We are enjoying no early morning wake-up calls and leisurely breakfasts of coffee and breads. We have a very nice apartment here. There have been both rain showers and sunshine every day. When the clouds clear away we have a great mountain view as we sat on our patio. We spend time reviewing the life of Jesus and the life of the Israelites every day, trying to “lock into our memories” more of what we saw and heard on our Holy Land Tour. The Bible stories have a new dimension after having been at the actual places. And for Lois, history also has become more important and understandable. I guess you are never too old to learn!
Connecting with family and friends is challenging because we cannot get WiFi connection in our apartment. We were happy to find a nearby hotel which lets us sit in the lobby and use their service. We will not be able to add to the blog or respond to emails every day as we did earlier, but we will try to do so every few days.
Our walking shoes have become our most valuable belonging with our rain jackets taking second place! We walk everywhere – lots of up and down hills. (Seems like more uphill!) We never leave our apartment without our rain jackets, because we usually get caught in a misting or light rain shower somewhere along the way. We walk to the town square every day. It is has a cozy village atmosphere, relaxing and beautiful. There are lots of flowers, trees and water fountains with a panoramic view of mountains. Everyone just strolls around, and greets one another warmly. A perfect spot for our R&R!
Ordering food has become interesting. On the first day we ordered Sicilian pizza for lunch. When it came it was topped with pepperoni, salami and small fish (I think they were sardines). Not good! After a visit to a super mart we now pack sandwiches for lunch every day, and find scenic places on our walking excursions to eat. There are so many restaurants here that we decided to try a different one every night. So far we’ve had great dinners - wiener schnitzel, spatzel, spaghetti bolognaise, brochette pizza, apple strudel with hot vanilla sauce. We especially like the restaurants that include pictures on their menus or English interpretation so we have an idea what we are ordering. Jim has certainly cut back on his coffee consumption and after drinking Turkish coffee in Israel Lois has discovered she likes sweetened coffee!
Yesterday we walked around Wildsee Lake and then climbed to the top of a hill where we had a grand view of the city. On this hill we also found stone monuments of the stations of the cross and of the 12 disciples. Jim had his picture taken by the Disciple James’ monument. Today we walked uphill about 1.5 miles to get a ski lift ride over the mountains. Although the clouds and rain had cleared at our apartment, by the time we had made the climb it was raining up there. So we decided to wait until another day when we would have a clearer view of the mountain range. At least most of the way home was downhill.
We are definitely in R&R mode – sleeping well, eating well, enjoying new scenery, reading lots, reflecting and pondering everything we experienced on our Holy Land tour -- and getting lots of physical exercise. God is taking good care of us!
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