Melanie and Steve, Around the World in _

Posted 11:03 AM by MelanieandSteve
Hallo from Brugge, Belgium. Time to catch up on the last three weeks in Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium.

We finished off Berlin with a visit to Checkpoint Charlie museum dedicated to the heroes who faught or tried to escape the Cold War. It is located at the U.S. point of entry into East Berlin. Theres a picture of a time where U.S. and Russian tanks came to face with each other here. The tanks were sitting in wait, a matter of feet from each other, and apparently the world was breaths, or buttons away from world war III. After a long time of tension, the Russians apparently started up their tanks - - this causing even greater tension, U.S. not knowing their intentions. They then rolled five feet backwards and stopped. Moments later, the Americans acted in kind - five feet also. Like a dance, they took turns and followed each others lead, and the potential trajedy was dissipated. Yes, Sting, the Russians did love their children too. Melanie was impressed to learn how the various countries of the Eastern block were able to, one by one, win their own cold war by using the peaceful protests and civil disobedience philosophies of Ghandi. The countries attained successes this way one after another in succession after Glasnost. We followed this up with a tour of the Topography of Terror, an out door museum about the Nazi SS headquarters. Then, we met up with Erik, a friend of our California friends Darlene and Stephan. He gave us some good local perspective. Friendly human interraction (as opposed to touristy) is always welcome. We capped Berlin with a hike up the architectural and historical Reichstag with its glass dome and panoramic view of the city, just before running to barely make our train to Freiburg. Berlin was the most educational and interesting stop on our trip.

Next stop, Freiburg, to the southwest of Germany. Our German friend Stefan described this as an ideal city - for its cleanliness, warm climate due its closeness to the Rhine, the collegiate atmosphere, and close proximity to hiking in the Black Forest. We agree. We loved Freiburg. One particularly impressive thing was their tiny river system through the streets. The city was an embodiment of feng chue. If you weren't looking, you might find yourself stepping ankle deep into a streem of water, but if you were looking, you couldn't help but enjoy the cool gurglings of fresh spring (or gutter) water flowing by. After a tiring night train from Berlin, we checked into the Blackforest hostel (which was only 2 weeks old, and still proudly celebrating its grand opening), and headed off to the Schwartzwald (black forest) for some hiking. The forest wasn't as black as we expected (there were evergreens as well as bright translucent leafy trees) but it was the sweetest smelling hiking we'd ever breathed. It was like Christmas (trees) in June. We ate a picnic lunch on a bail of hay at a church on the mountain and took a nap in a meadow. Naps usually follow our night train rides. Refreshed, we headed into town. Freiburg has great energy at night. Theres a college nearby, and young people were everywhere. The town was filled with out door dining and cafes and every table was filled as well as every stair step and open sitting area. This was only a Thursday.

Leaving the EU: We headed to Switzerland. Melanie had lived there 14 years ago for a summer. There were some places we simply had to visit and revisit, but mostly, there were dear people and long lost friends we couldn't wait to see again.

We met Petra last year when we were travelling in Alaska. In Luzern, Petra met us at the train with a hearty 3-cheek-kiss and some yummy Swiss chocolate, and proudly took us around the beautiful and old Swiss Luzern and Fierwaldenstaaterse (Luzern lake). We climbed watch towers atop the old city wall, visited the Lion Monument (one of the "saddest pieces of stone"), walked the old town, and headed home for a plate of traditional Swiss Roste and Zurchegeschnetzeites, courtesy of and cooked by Petra. As if all that wasn't enough, she took us the next day up the cable car of Mount Pilatus, down the alpine slide, up the lift again, and down the other side of the mountain on the steepest cogwheel train in the world to a ferry ship on Lake Luzern which took us back to our origin. The views were the greatest, and the Alpine Horn players at the top of Pilatus were almost spiritual. Melanie couldn't resist the opportunity to do a little Pilates on Pilatus. Pilatus, by the way, is rumored to be the place where Pontius Pilate of Biblical infamy was burried. The next day we all went to the lake side beach, played hacky sack, and swam. Petra cooked us another local specialty, Alplermagrone for a good bye lunch. She always made sure we were caught up on the local culinary specialties. Fat and happy, she saw us off at the train station - all waves and hugs, and a little exchange of chocolate, very Swiss.

