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.
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