Our Switzerland trip; An Overview.

I'm learning more each day about blogging. I'm thrilled that my journal of the trip to Switzerland was able to be uploaded.

But, for those who just want to know generally -- What did we do, where did we go who did we meet? ... this general summary might be a better fit.

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My sister Joanne Metzler Docherty and I left Monday, July 26th for 10 days in Switzerland. We spent three days in Zurich, three days in Elm, an Alpine town of about 700 people, and another three days in Isenthal, another Alpine town about 40 miles away of about 500 people. We were following the trail of our mother's grandparents Hilariius Zentner, a Protestant from Elm, and Maria Anna Agatha Josepha Infanger, a Catholic from Isenthal. The towns were separated by an Alpine mountain ridge and the only way to reach one from the other was through a high mountain valley called the Knassen Pass.

Six months before we left, we were introduced via the internet to a Zurich pediatrician and amateur genealogist named Christof Halter. During our internet conversations, we discovered that he, too, had Zentner ancestors and that we were related! ... fifth cousins! He had often been to Elm, which was about forty miles southeast of Zurich in the Canton, or state, of Glarus. He was anxious to take us to Elm and show us around.

We came to know that Christof's wife, Jaqueline, was also a pediatrician, and that they had four-and a half year old twins, Nicholas and Amelie. Christof's parents were 86 years old and his mother Helen was in somewhat poor health.

Christof also told us that he had traced the Zentners back to Charlemagne, the king and leader in 747 AD. He said there were many generations of royalty, 10 centuries, really, ending with the Von Hohensax family in the 1600's. Maria Von Hohensax, the last of the family, was married off to a wealthy gentleman from a town near Elm. His last name was Elmer and he was our relative.

Christof said there were several castles still remaining that were connected to our family. One is a fine museum. He hoped to show us some of these also.

Our flight was pleasant and without incident. However, we did meet a family with 12 year old quadtruplets in the Philadelphia airport and had a meal at the table next to theirs. We had never seen a real live set of quads before. There were three girls, all dressed alike, and one boy. Without fail, we took their picture.

ZURICH Switzerland trip Album

When we arrived in Zurich at 7:30 Am, our major concern was: What connections do we make to get to our hotel, the Saint Gotthard, in downtown Zurich?

To our surprise, as we arrived at the baggage claim area, we heard "Father, Warren, Joanne! Christof had come with the twins to pick us up and take us to the hotel. It became a good opportunity for us to give the children the gifts we brought for them -- Read-along videos, for Amelie, of Disney princesses, with a book of the dialogue in English. and of Toy Story , Toy Story 2 and Cars, for Nicholas. There was also a read-along video with 5 original stories, in five languages: French, English, Spanish, German and Mandarin. We found out that they were already taking French lessons, and their father spoke to them only in French when they were together alone or traveling in the car.

We spent two of the next three days traveling around Zurich on our own, using the wonderful tram system, a city tour bus, or simply walking, walking walking.

On the other day, Christof picked us up early and we traveled to Elm -- he wanted to make sure we saw its mountains on a sunny day, and he was unsure of the forecast later in the week. After our wonderful trip to Elm -- with two side trips up the mountains, one to a beautiful mountain lake and the other by bus to a spot for hikers 1000 feet above Elm -- we traveled on to Rapperswil, a town with a castle, 50,000 rose bushes, and a seaside hotel where we had lunch. Then then went on to view the castle where Maria Von Hohensax was born and was buried, and to Kyburg castle, a museum, a family treasure, and which also contained the chapel, which went back to the 10th century, where Christof and Jaqueline were married.

The day ended with dinner at another seaside hotel with all of the Halter family. It was a wonderful, wonderful day.

ELM

Early Friday morning, Christof picked us up at the hotel for our journey to Elm where we would stay for three days. On the way to Elm , we stopped at Einsedeln, a large Benedictine monastery with a beautiful basilica, home of the Black Madonna, a Marian statue of dark, aged wood and a center of devotion since the Middle Ages. Einsedeln has been a pilgrimage site for Christians almost as long as the basilica of St James -- Santiago -- at Compostela, Spain.

As we approached Elm through Glarus, the mountains and Alpine peaks began to tower over the level farmland through which we traveled. Soon, as we climbed through a gradual mountain valley, we began to be surrounded by the mountains and the sloping pastures dotted with houses and barns, though few cows were to be seen. Most of the dairy cattle were still grazing up in the Alpine meadows, and would be brought down in early October for the winter in a formal 'parade' with flowers braided through their horns. They and their herders would be met in each village with a special celebration and usually an 'Alpe Kase', or Alp Cheese market.

We said goodbye to Christof, who had to hurry home. He and his family were leaving tomorrow for an eight-hour drive to Paris to visit his brother, and then to the south of France for two weeks vacation. He had been a wonderful companion and guide. We will look forward to our continued conversations on the internet with him after we both return home.

Elm is a beautifully restored Alpine town, which, until thirty years ago was known only for its dairy cattle and the slate tablet mine, where slate for school children's tablets has been retrieved for two centuries. The mine is now closed, partly because of a tragic avalanche in 1895 that buried a large portion of the town and killed 114 people. Its newest industry is tourism and skiing. with four ski lifts and hikers leaving from Elm to explore the several mountain passes that can be reached easily from here. The town still maintains its rural charm, however and its inhabitants are country people at heart.

The main focus of our interest was to be the town church and its cemetery, the Zentnerhaus, and the Hotel Elmer, where we were staying. The church was a spare stucco building with a clock in its steeple -- every church in Switzerland has a clock in its steeple -- built as a Catholic church in the 1400's, and now a Zwinglian Protestant Reformed church since the early 1500's. All but about 7 of Switzerland's 26 Cantons are Reformed, the others Catholic. Still, about 86% of the people of these Cantons remain generally faithful to the denomination of their ancestors. When the Reformation occurred in 1525, the princes of each Canton determined what religion would prevail in their territory, and with much bloodshed and migration, it has pretty much remained so to this day.

The cemetery was remarkably beautiful, with gracefully carved uniform granite headstones about four ft. high and two ft wide. Each plot was covered with strikingly colorful flowers. The older plots, however had only one rose bush on each, a silent sentinel in this maze of color and beauty.
I say older plots, but the most striking thing about the headstones in this cemetery, and, I am told in all the cemeteries of Switzerland, is that none of them are over twenty years old. After 20 years, the remains are dug up and someone else is buried in the plot. In spite of this, over half of the names on the plots in the Elm cemetery were Zentners. Before we came, we had traced our ancestors back in Elm to 1496. There were Zentners there even then.

