Tuesday morning was Mom and Dads second day. They slept in after falling asleep on the couch last night, eyes 👀open. We all had a ceremonial breakfast and then loaded up for the ride into the big town Singen. We ended up leaving the house at noon.
We went to Stein Am Rhein, my favorite place! We walked around the town with tons of tourists slipping in and out of gift shops and tour groups. We bought a spoon for Aunt Lil and a two-tone color tonic for Luise’s birthday (which wasn’t celebrated properly on Saturday).
Then we returned to the nice cafe that Dagi, Hari, boyfriend and I were at in Oktober ‘97. There we had caps and mom and I got an onion 🧅 cheese 🧀 tart and dad had a plum tart. We fed Fabi and then walked back around town taking pictures and ducking into shops along the way.
Before the cafe, we walked along the Rhine to the island and the little chapel. There it was raining, green, lush, with swans 🦢, and birds singing along the way.
On the Insel (island) a Franciscan monk approached us, and in his cute Swiss accent, he told us about the monestary. Then he invited us inside to see the Roman ruins which were excavated there. We were talking to him in German and English. He told us that the reason he was there, was because the temptations of the city in Zurich were too much for him! We wondered (to oourselves), what he would do in S.D. or Las Vegas! Well, on that closing thought, we stole some postcards from the chapel.
The friar (not monk) was very charming, and even offered me some coffee or beer from the monastery. Dad and I were ready to accept, but Dagi our spokeswoman with child, said “No.” So we waled back over the bridge and along the river back to Stein and cafe.
We went to Singen next and visited Harald at the optik shop. I scored on a cool pair of sunglasses, gold-framed, made in Austria. We had fun trying on glasses and watching Fabi play with the nose pads in the drawer.
After all driving home together, we three (Dad, Harald, and I) went on a great bike ride! We rode all through green fields of corn, wheat, oats, and barley, into Switzerland and past some farmhouses, complete mit Kuhe, Huhne, und Segeln. Hari told us that the Swiss farmer there raises really good beef, and that they could cmuggle some across the green border; 25 kg at night, in their backpacks. The Swiss aren’t allowed to sell the beef in D-land, due to the Mad Cow disease.
So we continued down some green, fresh hillsides and into the woods, finally biking and sweating our way back to Germany, over the green border to the Buntes Haus on the Shienen Burg!
Dagi started the fondue by rubbing the pan with a garlic clove, and put int eh white wine from Binau, and the four kinds of cheese from Stein Am Rhein. The cheeses included a young Guyere, an alte (old) Guyere, and two others, selected by the cheese monger. We dipped, and drank, and ate a killer Salat for two hours. Dagi was drunken, as she informed us, and stayed up with me to look at my pictures until 1:30 A.M.
We felt a little strong on the garlic breath in the morning, (due to the pickeled garlic I bought) and got an earlier start. Today we drove to Constance on the Bodensee.
Monday, 17 May, 1999
