Monday - Switzerland

As opposed to what some people may think, "Baerlauch" is not made of cow tongues and in actuality it is quite a delicacy... "Baerlauch" is wild garlic or broad-leaf garlic. It grows out in the forests and its name refers to the fact that bears love this stuff and would dig it up from the forest floor! It's lovely what you can find out from Wikipedia!

Well, Monday morning started out with breakfast and laundry, and Fritz being called in to be emergency transportation for Albanian pastors... Because of the ash cloud that has been hanging over Europe none of the pastors who had visited the European Foursquare Convention in Spain was able to take a plane back to where they came from. All the Swiss pastors took a bus from Spain all the way to Bern, and Fritz met them to take 3 Albanian pastors who had traveled with them to the train station in Bern for their next section of travel home. I am glad I am traveling by train and automobile and not by plane at this time.

Fritz was back at home a little after 11 and all three of us piled in the car and went to a kitchen design showroom. Fritz and Vreni are selling their home to one of their sons, and are buying an apartment in the downtown Belp. Yes, they are downsizing and excited about it! They would like to update their new kitchen a little bit and went to see what was available at the showroom and it was so fun for me to come along and admire the European modern kitchen designs... really gorgeous! So the three of us went around the store, opening and closing all doors and drawers, and peeking into ovens, steamers and refrigerators...

At about 12:30, the Schallers dropped me off at the building where Quelle has their church, because one of the flats on the second floor is where the Henger Family lives: Robby and Claudia were interns at Coastlands more than 10 years ago, and Robby is the guy who gave me Edna; it was a very happy reunion for all of us! Joel Henger is now 13 years old and Salome is 11; both of them are tall and blond and blue-eyed and they have great smiles, just like their parents. We had fun talking Englisch, German and Dutch while eating lunch! At 2 o'clock, the hair stylist made a housecall at the Henger's home and Joel and Salome got their haircut while Robby and Claudi and I sat around the table with a cup of coffee and talked up a storm...

After the hair cuts were taken care of, Robby and Claudi and I went for a walk by the Aare, which was great and it turned out to be rather warm; spring is certainly in the air and maybe even here! We were back at the Henger's home right in time for a couple of glasses of water, and the short walk across the street to Bernhard and Susanna Eichenberger's apartment.

Susanna had invited Roosmarie Wunderli and Kathy Witmer to come along for dinner in Thun with us. Susanna and I picked up the other 2 ladies and drove to Thun which is a really nice old town located beautifully at a lake. The plan was to sit by the water for a little bit and then we would go to the city center and pick a restaurant at the Munster Platz and eat dinner. Well, as it turned out, on Monday Susanna's favorite place at the lake was closed! So, we helped ourselves to some chairs by the water anyway and enjoyed the view of the mountains, and started our conversations, which continued and continued and continued when we went to the Platz and decided that we were going to eat Thai food. We had dinner outside under the setting sun with a lot of coming and going people around us, and we talked and talked and talked. Again, lots of tears and laughter... Susanna brought me home by 9:30 and I thoroughly tired and happy!