Next to the church cemetery was the Pfarrhaus, or parish house, a restored building from the 19th century. Like most of the restored buildings, they were log constructed, but square logs, smaller that the ones we are used to seeing in homes here. All had flower boxes at the windows, filled with lovely geraniums. Our interest in the pfarrhaus was that, in the 1800s, the Protestant pastor was Oswald Zentner, who also taught school in this building. Oswald, however, was married three times, and had two illegitimate children. He was defrocked after the first child. We are descended from him through one of his marriages; Christof is descended from him through one of the illegitimate children.

Next in line is the Hotel Elmer. It is three stories high, partially restored log exterior, partially new construction, including an external glass elevator. Rene, the proprietor, and his family, including his mother Barbara (whose maiden name was Zentner) were cordial and helpful, but knew little about their family history or of the Zentners. They did have a big book in the dining room, however, with signatures and comments of guests going back to 1965, many of whom had come searching for family roots. Most of the Zentners seemed to be from New Glarus, Wisconsin, dairy farm land. But there was little to help us in our search.

Across the street was the Zentnerhaus, a large restored apartment building about four stories high, with a bakery and a gift shop on the first floor. The plaques on the side of the building explained why is was called the Zentnerhaus, but of course, being in German, we could not read it. It was built in 1799, and was the oldest and largest building in the town after the church. The baked goods were delicious; we bought a few items to take to our room each day for an evening snack.

So we looked at each of these buildings,, took many pictures, struck up conversations with townspeople, most of whom spoke very little English, but were very pleasant and helpful. But they knew little or nothing of their family backgrounds or of our Zentner heritege. It seemed it was going to be a long three days.

But that was not to be so. Everyone we met -- from Heinrich Zentner, who with his wife, cared for the church and cemetery grounds and flowers, to Didi, who owned the gift shop and her daughter Lizbeth, to passing conversations with guests in the hotel restaurant and a visit to the sporting goods and clothing shop of Romi Schneider, the Olympic skiing medalist, who returned to her home town to open a ski school -- all became brief but meaningful occurrences in our days in Elm.

And then came the big surprise. Sunday was to be Swiss Independence Day, and we were there to celebrate it with them. The major event of the day was a breakfast buffet in a barn on the surrounding hillside. Then, in a tent set up for the occasion, there was music -- a trio and a 50 piece band -- a church service, the required political speeches, a petting zoo, finally evening fireworks and bonfires in the mountains.

And everyone in town was there. It was a wonderful conclusion to an special visit, amid beauty and friendship, awesome mountains and country 'down-home' atmosphere. Although we learned very little that was new about our Zentner family heritage, it made our visit complete.

ISENTHAL

We left Monday morning, to take four buses to get through the Klaussen Pass at 6000 feet to Altdorf, the home of William Tell, and on up the steep hillside into the mountain valley to Isenthal, home our our great-grandmother Agatha Infanger Zentner.

Isenthal is a smaller town than Elm, and the houses are less impressive, but the Alpine mountains surrounding Isenthal are spectacular! They seem to tower above on all sides of the town. The narrow valley contains a few houses and inns, one narrow road, the sawmill and St Theodor Catholic Church, which dominates the landscape and the skyline.The people were much more helpful and friendlier. From Rudi, the proprietor of our hotel (the Hotel Uri Rotstock, named for the highest peak which soared over the town) to Freni, his 70 year-old aunt, who helped with her knowledge of English. There was Pia, the town clerk, who spent all night on her computer 'connecting the dots' for us to our Infanger and Aschwanden roots, and who introduced us to our third cousin, Kurt Infanger. And the parish deacon, who dug out baptismal books from the 18th century so we could uncover Agatha's brothers and sisters. We had tea with Freni in her modest kitchen and with Kurt and his family (herbal tea from leaves collected by his wife on the Alpine mountainsides and dried on the floor in their spare bedroom). We saw the 'Bear Claws' hanging in the tourist center window, from our family tale of Anton Infanger's killing of the last bear terrorizing the town in 1820. We observed the elaborate black and white marble sanctuary of St Theodor's, so different from the simple but beautiful church interior of the Protestant church in Elm. We saw the churchyard cemetery, as beautiful as the one in Elm, but here filled with headstones made entirely of carved wooden slabs. The flowers were are numerous and as lovely. And we took pictures, pictures, pictures, and walked up and down that one simple street over and over again.

Our greatest find was the sawmill, owned now by Peter Bissig and his artist son Peter, which inhabits the space previously occupied by the Infanger sawmill, powered by the rapidly flowing mountain stream like all the other rapidly flowing mountain streams we saw in Switzerland.

Finding this spot was like coming home -- home to where Agatha grew up until she somehow met Hilarius, moved to Elm to raise six children and then emigrate to America and to Irwin PA, where she birthed seven more children before Hilarius died in a coal mine accident at age 48.

Our search, though not complete, had reached an end, and we could go home. We had met many new friends along our journey, experienced a wonderful and awesome country and landscape, and had laid the groundwork for even more discoveries, we hope, into our past and into our family psyche.

Thank you for letting us share some of this experience with you.

Switzerland Trip July 2010

WARREN METZLER
TRIP TO SWITZERLAND
JULY 26, 2010 – AUGUST 6, 2010

In July of 2010, My sister Joanne Metzler Docherty and I finally took a long-awaited trip to Switzerland for 12 days to visit two small mountain towns some 40 miles apart in Alpine valleys south of Zurich. Our mother, EllenZentner Metzler’s grandparents, Hilarius Zentner and Maria Anna Agatha Josepha Aschwanden Infanger, grew up and raised seven children there before emigrating to Larimer, Pennsylvania near Irwin, about 1870. My great-grandfather Hilarius died in a coal mine accident at age 48 in 1882, and Agnes -- as she was then called -- raised her now thirteen children in Larimer. There she lived until she died in 1925 at the age of 85.
This journey was stimulated by my sister Joanne’s genealogical research, begun by the stories our mother used to tell her from her grandmother’s accounts of these two villages. Our hope was perhaps to uncover some further records about their families, especially the names, dates and number of either or both of their siblings, of which we knew nothing. We also hoped to experience the places associated with their lives and our origins, and, with luck, to meet and become friends with relatives who might share a common link with us and with them through my mother’s family.
This blog is dedicated to our mother and her memory.

