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Date: Friday, June 20, 2014
Time: 8:45 pm local time/2:45 pm EST Place: Bern, Switzerland Hey folks! I’m exhausted again, though maybe not as bone-weary was I was this time last night. We had to leave our hotel by 7:45 this morning, and breakfast began at 6:30. Joel and I thought that it would be good to wake up by about six so we could get showers before heading to breakfast before it got too full. I set the alarm on my phone for six o’clock, but kept waking up to see what time it was. About 11:55 or so I woke up, thinking that my phone hadn’t changed time zones and that it was 6 in the morning (we’re six hours ahead over here). After trying, unsuccessfully, to wake Joel, I grabbed clean clothes and trudged to the shower, leaving the light on which I thought might wake him up slowly. I went into the bathroom, and while preparing for my shower it dawned on me that I should go check my watch (which I knew was running the right time). So I went back to the room and checked it, and lo and behold it was just about midnight. I’m so glad that I didn’t take the shower at that point, because I would never have fallen asleep. Joel and I went down to breakfast a few minutes past 6:30 and were soon joined by Kathy Goddard. It was a very European breakfast: fresh croissants, corn flakes without milk but with yogurt, and I had some mint tea, too. Quite yummy, but not quite filling (or at least) not filling for any amount of time. After breakfast and packing up essentials (like an umbrella) for the day, we walked a few minutes (maybe 5-7) to a park by the Swiss Parliament. We had a brief worship talk from Dr. Wohlers. He read Psalm 117 to us, and then we had a quick prayer. After worship Dr. Diller took the floor and lectured to us about the history of Switzerland, its people, and their culture. If you look at a map of Switzerland you can see tall mountains and deep valleys, which has led them to being very isolated culturally, even from themselves. That isolation has even gone so far as to make their Swiss German language sound like a much more like Old German, and it’s difficult for a non-Swiss to learn Swiss German because there isn’t really a standard language. It’s even different enough between two towns 20 miles away that you can tell where people are from. The Swiss didn’t have before 1848 the Swiss really had no sort of allegiance to Switzerland, but to their canton. A canton is not quite a city state, but not quite a county either. A fairly small region that shared a common language and customs. Switzerland was the home of the Neanderthals (whatever we believe they actually were), and in more modern history it was the home of the Celts. Once Rome fell and became the various tribes, the tribes native to Switzerland were the Alemanni and the Helvetii, from which the Swiss get their official name, the Confoederatio Helvetica. This area was quite Christian by the year 200, but paganism had set in by around 500 when it needed to be reconverted by Celtic Christian missionaries. At some point I will try to write a post about the “White Martyrdom,” which really doesn’t have anything to do with Switzerland, but it also does. Google it for more information until I get around to it. I talked yesterday about Grossmünster Cathedral in Zurich. Dr. Diller told us today that on the side of the church is a statue of Charlemagne who was the Holy Roman Emperor who sent missionaries to the area in the 700s. Those missionaries founded the church that would eventually move into the Grossmünster. The Swiss Reformation began c. 1523, less than a decade after Luther’s 95 Theses were nailed to the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Wittenberg. The two names most important in the Swiss Reformation are John Calvin (who focused his energies in Geneva) and Huldrych Zwingli who was stationed in Zurich’s Grossmünster church. There was no concept of Separation of Church and State during the Reformation, because it was thanks to the Holy Roman Princes that the Reformation was able to happen as effectively as it did. They allowed the publication of anti-Roman writings and protected the Reformers from the Church. It is hard for us living in these modern times to not look at the Princes’ involvement with the Reformation as anything but political, but Dr. Diller pointed out that it probably was, at least for the most part, a deep desire to follow the Bible. A generation or two after the Protestant