The Professor and Mary Ann

Gemeinde Wien Zwei

2019-10-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

In Vienna, there are five LDS wards which comprise the stake: the first, second, third, international, and the fifth. We have always attended the second ward, which meets in the building next to the park side of the Prater. We were supposed to attend the first ward this time, and were planning on it, but our children put their collective feet down and said "no more new people. we've been to the second ward, and we're going to the second ward."

We've attended the second ward.

I feel very protective of it, having seen it periodically over the last few years. It has grown and it is filled with people of every age group and demographic. There are plenty of young families and this time there are new couples with babies as well. There was a new baptism our first week in Vienna. It warms the cockles of the McFarlands' hearts to see a European ward that is strong and functional and growing, having left so much shoe leather and sweat here ourselves as missionaries.

I also just love the people. A woman in Berkeley once talked about how the people in her ward were 'more beautiful and interesting' than the people in other places, and I've thought about that a lot since. The people in the Vienna Second ward are some of the people who are beautiful to me. But I warn you, they don't do it the same here. Women here often wear nice pants to church (true in the catholic faith as well as mormon). They invite the children up to sit on the bench where the deacons were and give them a kinder ansprache right after the sacrament (another thing we absolutely love about this ward). They have an actual kitchen rather than the "serving area" that US chapels now have (I think this is necessary for those of us who travel nearly an hour to church). They have a picnic after church once a month during the summer.

Oma Elfi is a good example. She was here in 2002 and in charge of the nursery where Will went. She is thin and has short hair, dyed red. Sometimes she wears a dirndl and sometimes she goes bollywood and wears a salwar kameez. Our ward back home wouldn't know what to do with her, but here she gave a beautiful testimony on the things that children in the nursery have taught her. She is also often behind strange gifts that appear in sacrament meeting. First she brought our children coloring pages, which were helpful. One week she passed out huge candy canes, which was a fiasco with Joss and very entertaining with several other kids in the ward. Two weeks ago she brought our kids Risk, because she was concerned they didn't have enough toys.

Rob was asked to give a talk a few weeks ago, and yesterday he taught the priesthood lesson. It came out in conversation with one of his friends from the mission that he had had the only Obama sign up in our stake, and the ward just cannot get over it. The socialist party is who worked to get the church recognition here -- the conservatives wouldn't do it, because they were all Catholics (which is not to say that all mormons here are socialists; they run the gamut). This marxist in the ward has befriended him; not that their politics are so similar, I think he just sees a kindred soul. One woman in the ward is a representative of the Green party; she's sweet on Joss. Just yesterday we found out that she plays the piano and we thought you should know, because the Green party doesn't often mention their piano-playing skills.

Also on Sunday, I had to give a talk, which was harder than I'd expected. It was on adversity and was supposed to be ten minutes long. I wrote it, then Rob translated it for me, then I read over it several times. Rob was very good to make certain I'd understand when it was my turn and help me out. I am glad to have done it. After church there was another picnic. We'd brought a salad, but the best offering by far was a cake that Rob's friend had brought with a picture on the fondant frosting: of Marx! I just can't imagine how that would go over in the states. Hee hee!

We've been feted now at the home of Rob's mission friend Tomas and Thalia, and by our friends Michel and Manuela. They moved last year and invited us out to dinner and to swim in their pool. It couldn't have been a better day for it: hot and sticky. And the pool was not large, but just the right size to escape the heat. It was all too deep for Sebi, but just wide enough that he could swim across it (the poor kid is such a fish that he can swim, but he hasn't figured out how to take a breath while swimming; so he makes it all the way across without a breath!). Will and Maddie were so happy to be in the water. Even Joss loved it, and usually he gets too cold and has to get out until his lips turn pink again.

Maddie reads to Hanna and Elias (who was a good sport about keeping his broken arm out of the water while the rest of us swam).

Manuela and Hanna are so petite compared to me and Maddie. Can you believe Maddie is only one year older than Hanna?! Soon she will be towering over me!

2019-10-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

Joss: I want some fruit weather. Fruit weather would be good.

Would you make me a girled cheese sandwich?

In NoahnCannon's car we listened to "Goin' on a crazy train, nanananeow/goin' on a crazy train, nanananeouw."

MA: is that by Ozzy Osborne?
Joss: no.
Sebi: yes it is!
Joss: we also listened to some Kermit the Frog

Festwochen 2015

2015-06-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Rob has been coming to Wiener Festwochen productions since we were here in 2002. When I'm around, he bends over backward to find the ones that I can understand in English or Spanish. They had several offerings this year, and I think we went to most, if not all of them in English.

This was put on by an Australian company. It all took place right out on the pedestrian section of Mariahilferstrasse (big shopping street). Our headphones helped us hear the actors, who wore mics, but they'd occasionally talk to random people on the street, or hide out, and it was interesting to see the kind of fringe elements turn out to have more moral fiber than the normal-looking actors. I'd work on the story a little more.

The stage for Small Metal Objects. We also saw Common People which was an evening of first dates. Introductions of 20 people and then carefully scripted meetings between two of them. A good concept, but I thought the scripts needed improvement. Rob wanted more diversity among the participants. We saw Fishers of Hope, about people in Africa: the breadwinner wounded by a hippo, a traumatized mute stepson, a flaky brother, and the only woman on stage the only one to shoulder things and move on.

We heard the works of one of Shostakovich's protoges performed at the Golden Room of the Musikverein. He (Weinberg) managed to walk away from the incoming Nazi invasion with his sister. She got tired and decided to head back for dinner, and he never saw her again. He moved to Russia, became a successful composer, met Schostakovich, but then because he was jewish, was suspected of something under Stalin and was imprisoned. It was only after Stalin died, and through Schostakovich's influence, that he was freed.

The venue was fantastic. Maddie and I also saw the Chiaroscuro Quartet at the Konzerthaus (by then, even Rob was feeling like we were going out every night).

And I attended my first performance at the Burgtheater: an opera in gibberish with metallic and satin costumes and rubber wigs. I loved our box seats.

The opera was almost sublime in places (the film noir section, the part with 12 adults on a giant couch all speaking gibberish in different accents), and just plain embarrassing in others (the eating-a-napkin section and the flatulent aria just didn't do much for me).

It was another year with lots to take in and plenty to discuss afterward. I always know that with the Wiener Festwochen, I'll get some headscratchers and things that I'll still be thinking and talking about for years to come.

Lipizzaner!

2015-06-15T14:52:00.000-07:00

One of the most famous performing groups in Vienna is the Spanish Riding School. These are a special breed of horses, Lipizzaner, which perform in the downtown palace, or Hofburg, as they have done for 450 years now. Our family had been to see a rehearsal here (which isn't really worth the time or money, though it does take place here).

We ended up with two extra tickets and Rob tried to sell them back to the ticket office. He asked some guy standing around what to do and the guy responded "You don't want to be asking me about that . . ." so Rob went out on the street and found a mother and son and sold the tickets to them.

We were way up in the balcony and even though we had seats, we often stood just so we could see. The ends of the balcony would have had the best views. The music was great, the horses were great, their handlers were great. Then the guy that Rob had talked to came out: he was the pooper scooper entre'act. Rob's exchange with him made me snicker through the whole second half.

After the show, we walked across to the horse dormitories and actually saw some of them! I've never seen them before or since, so I don't know why we were lucky that day.