Day 1: TUESDAY JULY 27 AM
The flights to Philly and Zurich were wonderful. An eight hour trip. I didn't sleep much. Joanne slept off and on.
We arrived an hour early at 7:15 AM. Going through Swiss customs was a simple matter of showing our passport and answering a few questions; “How long is your stay? ... Business or pleasure?
To our complete surprise, when we arrived at baggage claim we heard “Joanne---Father Warren”. Our new found cousin Christof, who we had met several months ago on the internet, was waiting with his 4 1/2 year old twins, Nicolas and Amelie, to take us to the hotel.
On the way he told us his 86 year old mother Helen had fallen last week. He was going to visit her after he took us to the hotel. He said he would be back at 8 AM tomorrow – Wednesday -- to take us sightseeing for the day.
We dropped our luggage off about 8:30 AM at our Hotel, the Hotel St. Gotthard, and we were told our room would not be ready until 12:30.
We spent the morning walking the streets around the hotel, getting familiar with the

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area. The hotel was situated on the Bahnhofstrasse, a pedestrian and tram-only street named after the train station and a major upscale shopping area that runs directly through downtown Zurich. We spent time also in the huge train station and shopping center -- Shop Villa – underneath, about 100 yards from our hotel. We validated our rail pass for later in the week and watched the massive numbers of people -- tourists from everywhere and locals -- moving like large ant colonies in tune with the flow of traffic and numerous car trams everywhere.
We got into our room at 12:30 – clean comfortable and relatively large. We got settled and went out exploring about 1:30. We rode the tram through town to the boat dock at the ZuerichSee – the Sea of Zurich. We took photos, walked back up a canal pathway and finally returned to the hotel again by tram. We got back about 4:00 and relaxed and took a nap. About 6:00 we got up and went out again exploring. We walked across town to the Limmat River, crossed it and checked out the “South Side” style area on the other side, got a Turkish pita in a little shop and walked back about 10:00 PM. We had a cup of tea and some famous Swiss gingerbread Christof had given us and we were in bed by 11:00 with very tired legs.

Day 2: WEDNESDAY JULY 28 AM
We arose at 6:00 AM, got dressed and decided to eat in the hotel dining room at a breakfast brunch. It was very good – fruit, cold oatmeal (delicious!), scrambled eggs and wonderful Swiss cheeses. Christof arrived at 7:45 and we were off with him.
Although he is taking us to Elm Friday, he said we should also go today, since it was a sunny day and we should explore Elm in sunny weather when you can see the mountains.
The trip began through terrain very much like Western PA, but we soon entered a valley between sharp high mountains – BEAUTIFUL! We took a side trip up a mountain hillside to a mountain lake. Christof often takes his 4 year old twins here for a two hour walk around the lake. It was good practice for us for our trip up the mountain valley to Elm. We arrived in Elm in time to take a special bus up the mountainside . We traveled with about 50 people in hiking boots, mostly young children and young adults. They were planning to walk a 2 hour mountain trail across the face of the mountain and then back down to Elm. Needless to say we rode the bus back down the mountain. The whole experience was fabulous!
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We then rode into Elm itself. The town was larger than we expected. Elm is full of well preserved “log-cabin” type houses. Their logs are square, however.
The church, the parish house where Oswald Zentner lived and taught school before he was expelled from the ministry, and the Hotel Elmer, where Joanne and I stayed, are all in a row. The Zentnerhaus, Elm’s largest building – 4 stories – is across the street. It seems to be an apartment building. The bakery in it was much smaller than I expected, a simple store front with no tables. No larger than our rectory office, if that. The bakery was closed. It closes, as does everything in rural Switzerland, it seems -- from 11:30 til 2:00 every day while people go home for lunch.
We walked through the church cemetery. The first tombstone we looked at was 'Peter Zentner', our grandfather’s name! There are many, many Zentners there.
The stones only go back until 1990. It seems after 20 years, the bones are exhumed and other people are buried there! No word yet on what they do with the other remains.
The church had been built in the 1400’s as a Catholic church, but it, and most of the people in Elm, have been part of the Zwingli reformed tradition since the 16th century. The church is plain, simple inside except for a pulpit that was elaborately carved wood and about 7 feet in the air. Three windows in the sanctuary had family names on them. Two of the names were Zentner and Elmer, both family names for us. The third name was Freitag, German for Friday. Maybe Father Bob Friday's family, the other assistant I was first assigned with in Natrona Heights, was from Elm also. How Cool!
It was sunny and a little cool, 60 in Elm. We left about noon. By the time we were leaving the Canton of Glarus, it had started raining.
We drove north of Zurich to see Rapperswil ('wil' means village). It was a town I wanted to see. It was a seaside town, with old stucco houses, cobblestone streets, a large castle and 50,000 roses. It is also the off-season haven for the circus.
We walked thru town with umbrellas – the rain was not too hard but my legs and feet were very sore from our walking so much the day before. We walked to the dock and had a salad in the Hotel Speer – upscale – then walked back to the car in the rain again.
We drove about an hour north toward Wintertur, passing a castle where Maria, the last Von Holensax descendant, was born and died. She was married by her father the Baron to a wealthy gentleman from near Elm when the family was destitute. He was an Elmer and an ancestor of ours.
Finally, we drove to Kyburg Castle, owned by the Kyburg dynasty. It came into the Werdenburg-Sargens dynasty by marriage, and then one of their women married into the Von Hohensax family of which we are descendants.
The castle is very well preserved and a national museum. We had to walk a very long way over cobblestones to enter the castle.
The castle was spread out over 3 floors and it sat on a very high hill, perhaps 500 feet above the neighboring country-side.
The chapel was especially fascinating. It was built in the 11th century with wall paintings going back to the 15th century. Of special note – Christof and Jacqueline were married there! By the time we left, my legs and feet were very tired. Christof graciously offered to go get the car- about a quarter mile away- and bring it back to pick Joanne and me up. Blessed Relief!
We drove across the country-side and picked up Nicolas and Amelie at pre-school – faces painted! We drove back along the ZuerichSee and and met Jacqueline at a hotel restaurant beside a boat dock, the Hotel Sonne. Joanne and I both had a traditional Swiss meal of Roesti (grated potato hash browns) and veal. It was very good but much too much to eat.
After dinner Jacqueline took Nicolas home and Christof and Amelie took us back to our hotel. A wonderful, full day.

