not High Baroque architecture, but has a very simplistic beauty. Always fun to take visitors to the falls, it reminds me of my years growing up in New York state, when we to...

The day we were leaving to visit the Taufer Hole, my landlords saw us in the parking garage and happened to ask if we had been to the Isle of Mainau in Germany. No, hadn't heard of it even. They suggested we include it in our itinerary which we did! (Ironically a colleague of Bob's suggested the same place the same day.) And I think we visited at a wonderful time in the growing season. Although it rained, sometimes quite hard, we were able to use the time to visit the butterfly house with it's wonderful orchids as well as, of course, many butterflies, as well as have cappuccinos and an espresso in the adjacent snack bar! We were able to view the entire grounds without getting more than sprinkled on. There is also the castle which the count's family still resides, part of which is a gift shop and art museum. The roses were spectacular and there were seemingly miles of them. (An exaggeration, yes, but there was a long stretch with nothing but large hedges of ro...

Around the time that it looked likely that we would be moving to Switzerland, Aunt Myrtle contacted me and told me that she, Uncle Gene, Aunt Verna and Aunt Rhoda were planning a week long hiking trip to Ireland and what was the possibility of their visiting me in Switzerland either before or after that trip. And thus began a series of emails back and forth, finally culminating with their arrival in Zürich. While in the states for Dad's funeral, all but Uncle Gene were at Uncle Leonard's for a few days together and we discussed things that they wanted to see and do. Top on the list was to make part of the trip an "Anabaptist historical tour. " With the help of a book which they purchased and sent to me (thanks!!) we began the visit. First starting in Zürich, we found the plaque by the Limmat River commemorating Felix Manz drowning as a martyr as well as visiting the Grossmünster and other highlights of the city. Then taking a train to Zumikon, we were ab...