A Swiss Adventure and Bavarian Hospitality

Visiting our friend Sabine was a highlight. She and Daniel live north of Zurich; still in the same apartment but are just about to move into their own home in a village near Winterthur. They will also have just had their third child, so they'll be busy. Our trip there was by country roads; this is necessary as the motorway fee is an annual one there and quite pricey. Also you get the lovely tour of the various villages.

Switzerland came alive for us during our two days with Catherine Schmid. She gave us thoroughly Swiss meals and insisted on taking us past Lucern to the middle mountains. There in Engleheim we took the gondola up to 1800m. You have to do this often in Autumn in Switzerland because the constant fog is really depressing and doesn't often clear, so getting away to the mountains and above the fog is a recurring theme. Then we realised how special it was that we were able on our first arrival in Switzerland to get great views of the Alps.

After this we crossed back into Germany, actually rather unexpectedly; this is one of the more undesirable features of our sat-nav. But there we were, suddenly on a bridge over the Aare River with the customs officers looming in front of us and no possibility of doing a U-turn. So we missed our opportunity to take a ferry across the Bodensee, Lake Constance, which we had been looking forward to. Nevertheless we made it to our friends, the Kerns, in good time and were even able to take an exhilarating walk with Karen up the hill above the lake before Matthias arrived back from school. They took us to a local restaurant where I was served Spatzle noodles; these are home-made extruded noodles. I hope you enjoy them too because I am likely to serve them when you visit me! This family have finished home-schooling now and are currently helping others, after a stint in the UK to avoid fines here in Germany, so we had plenty to discuss.

Moving on from there we caught up with our friends again in Neuffen, where Nathan had been living; this time meeting the father who had been away in the US on our previous visit. It was their little one's 6th birthday and what a cake! They have a style all their own which is a family tradition with them; iced with coloured custard. German families generally eat their main and hot meal in the middle of the day and then in the evening they have bread, sliced sausage, cheeses and other trimmings. We have to keep reminding ourselves of this when we are making arrangements.

Our old friends, the Zollners, whom we knew years ago when they lived in New Zealand are still in Schwabach and this was our next stop. This town with a main church building larger than our Cathedral, is just half an hour South of Nurnberg, the home of Albrect Durer, the famous reformation artist, of some 500 years ago. Nurnberg is also where the Nazi war crimes were tried after WWII. It is a large modern city but still retains its Medieval wall. Tina and Jurgen kindly gave us true Bavarian meals including her lushiously moist roast pork that I remember so well. She served it with sauerkraut and potato dumplings - superb. It was also my birthday and so a double treat.

Nearby we are now staying with home-schooling friends with nine children. They have an extensive property with an abundance of space in their several farm buildings, some of which they have renovated. Here they have their own botanic garden with many varieties of trees because the dad is a tree doctor. We have been very spoilt here and have needed to stay longer since we have had to make some changes to our itinerary. Peter has busied himself with doors again. One in particular was a curly one - the hinge had been set into the plaster wall but the plaster having crumbled left the door extremely loose. So Peter had to drive a large bolt, which he had attached to the hinge, deep into the masonry and then cement it all in place - exactly the right place - so that the door would swing properly and match up with the separate door jamb. For those who take an interest, doors are different here on the continent; they sit against the door jamb and don't fit within it as they do at home.

Meanwhile I have been teaching English here and there and in particular the writing course to some of their children - now that's a bit different in another language. For instance they don't have the present continuous tense, so you can't start a sentence like "Singing loudly I ........" so we left that bit out. I've also been swapping recipes here and in other places and that usually means preparing the dish - made Bread and Butter Pudding today.

It's the autumn festival at the moment so you find old wooden trailers heaped up with large orange pumpkins and sometimes gourds too, on the sides of the road in various places. If you drive through a village you'll be likely to see one on the outskirts. And in just a few kilometres you hit another village - the place is littered with them and they are all quaint - except for the ubiquitous modern, colourful, supermarkets nestled into some corner and stealing most of the trade from the old style shops. Although bakeries still seem to be an important feature of village life. The other thing you notice about the autumn festival are the autumn trimmings attached to front doors and indoor decor to match, something similar to our Christmas decorations. It's quite special really and of course it's all there to buy in the shops.

Well the weather has changed and I think we have seen the last of the balmy autumn days, it's very cold at times and there was a heavy frost this morning.

Taking a Break in Switzerland

When we left France, we first made a detour so that we could pass through the village that Thierry comes from, Sercoeur. We got some photos so eventually you'll get to see it too. We drove across mid-eastern France and into the most south-western part of Germany, near the Black Forest (Schwartzwald), to get to Switzerland and the town of Aarau. On the way we passed yet another field of blumen (flowers), so this time we stopped and picked some Chrysies. It's really expensive here in Switzerland; prices are double or almost double that of Germany. Unfortunately we were stopped on the border and the car was thoroughly searched by the Swiss boarder control to see if we had too much (> 7kg) of meat or too much alcahol. It was a bit scary as we had a lot of groceries because we were about to go house-sitting, and we thought they might be confiscated or that we might be fined as we had heard of such things, and we really didn't know what they might be looking for. Eventually though, they let us go but it wasn't a pleasant experience at all. However the weather was excellent.