Day 3: THURSDAY JULY 29 AM View Album
Up at 6 AM again to start another full day. We had the hotel breakfast buffet. It is so good; we will miss it.
We made reservations with the hotel concierge to take the city bus tour at 10:00. It left from a parking lot on the other side of the train station, so on our way there we scouted out how we will have to make connections from one train to another next Thursday when we will come back from Isenthal going to the airport hotel. We only have 15 minutes to make connections. It will be a challenge.
By the time we boarded the tour bus it was raining. It would rain off and on with patches of warm sunny moments the rest of the day. We were prepared with ponchos. They worked out fine. (We decided we had never seen so many plaid umbrellas before). Is this a Swiss thing? Women wearing bright colored decorative scarves is definitely a Swiss thing. They are everywhere.
The tourist bus depot was next to the Swiss National Museum. (Something like the Carnegie Museum but much larger.) One regret was that we only spent about a half hour there Tuesday, but the furniture chests, the elaborately carved and painted sleighs, the many many religious statues, going back to the 11th century (especially varied were half-life sized statues of Jesus on a donkey on wheels -- a Palm Sunday tradition) going back thousands of years Lack of time and a preponderance of foot pain cut our visit short.
The bus tour was very interesting and informative. It filled in the gaps we had missed on our own. The Frauminster Church with the Chagall windows, the luxurious Donder Hotel and the 1 mile cog railway to reach it, the Oakland-like area with the Zurich University of 28,000 students and companion hospital, The Institute of Technology, the places you can see remains of the Ancient Roman Baths – all were very interesting.
We left the tour in Old Town, and continued on our own. We visited an extraordinary watch and clock museum in the lower level of an upscale watch and jewelry store. We stopped and bought some Springli chocolate to take home and we toured a Swiss toy museum. We ate dinner in the cafeteria of a coop department store.
We returned to the hotel about 5:00. I gratefully went up to the room (the elevator got stuck between floors, but eventually continued on its way). Joanne went out to get a Swiss addition for her thimble collection.
We finished packing for the morning's trip to Elm. I caught up on my journal and went to bed about 9PM.

Day 4: FRIDAY JULY 30 AM View Album
Christof arrived just as we finished eating. We had our luggage placed in his car – it was raining again – and we hit the road for Elm. Christof suggested we make a stop at Einsideln, a Benedictine Monastery and Pilgrimage center since the Middle Ages.
We arrived in the rain, but the huge church, monastery and cloister of nuns and the surrounding town were very impressive.
We entered a huge – massive -- sanctuary. An ornate tile floor and a pink, gold and cream colored ceiling filled with angels, saints and flowers. Directly in the back center of the church is a large black and gold marble building housing an altar for daily mass and an ebony wood statue of Mary ornately dressed in cloth vestments called 'The Black Madonna'. Morning mass was going on when we were there.
We left after about an hour. It was most impressive. The rain had stopped. We traveled on and arrived in Elm about 11 AM.
We settled into our room quickly in the Hotel Elmer and spent our last time with Christof in the hotel restaurant over coffee and tea and Christof's genealogy records.
At 11:30 we said goodbye to our new found friend and cousin. Christof will leave tomorrow morning with his family on an 8 hour drive to visit his brother in Paris. GOODBYE, DEAR FRIEND!
Joanne and I went immediately to unpack. All shops close from 11:30 to 2:00 (a Swiss tradition – workers go home for lunch), so we walked the streets taking many, many photos. We entered the hotel restaurant for lunch, then walked across the street to the bakery in Zentnerhaus and bought some sweet rolls for our room. We returned to our room and sat on the balcony with coffee and rolls totally floored by the view -- the massive mountains, grassy and tree lined tract bottom and covered with snow at the top.
We walked the streets again. Ate dinner at the hotel, pored through the Hotel Registry with names and stories of hotel tourists since 1965.We settled into the room about 9 PM. I caught up on my journal and retired to bed after another fulfilling day.

Day 5: SATURDAY JULY 31 AM View Album
We woke at 7 AM to a sunny day, we have been told it will be about 77 degrees.
We had the hotel's buffet – various breads. Croissants, jellies, jams, cheeses, soft boiled eggs (not as tasty as the Zurich buffet), coffee, tea and juice. The breads especially- all from the Zentnerhaus – were very good.
After breakfast we walked up the only road through Elm, taking photos constantly,. We decided to walk to the Sportsbahn – the sport-center -- and maybe actually ride the hanging gondola cars to the top of the ski run. We walked slowly and steadily up the road, perhaps a quarter mile or more, around every bend we expected to reach our destination. We never did. We could see traveling gondola cars in the distance, but the walk proved to be too much for us. We turned around and came back.
We walked a short distance down the road to the supermarket. The prices, especially for fresh fruits and vegetables were very expensive. (The clerk in the customs office in Philadephia had said, “You know you’ve been on vacation when who go to Switzerland or Sweeden; they’re both so expensive.”)
We returned to the church cemetery, amazed at the number of Zentner graves in a cemetery where remains are disentered after twenty years and now, more recent persons replaced them.
The flowers were incredible. Beds of multi colored flowers cover every grave, except for the older section, where there was a single rose bush stood sentinel there on each grave.
While we wandered there a young man - in his forties – came and stopped at the last grave of a woman named Zentner. As he walked away I called to him and asked him if he was related to the woman. He said “yes she is my mother. We told him of our own mother and showed him our ancestor charts, including two named Heinrich Zentner in the 1700's. He saw them and said “that is my name, my name is Heinrich Zentner”. We talked for a long time. He told us he cut the grass and cared for the grounds at the church. When we asked who planted and cared for the flowers, he said. “My wife”. We told him how beautiful they were and to thank her for us. He told us his mother died in May. I told him I would pray for her. We parted with a new friend.
Joanne and I again went into the church and took many, many photos. When finished we went again to the Zentnerhaus, bought pastries and went next door to the gift shop. Joanne bought a state flag of of Glarus and I bought a Glarus patch. We both bought symbolic cow bells.
We talked to the woman in the gift shop about our Zentner roots. She took us outside and introduced us to a woman who's maiden name was Zentner. Three or four other women joined in, one elderly, one middle aged and one young. The young woman could speak some English- more than Heinrich- and the others spoke little to none.
Joanne showed our family charts and a spirited discussion broke out. Little new was learned, but once again we made new friends.
The town was beginning to fill up now with many coming for the August 1st festivities tomorrow. It would be Swiss Independence Day. Like our 4th of July, Swiss flags were appearing everywhere.
We found out there was to be a breakfast brunch in a town barn, music, a church service, more music and a speech by a politician from Glarus, the state Capitol. We got reservations. When in Rome…...
Tomorrow night there will be bonfires in the mountains and fireworks. We returned to the hotel for lunch. Joanne had a ham sandwich. I had a roesti – grated potato pancake and a mixed salad; little pieces of grated carrots, sauerkraut, cucumber and tomato slices, grated turnip,and various lettuces – all very tasty.
We returned to our room for a rest.
About 5 PM we went out again for a walk. Joanne spotted a man on a hand glider. It's yellow lines glimmering in the late afternoon sun. He must have launched from the top of the ski lift. We watched him for about 20 minutes. I took about 20 pictures. He suddenly descended and landed near the ski lift gondola car site. We took a walk down a side path past many old houses. There had been a sign saying a “Shiefertabelafabrik. I told Joanne I thought it meant a shop that sold table cloths. We walked a good way until we discovered it was a museum on how they made the slate tablets of old. My German was once more right on the mark!
We passed a cottage with a display case outside where they had quartz bracelets, polished stones, geodes – stones cut in two with beautiful crystals inside – and many other beautiful things. Signs explained the meaning of the various colored crystals and said if you wanted to buy anything, take note of the article's price tag and put that amount in the slotted box attached. I bought a painted souvenir of Elm and put in my money. I've only seen something like this at a self-serve Christmas tree stand near the Grove. Never in Pittsburgh or Wilkinsburg.
We walked onto a little bridge over a mountain stream. The water was rushing past with a roar, but making less noise and less muddy than yesterday. We took more pictures, then began our walk back. Our feet and legs were holding up better than earlier or even the last few days.
Back to the hotel for dessert for supper. Joanne had a raspberry sherbert. I repeated our crepe pancakes and strawberries with ice cream from the evening before.
We returned to the room about 9:30. Joanne watched world CNN TV while I caught up on my journal. And so to bed.