Here's a closeup. The Lipizzaner begin life dark and then get lighter and lighter as they reach maturity until they're nearly all white. They seemed whiter and brighter to me than they had in the past. I think they're pretty magical with their dancing and prancing and braiding through each other and leaping and jumping. I'm glad the kids got to see them. Two of the students are allergic to horses and came out sneezing and eyes watering, but they were still really excited about them.

Operas: Fidelio and Zauberflöte

2015-06-14T20:43:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday, Rob and I saw Beethoven's Fidelio at the Staatsoper. I was excited to see this one because, though I've toured the building, the only thing I've seen performed here was an atonal opera about a Czech giant, which was a litany of the abuses he suffered. It was truly painful to watch and listen to.
I read up on Fidelio that morning (which I need to do every time. I don't know why I haven't), and it was super helpful to have the synopsis in mind and all the characters straight before I went. This was Beethoven's only opera, and I learned that it premiered here in Vienna a month after Napoleon took over the city in November of 1805. The house was only about half full and it was a failure.
Beethoven tinkered with the overture and his librettists (3 of them) worked on the words, and it was shown again in 1806, 1807, and finally in 1814. It finally had some success with a great singer in the title role. Before his death, Beethoven told his biographer and friend of Fidelio: "Of all my children, this is the one that cost me the worst birth-pang and brought me the most sorrow; and for that reason it is the one most dear to me."

Rob and I during the pause. Yeah, it's upside down.
Among the things Beethoven worked and reworked was the overture. There are four versions extant. The one that finally worked was the shortest, lightest one, called "the Fidelio Overture". But the other earlier ones are referred to as Leonore 1, 2, and 3. They are supposed to be masterful, but some critics claim that he works the musical motifs out so well that he doesn't leave much for the opera to do (I think having singers would be enough, but what do I know?). Our performance had the Fidelo overture at the beginning, and then the orchestra played the Leonore 3 in between scenes during Act II. My reading called that a traditional but "inartistic" choice. Rob and I thought it was great for two reasons: 1. it gives everyone on stage a chance for 13 minutes to change costumes and scenery, run to the bathroom, or get an eis; 2. our orchestra was the Vienna Philharmonic down in the pit, and they were just the people to play this piece. Rob claims they blew the roof off the place.
I feel for poor Beethoven. I can just see him scratching his bewigged head, not understanding why this wasn't a smash hit. It has hidden identites and intrigue. There are soldiers and prisoners aplenty. It is full of Grand Ideals in both the music and the libretto. But he overestimates the audience. There aren't any tittering ladies' maids. There are no female chorus members until the last scene. Not enough skirt chasing duets. And in our performance, both the costuming and scenery were pretty drab.
And yet this opera really has potential. It is unabashedly a girl power story. This Spanish guy, Florestan, is imprisoned, and his wife, Leonore, goes looking for him. She can't find him anywhere, but suspects that he might be in this prison in Sevilla. She dresses up like a man, calls herself Fidelio, and ingratiates herself with the jailer. She saves her husband singlehandedly and causes both prison reform and the downfall of her husband's enemy. She's kind of the bomb. The libretto was pretty radically feminist, which I assume (given how traditional the production was) is original.

When I compare that to the Magic Flute we just saw at the Volksoper, I understand why Mozart was more of an opera buffa savant. He was tackling Grand Ideals and lots of Things In Initial Capitals. But he lightened up the music in other places. He stuck in Papageno and Papagena who are not just for contrasting with Tamino and Pamina, but they're also for comic and musical relief. There are chances for all kinds of singers to strut their stuff.
The libretto is problematic in a 21st century gendered lens, but it still says something when you have many women on the stage, as opposed to Fidelio, which has only two female parts.
I counted last night, and this is at least the fourth interpretation of the Magic Flute I've seen. I think it was the best. The staging and costuming were creative and believable (and I'm plenty picky about Zarastro). The queen of the night was excellent. Tamino was marvelous. Maddie was very taken with the three boys.
I thought, watching Will try to fold his knees up without enough room, that the kids would all want to leave at the intermission. Not one of them even brought it up. We've turned some kind of corner here. Joss sat down with Rob in front where he kept him entertained with translations, explanations, and a gummy bear after each song. I sent Will over to an aisle seat where he could stretch out, and that helped. I did buy two Almdudlers, which helped, because we were up in the highest gallery this time, and it was hot (note to self, that it is worth it having Rob get the tickets and be choosy). But everyone lasted through three hours of opera and dropped in to bed by 11:00pm.

Gänsehäufel swim day

2015-06-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

We knew that Friday was going to be (yet another) scorcher. The weather has been really tough so far. So we planned a day out to an island in the middle of the Donau. We invited all the students and grabbed our towels and a picnic and headed east.

My first stop was the wave pool. I love this place. You head way down to the deep end and just float around. It's all of my favorite things about the ocean and my favorite things about pools in one place.

But everyone else was excited to get into the Donau, which, I concede is more unique to Vienna. Here Will makes a grand entrance.

And here is nearly everyone in the group.

Maddie and Will giving Joss the toss. He'd gotten his stitches out that morning--we don't waste any time babying that one. Good thing the kid can swim!

Plenty of jumping off the pier and splashing around. The temperature in the water (in the river and all of the pools) was 77 degrees--delightfully cool when the air was in the nineties.

It's such a novel thing to go to a pool now and have four kids who all swim! They went all over the island and only came back for food. (They should have come back for more sunscreen!)

I love this pool too--it has a metal bottom to reflect the sun and help heat it up.

The best thing was that we felt cool all the way home. Until the sunburns kicked in on four of us, that is!

Hellbrunn to Home

2015-06-10T02:50:00.000-07:00

Here is the breakfast room at the Turnerwirt. German and Austrian hotels (or gasthof, gasthaus, or pension) have great breakfasts and usually great breakfast rooms to go with them. Even the scary place we stayed in Munich in 2006 had a great breakfast room--it was like two baronial rooms in a zombie building.

This room is all decked out in music and I'm a huge sucker for it. And the breakfasts are great too!

After we'd filled up on breakfast, we loaded onto the bus and headed out here to Hellbrunn, the archbishop's palace. Salzburg isn't usually so hot, but every time we come we hit a heatwave, so we love this place. I think it was the Disneyland of its time. It's filled with trick fountains.

Our kids and students hopped right up to the table to get a seat. They love it. And then they didn't worry too much about when they got wet during the rest of the tour.

The grotto.

Joss spent the tour in another wheelchair, but this is still an improvement over his 2009 trip. Joss got sopping wet at the first station and then sat wailing until Rob took him out (we realized he hadn't eaten much of anything, so the two of them went to the snack bar and filled up). Joss didn't think much of the squirty moose head.

The kids got along in brief moments. You take 'em where you can get 'em. Even in decorative baroque alcoves.

After the water tour, most of us went through the palace, which, like the Turnerwirt has grown on me each time I've visited. Of course this time I got to see more and read more since I wasn't juggling a baby. Learned what Mannerism is (transitional period between the Renaissance and the Baroque) and even how the traditional Hellbrunn fountain works (just like the kids' waterworks at the Rec Center).

We went to see the Sound of Music "I Am 16, Going On 17" pavilion that the producers ~~didn't want to pack home to LA~~ graciously gave to the city of Salzburg, probably as a warning shot for all the crazy Americans we'd be sending over in the coming years. Rick Steves says "Edelweiss is not actually the Austrian national anthem" and our student said "Yeah, that was a heartbreaking day when I realized that."

Maddie, post-jet lag meltdown at the Landzeit.

Blood sugar is real, folks.