10 or so years ago, Steve was walking on the beach in San Diego when he saw Gisella and Daniel, visiting the states from Switzerland, flying a kite. Steve stopped to hold the kite up to the wind for them. Before he was done, Steve had invited the two of them over for traditional home cooked Mexi-American food. A couple weeks later, before returning to Switzerland, Gisella and Daniel had us over to their vacation beach cottage to cook us dinner. The lasting friendship was formed. Now, 10 years later, we stopped by to say hello again to Gisella and Daniel and their three beautiful young ones. The whole family took us in and took us out, and we had nothing but good family fun. After a home cooked dinner the first night, Daniel took us to the nearby old town Winterthur and we sat at the outdoor tables of a little old pub for drinks and conversation. The next day was a holiday, Pfingston, (aka Pentacost) so nobody had to work. Instead, they all took us to the local Kyburg castle museum at the top of a hill, preceded by a beautiful woodsy hike. That afternoon we headed to the local swimbad - public swimming pools in Europe are much more fun than America. They are more like beaches or parks with large grassy expances and olympic sized pools with slides and diving boards. The kids had fun, but Steve and Melanie had more fun sliding and diving and jumping. Steve practiced a few of his old gymnastics flips and impressed a few boys who kept asking him to do it again. No, the day wasn't done. Gisella and Daniel took us out to dinner at a remote restaurant with excellent food, and a slide for the kids (and Melanie) in the back. We felt a closeness with this family. The five year old made a necklace for Melanie which she has worn ever since. Time went quickly in Winterthur and we felt so grateful as we headed off again the next morning.

Ebenalp: a little hideaway . A mountain hostel all our own. It's a short hike down the cliff and through a cave and along a narrow ledge trail from the top of the Ebenalp Cable Car lift. It's a little hostel called Aescher once used to host guests of the Wildkirchle (church), a monk's church cut into the side of a cliff near Appenzel. Now, Aescher is a restaurant also with beds. The facade of Aescher is like a wood cabin, but the actual structure is cut into the cliff and the back wall is nothing but mountain side. Our sweet woodsy room offered about 15 beds, but we were the only ones there. Our window overlooked the drop-off of the clif and the sharp dramatic mountains on the other side of the valley. This was just our style. With two nights there, we spent our days hiking (8 hour tiring beautiful hike covering steep mountains, along a lake, and among sheep and cows), watching the many colorful paragliders, and then sharing Swiss Roste on the terrace at sunset. Late at night, the second day, the restaurant had guests celebrating a family party after midnight out on the terrace near our window. They suddenly broke out into an airy, harmonic, surprising chorus of a folk song which had yodelling in it. It gave us chills and happy dreams. Theres no place better for an evening yodel than high up in the echoey Swiss Alps.

Back to the City: Bern, Switzerland's government capital. Again it was time for some Education. We went to the Parliament Building and one of their branches of Parliament happened to be in session. Their government opperates surprisingly similarly to the U.S., having two houses much like our Senate and House of Representatives. A big difference, however, is their Bundisrat, or Federal Government's Executive Branch which has seven members, elected by and from the Parliament. Each of the seven members takes turn as President for a one year term, but they all have similar powers when it comes to voting for big decisions. The rest of the time, they take the responsitiliby of cabinet, such as defense, or interior ... We were able to watch one of the chambers of Parliament opperate in session. The language usage was interesting. Switzerland has four official languages, German, French, Italian, and Romansch. In Parliament, we watched two men debate an issue. One asked the other questions in French. The other answered his questions in German. How do they do that?