Day 6: SUNDAY AUGUST 1 AM View Album
I had my best night's sleep yet here in Elm last night. I went to bed at midnight. Got up twice for a bathroom break and got out of bed at 6:40. No waits to fall back asleep. It is now 8:20. Joanne is working a crossword puzzle and I am beginning today's journal entry. We will leave the room shortly to walk about a quarter mile to the August 1st breakfast brunch, music and church service to begin this national holiday in a large barn. This will do for now. Talk to all later.

SUNDAY PM
Joanne and I left the hotel at 8:30 to go to the festival brunch at 9:00. We walked and walked---and walked. At 9:00 we had been walking up a path beside a field for some time, finally spotting the barn---still a long, long way off. Sadly, we decided even if we got there on our tired, tired legs, we wouldn't have the stamina to walk back afterward. We turned around and slowly walked back to the hotel.
We mentioned to a young worker there why we came back and went to our room.
In a short while Barbara, the owner (whose maiden name, by the way was Zentner) knocked at our door. She told us she was sorry we could not make it to the festival, so she offered to drive us there herself. She had also made arrangements for a ride back for us!
When we arrived at the festival, Barbara introduced us to a woman named Didi, the owner of the shop at the Zentnerhaus. Didi spoke no English, so her son Werner, a teacher, translated for us. Her daughter Elisabeth who was a waitress for the event came over – she was the young woman we met yesterday at the Zentnerhaus who introduced us to the women we were speaking with there! Such a small world, even in Elm.
They took us to a table in a tent. A trio band was playing. We were escorted to the barn and the food line. We met some people in line from Rotterdam, Holland who spoke English. The food consisted of many kinds of bread, various cheeses, nut roll, butter and Alp butter – soft and flavored – sliced beef, spicy cold cuts and the most delicious jumbo baloney I have ever tasted.
There were quartered hard boiled eggs, quiches, jellies, fruit, dried cereals and fried eggs being cooked on the spot.
Everything tasted great and all the cheeses were special,
We then sat through a 45 minute church service, all in Swiss/German. Two thirds of it was the sermon. We sang two hymns, both melodies very familiar but different words – ‘Holy God’ was one of them.
Both hymns were accompanied by a 50 piece Swiss orchestra. The orchestra played several pieces and then the Swiss National Anthem. We took many pictures of families, children, animals and mountains.
We left about 1:00, deciding to walk home since it was mostly downhill. The festival was a wonderful experience.
We rested for a while, took one last walk through Elm and had dinner in the hotel. Joanne had a grated potato pancake covered with sliced tomatoes and cheese baked together. I had that special mixed salad again and macaroni and cheese like no other – not cheddar, certainly.
I settled the bill, since we would be leaving early. We returned to our room to pack and get ready for bed. We need to get up at 5:00 AM.
Barbara's son and his three children are setting off fireworks below. I am writing today's journal entries.
About 10:00 I was startled by a clap of thunder it surprised me since it was such a beautiful sunny warm day and evening.
As I looked out, I saw it was raining steadily, and fireworks began lower in town, not elaborate, but certainly significant. They lasted about 5 minutes. They wakened Joanne, who came to the balcony door with me.
That's when we saw it. High atop the mountain, at about a spot above Martins Loch, or hole in the mountain, there it was -- A giant bonfire.
How anyone could ever get up there, let alone build a fire that large there is totally beyond me. Certainly a perfect ending to a special day in Switzerland.