Also, sleep.

The view at the rest stop in Mondsee. I wish there were even one view like this at a rest stop on I-80 between SLC and SF.

. . . and a picture of me at the Schwedenplatz Eissalon. It's there in the photos, so it must have happened, but what was I thinking?!?! And why did I get two scoops?!

A Day in Salzburg

2015-06-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

As I said in the last post, we had to change our plans in Salzburg because Joss was supposed to stay off of his foot for a few days. We knew that walking around the city for the walking tour was out, so Will and I stayed home with him after breakfast. Will obligingly pushed him around the go cart track a few times before they tried out the legos and puzzles and games in the playroom in the basement.

Once Rob got the wheelchair, we headed off to walk around Salzburg. This was the favorite baroque church from the walking tour. When refurbishing it, no one could believe it was originally all white, and so they baroqued it all up. Called the Kollegienkirche.

This is the Salzburger Dom, or cathedral.

This is one of the horsewashing stations. Apparently there are two, and I'd never found the right one. Up on top is a crafty little puzzle. It says "Prince Leopold Built Me", but it also says 1732 in roman numberals, which is the year it was built.

One of the things I learned this trip around is that Salzburg had a crafty way of using its water. They would pump it out and clean the streets every Thursday. (I'm really wishing they would do that here in Vienna--the rain just isn't cutting it.) Some people attribute this practice to the fact that Salzburg never had a huge outbreak of the plague. All of their neighboring cities have plague monuments, but they do not.

We rolled around St. Peter's cemetery, which is the one from Sound of Music. Except that it's not, which I wouldn't know except that someone left a Rick Steves book here. Only Rick Steves would have a whole section devoted to debunking the Sound of Music. So the abbey and the cemetery were actually reproductions done on Hollywood lots. This helped out, because at the end when the Von Trapps are locked into the arched sections by the nuns and hiding behind headstones, it never made sense because you can't hide behind them. They're just walls.

Ambulatory family members also went up into the catacombs and saw the little chapel here. I went and saw the graves of Mozart's sister and Haydn's brother, who are both buried here.

This claims to be the oldest restaurant in Europe. Says 873 which sounds pretty old to me.

We let Joss light a candle at yet another church. It was a rather Tiny Tim moment.

The front door, which I loved.

Then we took the elevator up to the modern art museum on the Monchsberg and saw this view. Pretty amazing on a hot hot day.

And we had the path over to the Festung almost all to ourselves.

This was the crazy part where we all got cranky with Rob, and knew that he was all better.

And this was where we sat in the shade and got cold drinks and used the free wi-fi and it was embarrassing how much happier we were after that!

These guys did not want to head into the fortress museum, so we left them out here with their fizzy apple juices and Rob, Maddie and I went to check out the splendor. Rob did roll Joss down to the marionette museum to see that.

But however you slice it, Joss got an eyeful of Salzburg, even off his feet.

And his older brothers were great at pushing the wheelchair.

Ah, the cannons. We have taken this picture several times since 2002. The children haven't tired of it yet.

We did have to piggyback Joss down the stairs to get him to the top of the funicular, but we were all tuckered out by then.

And all squished in. Notice the chinese tourist's hat and how tall she is compared to this race of giants we're raising. No wonder we have to go shopping every two days here!

Getting Off On The Wrong Foot

2015-06-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

When it was time to head out of Hallstatt, we called everyone back to the bus. Joss (and others) had their feet stuck in the water because it was a hot day and Hallstatt has a lake. He obediently climbed up and promptly sliced his foot on something.

It was really deep. (That wet spot there was mostly blood.) Please do keep in mind that he and I and Maddie and Will were still freshly dropped off in Austria; still didn't really know which way was up. I just kind of stared. Then I held his sock wadded up to it and it bled all over the sock. I went through my first aid kit in my purse. Thankfully everyone else was much more capable. Our facilitator here kept Joss calm and distracted. Another student gave me several tissues to hold down on the wound which stopped the bleeding (and were far more sanitary than his sock). Our bus driver brought out his first aid kit which had fantastic elastic gauze. And Maddie saved the day with her first aid training. After I'd gotten it to stop bleeding, she chose the band-aid and used the gauze and watched him for shock and kept his foot elevated. We'd thought we would have to stop the whole bus at Bad Ischl while we took him to the hospital there, but he looked so good (and fell asleep) that we drove straight to Salzburg and got everyone checked into the hotel Turnerwirt.

Here's another place that I love: the Hotel Turnerwirt. The first time we stayed here it was unremarkable except that they had a room with 5 beds. Second time here we discovered the go carts and rabbits in the backyard. And the laundromat. This time around we found the Kinderspielraum (kids' playroom) in the basement. Such a party, with its Xbox and disco ball and bins of My Little Pony playthings. Also, legos.

So once everyone had their hotel rooms, Rob decided that we wouldn't be able to carry Joss up and down 4 flights of stairs. We switched down to the handicapped rooms which had a nice easy shower to stick him in, and air conditioning. Yes! You read that right! I found a thermostat and fiddled with it, and the look of surprise and confusion on Rob's face when he walked into an icebox of a room was priceless!

Rob took Joss to the hospital via taxi, and I took the students off to the restaurant where we had reservations. The students were great, our server was great, I tipped too much, and then I let Maddie and Sebi stick around. I was too tired and I headed back to the hotel on the bus.

It was only once I got there that I realized I'd left an 11-year-old with a 16-year-old in all of Salzburg with only two transportation cards and 10 euros; only the barest of directions. But the students were all there and one of them had served 6 months of his mission in Salzburg. They had a good time. I jumped off the bus just as Rob and Joss were pulling up in a taxi. Joss got 3-4 stitches and was in good spirits. The hospital was very impressed with Maddie's bandaging job. I tell you, having a lifeguard for a child has got benefits.

Next morning, Rob, Sebi and Maddie went off on the walking tour of Salzburg while Will and Joss tried out the Kinderspielraum. At noon, I took the two boys back into town and we ate at the same restaurant: Sternbrau, which is also a joy. They're huge, unflappable, have good food, and they just re-did their bathrooms and their Kinderspielraum, which we also put to good use while we figured out what to do.

Rob took up the challenge as only he can. He found an available wheelchair from the Merciful Brothers of Salzburg (and I'm not even kidding). We stuck Joss in it (who didn't mind being pushed around one little bit) and we went all. over. town.

It would have been enough for most of us (even the reasonable among us) to have a nice time walking the flatlands of Salzburg. There are many flatlands, and they're full of beautiful squares, darling lanes, grand fountains, and wonderful history. But Rob wanted to conquer Salzburg with a wheelchair. So we took the elevator to the Modern Art Museum (a mere 4.40 for the whole family, instead of 11/person for the funicular) and we walked from the Mönchsberg over to the Hohensalzburg fortress. Most of it was a beautiful tree-lined walk above town and the tourists. It got plenty whiny there at the end. There was a stretch which was too steep for a wheelchair and we all thought Rob had gone 'round the bend (really, I think it may mean that Rob is fully recovered; he is his old self). But then we arrived at the courtyard with free wi-fi and cold drinks and we all made a remarkable turnaround.

Here Rob and Will take the wheelchair down to the funicular on our way home. These two took it back to the Barmherzige Brüder and brought back pizza to the hotel. At 9:00pm. Phew! What a day! The kids ate pizza and watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in German in their air conditioned room.

And I am happy to report that Joss's stitches came out a week later and his foot is healing up nicely.

