A Francis Schaeffer moment In the Swiss Alps
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2008
1
3
5
Trip End
Sep 22, 2008
Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Sunday, September 14, 2008
We have a great view of a massive waterfall that cascades down a sheer cliff. It's called the Dust Falls and it's falls for about 500 feet. There are lots of other waterfalls around too.
The two previous times I've tried to view this area have had weather just like this, socked in by fog. But this has the chance of lifting before we have to leave on Tuesday.
This is all provided by Miriam's family, who live in Bern
Joysanna at Bern's Bear Pit
. Miriam had a problem during her exchange year in Dallas, and we took her in for a couple of weeks until she found a new host family. She invited us to visit her in Switzerland, so here we are. Her family is so grateful for our care for her that they have been treating us like royalty. We're staying their chalet, which they've turned over to us for four days.Wengen is a resort town, famous as the site of skiing's world cup competition that takes place every January. Things are slow here before ski season. We've seen several American tourists, some Japanese, etc. Mostly we've been mesmerized looking at the scenery, which is spectacular despite the fog and low hanging clouds. We've also been watching some Swiss TV, and Joysanna's been trying to figure out Swiss-German, which is different from regular German.
My new German word is gemutlich, which means cozy, comfortable, in other words, just what we're feeling in this chalet.
Miriam and her mom gave us a tour of Bern we arrived from Dusseldorf. It's a UNESCO historical site so the town is required to keep things in excellent shape. The old medieval part of great-- the old stables have been turned into shops and restaurants
Crossing the bidge to old Bern
. We at dinner on a balcony of an Italian restaurant with Miriam, her mom and dad, a sister and Miriam's boyfriend Patrick. Their city symbols is the bear, and they have bear pits-- just like Baylor!
Miriam's father is an English teacher in a cool private high school here, which we took a tour of.
We've been here at the chalet for a day and a night and are starting to process all the information from the first part of our trip, and rest up for the Italian part, which might be more hectic.
I'll post this as soon as we walk down to the Rock Bar where they have free internet access.
I sent a postcard to Ole, informing him that we've decided to stay here and minister to the spiritually deprived Swiss people. It's a tough mission, but somebody's gotta do it, right? Ha! Guess I'm just having a Francis Schaeffer moment. It'll pass.