Day 7: MONDAY AUGUST 2 AM View Album
We woke at 5:00AM for our day of traveling to Insenthal, a journey of about 5 miles, four hours and four buses. It was still raining lightly. Barbara, the mother of our host Renee, made breakfast for us. Coffee, juice, various breads and cheeses – Alp Kase, they call it – mountain cheese. Each mountain around us had its own special cheese. I ate another wonderful croissant from the Zentnerhaus bakery.
Barbara took us to the bus stop. The bus left at exactly 8:01 as promised. God Bless Swiss organization!
It has its limitations though, when we got to our first bus transfer after 25 minutes, I discovered I still had my Hotel Elmer room key in my pocket. We decided I should mail it back to the hotel.
I asked in the bus station of the clerk if he had an envelope. He said, “No, this is a bus station. The post office is in town”.
I knew I did not have time to go there, so I went into a snack kiosk in the terminal and had my first lesson that Swiss men, especially in positions of authority have no imagination and a one-track mind. Swiss women are much more understanding.
The woman behind the counter in the Kiosk, though she knew no English, suggested I call the hotel and let them know I was leaving the key at the kiosk. She got me a phone directory and loaned me her cell phone. How efficient!
After the next 25 minute bus trip, we boarded a bus for Altorf, twenty miles away.
The journey was through the Klaussen Pass – a magnificent trip! We started at 2500 feet and climbed the side of a cliff on a narrow, switch-back road to 4000 feet, high above the valley floor. Then we continued gradually on a treacherous mountain to 6000 feet, between peaks, snow covered, that rose to 9000 feet above us. We regularly had to stop, or slow while cattle and herders walked the road or crossed it ahead of us. Still there were Alpine houses and towns around, above and in the steep valleys below. WHEW!
Our stop deposited us a town square with a huge statue of William Tell with his arm around his young son.
We needed to walk about 2 blocks, my directions told me, to our final bus stop. I needed to go to the bathroom, as usual. The Swiss have clean public toilets everywhere, so I went into a nearby police station to inquire where to find a WC (water closet). WC signs are everywhere in Switzerland. I encountered my second experience with Swiss male single-mindedness. When I asked where I could find a bathroom nearby, the policeman, puzzled, replied This is a police station”. After several attempts to assure him I knew this, he said “Try the restaurant across the street”. I eventually found a WC about a block away.
We continued down the street where I expected to find our bus stop to Isenthal. Spying a post office, I went in to inquire if they knew where it was.
There were two clerks, one, a woman who was occupied; the other, a man, who was not. I went up to his window and said, “I need some information, can you help me?” His reply was, “You must have a ticket. I cannot help you without a ticket”.
I went to the ticket machine. A young woman had come in and was taking a ticket. I was relieved, she went up to the man's window and I waited, hoping the woman clerk would be free first.
The woman's window became free. I went up and asked if she knew where our bus stop to Isenthal was.
She did not know, but turned and asked around until someone said it was just at the side of the post office.
Our trip to Isenthal was another adventure. The bus went along the South shore of Lake Lucerne, then started climbing another cliff sharper that the last, this time about 1000 feet. The bus then turned inward along the side of a heavily wooded ravine. Joanne commented that, having come up here, she did not intend to go back down.
We entered Isenthal and it was everything we expected and more. It was narrower than we anticipated with huge mountain walls on either side.
We had thought Elm's mountains were high. Isenthal's mountains were even higher.
We got off the bus. Our hotel was about a block further. Isenthal was also not as level as it looked online and in photos. It’s one street keeps going up and up.
We were awe struck by everything. We quickly reached our hotel, the Hotel Uri Rotstock, named after the 9000 ft-high mountain that towered above it.
Rudi Bissig, our proprietor, greeted us when we entered. His wife was Marlie. He spoke very little English and Marlie even less.They were a young couple. They had two boys, Lars and Silvio, Lars about 5, Silvio about 9.
Rudi showed us to our room. We left our bags and hurried back out into the street, continuing up the street. We found a sawmill – proprietor named Bissig, a wood carving studio – proprietor named Bissig. We were taking pictures of everything in sight. The sunny afternoon quickly darkened. We hurried back to the hotel just before the rain came down in torrents.
We told Rudi we were there to explore our ancestors, the Infangers, owners of a sawmill, and the Ashwandens, our great-grandmother’s maiden name. He brought out a town book listing town family names and pictures of their ancestors for us to look at.
We had been looking through the book only a short while when we found Rudi had called an elderly aunt who spoke some English and a woman named Pia who was a secretary in the town hall and also taught English.
They explored Joanne's records with great interest and chattered on for about an hour and a half. They then both left, Pia promising to go home and explore data on her home computer.
Joanne and I ordered schnitzel and French fries, a luncheon/supper. Their fries were much tastier than ours here at home.
We went out for another walk, this time down the street and saw the town hall and the tourist's office with the legendary Infanger bear claws hanging in the window.
A relative Joanne had met on the internet, Nick Cardillo, of Florida, formerly of Pittsburgh, had Emailed her some time ago about the famous legend in Isenthal about Anton Infanger the ‘Bear-Killer’, the owner of the sawmill, who had killed a rogue bear that had terrorized Isenthal for weeks in 1820. The bear’s claws had hung in the Sawmill for years, then in the post office after the sawmill had been destroyed by fire, and now resides in the window of the tourist office in Isenthal. We took many pictures.
Then we went on to the Catholic church -- St. Theodor -- which dominates the skyline in Isenthal, and its cemetery.
The grave markers were beautiful,carved wooden slabs about 4 ft tall on almost all the graves - even though 20 years or less. They were blanketed -- as in Elm -- with beautiful and colorful flowers. We found Infangers, Ashwandens, and other family names.
We went into the unlocked church, took pictures. It was totally marble, mostly white.
We went back outside among the graves. There were metal plates with holy water and a foam sprinkler at the end of each row. We spoke to a man visiting a grave of a 97 year old woman who had recently died, either his mother or his Aunt. His name was Imholz. We could not communicate well with him.
We returned to the Hotel. It was about 6:00.
Joanne and I agreed we were not hungry enough for a full meal. The Swiss restaurants have all kinds of unique ice cream specialties, so we ordered one called 'The Sweisse'– three scoops of ice cream, vanilla, chocolate and hazelnut with tons of whipped cream, 2 small Scottish type nutty biscuits and a cinnamon stick. Their ice cream, especially the vanilla, is delicious – it has a real vanilla taste – and their whipped cream is out of this world! The one dessert was plenty filling for us both.
Rudi came over to our table, so Joanne asked him about all the musical ribbons and awards around the dining room. He showed us an old RCA Victrola in the corner in pristine condition – right beside the modern stereo -- and played us an old record of a Swiss folk musical tune. He pointed out his accordian under a cabinet (he called it a harmonica) and asked if we would like to hear him play. The awards were his over many years.
He played us several Swiss folk tunes – they all sounded pretty much alike – but he was an excellent musician.
He asked if we would like to see his rabbits. We had already seen young goats in a pen out back beside the 'garden eating place'. I guess this is where the term ' beer garden' came from. They can be seen everywhere.
Rudi, along with his son Silvio, age 9, and his nephew Mario, age 12, walked down the street a block or so to a small barn. Pumpkins were growing in the front, some already large. We went inside where there were dozens of wooden cages built along both walls. One side held all the male rabbits, huge black and white mottled bunnies, the other side held the females and their babies.
I guess the saying is true: you can have one rabbit or many rabbits, but you can't have two rabbits.
The three of them, Rudi, Silvio and Mario set about with swift quiet efficiency performing the necessary chores of feeding, supplying water and new bedding for each of the cages. Mario was very helpful, you could see. The younger Silvio knew his assigned tasks and carried them out without being told, but he did spend some time showing off for their new guests. He had already been obviously showing off his new-found skill of whistling constantly all afternoon. It was amusing.
The walls of the dining hall also held many ribbons and awards for competitions the rabbits had been entered into.
We returned to the hotel where a number of locals, young men and women sat around sharing a beer and pleasant conversation. All were couples, some obviously married.
Rudi let me send an email home on his laptop. I had seen the two younger boys, Silvio and Hans playing computer games on it earlier.
Rudi called the Deacon who lived in the 'pfarrhaus' – parish house -- with his wife and two very young children . The town has no resident priest. Masses are scheduled Friday, Saturday evening and Sunday.
Rudi made an appointment with the Deacon to meet with us at 10:00 tomorrow morning to search the church records for information about our ancestors. It is something we did not have an opportunity to do in Elm.
I kidded Rudi that all the businesses seemed to be owned by Bissigs, his family name, and all the dead peole in the church cemetery were either named Infanger or Aschwanden.
Joanne had one last cup of coffee and I had a hot chocolate and we retired to our room, Joanne to sleep, and me to catch up on my journal, especially after such a busy, wonderful day of so many new experiences and delightful people.