But we had to do more than just learn. We also had to play. Bern has gone out of its way to be a great city for visitors. They offer free bicycle rentals, free internet access, a very professionally produced multimedia film show for tourists (practically a tear jerker), and the best swim bad around (also free.) Our favorite was the Aere river and everyone swimming in it. This river runs rappidly, but without rapids, through the center of town and next to the swim bad. We walked up river with hundreds of other people and chose our point of entry. Some people waded in, others jumped from trees,... we chose to jump off a foot bridge. The bridge was about 3 meters high. We had to climb over the hand railing and prepare to fly. The water below seemed to just tear on bye. The first time, we just jumped. With a little confidence, we eventually began to dive, do 360s, and even climb up higher onto the top of the handrail for the jump. After the daring splashes, we just rode the water on down. The water was clean and a milky turquoise from Swiss Glaciers. It was refreshing but not too cold to enjoy, while the days were very hot. Some people were afraid of the strong currents and chose to enjoy the swimming pools along the banks or lie out on the grass. For us, this was as fun as could be. We also appreciated some of the freedoms and opportunities for adventure in a less litigious society - we don't think this would have been allowed by the State of California.

As if we were playing the Swiss stock market, we ended our Bear day (Bern means bears) with a Bull day, heading to the city of Bulle to meet our friend Pelin. Melanie met Pelin playing volleyball in San Diego about 7 or 8 years ago. Pelin met us at the train station and took us out to one of her favorite restaurants for a specialty known in her area of Switzerland (the Gruyere area, also known for Gruyere cheese). The restaurant was surrounded by nothing but green grassy hills, cows with their jingling bells, and the distant mountains. No other buildings around. It looked like we were driving up to a person's house. As we parked and walked into the restaurant patio, we loved hearing and watching four Alpine Horn players accompanied by a man elegantly waiving local Swiss flags. According to Pelin, she had come to this restaurant many times and had never seen this before. Timing is of the essence. We ordered the hearty Soup du Challet, Pelin's favorite and now also one of ours. We capped off the evening with a walk (by full moon rise) to the castle of Gruyere and it's surrounding medieval old town. On the way home, we walked around Pelins home town of Bulle and were impressed how everyone there seemed to know her. She introduced us to her father who owned a Kebab shop in the center of town. The activities were great. Catching up with an old friend . . . Priceless.

"It's a long way to Gornergat, It's a long way to Zermatt " (as the jingle goes, often sung by my Swiss family host, Christian). And it was - at least a long way into our wallets as the Zermatt railway doesn't accept Eurrail. So was it worth the expensive ride? To see the Matterhorn - Absolutely. We were fortunate enough to have a clear blue sky to frame the white mountain. Then we were fortunate enough to enjoy the warm sun on the hike up the mountain to a nearby lake with a view of the Matterhorn. But our luck ran out on the way down and we were blasted with a thunderstorm and rain storm. We took a hike called the Zermatt Matterhorn training hike. The grade was steeper than 50% straight up. There was a time schecule at the bottom to help you test your fitness level and readiness to hike the real Matterhorn, 45 minutes for experts, 55 for average, and 60 for "thumbs down". Always loving a challenge, we took the test and both came out above average (Steve a bit more above than Mel), but huffing and puffing and ready for a rest. We sat by the lake, sunbathed, picniced, watched clouds form around the Matterhorn, and then watched them form around us. Uh oh. When the sky rumbled, we had to run (to the tree line). After putting on our rain ponchos, we really enjoyed the wet walk back along waterfalls, through the woods (on a less steep alternative trail) to our Matterhorn view hostel. The town was a lot like a colorado ski village full of wood cabins and not so full of traffic -- you can't drive there, you have to take the train. And we took it out again the next morning.

And then we came to a place where Melanie had spent a lot of time nearly a decade and a half ago. Evi and Christian and Eleonora, Melanie's exchange student family, are practically like a second family. Going back to Kaisten, the little 2000 person town where they live, was an awesome blast to the past of memories. The town was almost exactly like it was fourteen years ago except for a few more houses on the green hills. We enjoyed long talks, good food, and continual activities. We never went to bed before mid night, always having more to talk about or more to do and always enjoying each other's company.