Salt World Tour

2015-06-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

Once the Corpus Christi procession and boat ride was over, we had an hour to eat lunch, and then we rode up this funicular to Salzwelten (our hosts are also masters of logistics and scheduling).

We got suited up in the reinforced pantsuits and met our guide. She went through the rules, and chose Rob to be the "last man", which meant that he was hanging back and letting anyone out who couldn't handle the tour. That would be me. I'd never gone before because we've always had somebody too young to go. So this time I tried it, but I got claustrophobic while reading _The Silver Chair_ from the Narnia series. I made it a ways in by not looking ahead, but then I realized I just wasn't going to be able to do it. So I turned tail and ran back out.

Everyone else had a great time. Including this chap.

He had a wonderful time on the slide.

In fact, they all did.

This was only Sebi's second time on the tour.

Even Will, who has had his own concerns about claustrophobia thought this was a walk in the park compared to his slithering through a crevasse in the West Desert.

They talked about the mining traditions in Hallstatt. They saw a wooden staircase that is about 2500 years old.

I learned that St. Barbara is the patron saint of miners. She converted to Catholicism when she was 26 and her father locked her in a tower, where she lived for 3 years. Somehow she arranged for her baptism while she was in the tower, and when her father found out, he chopped off her head with his own hands. He was promptly struck by lightning.

This is why the miner's outfit has 29 buttons on the jacket and the top three are always kept open, to remember the 3 years she was shut up in the tower.

After the tour, they all jumped on this little train and headed out of the mine. THIS is the part that would have had me frothing at the mouth. It gets very close in there.

Thankfully, I was outside enjoying this view.

Hallstatt: Corpus Christi

2015-06-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Our hosts in Vienna are the best. They have never given us a dud recommendation. From performances to swimming pools to restaurants to family vacations, they have always sent us off in the right direction. This year, they sent us to Hallstatt (where we've been 2-3 times before) to see the procession for Corpus Christi. I should have done some preparation, but you can find out about it here:

First thing we heard were these guys, setting off guns beginning at 6:00am. Every 15 minutes.

We made our way across town (early, like good kids from Grandview would for stake conference) to the Catholic church, and were greeted by villagers in their traditional costumes. The formal ones that we'd never seen before. I know now that these hats are called Goldhauben.

There were lots of people in their traditional dirndls and lederhosen too. We learned that the traditional colors for this Salzkammergut area are pink, purple, and green.

And I need to confirm this, but one of the students told me that the Goldhauben caps are passed down from woman to woman when she is married. And allegedly that she has to give it back if she gets divorced. It looks to me like they're an order or sorority or society of Goldhauben women.

The Archbishop of Salzburg came down to officiate at the high mass, and we were grateful to get seats, because it was standing room only. I liked the little bits that Rob translated for me: that the archbishop has considered the change in greeting from traditional "Grüss Gott" to the more modern "Hallo"; he likes to pretend that the kids are saying "hallelujah" to each other. And he blessed those who doubt, recognizing that it is an important thing, and prayed that they might someday like Thomas, the great doubter, be able to feel the marks in the hands and side and say, with him, "My Lord, My God."

Then we rushed down to the pier where Gretl had gotten us reservations on the brand new Hallstatt boat. We hopped on board and pushed out a ways so that we could see the Archbishop lead the Corpus Christi procession.

In other places, the procession is done on land, carrying the Blessed Sacrament over fields and meadows lined by cut trees, but here, because of lack of space, the procession has been done out on the lake for about 400 years.

Instead, all of the boats are decorated with beech branches, and everyone out on the water follows the archbishop's boat around as he takes the Blessed Sacrament out over the water. In many places the volunteer firemen dress up and participate. Here, it was the firemen's association boat which pushed a large raft carrying the village band.

The boat in back with the arch (and what looks like a holy outhouse) is the Archbishop's boat. The little one in front is called a Fuhr, and they are the local boat, designed to carry heavy loads in shallow water.

[click to enlarge] And this gives you more of an idea of the whole scene. It was yet another sublimely picturesque event at Hallstatt. So mark your calendars for the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and make it a point to come!

At dusk and beyond

2015-06-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

Once we got settled in Hallstatt, and had taken Joss on all the sightseeing he could reasonably handle, I went back and indulged in a great Hallstatt nap. Jet lag had hit. Hard!

Rob and most of the kids ended up down here at the park on the lake. It has to be one of the only parks with such a jawdropping view.

Several of the students found their way there too.

Kids played on the playground.

And posed on the diving board. I think Will is significantly missing here--taking a nap like his mom. Maddie only had one or two meltdowns from lack of sleep; she hit the ground running and never looked back. And Joss is just Joss--we expect him to keep up with the rest of us and seldom consider that he's 7 and just went without sleep and switched 8 time zones.

Awesome boathouses.

When the lights come on in the city . . .

The BYU students wait until it's pitch black and then they all take a Hallstatt polar bear swim.

Crazy! We've gained a reputation. This time they looked like they were having so much fun that these kids in the back stripped down and joined in.

Maddie dives into oblivion. I'm a bad mother for allowing this.

Hallstatt: pretty as a postcard

2015-06-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

While on our boat ride, we ran into these crazies. Two of our students had to come late because of an appointment. Thankfully Will and Sebi were there to greet them and get them out on the water.

Such lovely water! And I'm relieved they sat down.

Maddie went with students on one of the paddle swans.

Look how huge my boys are becoming! They must be up on a step or something, but it's still always a surprise to see these gargantuan creatures walking around the house.

The other swan full of students.

They say that before there was a road tunneling through the mountain behind the town, traffic had to crawl on this road. I cannot imagine it! There are enough of us tourists making things slow without cars.

Joss and Sebi still had energy to burn on the swings (how do they do that?!).

Three of my favorite buildings on the market square.

Hallstatt: looking good enough to clone

2015-06-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to blog on the run, so I'm downloading pictures from my phone and then typing later. Hence the drop in quality of the photos.

After Mauthausen we drove to Hallstatt, one of the prettiest places in Austria. In fact, I heard that it's so popular in China that they actually recreated the whole town there somewhere. I cannot imagine how it would be done.

Here is the main plaza (or half of it, anyway). The window boxes and espaliered fruit trees and cobblestones make for a beautiful backdrop.

We let Maddie go off with the students, and Will and Sebi went on their own. But we took Joss with us and headed up to the beinhaus at the Catholic church. Since land was at a premium, for a few centuries, once you'd been buried for 10-20 years, they would dig up the bones, clean them, let them bleach in the sun, and then paint the skulls and place them in the beinhaus by family name and date of death. They only do it now by request. It's an interesting feel in there.

Joss was done after humoring us with the beinhaus. But if you won't pose for pictures this summer, you're the photographer.

Then we took a boat ride. It was quite warm yesterday, so we got one with a sun shade.

Joss steered us around and around in circles. We saw Will and Sebi with two students in another boat and several students back on shore. Maddie tried out one of the swan paddle boats with three other students. I don't think I knew before, but Franz Josef and Sissi liked to come to Hallstatt for the holidays. Sissi liked swans and so there are swans hanging around on the lake.

It is still lovely as ever.

mauthausen, take three

2015-06-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

So one of the weirder things about directing a study abroad is that we get to have these once-in-a-lifetime experiences, uh, more than once. I'm thinking about this as we begin the third program in Vienna. Do we go to all the old favorites or do we try to find new restaurants and experiences each time? One of the essentials is going to Mauthausen, which is about 2 hours outside of Vienna.