Day 8: TUESDAY AUGUST 3 AM
I got up about 6:30 to finish my journal entry for yesterday.
We had our breakfast buffet of cheese, breads, fruit. One new addition here in Isenthal – the eggs are pigeon eggs, about the size of a large walnut with a mottled brown shell. They were OK, but not as tasty as the eggs we had been having.
We left the hotel at 9:30 and stopped at the town hall to see what discoveries our new friend Pia had made about our ancestors.
We were amazed! She must have been up all night on the computer searching her genealogy records. She gave us several pages of connections. She also gave us a compiled booklet of Isenthal Infanger genealogy. It contained all our great-grandmother Agatha Infanger’s siblings, aunts and uncles and parents along with birth and death dates. The only problem is it is written in German.
She told us one gentleman in town, Kurt Infanger who lived across the street spoke some English and he was our 3rd cousin once removed. She called him and he arrived shortly. A FAMILY REUNION!
Kurt is a retired telephone technician. We had a pleasant but short visit and Kurt promised to meet with us this afternoon for tea.
We left for our appointment with the Parish Deacon and Administrator. Walter was very cordial. We told him we wanted to search for our Great Grandmother Agatha Infanger's brothers and sisters and birth dates around 1840. We originally did not know what siblings Agatha had, but Pia had found their names in the Infanger book and had listed them all .
Walter went to the cellar and brought back an old, old book. We paged through it until we found the Baptismal records and birth dates for Agatha and all her siblings. These records confirmed Pia's information.
Pia had showed us that there were 9 children in all. Seven of them had no children. Agatha had 13, 6 in Elm and 7 in America. Her older brother Stephen had 12. So the two of them had 25 children in all.
We exchanged cards and thanked him for his hospitality. He told us the parish had 125 families. We left and took more pictures in the church yard cemetery, still in awe of all those with our family names buried in just the last 20 years.
We walked up the street past the hotel once again. The town had only one store, a grocery store, a bank and a post office. Up at the lumber sawmill there is a small gift shop where Peter Bissig, the sawyer's son and an artist in wood, displays and sells many items of great beauty, most striking and unusual in our stores. Joanne bought a wooden vase and I bought a bluish purple wood beaded necklace for her, and a wooden coin bank with a picture of one of the gnomes, like the Travelocity icon, which are absolutely everywhere and, we are told, symbols of good luck. We walked back to the hotel and rested a while, and had lunch. I had the bratwurst I had sought (for the first time) and awaited tea time with cousin Kurt.
Kurt arrived promptly at 3:00 and suggested we go with him to his daughter's house to have herb tea with his daughter and his wife.
The house was just a few doors away, behind a house with several apartments where Kurt and his wife live.
The house had been newly built 8 years ago and had been Kurt's home. He turned it over to his daughter and her new husband when they got married and his son-in-law, a carpenter, completely remodeled it 2 years ago.
His daughter had a one year old son named Tim and is pregnant with another child that will be born in October. Her name is Susan Stotler. The connection startled me – Saint Susanna's …. Stotler Road! This was my parish assignment in Penn Hills.
Kurt's wife gathers herbs from many mountains. She was drying some in a spare room in Susan's house.
The herbal tea was very good.
The house is very modern inside, meticulously done , though the outside was similar to all the other houses in Isenthal.
We talked of many things, mostly family roots. Susan and Kurt conversed with us very well, although searching for words often.
Kurt's wife a lovely quiet woman was kept appraised of the conversation in Swiss. Meanwhile Timmy was the center of everyone’s attention.
After a tour of the house, including a family crib 200 years old and two old steel-wheeled prams. We said our goodbye and walked back the short trip to the hotel.
There had been a light rain when we went. Now it had stopped although it was still cool, about 60 degrees.
Joanne sat at a table in the restaurant and pored over all our new found family information. I took a nap.
At about 6:00 we had dinner. Joanne had a creamy green soup that she said was very good. I had a roesti – a large hash brown potato pancake – not as good as the one I had in Elm. After another walk we retired early, Joanne about 8:00, me at 9:30.

Day 9: WEDNESDAY AUGUST 4 AM
A great night's sleep! I slept 9 hours, Joanne slept 11 hours! We had breakfast and headed out again through rain.
We went up the road, having decided to stop again at Peter Bissig's sawmill and inquire if he or his father knew the location of the Infanger sawmill.
Peter was cordial, as usual. He told us the original Infanger sawmill stood on the sight where their sawmill stands now – just one building away from where we were standing in his gift shop!
We bought several more items from Peter's artistic wood articles. He told us he had a picture of the Infanger sawmill on his computer and promised to send it to us.
We went outside, anxious to get some pictures of the sawmill next door, since that is where our ancestors’ sawmill stood. We even got a few pictures through a window of workmen dressing and slicing a log for lumber. The excitement was palpable! Standing where our ancestors lived and worked! The first real instance since our trip began that this was all true. We had made it home!
We hung around awhile. Absorbing the atmosphere, taking pictures, looking at the mountains. Mom would have been proud.
Eventually we started back down the narrow road toward the hotel. We went in the grocery store for a few moments, just to look around. There we ran into Rudi's Aunt Freni again. She invited us for tea at her home at 2:00.
We walked down through town once more past the church, Saint Theodor. We took more pictures especially from the back of the church.
We stopped to see Pia once again in the town hall to tell her about our findings in the church records and at the Bissig sawmill. We said goodbye to her and walked back to the hotel.
The hotel was locked. Rudi had told us his family would be going on a picnic and our room key would open the front door. The room key did not open the front door. The sign said they would be back at 4:00. It was 12:30. We went to the back and sat at the picnic table of the hotel in the outdoor patio beer garden of the hotel. It was sunny and pleasant.
At 10 to 2:00, Freni came over to invite us to her home across the street.
Freni was small, aged and somewhat stooped over. She told us she turned 70 on July 7th. I was 2 years older than her.
We stayed about 1 ½ hours.
Freni told us her husband Paul worked on the roads in the mountain valley. She had had 3 sons. One died at age 4 and one died 4 years ago at age 25 from a fall while mountain hiking. The third son was an electrician who lived upstairs with his girlfriend.
When we returned to the patio Rudi and the family were just returning.
I took a nap and Joanne sat on the sunny patio. We then took our last walk through the streets of lovely Isenthal.
We returned to the hotel and sat in the dining room relaxing. Eventually we ate supper – a hot berry and vanilla ice cream sundae.
We sat a while longer, then returned to our room to pack for our journey tomorrow morning back to Zurich and the airport hotel by bus and two trains.