reformation died down in Switzerland, the individual cantons were in a position where they could individually decide to accept Protestantism or Catholicism, and it depended on the region. It was about this time, however, when the Anabaptists (those who believed that baptism should be an adult decision and therefore were re-baptized as adults) were beginning to rise. These newcomers to the religious scene were dangerous to the fabric of the society. Up to that point, the main point of government was to raise money so they could go to war to get more land. The Anabaptists, however, were pacifists. In reality they weren’t even really citizens. In those days (the mid-to-late 1500s or so), birth and death records weren’t kept by the state. They were kept by the church. Your birth certificate was really your baptismal certificate. (This was true even with Bach in 1685 and Beethoven in 1770). If you weren’t baptized as a baby, you weren’t on any sort of books until you were baptized as an adult (not even a teenager). These strange new beliefs worried both the Protestants and Catholics, so they both began to persecute the Anabaptists. The center of this persecution was Bern. Eventually those Anabaptists who survived moved out of the area, many coming to Pennsylvania, eventually becoming the Amish or Mennonites. Switzerland was captured by Napoleon for a short time during the Napoleonic Wars (which were fought from the late 1700s through somewhere before 1820. After these wars were over the Council of Vienna met to re-sort Europe, reestablishing earlier borders. At this time the countries began to modernize their governments. The Swiss had problems, however, because they never had any particularly strong ties to a central government. Instead, they were loyal to their canton. In 1848 these cantons formed the Helvetic Confederation, which is basically the Switzerland we know now. In the late nineteenth century Switzerland decided that it should build up its infrastructure to allow for people to take their vacations here (which they already did). The country decided to stay neutral in World War I and II, though it was quite difficult to do so in WWII because they were completely surrounded by the Axis. Their neutrality was accepted by all, though, because they were the financial capital of the world. If a country is going to be invaded, they get as much of their movable capital out of the country and into a Swiss bank account. Because Switzerland was neutral during the war, however, there was nothing to force the issue of women having the right to vote. In much of the world the idea says that if women are working for the war effort (while their husbands are fighting) they should be allowed to vote. In Switzerland, the right to vote for all women wasn’t accomplished until the 1990s. After our lesson in the park we walked to the Haputbahnhoff to get on our train to Interlaken, which is a gorgeous part of Switzerland which is situated in the Alps. As we were on our train, we got to enjoy a lot of beautiful scenery, which I tried to take pictures of, but my pictures really don’t do justice to the absolute beauty of the area. We got off the train at the Interlaken Ost (East) station and bought tickets for a ride up and around some of the Alpine mountains. The views were absolutely breathtaking, but I had a quick thought: It’s a wound. Ellen White explains in pages 107 and 108 of Patriarchs and Prophets: "The entire surface of the earth was changed at the Flood. A third dreadful curse rested upon it in consequence of sin. As the water began to subside, the hills and mountains were surrounded by a vast, turbid sea, Everywhere were strewn the dead bodies of men and beasts. The Lord would not permit these to remain to decompose and pollute the air, therefore He made of the earth a vast burial ground. A violent wind which was caused to blow for the purpose of drying up the waters, moved them with great force, in some instances even carrying away the tops of the mountains and heaping up trees, rocks, and earth above the bodies of the dead. By the same means the silver and gold, the choice wood and precious stones, which had enriched and adorned the world before the Flood, and which the inhabitants had idolized, were concealed from the sight and search of men, the violent action of the waters piling earth and rocks upon these treasures, and in some cases even forming mountains above them. God saw that the more He enriched and prospered sinful