Church Day in Switzerland!

When we leave our 1357 building in the morning this is the front door out and it is 3 flights up to our apartment which is about 20 x 20 feet plus the bathroom - and it has everything we need...well I could use a toaster but I can do without for a while.

 Sunday is always church day for us so we attended the Gross Munster (Great Church) an Evangelical Reformed church which basically was the demise of Catholicism in Switzerland in the 1500s.  It was based on the premise that "the Bible is the truth".  This church also had heated pews and it was lovely and full of worshipers which is very unusual in Europe.

 Walking back to the apartment across the Limmat River which divides Zurich....somewhat like the Mississippi River for us.

 We took a one hour train ride to Einsiedeln Benedictine abbey and monastery up in the mountain town of Einsiedeln.  This is a view from the train window - it does not even look real.  This is the Zurichsee (Zurich Lake) which we followed a lot of the way.

 I spotted these tulips out the train window.

 Top of the Abbey church at Einsiedeln.  We attended 4:30pm vespers and then another Salve Regina of the monks singing in front of the Black Madonna.  Remember that I am not Catholic and have never been.  It was quite the experience.  Most of the monks looked pretty old!  It also does not have heated pews.

 Abbey grounds.

 Abbey horses - they had quite the farm there.

 Another view from the train home.  We sat near a bunch of young guys drinking beer out of big cans and the one sitting next to me was rolling something and then stuffed it in his lip - I recognize the "snuff" or "snouse" as my Grandpa Schultz used to call it.  I also recognized the smell - ugh.  But they were cute young guys and very polite.

Got home and had Italian at a very close restaurant and I had a great pizza!!!!  The two couples next to us started talking and they were from Holland and had travelled a lot and were here on a short bus tour and one couple had just sung with their choir in the Abbey - they were both in their hometown church choir in a town about 70 miles from Amsterdam.  So anyway - I did not understand a word of any of the church services - it was either in German or Latin - I know neither.