Day 10: THURSDAY AUGUST 5 AM
We woke at 7 AM to the sound of rain and the realization that our travel day was likely to be a damp one.
We had our breakfast buffet once again of bread, fruit and cheeses. It was not yet 9:00 and we were ready to catch our bus at 10:06. It would certainly be on time. At 9:50 we prepared to leave and said our goodbyes. Just as we went out the door of the hotel, the bus went up the road. It had only to go about 5 miles up the road and return.
Rudi handed us two umbrellas. Just as we about to decline, since we could not get them back to the hotel after our walk about a half block away to the bus stop. Freni, his aunt came from her house across the street with an umbrella to walk us to the bus stop.
We took the umbrellas and walked with her. Our final walk on the street of Isenthal.
We stood at the stop for about 10 minutes carrying on our limited conversation with our caring new friend.
I remember that Freni had inquired yesterday, when we told her over tea, about how our Great Grandmother had 7 brothers and sisters, but only one other, her brother Stephan, had children.
She immediately had asked if the other six had married. We told her we did not know.
Joanne, studying the data last evening, had determined that, only one other sister had married but she had no children we were aware of. The other five had all died before the age of eight, and four of the by the age of two.
I thought it was important to share this with Freni, since two of her three boys had died, one at 25 and one at four. Freni obviously took this information in with much thought, and then said “aah”,with a great sense of understanding and identification. I was very glad I remembered to tell her this.
The bus ride to the lake was less anxiety-filled for Joanne, since we could see very little down the steep hillside because of the rain.
I was sorry the weather was not clearer, since I had wanted to take what I knew would be awesome pictures. As the bus continued through the various small towns, I became anxious that we would arrive late in Fluelen and would miss our train. We only had ten minutes. LATE? NEVER! We arrived exactly on time, made the transfer without incident. Any questions we had were answered hastily but in a friendly manner by whomever we asked.
There were 3 or 4 steps to ascend to enter the railway car, but at each stop, people, usually young people, eagerly reached to help this old couple board with our luggage.
We traveled about an hour to Zurich, then made the change in the Zurich train terminal once again with time to spare. It was more difficult; we had to go down two levels and walk a good distance, but we were soon on board our train to a village near the airport.
We sat across from a very Swiss-looking young woman and asked her if she knew where our train stop would be.
Imagine our surprise when this perfectly fluent American accent came out of her mouth!
It seems she was from Louisville Kentucky, visiting her Spanish boyfriend who worked and lived in Zurich, working for a Swiss bank, UBS.
Allison got off the stop before us. She told us to get ready to exit shortly, and we did so smoothly and comfortably. We saw the station was on the other side of the tracks. We had to maneuver down a long flight of stairs to a tunnel. Now to the part of the journey I most uncertain of. We asked a woman in the tunnel if there was transportation at the station to the Holiday Inn on the next street over. She did not know but seemed very concerned for us. She suggested we telephone for a taxi.
We asked another woman coming thru the pedestrian tunnel. She said to go the opposite way from the station. The Holiday Inn was a block or two away.
We went through the tunnel out into the rain, light but steady. We walked a good distance for two tired travelers pulling or carrying two bags each.
We found our hotel, registered and went up to our room. It was a brand new hotel, very clean and modern, but the restaurant did not open until 6:00 and it was 1:00.
We rested a while, went down to the bar and ordered sandwiches and took them to our room. It was good to rest and have nothing to do or nowhere to go for the first time in 10 days.
We returned to the restaurant about 6:30 for a light dinner and returned to our room once again. Joanne settled into bed and to sleep about 8:00. It is 9:30 and I am abou ready to retire also.
* * * *
Looking back, I can say the trip was all we had hoped it would be. We experienced Switzerland and it's people, it's history and it's culture.
Elm provided a background for where our great-grandfather was born and where Hilarius and Agatha raised their first six children before emigrating to America about 1870.
Isenthal disclosed the family information we had hoped to find, more so than we ever expected. The people there were so warm, personal, friendly and helpful in our search.
The discovery of the Infanger sawmill and homestead was a breath-taking experience.
The scenery, especially in Insenthal, was indescribable!

REGRETS – We never heard a yodeler! We will not miss the flies, especially in all the eating places, even in the city, and the total lack of concern of the regulars for their presence. We never got used to them. Yet it was so surprising. The Swiss are incredibly clean; even their streets and tunnels are remarkably well cared for and swept daily. You would have expected them in the country. But, especially in their restaurants and eating places, the presence of flies aggressively attacking one’s food did not perturb the locals, while it made us constantly uneasy and uncomfortable.
I think we both regret now that we did not take a gondola car ride to the top of one of the mountains. We came close on one or two occasions, but we did not make it.
I miss the fact that, although we were only about 6 miles from Saint Jacob – or Saint James Chapel – further up the road from Isenthal, we could not make arrangements to get there. To take a bus there would have meant getting off and waiting two hours for another bus to return.
We clearly regret that we could not make the same connections in Elm to discover more specific information about the Zentner family that was ours. We met many people named Zentner or whose family name was Zentner, but no one had specifics about their family or ours, or how to find out about them. And though friendly, there was not the real warmth there that we found in Isenthal.
We also wished that more information could be discovered in Isenthal about our great-great-grandmother's family, the Aschwandens. Pia said once there was not the interest then to keep track of the woman's line in families.

I guess that will have to wait for our next trip to Switzerland.