Via Ferrata

Just wanted to give you a little preview of a recent trip to Switzerland! More to come...

Natzweiler-Struthof

For Kristy's birthday, Stephen and I decided to take her to a historical sight about 1.5 hours from us in the French mountains. She is a big history buff, so we thought she would "enjoy," if that is even possible, seeing a concentration camp. I had never been to see the camp either so it was a bonus for me to get to tag along.

Here is some information about the Camp:

— Information from wikipedia:

"Natzweiler-Struthof was a German concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller (German Natzweiler) in France, about 50 km south west from the city of Strasbourg. It was the only concentration camp established by the Nazis on present-day French territory."  

 — Information from Stuthof Website:  http://www.struthof.fr/en/home/

On 21 April 1941, near the village of Struthof, the Nazis opened a concentration camp, KL-Natzweiler.

The central camp, the only concentration camp in France, was located in the then annexed Alsace département. Its annexes, scattered over the 2 sides of the Rhine, made up a network of nearly 70 camps, more or less large. Of the nearly 52,000 detainees of KL-Natzeiler, about 35,000 did not go through the central camp.

A labour camp supporting the Nazi war industry, it was also used for medical experiments by Nazi professors from the Reich University of Strasbourg.

On 23 November 1944, the Allies discovered the site evacuated by the Nazis since September. Some deportees from the camp annexes had their sufferings prolonged in the spring of 1945 on the "Death Marches".

From 1941 to 1945, the KL-Natzweiler was one of the most murderous camps of the Nazi system. Nearly 22,000 deportees died there.

“I learned how to stand pain that would have been unbearable for a human being in normal circumstances, but I also learned how to savour tiny pleasures: a ray of sunshine, light playing on the mountain, a few instants of peaceful sleep, a hint of bad meat at the bottom of my bowl, a civilised conversation with an old comrade...”   —  Jean LEGER

This was a holding cell they would put prisoners in. 

Your hands will bleed,

Your feet will bleed

You suffer, the mountain hits you

On your tired back, your bruised arms

On your gasping chest

On your clear head.

You will fall! But energy, the will to live

For a child, for a mother,

For a woman or your God

You will stand back up, grit your teeth,

You will start walking again.

— Léon BOUTBIEN

Le Gourou, témoignage de déportation au KL-Natzweiler

Monument built to memorialize the area.

Swimming, Snails, and Torture O My!

In the middle of August, Stephen surprised me with a mini-trip on our day off to a near by French town, Riquewihr.  With all the busyness of the summer (we do actually work, you only see the random fun things we do in between), we managed to escape Neuenburg for 24 hours and take in the beautiful historic town nestled at the foot of the Vosges mountains. 

We stayed in your "typical french hotel".....the Best Western...and got to relax a little by the swimming pool! It was a perfect way to start a mini-trip and enjoy the pretty weather. After freshening up we headed into the city to walk around. 

We found our favorite houses!

 And tried on some local merchants handywork!

We tried to decide if we should paint our house a nice minty shade like this one!

After walking for so long a girl gets hungry, so we choose this alsacian restaurant that was off the beaten path for dinner. 

One of us was brave and ordered the local specialty...Escargot...or if your from Alabama, Snails!

To finish the night off we headed back to our room to eat snacks that I packed (shout out to Debo) and watch the Olympics...in French of course! The trip went off without a hitch except for the "Queen" version of european hotel beds. They love to push two twins together and act like it is a queen, but we are not buying it! 

Mind the gap!

In the morning we headed in for breakfast. We tend to be the healthy types so we went for sugar cinnamon donuts and a bacon and cheese covered pretzel washed down with the smallest cup of

coffee you have ever seen!

Before we left we were sure to stop in at the Torture Museum, one of Riquewihr's greatest attractions!

For a 3 Euro entrance fee I was pretty impressed. 

We were first led into the torture chamber that was used for criminals in the area. 

They were hoisted up in the air with their arms tied behind them and then dropped dislocating their shoulders. No thanks, I think I will keep my shoulders located. 

And if that was not bad enough, they made many different devices to torture you even further. One our favorites was the "Flute of Shame" seen below. You heard me, they would clamp your fingers into a flute if you were a "bad musician." Watch Out!

Another device they used was known as the "Finger Crusher!" Forget chinese water torture, these people would just clamp your fingers until they fall off!

After winding through the torture devices you get to see pictures and documents from the war periods fought in this region. It has been invaded, destroyed, and changed nationality a number of times.

Bible that was in the museum with a letter from Roosevelt for soldiers.

And to finish the tour we got to see the old barrels that were used to store wine and other things. 

I didn't know I had such a knack for pageant poses...watch out Miss Riquewihr.

It was a really fun trip and proved to be quite educational, thanks to the torture museum!

Impulse Buys and Rafting

When I got home from my trip to the States in May, Stephen had a little surprise for me. I am not sure if all guys are impulse buyers...but Stephen does have that tendency. He has reigned in his compulsion for random things, but it slips out from time to time. In a moment of weakness, or should I say brilliance, Stephen purchased a 2 person inflatable kayak from the local grocery store....yes, grocery store! 

I know what your thinking, "are you sure an inflatable boat that that comes in 15 pieces and that was bought from a grocery store can really act as a life saving device while rafting down a river?"  My thoughts exactly! I was a bit apprehensive, but thought why not....I mean it did cost 25.99! 

So the adventure began the night before as Kristy Spanjer and I inflated the boat with a tiny electric pump on our back balcony outside (sorry neighbors!). The next morning Stephen and I packed a lunch and finished the 15 part inflation sequence. We lowered our kayak over the balcony to our awaiting van (of course we used our handy-dandy extension cord to lower the boat...who needs rope when there is the threat of electrocution). 

To our delight (and the horrified expression of our landlord who informed us that many drownings occur in the Rhein River due to current changes) the Kayak was a "prefect fit" in our 9 passenger van! To make the whole experience even more fun and really test our boat we decided that Rob should drop us off at our put-in location. We strapped our boat to the back of his truck and only had to make one stop as it almost flew out and could have killed any amount of poor drivers behind us!

After our multi-test examination you can see our 25.99 inflatable kayak was quite an impulse buy. It floated like the best of them and was surprisingly comfortable.

We stopped about half-way down the trip on a rock island for a picnic and just enjoyed the beautiful summer day!

The total trip was about 3 hours floating down the river and was not so life threatening, thankfully.

If you come and visit us in the summer we will be sure to take you "rafting." We are experts in the field of inflatable kayaks now!