The students heading up to the camp.

The first time we came here, I had a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old. I brought kleenex with me because I thought I'd need it. Rob and I visited the camp together and left our kids with their Aunt Betsy just outside the gates (because she'd already been to Auschwitz and offered to forego this one). I didn't need the kleenex. I wasn't sad. I was nauseated. And Rob and I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The karma in that place was so bad that several decades was not enough distance between us. We wanted to get back out to the kids.

Joss hiking up the so-called Stairway of Death from the granite quarry. Prisoners were worked to death here. The had to carry stones on their back up these stairs. And these stairs have been reworked for the tourists like us--they were uneven and dangerous back then. Anyone who couldn't make it up with their load was shot on the spot.

Or pushed off the top of the cliffs here. Occasionally prisoners would jump. The nazis with their dark humor would call them "parachuters". Sometimes whole groups were sent over the edge, like the first Hungarian Jews who came. Actually most Jews who came to Mauthausen were exterminated sooner rather than later. I learned on my second trip that Mauthausen was originally designed as a work camp specifically for the political opponents of the Third Reich. That time I sat outside with a 1-year-old Joss at the new visitors' center during a drizzle. Turned out that I had some of the best exhibits with me. Mauthausen had more diverse inmates than many camps. So it began with political opponents, but also had other groups like gypsies and homosexuals. There were many partisans from places like Italy and Russia. Even Spain. In fact, it was two Spaniards and a local woman from Mauthausen named Anna who smuggled the negatives of SS record keeping photos out of the camp to prove what was going on. They were hidden in Anna's garden wall and used to convict some for the "unnatural deaths" and helped the Americans to find the gas chamber which had been dismantled and hidden before the SS left.

This was a disinfection room (actual disinfection) next to the showers. Inmates used it every 4 - 6 weeks.
I had thought that we went to this camp because of location, but that it was one of the smaller, less important sites. This time I read that Mauthausen is one of the best camps to see in Western Europe. During the war it was ranked according to conditions as a level 3 camp, meaning that it was for the most incorrigible of the thinkers and inmates. It wasn't built as an extermination camp--it was a built to work people to death. And it did. The numbers I read varied from 100,000 to 327,000 who died in Mauthausen and its associated camps (it became the head of about 40 satellite camps).
I also learned that it was the last camp liberated--May 5, 1945; a week after Hitler's death.

We let all of our kids go through this time. They all had audioguides, and we only kept Joss with us. We walked past all of the monuments outside. Each country who had inmates here has posted a national memorial to them. Then we walked down to the quarry. Finally we went inside the camp. Joss was super focused on finding the gas chamber, as only Joss can be. I gave up on seeing anything else and we headed directly there. First we came to this Room of Names.

It was overwhelming in the size and scope. Joss was struck by the blank spot here and wanted to know why they were still discovering people who had died here. Then he took me through that door in the back. It was shorter than usual, which I hate. Behind it was the gas cell where they released the pesticide, and the gas chamber. It wasn't very big.
After we came out of the camp, I took him down to the cafeteria and bought him his first Cappy (orange juice with mineral water). I said something like "That was some pretty sad stuff we just saw. what did you think about that?" to which he responded "Well, the only thing that I liked that wasn't sad was the fish."

Real Food and Junk Food that I simply must have

2015-06-03T12:11:00.002-07:00

Before we took off from Utah, I warned Rob that when we arrived after our 5 days and 4 flights, I wanted three things: a glass of Apfelsaftgesprizt (cold, the way we Americans keep it at home), a nap, and a Doppelkeks.

This is like an inverted Oreo cookie with chocolate spread between two round flat butter cookies. It's not haute cuisine. It isn't even terribly good. It's just always there when you're in Germany and Austria.

So Rob stocked up.

But then these yahoos came around and ate the entire package. This has to have happened in under five minutes. Because Rob went and bought them, and then. They. Weren't. There.

Boo yahoos! You have to carry all of the food you're going to eat with your own two arms. You don't get to eat us out of house and home. You're not even swimming right now!

But I will survive. Because I am in LOVE. Whoo, this summer flavor is great stuff!
Also, I got a Doppelkeks today.

Holiday Update

2014-12-25T19:49:00.005-08:00

McFarlands Month by Month: 2014 edition

January: Rob gets a nose job, surgery # 1 of 6 for the year (Roto-rooter on the nose plumbing). Barely out of his nose patch, he then meets with other film professors for a working weekend in a swanky cabin. He and MA attend the Sundance Film Festival. Mary Ann makes a graceful exit from the film industry after a year of playing Mom to a film crew. Joss gets a cookie-as-big-as-your-head for learning all of his phonemes.

February: Will and Sebi rip up the slopes at Sundance ski resort, and later participate in a wicked “Hunger Games” contest up Rock Canyon. The odds are not in their favor. Maddie fares better at a ballroom competition. She and the waltz were made for each other. Joss is at BYU and Wasatch Kindergartens; most days he has lunch with his buddy Zinnia in Dad’s office.

March: Mary Ann takes over in the presidency of our congregational women’s society, looking after the temporal and spiritual welfare of a group of remarkable women. Sebastian turns 10, invites his friends on a wild intergalactic mission at the space simulator. He saves the day by ramming into an enemy starship and thrusting it out of orbit. Renegade! Scoutmaster Rob and Life-Ranked Will camp with the scouts in the West Desert, facing their claustrophobia head-on in an elbow-powered, harrowing trip through Antelope Springs cave.

April: Rob and Mary Ann barricade themselves in a hotel in Salt Lake City to madly write online German courses for BYU. Romance is not dead, evidently. Joss contributes the following line to a class poem at BYU Kindergarten: “And the Crocodile, he say: OW! That hurt me biscuits!” Rob and MA combine forces to celebrate their 46^th and 44^th birthdays, respectively: a 90^th Birthday party to remember!

May: Maddie trains for and begins work as a lifeguard at the Provo Recreation Center. Hanging out with college boys in a swimsuit and talking to EMTs was more intense than we remembered our first jobs, but she seems to love it. Joss parties like a pirate with a great and dreadful treasure hunt; the Honey Bucket nearby has been referred to as “Ye ‘Ole Poophouse” ever since. The family spends Memorial Day weekend camping with friends in Canyonlands. The kids of five families run wild over the sandstone hills and cliffs. All of them survive.

June: Rob flits over to Vienna for a conference and an opera and theater binge. Rob, Will and the scouts then go to Goblin Valley. Joss joins the club swim team. “He’ll be fine if he wears his fins” says the coach with a wink. Mary Ann sits at the deep end for the first few months to watch him as he paddles away, sure that he’s going to go under. But he doesn’t. He somersaults and dives and plays tricks on his coach as soon as her back is turned.

July: The whole family heads out to California to celebrate July 4^th at the Piedmont parade, a beach reunion in Monterey, and Ron and Nedra’s 50^th wedding anniversary with family and friends. It is wonderful to see siblings and spouses and cousins cavorting. Back at home, Maddie celebrates her Sweet 16 with 40 guests at a pool party, then heads to girls’ camp, and dates loads of dudes in quick succession. We buy a sweet (old) red Acura named Stella.

August: Rob and Mary Ann spend 10 fantastic days eating French pastries, exploring Switzerland, and settling BYU students into their Tübingen classes. Sebi and Grandpa hunt down Consuela the Tamale Lady and change the radio presets to mariachi bands, country western channels, and preachers. Joss begins his Mandarin immersion program with a week full of paper plate pandas and “umpteen million” friends. The kids return to school, and Maddie and Will begin commuting between Provo High for ballroom and swim team, and Maeser Prep (or Hogwarts Without Wands, as they call it) for the balance of their classes.

