Robert sitting on a pig that was red hot from the sun;Diana on the rameumptom; scenery in Appenzell;

video clip inside a cathedral.


AUGUST 24, 2009 MONDAY

We started our P-day by meeting Charlotte in the Zurich Bahnhof then climbing onto our train bound for St. Gallen. Charlotte occasionally buys us and others small gifts; we asked her not to do this for us, but she doesn’t listen. This time she gave diana a deck of cards with questions and answers about Switzerland. She gave me a knife with a spoon on one end and a fork on the other as well as a blade and a couple of other tools in it. She showed me how to take it apart by opening the fork and the spoon. That done, it some apart. When we travel, I usually take a yogurt and just drink it and lick it out with my tongue. I guess she got tired of me doing that so she bought me this special knife. Thoughtful! When we arrived the first thing we saw was a church tower in the distance and so we decided to go visit it. The Church was called “St. Laurence’s Church which was Catholic. Diana climbed the spiral staircase where the priest gives his talks and, not knowing the mic was on, bumped it and then to make sure it was on, she said hello. By the time a lady worker came to see what was going on, Diana had quickly descended the staircase and wasn’t caught. As we came to the cathedral we saw some people on a walkway at the top of one of the towers and after we got inside, we wanted to climb up there too. When we asked, the lady worker, she said there were too many people up there already and we wouldn’t be able to go up until the afternoon. We were disappointed. We continued on our tour leaving the church and walking into the old town part. The buildings are always spectacularly painted with scenes and there’s also a lot of flowers on window sills. People who like architecture would love to walk through these old towns where buildings are centuries old. We also went through a monastery which had another cathedral attached. This one was much more impressive than the first one. The ceilings were painted as well as the walls and both sides were lined with confession booths. We left there and as we walked through the rest of the old town back to the bahnhof, we visited some souvenir shops and took many photos including some interesting fountains. Walking up the street we saw some collard shirts for sale for 5.90sfr. so I bought one.

We hopped another train and continued on to Appenzell which lies in the middle of rolling hills with a lot of small forests interspersed among the many farms. We didn’t see much agriculture other than growing hay/grass for the cows which were spread all over the grassy hillsides among the forests. Photos will tell a better story than we can describe. We arrived in Appenzell and did the same thing. We walked through the old town, visited a small cathedral, visited a few souvenir shops and took photos. Appenzell architecture has a different style all its own. Since people are smaller here, the doorways are shorter and the ceilings are not as high inside. Instead of large windows, they are much smaller and have a lot more of them. The siding on the traditional homes look like scales on a fish. You don’t see that anywhere but Appenzell. The shops also have signs hanging above the doors which were pretty unique to each store.

About 2:30 we decided we had better head for home which we did. We arrived back in Zurich at 4:45, walked to the Asianway store and bought a case of rootbeer and a can of candied ginger and then went home. It was a nice day, but we are always tired after a P-day trip and were glad we had an hour before we had to be at the Bolts for home evening. I found a story for my district meeting assignment and then we were off to home evening. This was Fabian’s last time with us at home evenings for a while and so he had the pleasure of giving our lesson. He chose to do it on the characteristics of Christ and after we had named as many as we could, he summed it all up in the first and great commandment and the second that was like unto it, love God and love your neighbor. We had a great time together as we always do. Fabian gave us a fan he bought for his girlfriend while she was here because he didn’t need it any more. We, in turn, are going to give it to Priscilla to help her keep cool while ironing her 200 shirts every day. It has been a good day all around.