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Andy and Megan made it safely to our house on December 23rd, and we celebrated with Andy's favorite meal of Imo's Pizza. It is a must-have when he comes to town, so we figured we would just get it out of the way. On Christmas Eve Jim and I got a workout in at the rec center before the day's festivities began. I made my traditional Italian beef for supper, followed by our new tradition of Cranberry Cosmopolitans while opening gifts. As I mentioned before, Katie was unable to come home due to lack of vacation days, so we did the next best thing. I put my Macbook on the entry foyer steps where she normally sits during our gift exchange, with a Cosmo next to the computer for a virtual toast. Through the miracle of Skype we set up the laptop and my iPad so that she could see us opening the presents and we, in turn, could watch her open her gifts. It amazes me that we could keep in contact with her for over two hours at absolutely no cost to anyone. Thank you, inventor of Skype! Below is a fun gift I received to commemorate my trip to Switzerland this year. I really need to find the connection between this Kubler family and mine!

Kubler Absinthe

MoBot Train

While the kids were here we made our annual trip to the flower and train show at the Missouri Botanical Garden. It was lovely as always, and surprisingly uncrowded on the day after Christmas. We also visited the Art Museum to see the new addition for the first time. While I am not a fan of the architecture it was interesting to see the new exhibition space. I particularly like the exhibit shown below that looked like a fabric quilt but was in fact made from liquor bottle caps. The interactive glass block exhibit is cool as well.

Jim on repeat

I was, however, very offended by this painting.


Jim and I fly out to Los Angeles tomorrow to bring in the New Year with Katie. Kirby will remain here with his favorite dog sitters though he always prefers to be with Jim. Speaking of Kirby, here is the gift I had made for Jim. He loved it, as you might imagine.

Kirby mug

Happy New Year to my readers. May 2014 be everything you hope for and desire!

church as it looks today

On Saturday, September 21st Rolf and his wife Andrea picked me up at 9:45 so that we could tour the tower of the Catholic Church in Busserach. The tower itself is the only piece of the church remaining from when my ancestors worshiped there as this is the third church building. Somehow the tower, circa 1464, survived the fires and other disasters that felled the previous two churches. Within the tower is a museum of artifacts that had been housed in the basement of the church until water damaged them. They are now on display in the museum. I was able to see the old basin that was used to baptize the parishioners, including my Kublers.

existing altar

picture of the second church building

an old vestment

photo of the original altar

baptismal font

We were able to climb the narrow, steep steps leading up to the bell tower tower. It was amazing to see the bells that close, but I kept thinking that here in the states no one would let anyone climb the tower due to liability. How refreshing that it does not seem to be an issue in Switzerland.

steps leading to the bells

a few of the bells

Following the tour of the church and the tower we celebrated with some wine and crackers.


Then it was time for the main event, the Kubler family gathering at Neu-Thierstein Castle, located just outside of the town. The castle I believe is from the 1100s, and it had fallen into ruin. In the 1800s efforts were made to stop the dismantling that had been taking place. In recent years the village of Busserach bought the castle and has done restoration work, including adding a clear roof so that the castle can be used for events year-round.













Once the family members started arriving, we gathered in one of the rooms on the upper level where we would be able to not only eat but also watch the slide presentation that Rolf had put together about my family. It was interesting to me that a number of the attendees had to introduce themselves to each other. I guess I just assumed that in a town the size of Busserach (around 2,000 people), everyone would know one another.


The food was good, and the slide show was very informative. I think the best part of it was that it got so much conversation started among the relatives. It was fun to hear the excited conversations, even if I didn't understand what was being said. We gathered up the email addresses of those who wished to contribute theirs, so I am hoping that we can somehow stay in touch despite the language barrier. I have very few Kubler relatives in the Unites States. Maybe I will end up with more in Switzerland.

The day ended with dinner at Rolf's house with his wife and two sons. We had cheese fondue, and it was very tasty. I think we do a pretty good job with fondue over here, but I have to say that their cheese is so much better. And it will be hard to ever top having it with a Swiss family in Switzerland.

The next morning Rolf picked me up at 9:00 so that we could drive to a high point for me to take some pictures of the village from up above. Unfortunately the morning was too foggy to do that, but we went to some land owned by a Kubler family and I got some interesting pictures there.

spider webs capture the dew

orchard on Kubler land

We then spent a little more time at his house while he burned some CDs for me, and I had an opportunity to say good-bye to his family before he took me to the Laufen station. From there I took several trains to Speyer, Germany where I met back up with my tour group. What an unbelievable experience, and I have no idea how to thank the person that made it all possible.

Me along the drive to Solothurn

Since Susanne lives in Breitenbach, she picked me up at my hotel on Friday morning at 7:10. We met two of her sisters and Rolf in a parking lot in Busserach to continue the drive to Solothurn. Rolf thought it would be nice to drive instead of taking the train so that I could see more of the countryside. I am so glad he did! It was a beautiful drive, and Rolf is so knowledgeable that it was like having my own personal tour guide along while I was in Switzerland. The roads were very twisty as we made our way up through the passage in the hills. I kept thinking how much Jim would have enjoyed a motorcycle ride there.
Along the way we passed a home owned by an ancestral family named Altamatt (need to check my spelling on that one after I have a chance to review all the materials Rolf gave to me). They once had a mill here and the property is still in the family today.

