Triberg im Schwarzwald and Interlaken

Holy Week.  I continue to marvel at the differences in practices and rituals between home and here in Germany.  Sunday's Palm Sunday service had no procession, no palms.  The only thing different than any other Sunday (and reading the usual Palm Sunday Gospel text) was the fact that my friend was installed as a Prädikant, or lay preacher.  Of course, this event was a big celebration for him and we continued after the service with Weißwurst and pretzels for lunch.

4. April
An early morning of 4:00 am started this 2-week adventure with my parents.  I hopped on the train, half awake, and was in Frankfurt to meet Mom and Dad by a little after 8:00 am.  Their plane arrived and we found our little rental car, Sparky, a Chevy Spark.  After several hours of driving, we were out of Frankfurt and into the Black Forest, and I was almost breathing behind the wheel.

We stopped in Triberg for the night, an adorable little town in the Black Forest.  First thing we did after checking into our hotel was hike up to Germany’s highest waterfall.  Spectacular, even in the rain.  On the way back down, we stopped at a restaurant for supper that was advertising Black Forest Cake…something Mom had her heart set on having.  Only, she about spit her first bite back on the plate.  Yup, there’s alcohol in Black Forest Cake.  I didn’t complain.  I got the rest of it after I finished my half-chicken.  Then we headed back to find ourselves locked out of the hotel that apparently locks before 8:00 pm even when that’s the specified time.

I miss taking part in Lenten services, and now I really feel discombobulated without any Holy Week worship.  It only helped, not very much, to pull up and listen to “Were You There” on YouTube.

5. April
Mom and I each found a cuckoo clock at an off-the-tourist-track shop.  They aren’t the cheap clocks sold in the main tourist shops.  They are made right there in that building.  Many people don’t understand why anyone would want a cuckoo clock so bad.  I LOVE them!  And, the deeper gong of the longer flute does things to my insides.  Mom understands my thing with the gong and my insides, but Dad is confused by it.  Perhaps you get it, perhaps you don’t.  I wish I had a picture of it, but I don't.  Have to wait till I get back to the US to see it again.

We got back in the car and continued south through the Black Forest to Switzerland.  Somewhere not too far out from our destination, Interlaken, we came to a halt.  After sitting in traffic for 15 minutes, our fabulous little Ms. Garmin says, “Extreme traffic ahead.  Recalculating.  Drive 9 km and take exit…”  Well, that doesn’t help much when you can’t go ANYWHERE.  She kept repeating various versions of this until her only option left was to recalculate us how to FLY somewhere, but she didn’t figure that part out for us.  She’s gotten us where we needed to go, but rarely ever the easy way.  I’m sure after taking care of us for 2 weeks she’s going to need therapy.

Dad and Hostel Dog

Finally, still in the rain, we arrived at our hostel, the Funny-Farm Backpacker’s Hostel in Interlaken, Switzerland.  Within minutes of receiving our room key, but before we’d actually found the room, Mom was in fits of giggles about trying to get the luggage and 2 people in the tiny elevator, and then back out again.  I took the stairs knowing there was NO way I was going to fit.  Funny Farm.  Here we are.

More to come soon!

Pax.