The day has come

All the planning, the researching, the discussing. James and I are the first to fly over. 

Tuesday June 25 we had all morning to pack. And we had already started the day before which is unusual for us. At 12 noon we left the house. A friend drove us to the airport. Checking in took no time at all. Security at RIC always goes fast. Time to relax.

We decided a bit of lunch would be good. We shared a sandwich which was plenty. It came with french fries. The mayo on the side came for the sandwich but I laughed. I did it the German way: mayo instead of ketchup to dip the fries  Much better. James tried but then decided “to be American”.

The obligatory selfie!

RIC to IAD. A short layover. Time to call James’ sister Jane to wish her a happy birthday. 

IAD to ZUR. 

We had told Jane we would raise the glasses for a toast in the plane. Here is to Jane and Stephen, the younger brother who has a birthday the same day. 

It’s an 8-hour night flight. Lots of time to play solitaire on the phone. I watched two movies. And then we were there. We were delighted when we saw our luggage had made it too to Zürich. 

Wednesday Julie 26 short after 8 am. 

Grab the luggage. Walk across the street to the train station. How to get train tickets? There were vending machines, but we were told those would work only for tickets inside Switzerland. We had to stand in line. Take a number. It took half an hour to exit but then the young man was very efficient. From the airport to Singen there would always be one stop-over. The young man said that would be best in Schaffhausen instead of Zurich Hauptbahnhof. He could not sell us the tickets though. Instead we got something to say “because of technical difficulty” we had to buy the tickets in the train when they were coming around. Since we had it officially in writing…

All went very well. Schaffhausen! Another word which brings up lots of memories. We had a quick glimpse of the waterfall from the train. 

It was close to 12 am when Corry picked us am from the train station. Btw nobody ever came to sell us tickets. 62.95 Euros saved. 

Welcome to Friedingen for two nights. 

It had rained in the morning. But after lunch the sun was shining and we decided that we needed a little walk. Corry and Werner live in a little village which is perfect for that. 

Just around the corner a stork’s nest. 

The “Corona Kreuz” in the Church’s wildflower garden. The recent cross was in honor of Saint Corona, patron saint of pandemics. You can read something about her HERE!

After a little more settling in the house Corry suggested to see the Aach Quelle (sping). After all the recent rain it must be more active.  

It’s a nice place. The river Danube disappears in the ground and bubbles up out of the ground on the other side of a hill starting the river Aach. It is very interesting. And it definitely bubbles!

It’s a nice little walk around. 

And there is also a little place were Corry treated us to an ice cream. It was very nice in the sun. We hope that the weather will stay this nice for our vacation. 

It was too nice to already go back to the house so Werner drove up to the little old town of Aach which is on top of a little mountain. One could easily walk around the little town probably in 20 minutes but it was very charming and so peaceful.

There were signs to explain important buildings and monuments. This fountain/statue is called "Stadtbrunnen Spritzenhäuschen" and this last version is from 1989 created by Friedhelm Zilly. The first well was built 1756 to have water for households, animals and to extinguish fires. 

The little church was open and we just could walk in. It was a catholic church which had started as a chapel in the castle 1150.  I liked this tree, obviously handmade with photos of children and bands with messages. Unfortunately we could not find out what the meaning/purpose of it was. 

Outside the church was a beautiful overlook over the country side. On a clear day you probably can see the alps. Corry told us though that if that happens the weather the next day is not nice.

I took a screen shot of the map on my phone. It shows nicely where we were, the few streets in the little village, and top right where we were just before at the Aachtopf or Aach spring. 

Well, it was time to go back to their house. We all decided that we were not very hungry. Corry had two different salads and some charcuterie. Afterwards we played "our" card game twice (which we rarely do) with a "wine break" in the middle and chatted and laughed about our "old times" until it was really time for us to go to bed. 

What a great day! Thank you Corry and Werner.