Altamatt property

We arrived at the archives shortly after they opened. Here I am with my three Kubler cousins.

Rolf puts the sisters to work on Carolina Borer

The sisters worked on looking for passport information on Carolina Borer, wife of Vinzenz Josef Kubler. He had already located Vinzenz and their four boys, but not Carolina. As there is no death record for her here and I have found her, I believe, in a census record in the U.S., there should be a passport for her. In the meantime, he I and I went through the Busserach books looking for birth, marriage and death records for any Kubler. We found many, and photographed all of them. The archives closes for two hours at lunch, so we took a break and walked to a nearby restaurant. When we returned to the archives we spent another hour and a half or so photographing Inventories, which is what the town prepared when someone dies. Rolf also found the birth record of a Kubler from 1617, so we know they were in Busserach by that time period. Nothing new was found on Carolina however.

Two of the sisters then headed home while Susanne, Rolf and I toured a little of the town of Solothurn. It is the oldest town in Switzerland and has a lot of interesting buildings in the old town section. Here are a couple of the cathedrals.





On the ceiling of this cathedral is a painting of the Altamatt crest, which indicates that the family donated money during construction so that they could have this done. I am guessing it must have been a lot of money, and sometime it would be fun to research the records to learn about the construction of this cathedral.
Following the tour of town we drove back towards Busserach, and Rolf dropped Susanne and me off in a rural area where we met up with Josef Kubler. Rolf had to leave to finish up some things for the family gathering on Saturday and also to pick up his wife at the airport. Susanna, Joseph and I ate at a restaurant located in a farm house high in the hills. As we walked along the country road the sound of the cows grazing on the hillside was like a symphony of wind chimes.



We enjoyed a nice meal and then drove under a full moon on our way back to Busserach. From sun up to sun down, the day was filled with adventure.

I have been delayed in posting because I hit the ground running in Switzerland. My train trip from Boppard to Basel was uneventful except for a suicide attempt. While still in southern Germany the train came to a screeching halt, and I nervously looked around my train car. No one else seemed concerned so I thought it was a brake check or something. But then we just sat. Finally an announcement came on that there were "people on the tracks" and we had to wait for them to be moved. I wondered if a car had gotten stuck on the tracks. A little later another announcement was made that someone was trying to commit suicide by laying on the tracks, and they had to wait for the police to come. I guess the person went willingly because we were soon on our way again. All this delayed my arrival time in Basel where Rolf, as promised, was waiting at the top of the escalator with a Swiss flag. I waved my own American flag at him, and we quickly bought my ticket to Laufen. Back down the escalator we went only to see our train pulling out. Back up the escalator we headed with me dragging all my luggage once again. We went into a coffee shop for some coffee and tea. Rolf brought me up to date in the plans for the rest of that day, which was Thursday.

Gasthaus where Joseph Kubler sold his land

We caught the next train 30 minutes later and then got into his car which was parked at the Laufen train station. From there we drove directly to my hotel in Breitenbach, which I believe I have mentioned is the same hotel where my ancestor Joseph Kubler sold his house and land in February of 1854 to finance passage to America for his family. We barely made it in the door to drop my bag with the hotel owner and grab a key before Rolf whisked me off to Busserach, a short distance away. There we went to to the Catholic Church office to look at the old birth, death and marriage records. The office is only open on Thursdays so we needed to take advantage of that.

With the parish record books in Busserach

A Kubler entry

The secretary had laid out three books for us to look through. We photographed every Kubler entry that we found. We did not have too much time to dissect what we came across as there were many Kubler entries. We got short on time, so Rolf suggested we go through two additional books at a later time. From the office we went to Rolf's house where I had a chance to meet his two sons, but not his wife as she was away on holiday. Then Josef Kubler (call Sep in Switzerland for short, but never Joe) came to pick us up to take us to his sister Susanne's house for dinner. The two of them speak no English and I don't speak German so Rolf was kept busy translating the conversation. Susanne prepared raclette, a traditional Swiss dish. It was so good! I may have to see if I can find the machine in the U.S.

Joseph on the left with Rolf

Raclette

I got back to the hotel about 10:30 that evening to prepare for a big day at the Solothurn archives on Friday.

As discussed in the previous post, I decided to rent a phone while I am in Germany and Switzerland and avoid outrageous charges from my U.S. carrier. My PlanetFone arrived today as promised. Delivered by UPS, the package includes a return envelope for me to send the phone back once I get back home.