On the language front - - a little irony: Ever since Melanie had made plans to come back to visit, she worried she would not remember enough German to communicate. Happily, there was no communication problem because her German began to come back, and Christian and Evi had learned some English. But, Ironically, Melanie lost her voice. Steve commented that it was like a twilight zone twist - you worry about whether you can speak the language, ... but you find you can not speak at all.

We had great meals: the first night enjoying a loval favorite and a Melanie favorite, Raclette - - where you melt cheese on a center-table-grill and eat it with potatoes, pickles, and meat. At a restaurant by a small grass field airport the second night, we learned a new word (another language story): On the menu, Steve and Mel saw the "Tageshit" - (or the daily special, "Tag" means day. "Hit" comes from English such as a musical hit.). Mel and Steve began to laugh that they would not want to order something with a name like Dayshit. Christian overheard the joke and from then on, whenever anything didn't go right, Christian would say something like, "isn't that the Tageshit". Like Shakespeare did for English, we have expanded the Swiss German repetoire of words. Then, we spent one evening at their daughter Corrine's farm home where she BBQd steak and chops and we talked until late evening. Another night, Mel and Steve cooked Tacos for 8 family and friends.

We shared city times: spent a day in Basil and at the Basil Zoo, a day window shopping in Zurich and sampling some of the world's greatest chocolates (noteably the Luxemburgerli, miniature hamburger shaped chocolates) from the proud chocolate shop of Sprungli.
We had nature times: Hiking along the Rhine river and roasting Swiss wurste by a camp fire. And hiking through farmland near their Daughter Corrine's home, picking cherries from the trees along the road as if we were in paradise, and making our way to a viewpoint cliff overlooking the German/Swiss border and the Rhine river.
And we had Culture: Christian and Evi gave us a huge, generous, gift of tickets to the Opera, Aida. The Opera was playing in the open air amphetheater of the soccer stadium. There were about 1000 human performers as well as cammels, horses, and charriots. The entire stadium floor was filled with sand, monolyths, and a real water river. It was like enterring the ancient world for the story that took place in Egypt. We thank them so much for their generosity and will never forget what was an amazing production and our first opera.
We always had good time. The only hard time was saying good bye. They made us feel so at home that we could have stayed for ever.

We spent our last Swiss night with Eleonora, Jennifer and Stephan after a relaxing day at the alpine Klontalerse lake with Eleonora and Jennifer. Melanie made friends with Jennifer 14 years ago in Switzerland and had her over in San Diego 6 or 7 years ago. Now Jennifer and her fiance Stephan took us both in and treated us like old friends. We loved our last night there with Jennifer, Stephan, and Eleonora, sitting outside on the porch eating homemade pizza, talking until late hours, and then in the morning waking up to a feast of a breakfast. Full of new Swiss memories and a renewed love for the country and it's warm hospitable people, we headed off for Belgium.

Brussels didn't make a very good first impression on us. First the train ride - - we learned at a layover in a city on the way to Brussells that the last leg would cost us about 50 dollars more than we expected. We decided to make the best of things and wait an hour for the next train for free. During that time we'd get all our reservations squared away for that night's hostel. But found that all the hostels were full. Once in Brussels we were able to find a bed and made reservations. To get there, we tried to buy a metro ticket but the machine ate our 12 dollars. Asking for help, the answer was "fill out a form and mail it in". Do you think they'll mail us our 12 dollars to the U.S.? Then we got lost trying to find the hostel, and when we got there, they had given one of our beds away. We raised a little bit of a stink and they brought a mattress into a room for us. And then the telephone at the hostle didn't work. It seemed like one thing after another. We decided to get out of there. We still plan to take a day trip to Brussels, but we didn't want to stay there any longer. So we moved to Brugge, near the coast, a quaint town from the renaissance period. Touristy but sweet. We think we'll stay here a while and take a few day trips to other must see places.

Happy late Father's Day to Bob and Walter. We love you.

Happy Birthdays to:
Jeni F
Henry P
Thomas P, first birthday,
and Liam F