Castles and Waterfalls

“Always choose the adventure! See the good! Learn from the bad! Discover you!” ~Mary

April 21, 2013
I don’t know if we got up early, or he was up late (or a combination of the two) but I Skyped Bryan this morning. He had just wrapped up the closing show of the Boy Scout Conclave back home and was getting ready for bed. Instead of using Skype, this time, we used Facetime—between my iPod and his iPhone—after a few minutes we both needed to plug in to recharge. I went to find Mary so he could say “Hi” and we decided it would be easier to talk over her computer.

The three of us talked for about an hour, laughing over stories from the Conclave and from our adventures in Zurich. We eventually hung up so he could get to bed. When we did, Mary and I started making plans for the day. We’d talked last night about going to see the Rheinfall (the largest waterfall in Europe—located on the Rheine River) along with the castle nearby. Using Google Maps, we looked up how long it would take to drive to the fall, and then to the airport. With all the calculations, we figured that the entire adventure would take about 4 hours. I then logged into my email to print my boarding passes (Swiss Air does automatic check in and emails the passes to you 24 hours before your flight) before going to take a shower.

When I came upstairs, Mary had a huge breakfast ready. “We always do French toast for Sunday brunch,” she said, producing a plate full of French toast and homemade blueberry syrup. They tasted fantastic!

Dale was watching the London marathon but he and the boys planned to come with us to the waterfall. After I finished eating, I went downstairs to start packing. In my room, I found a little care package from Mary. It was unbelievable. I immediately took it upstairs to ask her about it.

When I came upstairs, I found her folding my laundry.

“You don’t have to do that, I can fold those,” I said.

“No, go pack, it’s no problem” she said.

“You can’t possibly give me all that food,” I said. “You should keep some of the chocolate and things for your family too.”

“No,” she said. “You take it. Chocolate is dangerous in this house. Here, I need to send you with a few of my favorite Lindt bars too.” She got up and got a few bars from the closet.

“Mary, it’s so much. It’s so nice, are you sure?”

“Absolutely!” she said.

Will and Cole came running down the hall to tell us they were about to finish the marathon. We followed them back into the master bedroom to watch the first few people cross the finish line. (Not to make a commentary on marathons, but seeing those emaciated, sweat covered athletes does not make running look like “fun.”)

“We are going to get ready to go see the Schloss,” Mary said. “Do you guys still want to come?”

“Sure,” Dale said. “Let me take a shower real quick and we can all go.”

I followed Mary back to the kitchen to grab my laundry.

“Here,” she said handing me a reusable grocery bag. “You can put it all in this.”

“I feel like a bum having you do my laundry, taking the food, and your bags and things,” I said.

“It really isn’t a problem,” she said. “We all bum at some point in our life. And you are welcome to come back and bum at any time.”

 I went downstairs and packed up my clothes and care package. I shut down my laptop and loaded it into my bag. When I had everything ready, I journaled a bit before going upstairs.

In the kitchen, Will and Cole showed me a game on their iPad. It was fun hanging around “little brothers” again. Their enthusiasm was infectious. They were so friendly and loving, with no judgmental pretense what-so-ever. I laughed along with them at cartoon explosions and epic zombie battle scenes until we piled into the car and headed to the fall.

The drive was another beautiful one, through farmland and rolling hills. I shared with Mary and Dale my project for Skoda and we started making Skoda jokes. Ironically, we drove by the Swiss Skoda Distribution center in one town.

The Schloss Worth Castle is right next to the parking for the Rheinfall. “Schloss” is the German word for castle, in reference to a royal family’s dwelling. The Schloss-worth certainly was one of the smaller castles I’ve seen, but very medieval feeling. Parts of the original wall were missing, but the main guard tower—which controlled the draw bridge over the moat—was still intact. Outside of the wall was a little church, with a red steeple, green roof, and purple clock with golden numbers. Inside, several of the original buildings now housed restaurants and gift shops.

We bought tickets and walked across drawbridge and over the dried out moat. The main attraction of the Schloss, however, was definitely the Rheinfall.  Being the Niagara Falls of Europe, it attracts tourists from all over. Moving 558,040 liters (19,707 cubic feet) per second, the fall can be heard from the parking lot of the Schloss.

“Mom,” Cole asked, “why did they put a waterfall behind their castle?”

Mary, Dale, and I exchanged a little chuckle, while Dale explained the probably order of that construction project.