September: Labor Day weekend begins with a hike, and ends with a strange ailment that bedevils Rob’s shoulder and neck. He spends the month trying to keep classes afloat while juggling pain meds and doctor appointments. He loses 20 pounds and gets down to his mission weight—a number he thought he’d never see again. Joss loses his first tooth. Finally, our neighbors who are doctors get Rob the right diagnosis: an abscess in his clavicle and a resulting blood clot in his right arm. He spends a night in the ER, six days in the hospital, and has five surgeries over two weeks. Maddie attends her first PHS date dance with “SuperAbs” from swim team. The grandparents fly back up to manage the kids and their breakneck schedule. Thanks to Ron and Nedra, we all survive a scary and unsure time in our family.

October: Rob begins to recover once his surgeries are over. He has amassed an impressive amount of medical jargon, knowledge, and equipment: about 10 doctors and specialists, two incisions, a wound vacuum, a picc line, JT drains, IV antibiotics, and blood thinners. The boys are overjoyed that Grandpa and CheezWhiz™ are back in the house so soon. Grandpa does all the driving and shopping while Grandma cooks and cleans and checks the kids for emotional scarring. Neighbors and friends take over carpools and bring food and treats and mitzvahs of all kinds. Will starts spending his Saturday mornings at rocket club where he finds his people and his calling in life. Rob begins to take back his classes and reassure the freaked out students; his stitches come out just in time for Halloween. Our dressed-up kids--a go-go girl, a zombie hunter, an afro-ed disco dancer, and a warmongering hippie--didn’t get a single picture.

November: Maddie and Will start high school swim meets—tornadoes of noise and excitement as the team gets closer and closer to breaking the PHS school records. At this writing, Maddie’s relay team is 13/100^ths of a second away! Will turns 14 and is ordained a teacher (the next office in our church’s lay priesthood). We celebrate Thanksgiving with a renewed fervor, Mary Ann making sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts, Rob and Maddie doing pies.

December: We’re starting with our gingerbreadapalooza so we can ~~watch it congeal into inedibility~~ enjoy it all month. We will celebrate the 40^th annual Adventsingen with the local German community. Sebastian and his pal Tomas are going to sing a solo with the men’s chorus, and the whole family is dressing up in their Trachten outfits. Will and Sebi are looking forward to breaking in their season passes at Sundance. We’ll attend some parties, exchange some gifts, but there may be some rough edges and traditions left undone. It’ll be just fine. We’ve got our most treasured gifts by our sides: our friends, our family and each other. We are so, so thankful for the help we’ve received this year: prayers, fasting, Facebook comments and messages, hospital visits and meals and long distance phone calls. Through a crazy experience that upended our existence, we were buoyed up by the number of dear friends we had pulling for Rob all over the world. We are so grateful for that love. May you have a wonderful holiday and may you feel our love and friendship as well.

Last Day: Swabia Squared

2014-08-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

We went to the Ritter Sport museum (because we are never going to be able to see the artwork while the kids want to make custom chocolate bars).

For being a small museum, they had a great collection of contemporary works.

This one may have been called "Big in Japan" after the song. I knew Will would like it for that reason.

This piece was all from carefully stacked tissue paper.

We stopped in at Bebenhausen on the way back. I don't think I'd ever been through the tour before, but it was impressive.

inside the cloister

clock tower in the courtyard

neat-o fishscale tiles on the roof

Monday: Tourist Training in a Hatchback

2014-08-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

After the students got checked in, we met up with them in Tübingen and set off to do some area sight seeing that we didn't think they'd get otherwise. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a car big enough to hold them all. We took the ladies and sent the men on the train, which worked great getting from Tübingen to the Bad Urach waterfall.

We stopped in the town of Bad Urach and looked around. We saw the church, the water wheel, the town square where we had come in 2011 with the boys. Having come here before is what helped us know what to the options were with the students. We had tried out the hike with little boys, we knew what we could fit in a day, and we had other options (Sigmaringen or Ludwigsburg or Waldenbuch) for them to choose from.
This is the huge advantage of having a scouting trip like Switzerland, where you can get the lay of the land without 30 students at your back waiting for you to figure it out.

The ladies bought some lunch and were heartened that they were able to order and be understood (that's always a good moment when you speak and someone gives you something to eat. Yay! I won't starve!).

We picked up the guys and did our little hike.

It was as beautiful and green as I had remembered. We could have gone on a longer hike, but the students were in the throes of jet lag and we decided to take it easy.

We came back down and tried out the Kneippanlage. This is an idea by one Sebastian Kneippe and it is his tuberculosis cure. You have to walk around this pool repeatedly, being certain to lift your feet all the way out of the cold water.

Then you submerge your forearms in more cold water.

But you don't towel off! You walk around on this tretwiese (a walking meadow) to dry off. My theory is that it was probably good for them to get out of all of their uptight clothes of the period. Certainly it felt great after the hike and my feet were much happier to be back in my shoes.

At this point, we set the guys back on the train to meet us for the next leg of our adventure. But then we found out it was going to take them 90 minutes or so to catch up with us, so we tried to find them at the neighboring town of Reutlingen. Reutlingen is to Tubingen as Orem is to Provo and they have a rivalry about which town is better and whose wine is worse. I told the guys we were waiting for them here at this "cute tower" and they mocked me until they saw it. Then they conceded that it is a cute tower.

We had a heinous time finding our way to Schloss Lichtenstein, made worse by construction, a detour and having all five students in the back seat of our peugeot. They were uncomplaining even though it was NOT a short or simple ride.

The castle was even better than I had remembered it (since last time I was wrangling a Joss). It's really an amazing setting and some of those rooms are magnificent. We got everybody back to Tübingen, and then Rob and I were ready to crash!

Settling in Tübingen

2014-08-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

We came to Tübingen to get BYU students settled in this program for the month of August. We drove up to the airport in Stuttgart, to the program's office, to the apartments and back to the office twice, and then did it again at the train station. But we were happy to be able to do this for the students--arriving in Europe tired and disoriented is always the best time to have someone you know show up and soften the landing.

Once they had dropped off their stuff and showered, we took them shopping at Rob's favorite grocery store, drove them to church, took them out to dinner for some regional specialties (we went to the Neckarmüller this time and it was good food and of course has a magnificent view of the river). This is part of the castle in Tübingen. I found out this time that in the kitchen here in the middle of the 19th century, acid was successfully extracted from the nucleus of a cell and called nuklein. They went on to discover that it contained all of the genetic material and double helixed DNA in it and that began the study of genetics. Way to go Tübingen!

In addition to having a really significant university there, Tübingen is also a great place for students because it is small and manageable in size, and meant for a walking (or biking) student population. Goethe visited Tübingen and Hermann Hesse worked here in a bookshop. This is right on the market square.

The great renaissance clock tower on the city hall!

I love this -- the produce market sets up in the lee of the church with this profusion of flowers. I think this would do all BYU students a world of good. Come here for a month and learn how to live and eat and shop like a european. Also how to plant excellent window boxes.

This is just another view of the same stand, but I turned and looked and the buildings alongside were just as winsome. I love the Tübingen.

