The best laid plans of man...

We finally have some time to catch everyone up on the blog today due to a series of quite interesting and humorous circumstances. After a fantastic church retreat last weekend, we came back renewed and challenged in several great ways. Delynn and I had a very "European" room arrangement. The retreat center we used caters more often to singles than couples and are quite spartan compared to U.S. standards. Many of the rooms are set with bunk-beds, two small study tables and chairs, armoire and sink with the toilet and shower down the hall. However, the retreat, the fellowship, the movement of God's Spirit in that place was incredible. It was definitely something we needed more than we even realized. But, it left us behind on other commitments, like the blog. Here are a couple of pictures from the retreat - such beauty can bring one to tears.


We traditionally have a talent show during retreat - except for our friend Bryn on guitar (works at one of the local pharmaceuticals in Basel) these are all teachers at RIA. Amy-Jo is signing, Allison is singing, Anne is on violin and yours truly on bongos. I didn't know I had it in me...

Anyway, back to the subject this entry. Today is a holiday in Germany -it is called Fronleichnam or perhaps better known as Corpus Christi in the states. So, federal holiday in Germany means no work, shops are closed, busses and trains on holiday schedule. Okay, good so far. We have a day off school. By the way, this is our last holiday before school ends on 18 June.

Now, in Switzerland, each Kanton or state is either Catholic or Protestant (I know, weird concept in the U.S.). Based on this, it may or may not be a holiday. The question then arises: Are the trains running on a non-holiday or holiday schedule? The city of Basel is its own Kanton (sort of a City-State) and happens to be Protestant (although historically it was Catholic), so our friends who live in Germany (holiday today) and work in Basel (no-holiday today) therefore need to report in to work. Of course, since Basel is "open today", lots of Germans take advantage of the holiday to go shopping. Now, France doesn't celebrate the holiday at all, so it is also "open" (i.e. shops, trains on regular schedule (snicker...), etc.).

Delynn and I had the brilliant idea that we would take advantage of our day off to travel to Mulhouse (roughly pronounced "M00-looze" on French), France. Why? Well, because we have never been there and it's only 30 minutes from the Basel main train station, so why not. Oh, yeah. Did I mention that the SBB (Swiss rail company) is doing construction at a train stop, so our normal train schedules are mixed up for a couple of weeks? Well, okay - there it is. This actually works in our favor today because we can take a train from Weil am Rhein directly to the Swiss Main station without making a transfer at the Basel Badisher Bahnhof (that's the German train station that physically resides in Switzerland). Confused yet?

So. Here we go. We catch the 1038 train from Weil a. Rh. to the Basel Main station. Great. We walk over to the ticket counter and queue up. Delynn holds our spot while I jaunt over to the ATM and get some CHF (Swiss Francs) cause they don't use the € in Switzerland. When our turn comes, we are informed by the nice lady behind the glass that the French Rail are on strike today. Trains may or may not be going at times which may or may not roughly match the train schedule and that said trains are subject to random stops and "pauses" so there is no telling how long a 30-minute trip to Moo-looze will take. Plus, the return trip would be totally random depending on the whims of the French Rail folk. We have dealt with French strikes before, so the best thing we could do was return to Weil and our apartment 90-minutes after we had left on our little adventure. It was not a wasted trip however as we were able to purchase our June rail pass at the station while we were there and we stepped over to the Co-op grocery for something (since stores are closed back home in Germany).

Plus, as a complete bonus, we have a great story to share with all of our family and friends. Now you can see why we love it here!

Love to all.