Johanna Was Here

 

Here are a couple of quick pictures from yesterday and today. This is Sue in Bern, the capital of Switzerland.

 

Christoph showed us part of his project involving building a bridge model. We attended the “Circus” performance of the sixth grade class at his school and saw Christoph play in the band. They closed with the theme from the Muppet Show!

 

After the circus we has steak sandwiches and beer at the school picnic (this is normal). Johanna arrived home from her school trip to Vienna at 10:00 that night. This is Rudi and Elisabeth, Johanna’s parents.

 

Today we went to France, specifically the Alcase region that borders Germany on the other side of the River Rhein. We started in Mulhouse at the massive market where every meat known to man is available. This is a French favorite, Lapin(Rabbit).

 

And in Mulhouse we visited the Altstadt, the old center of the city. This is the Cathedral as seen from the town hall steps.

 

Then we drove to Hartmannsweilerkopf, the site of a WW One memorial located on a hill above a cute French town. The diesel engine started on fire a little as we pulled into the parking lot but Rudi doused the flames like a true Feuerwehrmann. The car was fine after a couple of liters of cool and refreshing bubbly water were added to the radiator.

 

Then came lunch in Colmar, another cool Alsatian Town.

 

Then we visited the Unterlinden museum to check out some Alsatian masters. (photos to follow)

 

On the way back to Germany we visited the walled fortress town of Neuf Breisach. Rudi was our tour guide for the day. He had maps and handouts and a powerpoint presentation to teach his students. . .

 

. . . who were eager to learn from the tourmeister.

 

The town is an eight sided fortress with a orthagonal grid of streets within. It was built in the 1780s by Louis XIV right before the French Revolution. We walked part of the perimeter and learned from the teacher.

We miss you NIgel the orange cat. More later.