Is it just me or is this place not preposterously beautiful? This time around I found out that fuchsias were named after a resident of Tübingen: Leonhart Fuchs, a physician and botanist of the 16th century. Mrs. Jones from down the street gave me a fuchsia when I was in the fourth grade -- probably my first plant.

And these five get to enjoy it for a full month of language training and advanced German classes. They are so ready and are such good sports. Daniela and Hanna and Tanya take great care of the program participants at events like this opening social and field trips to the Bodensee. They'll have a great experience!

Swiss National Day

2014-08-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

After chasing alpine views on Thursday, we decided to race around a third of the country trying to celebrate Swiss National Day on August 1st (essentially their July 4th). We'd already made our itinerary and booked our hotels by the time we found out we'd be in Switzerland for their national holiday, so we had to make do. Except that after doing some internet research, we discovered that where we were on Thursday, they were celebrating on Friday, and where we were going on Friday, they would be celebrating on Thursday! What's a tourist to do? We charged out of Fluhli and drove straight to Zurich.

This is what we found. A lovely swiss choir, all wearing their traditional costumes,

the Zurich city band,

even spectators in their traditional finery,

an excellent flag waver,

this darling woman whose mother was from Bern. She said even though they were in Zurich, her mother would never wear the Zurich colors (blue and white, like BYU) and she always wore her Bern costume. Now she does too.

One of the things Rob needed from this trip was pictures for his classes on campus and online. He has plenty from Germany and Austria, but hadn't been to Switzerland in 22 years. So this chance to see everyone decked out and doing the ceremonial traditional thing was an absolute gift. I'd been dragging the zoom lens around all week, and it finally came in handy! These soldiers were even wearing little leather backpacks with bedrolls (see below).

And then they shot off their guns. I love that several of the mothers had brought big headphones for their kids!

I just love this photo.

Then the alphorns began to play, and men danced and tossed the swiss flag in time with their music. As an aside, the alphorn sounds fabulous when it's outside. This was mellow and beautiful even with all these people blasting away right at us. They usually make me wish I had headphones when I'm in a concert hall with them.

They are a pain to carry! Makes a cello look easy, right?

And more and more beautiful traditional costumes. Some of these dirndls (are they dirndls in Switzerland?) had more jewelry on the bodice than I have in my whole jewelry box.

Here I am with a few members of the choir.

These flag-bearers all represented different guilds.

And this woman, with her fingerless gloves and beaded headdress and silk flowers tucked in her bosom was a personal favorite of mine.

While all of the official stuff was going on, there was plenty happening behind. They had booths set up for each of the Cantons, or provinces, of the country. These two men are singing in Romansh, the fourth language of Switzerland.

And people were eating all kinds of good food from wurst to saffron risotto. I don't know the significance, but I loved the fact that women like this one all had fresh flowers in sprays, baskets, and nosegays. We took in all that we could and then decided to explore a little more of Zurich.

But wherever we went, the fashion forward were celebrating August 1st.

Ein Herz für die Schweiz!

An Interlude on an Interlaken Lake

2014-08-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

Coming down out of the Lauterbrunnen valley, we were cruising along the highway, mostly in a long, dark tunnel. Switzerland seems to shunt lots of its traffic through the country this way. It's very efficient, but when the GPS is showing you a famous lake to the left, Rob and I get antsy to see it. So we took a detour. Helga (the GPS lady) got very concerned, but we're able to ignore her voice quite well by now. We parked in Brienz. Here is what we knew about it: it's the other lake by Interlaken; quieter thank Lake Thun; it looks like everyone oversaturates their pictures of Lake Brienz on Pinterest--crazy turquoise water.

First, we had to stick our feet in the water. This stems from our theory-in-progress about how to interact with places you visit. Rob's initial theory was that you had to eat somewhere or take a nap there to feel like you've been to a spot. Through the years we've seen students and tourists try all sorts of things to feel like they've "been there, done that": shopping, taking pictures, trying on crazy outfits, religioiusly following tour guides, seeing the whole thing through a camera lens, having a quest or contest (StrudelQuest of 2009, or Exotic Flavors of Fanta 2002 are just two examples). Changing a diaper has long worked for me. St. Florian in Austria is still reeling from the effects of my visit there with Will in 2002.

Anyway . . . this is why we stuck our feet in the water. Also, it felt great after all that hiking. But it wasn't enough. We wanted more.

So we rented a pedal boat. This place seemed to be run by three grandparents and three active grandchildren, helping out and getting underfoot in equal measure. It turned out to be just the right thing.

First, we got to see all that unreal water up close.

And we were able to check out the ritziest lakefront properties from our fine Swiss-made boat. Sun in our faces, wind at our back and cruising around the lake. It made us definitely want to return to Brienz. We're thinking a week here to play in the lake and use as a base camp for the alps.

Alp Peeping, or Where Have All The Mountains Gone?

2014-08-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

Having outwitted the weather on Wednesday, we had placed our bets on Thursday. When we woke up, we could only see our garden, a tree, and the roof below us. We ate breakfast, packed our stuff, and hoped it would all burn off like so much San Francisco fog. But when it was still there at 9:00am, we came up with a new plan: we would do our hike backwards, with an extra uphill leg at the beginning, giving the sun time to warm up everything and shake off the clouds.

This is what it looked like. Beautiful, with lots of cowbells ringing and water falling. Speaking of cowbells, why is it that American cows didn't seem to get bells like these in Europe? It seems like it would be a great idea to know where your cows are when you're ranching in places like Canyonlands and Capitol Reef. My theory is that there are more predators in Utah, but Rob thinks there might be more to it.

Rob got seriously happy because first he found wild strawberries that he picked down next to a creek (excellent movie! he says. Love Bergman! he says.). Then he found ripe huckleberries. This had the potential to derail the entire trip, because we have seen in the past that Rob can pick huckleberries with the best of them. But knowing that there was no oven waiting to bake them into pie tipped the balance in favor of the alps. We pressed on. I turned into a puddle. I took off everything that was decent and mopped myself with my scarf. My poor scarf! We decided to catch the train up at the 2/3 point, Wengeralp. We got on, and there was a little opening in the clouds that let us see this:

The Monch! (In case you are like me and have no idea of your alpine geography, this is a triple-peaked mountain we're trying to see: The Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau which means the Ogre, Monk, and the Maiden. The monk in the middle is protecting the maiden from the ogre.)

But this was what a lot of our trip was like: an Alpine striptease with little tantalizing glimpses of peaks behind clouds. This is the Wetterhorn. We saw it several times thinking it was the Eiger, but it's off to the side and looks a lot lower.

Up on Kleine Scheidegg (a great huge train station of a town), we saw this sweet guy. A St. Bernard complete with cask! I am in love! We aren't going to the Bernard pass this trip, but they say that there was one dog who is credited with saving something like 40 people from freezing in snowstorms.

After fortifying ourselves with homemade plum cake, we set out on our hike. We'd been watching and hoping, and then when we sat down on a bench to have our lunch . . .

We saw the face of the Eiger! Pretty magnificent, huh? It seems far away here, but it felt overpowering on the trail. Lunch was great, munching on braided bread and cheese and turkey. We moved on when the mountain had hidden itself again.

Once we were almost to Mannlichen, we saw this lady in our path. We used two brave American boys as meat shields to make sure she wouldn't gouge us with her horns.

Then we introduced ourselves. This one was really mellow. She didn't even flinch when four dogs greeted each other loudly on the trail. I had wanted to go to a farm where you could see cheesemaking, ride cows, and even sleep in the straw, but Rob wasn't sold on it. So this was my cow encounter.

