It's a small world after all...

We stayed in a small hotel in Bern, Switzerland last night.  One intresting fact about the Hotel National is that it has a very old lift (elevator), that is over 100 years old.  There are only a couple of these elevators left in Switzerland.  It was quite intereesting to ride on...even a little scary the first time, but another one of the "adventures" we have when we travel.

We took public transportation to the worship service this morning, although the meeting place was not very far from the train station.  When we arrived at the site where the Christians worship, we were introduced to a nice young man named Jacob, who was from Ghana.  He was a student in Bern, and worshippped regularly with the saints there.  I immediately recognized him as one of the other passengers on the bus we were on.  So, the three of us rode the bus to worship service together, but did not meet until we arrived at the church building.  Small world.

A nice young couple arrived, and the members told us that the other visitors were from the USA also, so we introduced ourselves.  They were Jason and Andrea, and they were on vacation also.  They told us that they were from California, and our list of acquaintances in California is not too extensive.  We asked what city they lived in, and they told us they lived in San Jose.  That narrowed the choices of making connections with them drastically.

Finally, in desperation, I said, "I only know two people in San Jose.  Their names are Dave and Marge."

Andrea brightened.  "We know them very well!  Dave is one of the elders where we worship."  Before our conversation was over, we realized that we also know Jason's uncle, Jerry, who lives in Alabama.  Small world.

Our bus-friend, Jacob, spoke only English, but was learning a little German.  Jason, Andrea, Olen and I spoke no German.  One of the members, Christoph, usually sat on the back row with Jacob and translated the sermon to him by whispering to him.  Today they took the five of us into a classroom where Christoph could hear the sermon and translate it loud enough for the five of us to keep up with the sermon in the audidtorium.  It was a good lesson on hope, faith and love.  The photo is the Engish-speaking minority at the Church of Christ in Bern, Switzerland this morning.

After the worship service was over, we walked back to the train station with Jason and Andrea.  We visited with each other while we walked and enjoyed both the exercise and the visit.  At the train station they headed toward Thun and we left for Montreux.  I gave Andrea a hug to give to Marge when she and Jason get home.

At Montreux we toured the Chateau de Chillon, a castle that was home to the Count of Savoys from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries.  

To say that the ancient castle is not handicapped-accessible is an understatement.  We walked up and down steep and small steps, and in and out of small doorways for about an hour and a half.  

We even climbed to the top of the tallest tower for the view.  In this photo you can see the view down, including a little of Lake Geneva and one of the modern super-highways in Switzerland.  From the old (castle)...to the new (highway).

After the tour, we walked down the shores of Lake Geneva for another view of the Castle before getting on another train to take us toward Martigny for the night.

The train took us to Martigny in record time.  On the way we passed many beautiful vineyards terraced on the hillsides.  This is definitely wine country.  Even though the views were beautiful, they were difficult to photograph from a train 70-80 miles per hour.

We are in a quaint little hotel tonight, and will be here tomorrow night also.  We hope each of you had a wonderful day of worship and perhaps the blessing of meeting new friends just as we did.  Tomorrow we have an all-day excursion planned in the area, so until then...