men, the more they would corrupt their ways before Him. The treasures that should have led them to glorify the bountiful Giver had been worshiped, while God had been dishonored and despised. The earth presented an appearance of confusion and desolation impossible to describe. The mountains, once so beautiful in their perfect symmetry, had become broken and irregular. Stones, ledges, and ragged rocks were now scattered upon the surface of the earth. In many places hills and mountains had disappeared, leaving no trace where they once stood; and plains had given place to mountain ranges. These changes were more marked in some places than in others. Where once had been earth's richest treasures of gold, silver, and precious stones, were seen the heaviest marks of the curse. And upon countries that were not inhabited, and those where there had been the least crime, the curse rested more lightly." I didn’t rest on this idea for long, but I was reminded again how beautiful heaven will be if one of the most beautiful spots on earth is a wound upon the earth. The majority of our day was spent riding trains all around the Interlaken area, enjoying the scenery, some pictures of which I’ll put on Facebook. There was a castle we wanted to see, but it was schedule to close at 5 o’clock. Dr. Laughlin went and asked about it, and said that if we wanted even a chance to see it we had to get on the 4 o’clock train from Interlaken back toward Bern. We were to stop at the town of Thun (pronounced tune). We got off the train at about 4:35 and walked very, very quickly up the mountain to the castle. As we rounded each new corner to find yet another new corner, I was sweating buckets and sure that I would die right then and there, without even reaching the castle. We got there at 4:55, but it was already closed. They were celebrating their 750th anniversary (which is an amazingly long time, come to think about it), and had closed to decorate for a party sometime this weekend. All that way, all those pounds washed away, and for nothing. We walked (a shorter, much more direct way) back down to the main town of Thun, looking for food. It took us probably another 30 minutes before settling on an Italian restaurant. Mrs. Goddard and I shared a mushroom pizza (which I picked the mushrooms off of), and we chatted around the table for probably most of an hour. Earlier on in the day we had been discussing the four personality types (Sanguine, Melancholy, Choleric, and Phlegmatic). I couldn’t quite get them figured out, but Mrs. Goddard was helping me by giving me mnemonic her husband used. A man is sitting on a bench, with his hat next to him. Someone comes and sits down on his hat. The Sanguine laughs, the Melancholy cries, the Choleric hollers, and the Phlegmatic puts his hat on and walks away. After we finished eating we walked to the train station so that we could get back to our hotel and ask our receptionist/concierge where to find Apfelstrudel mit vanillesauce. We got to the station within a few minutes of getting on a train heading toward Bern. This train was of a different brand, however, and before our first stop Joel discovered that this brand wasn’t on our Eurorail pass. We got off at the next stop, which, it turned out, was not served by any other line. Our options were to get back on the next train heading to Thun, or get back on heading toward Bern. During this time we discovered that (we think) we were allowed to be on that train, so we decided to take the next train to Bern. During that time we chatted some more, Mrs. Goddard posing the question how would each of the personality types respond to this afternoons misadventures (missing the castle, getting on the wrong train, etc.), and that is where my title comes from. The Choleric would have yelled about it, the Melancholy would have broken down into tears, the Sanguine would have laughed, and the Phlegmatic would shrug his shoulders and wait patiently. The train finally came to get us, and we made our return trip to Bern, though we arrived at a different place. I would have been completely lost, but Joel and Kaiti knew exactly where we were going. They got us back to the hotel in one piece, but when we got there we found out that there were no restaurants open to sell Apfelstrudel. I’m back in the room now, and ready for bed. It’s almost 10:30, so good night. Love to all! Robby PS My walking estimate is a minimum of 3 miles today. I started a hunt for a pedometer today, but without luck.