Rob made friends with this cow who had a beautiful brass bell. I admired the bell, but I like the brown cows better with their soft brown eyes. So pretty!

We waited in Mannlichen for another half hour, willing the wind to pick up and blow away all of the clouds, but it just didn't happen. In the end, this was our ultimate alpine picture: meadows and buttercups and cows and a peak in the background.

And then we boarded the lift and came down to Wengen. In two minutes. Rob and I don't think of ourselves as daredevils, but we both thought we might orphan the children when we looked out this window. I was once again glad for those Swiss engineers! And the Alps will remain on the bucket list for now. Neither one of us is done with the Lauterbrunnen Valley and its tall neighbors.

Waterfalling in the Lauterbrunnen Valley

2014-07-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

The other great thing to do on rainy days in the Bernese Alps is to go see some of the dramatic and fantastic waterfalls. There are 72 waterfalls just in the Lauterbrunnen valley. Rob wanted to see this one, which we could view from our room in Wengen across the valley. It's called Staubbach Falls. It drops about 1000 feet and looks like spray by the time it reaches the ground. We walked up this hill thinking that it would take us to the bottom of the falls . . .

. . . but instead it took us behind them. Here we are looking at the back of the "liquid dust" as it's called.

Goethe was here for a few days in Lauterbrunnen, and he wrote a poem called Gesang der Geister über den Wassern inspired by Staubbach falls. Later, Schubert set this poem to music five times. Here is a translation of the poem.

Song of the spirits over the waters

                          by Goethe

The soul of man
 Is like the water:
 It comes from heaven,
 It returns to heaven,
 And down again
 To earth must go,
 Ever changing.
 
 When from the high,
 Sheer wall of rock
 The pure stream gushes,
 It sprays its lovely vapor
 In billowing clouds
 Towards the smooth rock,
 And lightly received,
 It goes enshrouded,
 Softly hissing
 Down to the deep.
 
 Cliffs tower,
 Opposing its fall.
 Annoyed, it foams
 Step by step
 Into the abyss.
 
 In a flat bed
 It slinks down the grassy vale,
 And in the waveless lake
 All the stars
 Feast on their likeness.
 
 Wind is the wave's
 Handsome suitor;
 Wind stirs up from the depths
 Foaming billows.
 
 Soul of man,
 How like to the water!
 Fate of man,
 How like to the wind!

There! That's what it looked like to us. Way down at the bottom you can just see the little section carved out where we were hiding behind the falls. Rob was amazed by the Swiss flag hanging there in the cloud and mist. The Swiss don't seem the least bit fazed by their geography or geology. They take it in stride and then tackle it as an engineering puzzle.

Next we headed off to Trummelbach Falls up the canyon. These japanese anemones were beautiful and I found out they're a favorite of Rob's.

This is why sometimes you have to travel without an entourage of 30 -- you find stuff out!

Once we'd paid the admission, I found out we were taking an elevator to see these falls. Actually more of a funicular. And that there were ten (ten!) different viewing platforms. But it wasn't until I'd experienced it that I understood why. Trummelbach falls is the drainpipe for all of the runoff from the three Bernese Alps. And as the water sluices down the mountain and has for centuries, it erodes the rock and has actually worked its way back into the mountain.

Again, the Swiss took me off guard. I thought I was going to see the bottom of the waterfall from the outside looking in. Not at all. Instead they had tunneled their way back so that you could peer into the thrumming, beating heart of the mountain and hear the water scraping away at the walls as it tried to break free. Having grown up on bedtime stories about hydroelectric dams bursting, I have a healthy respect for the power of water. Climbing up to the top of these viewing stations almost did me in. I was really proud of myself for making it up and forcing myself to look. Then I hauled myself out of there. Rob stuck around for what seemed like hours and was completely at ease in the dark, wet, loud tunnels.

It carries as much as 20,000 liters of water per second and 20,200 tons of boulder each year. Hello! What am I doing standing in front of that catastrophe waiting to happen?!

Rob had to stop in at a little cheese shop in Lauterbrunnen. We had been in Switzerland for over 24 hours and hadn't had any cheese. The very nice woman there helped him find something local. There was the local alp cheese from the place over her shoulder, the aged one from 20 minutes down the valley, and then there was that herbed emmentaler from two hours away. Oh! It was cheese heaven!

Back up to our perch in Wengen we stopped at the grocery store and bought dinner. I was tickled to find Edelweiss planted in town -- we'd never been up in the native zone for these furry flowers before.

Here was our Co-op feast that night, augmented by Rob's own cheese choices. This is how we survived in Switzerland -- eating out of the grocery stores. We never did eat in a restaurant while we were there (because the prices are "eye watering" as Rick Steves puts it). But thankfully they had great sliced deli meats and pre-made salads and produce so that we didn't just eat bread and cheese and chocolate!

Oberhofen Castle on Lake Thun

2014-07-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday it was going to rain. We've realized over the years that in these green German-speaking countries when they say 40 percent chance of rain, what they really mean is that it will rain for about 40 percent of the day. So we ditched our plans to hike in the alps and rode the train back down to the valley. We got in our trusty white Peugeot and tried to drive to Interlaken, which wasn't as easy as it looked. There were strange directions from Helga the GPS voice and construction, and at one point I led Rob down a very steep hill. It turned out to be a walking path, but bless his heart if Rob didn't try to make it work. He drove down there until we were inches away from a mossy fence on one side and a stone wall on the other. Two little kids came walking up it with their dog just as we decided we couldn't possibly fit down this thing.

So Rob had to try and back his way up a hill.

In a stick shift.

With inches on either side.

And two kids and a dog in front of him.

So it was one of those times where the locals come out of their houses to watch. Yeah, we've had more than one of those -- haven't you?! We did make it out alive and mostly unscathed, and all I can say in my defense is that the sign did say "Interlaken detour" when we passed it. I just hadn't read the part about the "fussgang".

We decided to visit this castle on Lake Thun called Oberhofen. This is more of the castle than we could see from land -- this was taken by Dr Marc Dupuis over at Panoramio so you can see the setting.

If the rest of the castle had been a log cabin, I believe that a constant stream of visitors would still be assured just because of this little hunting room out on the lake. That's all it takes people when you're building your dream house: a winsome room with half timbering and a witch hat roof. On a lake. A few people have said that they recognize this from a movie, and I can't confirm or deny that. I will just say that it could have been added to parts of Hogwarts and not looked out of place.

It was charming. It was built originally in the middle ages, but was updated and rebuilt through the centuries.

For a while this was sort of a perk of the bailiffs of Bern. It was owned for several generations by the de Pourtales and von Harrach families. In 1926 a wealthy American attorney bought it in a crumbling state. He remodeled it and provided an endowment for its continued upkeep, then deeded it back to the city of Bern upon his death. Classy guy.

The castle has been an outpost of Bern's Historical Museum, but they just struck out on their own two years ago. There are some exciting original parts (wooden paneling that was sold off during financial hardships was bought back 150 years later and reinstalled). They also had ties to the Prussian royalty which is always a draw for Rob.

Upstairs in the top of the five story tower was a Turkish smoking rooms with divans to try out.

It doesn't hurt at all that the castle has a great view of the Bernese alps. And the lake . . .

The grounds are magnificent too.

And again, the view of the lake and the mountains doesn't hurt either.

We were charmed by the shutters and the tiled roof and the fountains.

It turned out to be a beautiful place to wait for better weather.