At the back of the castle wall, there is a little turnstile to get out to the castle. We each went through it and walked out to the first viewing observation deck. It was a massive fall. Unlike Niagara—which is one long drop down from Canada—this was a series of tumbling blasts, in which the water bounced and splashed from rock to rock. The canyon it sat in was massive, and on the other side a little red steam train could be seen chugging through the grassy green field.

“We can get closer,” Mary said, and we continued the climb down the hill. The path switch-backed a couple of times to a series of stairs which lead to the cement platform.

“That is unbelievable,” I said, as mist from the fall splattered in my face. Mary snapped a few photos and we joked that none of them looked real—the contrast of the fall on my dark clothes had sort of a green screen effect.

“We can get even closer,” Mary said, pointing to a cave.

Walking through the cave, I had to duck. It was damp and humid in the cave, and overcast breeze made it exceptionally chilly. On the other side, was a platform, practically touching the water. Looking through the mist, various rocks and structures were visible. It almost looked like a pirate ship was stuck inside the fall, being beaten by the tumbling stream from above. In reality, it was probably some sort of structural equipment.

We snapped a few more photos before Will and Cole said, “Let’s go closer.”

Mary got a concerned look on her face but said, “We can go closer.”

Exiting the cave and winding down more steps, we found the final platform that was right in front of the fall. Mary didn’t like being so close, so we snapped a quick picture and headed back up.

“I take it you won’t be doing the boat cruise?” I asked, pointing at red and yellow tourist boats cruising right in front of the fall.

“No!” she said. “That freaks me out. Bryan would probably kayak over the thing.”

We had to take a glass elevator up the side of the hill to get back into the Schloss.  While the view was impressive, the swaging motion as the little glass box cranked up the side of the hill was a bit alarming.

Back inside the castle, the boys said they needed to use the toilet. Dale took them to find one while Mary said, “Here let’s do a little photo shoot so you have some Swiss souvenirs.”

We got photos inside the castle wall, on the draw bridge, and out by the gift shop.

“Stand in front of that cow,” Mary said, pointing to a large bovine statue in the window of a chocolate shop.

“How about the watches?” I said. “That’s Swiss right?”

“That’s probably not politically correct to say,” she said, “but it’s totally true.” We got a few photos in the watch store and the Swiss Army Knife store.

When the boys got back, we climbed in the car and headed out to the airport. Eating our sandwiches in route, we laughed some more as we drove through beautiful green country field.

As we approached, the song “Gangam Style” came on the radio.

“I can do this dance,” Cole said.

“I was actually in a ‘Gangam Style’ promotional video for the Boy Scouts,” I said. “With Bryan actually. I can’t do the dance.”

“I have to show you,” Cole said.

Unfortunately, we were pulling up to the airport.

“Maybe Zach will come back and you can show him,” Mary said.

We pulled up to the curb and Mary got out to help me with my things.

“Thank you so much for having me,” I told Dale.

“Absolutely,” he said. “You are welcome to come back anytime.”

I told Will and Cole good-bye too, before hopping out of the car.

“There you go,” Mary said, handing me my bags (which was now a plural collection.)

“Thank you so much,” I said. “For everything.”

“You are so welcome,” she said, giving me a hug. “If you have any trouble, let us know. If you need a place to stay, let us know. And next time you are travelling Europe you have to stop by.”

“Absolutely,” I said. “I will definitely keep in touch.”

“Have a safe trip,” she said, giving me another hug. I promised that I would and that I would email them when I got back to Prague.

She got back in the car and I walked inside. With that, I was on my own again.

And that was the feeling I had as I walked through the doors. “Here I go again,” I actually said out loud to no one in particular. I followed the signs for departures and got in line for security. I briefly worried that all the food I had in my bag would cause concern, but once I said there were no liquids, they let me carry it through.

The terminal had a long series of moving sidewalks and moving ramps. I was at Gate A81 and it seemed to take forever to get there. Every slow moving person in Switzerland was on the same route I was. When I did arrive, I took a seat and pulled out my journal. I fervently jotted down every detail I could remember. I wanted to make sure I could capture all of the beauty, fun, and warmth I’d seen and felt this weekend.

As I wrote, I grabbed a truffle from my care package—a salted caramel one that tasted amazing! As I Iooked in the bag, I also pulled out the copy of Swiss Made that Mary had bought for me. Opening the cover, I saw that she had signed it.

I read it and it made me smile.