Kathryn & Rick's Blog

This morning we were up early.  We were leaving Irene’s and wanted to wash the sheets and towels as well as clean our room before we left.  We got all our chores done and then left for Roberto’s house which is just outside of Basel,  where the German and French sections of Switzerland meet.   We met Roberto when we were in Argentina in January 2018.  Roberto is the twin of Lili who we met last year when we were in Denia, Spain.  

We arrived at Roberto’s around lunchtime.  He showed us around and we met his daughter, Sarah.  Interestingly he had a bomb shelter in his house.  I guess all modern Swiss houses are required to have a bomb shelter.  

Rick, Roberto, and I went into Basel for lunch and then walked around Basel.  It has a charming, car-free center.  We visited Basel Minister, a main landmark in Basel.  Originally  a Catholic cathedral and today a Reformed Protestant church, it was built between 1019 and 1500 in Romanesque and Gothic styles.  Here are some pictures from our walk.  

Then we took a ferry across the Rhine.  The boat was attached to a cable with a rope.  The current was very strong and the boat was diagonal to the current so the current pushed the boat across the river, no power required.  

The other side of the river was equally as charming.  We wandered around and then back across the river where we went to the Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois.  This is a very fancy hotel, right on the edge of the Rhine, where Napoleon once slept.  We had tea and coffee here.  

At this point we returned to Roberto’s house for a glass of wine.  Roberto speaks German and Spanish so I didn’t talk to him much. 

That evening there was a small public celebration in his town because the next day was May Day.  The celebration consisted of a brass band and someone reading a poem.  Afterward they served wine, beer, soft drinks, and snacks.  We met some of his friends from the town.  After leaving the celebration, we visited the local church where his wife is buried before going to dinner.  

It turns out that Anny’s (we visited Peter and Anny on Saturday) daughter, Renata, lives in the same town as Roberto.  We had arranged to have dinner with Renata and her significant other, Tom, as well as Roberto, of course.  Rick hadn’t seen Renata since he took her and her brother, Thomas, to see the movie ET in 1982.  They were very nice and we will try to see them on our future visits to Switzerland. Here is a picture of all of us.

That evening once we got back, Roberto got out some of his old family documentation.  He had the boat ticket for his grandfather, grandmother, mother, and aunt from Hamburg to Buenos Aires in 1937.  Rick and Roberto stayed up until 1 talking about the family history.  

We were up relatively this morning.  As a small thank you to Irene, we had offered to do a number of chores around the house.  I oiled several teak chairs while Rick watered the flowers and staked a tree in the back year.  For those of you new to the blog, Irene lives in an amazing 500 year old farm house.  It’s very big with 6 bedrooms.  Look at our old blog to see pictures.

It was a beautiful sunny morning, very nice to be outside working in the garden.  We could hear the bells woren by the sheep that are grazing up the street.  Very cool!  The one downside is all the trees are blooming and everything is covered in pollen but luckily I have my allergy medicine.

With our chores done, we decided to make our annual pilgrimage to Appenzell.  Appenzell is ideallic Swiss countryside.  It was also where Rick’s family is from so we saw a lot to businesses with the name Manser.

Today was the Appenzell landsgemeinde.  Every year on the last Sunday in April, around 3,000 eligible voters gather together in Appenzell at the Landsgemeindeplatz, the historic village square, for the landsgemeinde (cantonal assembly).  Canton residents as well as Swiss citizens over the age of 18 with an established residence are eligible to vote. Since 1991 the voting card has served as authorisation to participate in the assembly. Men, however, are still allowed to present a bayonet – a sword that was generally passed down from generation to generation – which served as the only form of voting identification up until 1991.  Peter, Rick’s cousin the we visited yesterday, has a voting bayonet.  We couldn’t see much except the square was full of people and some people were dressed traditionally.   Here’s one little girl in her traditional dress.

Here’s the square full of people.

We had lunch at the Hotel Santis which we do every year.  One thing I haven’t mention yet is how expensive Switzerland is.  Our lunch which was nice but not extravagant was $78 for two people.  That typical.  Even food at the grocery store is expensive.

After a nice lunch we wandered around town.  We went by a cemetery and decided we would count the number of Mansers.  We got up to 20 before we decided to stop.  The cemetery was really beautiful.  Here’s a picture.

Here’s a couple of pictures of the inside of the church near the cemetery.

Here are some pictures of the town and surrounding countryside.

We left town and headed to Gonten, a town next to Appenzell.  There were two elderly sisters who lived in Gonten and who were distancely related to Rick.  We had visited them in 2010 but not seen them since.  We decided to try to track them down.  We went to their house and the people currently living there were having a barbecue so Rick talked to them and they told him the sisters were living in the old age home.  So we went there.  One sister, Pia, was in the hospital and the other sister, Martha, was out so we waited about 15 minutes for her to return.  When she returned they wheeled her into the lobby and Rick tried to talk to her and describe who we were.  Eventually he went and got a nurse who spoke some English and she helped.  We aren’t sure if Martha understood.  She looked at us like we were from Mars.  The nurse suggested that it might take her some time for sort it all out.  She also said the other sister was expected to return from the hospital either tomorrow or Tuesday and she was more likely to understand who we are.  Unfortunately we won’t be around then but the nurse said she would tell Pia about us.  We told Martha that we would come back next year.

