There were more changes in store for my Asia-accustomed self! The airport was so clean and modern, and walking into the new train station I felt like I was entering some futurist's conception of a space colony! I purchased my ticket for the train -- leaving in 5 minutes -- and it showed up on time! How crazy! I once arrived a half hour late for a train in Thailand and still got on, and sometimes buses wouldn't leave at all if enough tickets had not been purchased!
I met my parents at house of our friends the Strouss' in Recklinghousen. After a few blissful days of sleep and amazing food (gaining back a little of that lost weight...) we rented a car and headed to south to visit some places from my family's past. To Bad Nauheim where my brother and sister were adopted, to Karlsruhe where my family lived, and finally to Heidelberg where your author began his time on this earth.
Frank hails from Markdorf ("It means 'Dollar-Town'", he explains) in the southernmost region of Germany, on the shores of the Bodensee, known to English-speakers as Lake Constance. This beautiful 30km lake has shores in the countries of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. After a day of lounging on the lake at the bathhouse of the Prince of Baudin, we made plans with Frank's friend Mark to do some camping and a little trekking in Switzerland.
Once we started driving, we passed into Switzerland after just 20 minutes and a few minutes more brought us to the Rhinefalls. In was an awsome sight to see the powerful Rhine river crashing down 20 meters in two wide channels divided by a stubborn green-topped island of water sculpted rock.
We stopped for supplies in the town of ________. It really was the most beautiful city I've ever seen. The roads were narrow and cobble stoned, and the center of town was a large walking mall lined with centuries-old beautiful buildings. As I had experienced already in Germany, the visual space was devoid of advertising and even the signs for the stores were shy and sometimes hard to find. The scene was pure and natural. Aside from the fashionable shoppers talking on their phones and the modern wares in the shopwindows, the street looked pretty much as it did four hundred years ago. Amazing.
Our goal was the Sentis, the highest mountain in the eastern Alps. As we grew closer the towns got smaller and the fields gave way to green cow pastures. We stopped to ask a dairy farmer about where to find the path and a place to camp. My German companions' translation to me of what he said was "There is a trail but at places it's under 3 meters of snow." and "It's damn cold at night! You'd be crazy to sleep outside!" Looking at the mountain, you could see that we had underestimated our goal. Shear rock faces towered hundreds of meters above us, and any part that wasn't vertical was buried in fresh snow. We quickly decided to climb ________ instead, a little bit to the north and without so much snow!
That night we camped in a cow field in the shadow of the Sentis. In the morning we awoke to a cocophany of cow bells and a strongly-scented "welcome gift" left just outside our tent door. Breakfast was bread, cheese, and fresh milk given to us by the farmer on whose land we were (illegally) camping.
Our climb was breathtaking beautiful. Over steep green pastures and through dark forests, climbing past traditional mountain barns and water troughs. At the top we met up with a crowd of parasailers. In the sky above some 30 flyers already aloft circled us like bugs around a light. And down below we could see miles of fields and small villages, leading northward to Lake Constance and on the horizon we faintly see Germany on the oposite shore.