So we arrived in Switzerland and are staying at the Huesler's home; Emily and her family stayed here 7 years ago. This is the same town that Catherine Schmid lives in; do you remember her, she stayed with the Pollards earlier this year?

And so with the sky beautifully clear we looked out over the town to the hills and the distant Alps. In fact it is a view very much like a what you would see from the hills in Christchurch. Today the weather is still balmy. Up here on the hill it was misty until about 11am this morning and then when it had burnt off a sparkling day appeared. And for once I have time to write.

We have just walked up the hill through the forest. If you look closely you can find hazel nuts every ten metres or so when you are out walking. There is a farm up there above part of the forest with a restaurant and 3 goats with tinkling bells on their necks. One was king of the castle on a pile of stones; goats do that. Louder, deeper bells could be heard higher up and were the cow bells, we could see only four - Jersey cows. There are lots of bells around here; the church bells from various churches are ringing right around the clock. So we are having a much needed rest after quite a busy time.

Neuffen, Germany to Nancy in France

Leaving Neuffen (read Noi-fin) and friends behind us we drove toward the black Forest (Schwartzwald), at first it seemed like any other European Forest with its firs and beech. Its beech is very reminicent of our Notofagus or NZ Beech forests for those who are more botanically inclined. Only these seem to be deciduous and are currently tinged with patches of brilliant yellow; very eye catching. However the deeper we travelled into the forest and the higher we ascended the more we realised the extent of this beautiful place. And then at the summit we caught our breath as we surveyed distant tiers of forest clad mountains receding into purple mists; here indeed you feel that you are truly in the Black Forest. Now as we dropped down into the Rhine valley we began to catch glimpses of that great river shining in the late afternoon light between gaps in the trees.

Ben Vosseler's home is in an industrial area on the edge of town not far at all from fields of apples and grapes as we quickly discovered when he took us for a drive to see castle Schaunburg not far from his home. Ben's dad, Rafael, has been renovating a commercial building and has developed it for their home, he's done so much and they live on a grand scale now. Both his parents work as musicians and play something like a French horn only it's in its historic German form. His mum, Christiane also tutors this instrument. They took us for supper to a castle, yes another one, where the view was magnificent and we ate flammkuchen, which is a kind of pizza that I plan to make for you one day! It was served on individual boards, and we ate in the open air right by the battlements. Intriguingly they told us that this beautiful day was the last of the good weather and sure enough that evening down came the rain. They know their weather in a way that we do not. The pool where Ben works is literally over the fence and through a stand of tall trees from his home which is handy.

When you cross a boarder you never quite know what to expect and now we needed to cross the Rhine and thus to go to France. Well there was no boarder control but we certainly noticed the prices, much higher. That's why lots of the folks in Strasbourg do their grocery shopping in Germany.

Our French hosts turned out to be Romanian. I must admit I had wondered when I saw the name Dimitri. So this is how he became a naturalised Frenchman; he served in the French Foreign Legion for five years. And that qualifies you to become French. In Strasbourg we were in an appartment over the boulangerie in the city with a young family; some of their friends came over to meet us too. One lot are about to drive around the world in a campervan, including NZ! I went to the International church there and got to stay for lunch; great company and excellent food. Transport in the city is by extemely modern trams which bend in several places; the floor moves too, they are very comfortable and sleek. Nicoleta and Ana-Maria and I had a lovely day out looking around Strasbourg, travelling by tram and also visiting Petit France, a delightful old part of the city.

Then we were in Chanteheux just near Luneville where there is a palace just like Versailles built in the same grand style, 350 years ago or so. It is currently being restored after a fire in 2004. The whole town around it is about the same age, lots of 4-5 storey buildings all with wooden shutters and wrought iron grills to hold the flower boxes which are filled with an over abundance of mainly red geraniums. We had a trip to the nearby city of Nancy with its magnificent Stanislaus Square surrounded by huge guilded gates. Stanislaus had been a polish king who was aslo Duke of Lorraine. Another trip was to the town of Baccarat, our host, David Zimmermann's home town, where lots of top quality crystal is produced, so many shops with all sorts of crystal. One shop seemed to have an endless array of chandeliers. All the little villages are extremely picturesque so I took plenty of photos. I only wish my camera were better. The family here are planning to emigrate to New Zealand so we spent some time discussing home-schooling and even more time on what it's like living in New Zealand and how they could do it.