We drove back to Irene’s via the  schwägalp.  Here are a couple of pictures.

We arrive back at Irene’s, had a little dinner, and went to bed.

Another day, another family visit!  Today we went to see Peter, Rick’s true cousin, and his wife, Anne.  They live in Bad Ragaz which is about an hour and a half from Irene’s house.  It was a lovely drive with snow capped mountains on both sides of the highway.

When we arrived at Peter and Anny’s, we discovered Anny’s son and his family were also there.  I had never met them and Rick had never met his wife and kids.  Anny’s son’s name is Thomas, his wife is Petra, and his daughters are Alvina (age 10) and Naloni (age 7).  Thomas and Petra’s English is good. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of everyone.

We had a nice lunch.  Peter grilled meat and there were various salads.  We spent the afternoon talking and then around 5 it was time to eat again.  This time is was bread, cheese and cured meat.  It was really a nice visit.

After an early dinner we drove back to Irene’s.

Today Irene and Luca left early to catch their flight to Athens.  We went hiking with Manuela, one of Irene’s 5 sisters.  It was a beautiful day for a hike.  

We left Irene’s house around 9.  Manuela doesn’t live very far but there are no direct roads so it took us about an hour and a half to get to Lachen.  We had a coffee at her apartment before driving to the trail head. 

Our 3 hour hike took us up and down the hills of Switzerland as we walked to our lunch spot, a restaurant that serves alpine rösti. Unfortunately we arrived at the restaurant only to discover it was closed.  🤨 So we hiked back down to the car with empty stomachs. Here are some pictures from our hike.  

We drove to a nearby town, Einsiedeln, to find some lunch.  We had lunch at a nice outdoor Italian restaurant.  

Einsiedeln is the home of the Einsiedeln Abbey, a Benedictine monastery which was established in 934.  After lunch we visited the monastery.  Here are some pictures.  

Then we drove back to Lachen but not without a stop at the Lindt factory store where we bought some chocolate truffles that we couldn’t get at home.  

We dropped Manuela off at her house and returned to Irene’s.  Marco is still around because he has to work tomorrow and then is flying to Athens to meet up with the rest of the gang.  We visited with him a little before going to bed.  

Today we went to Zurich to see Rick’s true aunt, Irma, and her husband, Walti.  They are 95 and 96, respectively.  Walti is amazing.  He looks like he’s about 70 and takes great care of Irma.  They live in an apartment and have to walk up to flights of stairs.  We went out to a neighborhood Italian restaurant.  Walti speaks a little English but Irma speaks doesn’t speak any English so the conversation with me is very limited.  Here is a picture of us at the restaurant.

We had a very nice lunch.  After lunch we went back to their apartment and looked at some old pictures.

Irene started her month long vacation today so she was home when we got back to her house.  She leaves tomorrow for a long weekend in Athens with her 4 kids.  We were going to go to Germany, about 30 minutes from here, for dinner but she was busy getting ready to go so we had dinner at home.  Another quiet but pleasant evening.

Let the week of family visits begin!  Just for the record – Rick calls everyone a cousin or an aunt, depending on the generation, but actually I think they are all cousins many times removed.  Rick’s grandfather was one of 7 sons and all these people are either the child or child’s wife of one of the 7 sons or a grandchild of one of the 7 sons.

Today we had lunch with Rick’s cousin Sylvia who lives in Winterthur.  Then we went to visit Sylvia’s mother who lives in an assisted living facility in Winterhur.  It was very nice to see both of them.

We did a little shopping on the way home and made dinner at Irene’s.  That evening we visited with Irene, Luca and Marco.

Today is a travel day.  We said good bye to Nancy and Mike but we knew we’d see them in about a week.  We had organized a taxi to the airport but unfortunately it was quite late.  Luckily there was a taxi stand near our apartment so we just got one from there.  It was a good thing we did because they were boarding our plane when we got to the gate.  

We flew from Rome to Zurich where we picked up a car and drove to Rick’s cousin, Irene’s house.  It was a perfect spring day with lots of blooming trees, bushes, and flowers.  Beautiful!  We spent the afternoon organizing our time in Switzerland and catching up on the blog.  

We went out and got some food for dinner.  After our brief excursion I went for a walk.   Irene lives in a farming town, surrounded by fields.  There is a path next to the house which goes up to a reserve.  I walked up and up the path.  I never got to the top.  I passed sheep and cows.  It was weird that we saw cows only once in Italy.  With all the cheese and leather products you would think there would be lots of cows but we only saw a couple. Here are some pictures from my walk.  

That evening Rick cooked a good dinner of chicken, potatoes, and spargl (white asparagus).  Then Marco came home, followed by Luca (Irene’s sons), and finally Irene. It was really nice to see everyone.  We sat outside on the back patio and visited for awhile.