Planetfone

what you get

I took one look at the case the phone came in and thought, holy crap - where am I going to put this now? My suitcase is jam packed and my carry on is already quite heavy. Oh my... Contained in the case with the phone is the power cord, adapters for both Germany and Switzerland and a plug for a car. That, at least, is staying behind as I will have no need for it. There is also a brief instruction card that hopefully contains enough information that I can receive and make calls. They have their phone number programmed in, so if I get in a bind I can always call them. Maybe. The phone is pretty basic, but that is fine for my purposes. I don't intend to use it for anything other than the occasional phone call. Assuming that wifi is available and I will be able to blog, I will post on how the phone is working on my travels. Just one more day!

cell phone

TripAdvisor - don't leave home without it

It seems hard to believe that in just a few more days I will be boarding the flight that will take me on my Family Tree Tours to Germany and Switzerland. I have a few gift items left to buy for the people who have been gracious enough to volunteer their time looking for the missing branches on my family tree, but I am actually in pretty good shape at this point. While we were encouraged to try and make due with only a carry on bag, there is just no way I could make that happen. Not only will I be gone 13 days, I have the gift items to transport in addition to my genealogy materials, and I need to bring a special outfit for my family gathering in Switzerland. And that necessitates bringing a second pair of shoes. I was able to get everything into a smaller bag than I anticipated however. I have to be able to get my bag on and off multiple trains, and I have no idea if the hotels I am staying at have elevators. I suspect not. So I am pleased that I was able to scale back enough to use a suitcase that I am actually capable of carrying up and down stairs. Since my husband is not accompanying me, I cannot rely on his help. I offer up a heart felt thanks to my personal trainer for pushing me every Tuesday. (And she will be pleased to know that I packed a couple of fitness aids into the suitcase as well.) My strong arms will certainly pay off on this trip!

One of the big things that had been hanging over my head was what to do about a phone while I am gone. I have read horror stories from reputable sources about people getting hammered by their American phone carriers while abroad, even if they purchased the international plan ahead of time and thought they were covered. I decided to err on the side of caution and rent a phone. After reviewing multiple companies I decided to go with the one recommended by AAA, which is planetfone.com. The gal at AAA had just used the service in multiple countries recently and had no problem with the phone at all. Because I am going to two different countries, I did not want to worry about changing SIM cards or anything else. PlanetFone's minute rates for talking and texting were a little higher than my second choice, but because I have a Citi Bank credit card, they waived the rental fee. A special promotion added free insurance on the phone, so that sealed the deal for me. The phone will be mailed to me in a couple of days, and I will receive a postage paid envelope to return the phone when I get back home. Sounds easy enough, so I hope that ends up to be the case. Obviously I will use free wifi on my iPad whenever possible, but my researching contacts may need to call me so I need to have a phone for them or in case of an emergency.

I picked up a travel hair dryer that folds compactly and is designed for multiple currencies. Because all of my other devices are as well, that eliminated the need to purchase a converter. I secured an adapter for Germany and one for Switzerland, because of course they are different. I also bought a power strip so that I can charge multiple devices at once since I will have my camera, phone, iPad and camcorder to charge. Hotels are usually a little stingy on the number of outlets, and this way I only need one adapter to plug into the power strip to handle all my charging needs.

The other thing I really wanted for the trip was a packable rain jacket. I remember my mom had a wonderful windbreaker that folded into its own pocket that she kept in her golf bag. I wondered if there was a similar design in a coat that would provide a little more protection from the rain. Sure enough there are dozens out there, with some of them being stored into a separate little bag as opposed to the pocket of the coat. I read many reviews and decided that the sizing was all over the place and ordering online would not be wise. So I went to REI so that I could try the jackets on for size. Har, har. I narrowed my choices down to the North Face and the REI brand. While I think the North Face probably looked a little better on me, I tried it on with a fleece underneath and it was too snug across the shoulders. Going up a size just looked ridiculous. The REI jacket looks fine and can handle a fleece underneath as well. Unfortunately the forecast for my trip looks a little cool and rainy, so I may need to layer. There are many features I like on this coat. I can put an iPod or my phone in a designated pocket so I can listen to music yet the device is secure; it has the zipped vents under the arms if you get too hot; the hood is designed in a way to really protect your face in a downpour and is also detachable; it folds into its own pocket so no extra bag to worry about; and it has nice, deep zippered pockets. The only negative is that when it is tucked into its pocket, the pouch is probably a little too big to put into my Curse (see previous post for the Curse) along with the camera and iPad. I am looking into fitting it with a clasp that could attach to my bag.

jacket tucked into pocket

REI rain jacket

I downloaded a language app onto my iPhone, but of course that will only work if I am in a free wifi zone since I will the cellular data turned off. I also put a currency app on the phone so that I can convert the pricing on items. Germany uses euros while Switzerland has francs. Again, that is only helpful in a wifi area, but at least I can use it part of the time.

Because I have a pretty full itinerary I created a calendar in Microsoft Word, listing my flights and daily activities. Not only will it be a useful tool for me, it will allow my husband to virtually travel along with me.

my travel calendar

So overall I feel really good about where I am at right now. I have a small list of things to do each day this week for the trip, but nothing overwhelming. I have already contacted my credit card company about my travels, but my bank insists it only needs 48 hours for my debit card. I will call them tomorrow anyway because waiting until Wednesday makes me nervous. And I have a few little gift items to pick up. I am so ready to do this!