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Date: Thursday, June 19, 2014
Time: 8:55 pm local time/2:55 pm EST Place: Bern, Switzerland Dear Folks! I know the title is a little facetious, though at this point it really seems as if I have walked that far. My feet hurt and there’s nothing more that I want to do than to get in bed. That will come in a few minutes. Dad dropped me off at the airport yesterday at about noon, after we had some trouble finding the right place. We eventually got there and I went in and got registered. I ended up checking Dr. Laughlin’s bag (which was housing unexpected liquids and my peanut butter). We (Kaiti, Dr. Laughlin, Mrs. Goddard, and I) quickly made it through security and settled in at our gate (E-18). A few hours later we got on the plane (about 4:30) and were soon airborne! The flight was just over nine hours long, and it was quite miserable. I tried to fall asleep, but by the time I got tired enough to fall asleep, I got to fight with restless leg syndrome. I think I finally got about an hour of sleep. We got off the airport and went through customs, where I had no problems getting into the country. From the airport we walked a few blocks to the train station, where we were given our Eurorail passes. These passes are as important as our passports, so we were threatened not to lose them. We rode the train from the Zurich airport to the Zurich Hauptbahnhoff (train station, pronounced hopped-bon-hoff). We killed time there for a while, which included taking a walk down the Bahnhoffstrasse (or something like that) to the river, then walking around the other way. There is a piece of modern art hanging in the Hauptbahnhoff which I immediately christened the Winged Hippie (based on the statue called the Winged Victory). On our walk around Zurich we were shown the towers of the Grossmüster Cathedral, the church from which Huldrych Zwingli started the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland (in around 1523). We returned to the Hauptbahnhoff and had a little bit of time to kill before taking the 13:32 (1:32 pm) train from Zurich to Bern. In the meantime I needed to be alone, so I went into the station’s chapel and dozed. From there I was told about a waiting room which was supposed to be more comfortable. I went there and dozed a little while longer. The trip from Zurich to Bern is about an hour, and it was quite a nice little ride. We ride second class, but that’s still got plenty of room and a bathroom, so we’re all set. We arrived in Bern about 2:30 and made our way the few blocks to our hotel. We checked in, and went up to our rooms. I’m sharing a room with three other guys (Joel, who I knew about in advance, and then two other people (both animation majors) who I can’t remember their name. When Joel and I went up to the room, there were two twin beds in the room, pushed almost together, making something the size of a King. Joel and I were slightly alarmed, as we couldn’t figure out how to fit four people into one bed. Luckily, our room is a suite and there was another room with two more beds. We showered, and were back out to explore the city on our own by about 4 o’clock. Dr. Wohlers split us up into four groups, mine consists of both Laughlins, Joel, Kathy Goddard, and, once she joins us, Lisa Diller. It will be lots of fun and we’ll do lots of fun things. We started out just by walking around. We found a park, and decided to sing. Then we decided to sing in every park we encounter on this trip. We sang Be Still My Soul (which stunk, but maybe we’ll have better luck next time). We were hungry by this point, so we decided to go find something to eat. Joel had mentioned Indian food, but we couldn’t find the restaurant. Then we were going to eat Lebanese, but it wasn’t open in time. We finally decided on a place called Tibits, which is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant which was actually quite good. We were told about a funicular (like the incline railway) and so we walked a long ways to try to find it. We had been given a special card by our hotel which allows us to use the busses and trams for free. We found the funicular and rode it down, but it wasn’t very long, or breathtaking. People took it like they took a normal bus. After find and taking the funicular, we found ourselves looking for ring where they used to have bear fights. We spent about 3 hours hunting for it, in doing so we saw a lot of the city. We found our way to another park/beach/pool area and walked around for a little while. We walked by the river, which is quite calm and a beautiful green color. We walked a little further and came to a dam where we stopped to take pictures. Then it started to rain. We all crawled under a canopy where we chatted and waited for the rain to stop. From there we hiked up a hill (still looking for bears, mind you), but we didn’t find them. We did, however find the art museum. We didn’t go in, but we took a bus from that stop. Unfortunately we didn’t have a very good sense of direction (or got on the wrong train), because it was a couple more hours before we found the bears. In the meantime, however, we walked through a lot of Bern, saw flying buttresses live and in person, enjoyed clocks, fountains and chiming bells. We stopped at a chocolate shop and bought some chocolate (one which was milk chocolate with M&Ms, and one which was white chocolate raspberry). Out front of the chocolate shop were two girls (late teens or early 20s) who were playing violin (or violin/viola, I couldn’t tell) duets. It was quite nice. Finally, (and I do mean good grief) we found the bears and took lots of pictures. Then we came home and are in the process of crashing. I’m going to go brush my teeth, then get in bed. Love to all! Robby P. S. I estimate that I have walked at least 5 miles today. I need to see if I can find a pedometer. |
AuthorI'm a Classical musician, a growing Christian, and a world traveler. I'm learning, exploring, and trying to understand this wonderful world I live in. Archives
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