Our older sister Diana works in the Religion Department at the University of Virginia and had gotten to know Father Thomas Blättler, a Benedictine priest at the Monastery in Engelberg. When he found out we were coming to Switzerland, he invited us to be the guests of the Monastery. It was an amazing experience, one we will never forget and we have made new friends we will treasure forever.
We hadn't been sure what train we would get from Zurich, and had left word we would arrive at 2 or 3p.m. and would take a cab from the train station. But when we got there (fortunately on the 2 p.m. train), Father Thomas was there to meet us and drive us to the monastery. The obligatory "hi, we're here!" photos done, we had a chance to sit and talk a bit.
Then it was off for a tour of the town, the monastery grounds and the walks near the monastery that are so obviously dear to Father Thomas' heart. We were the guests of the Monastery for dinner and then had a chance to sit in on Mass sung by the community in the Monastery's glorious church.
After breakfast the next morning, Father Thomas was our guide for a multi-cable car trip up Mount Titlis. He was disappointed that the weather was cloudy and chilly; it had been sunny and clear up 'til then. But we thought the trip was even more spectacular this way: seeing the Monastery from above -- even seeing the clouds from above. A marmot stuck his head out of his hole long enough to say hello, and we saw snow flowers growing everywhere along the sides of a still-frozen lake.
On our last evening there, Kacy made friends with a young woman who works there. Mincorova is from Macedonia and though she doesn't speak much English and Kacy doesn't speak much German, they seemed to get along. After a last photo with Father Thomas, I went on to our room and Kacy went for a walk.
Some time later, I started hearing noises downstairs, a booming noise and other sounds. I didn't think anything of it until Kacy came upstairs and said she couldn't get the Evil Lock to lock. I couldn't get it to work either and finally some other monk (who had probably been awakened by our noise) came and bailed us out. We told Father Thomas about it the next morning at breakfast, but he laughed and drove us to the train station anyway.
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Father Thomas
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The Monastery
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Kacy & Fr. Thomas
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Yrs Truly & Fr. Thomas
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Monastery grounds
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View behind Monastery
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Wildflower
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Engelberg
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Monastery from cable car
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Cable car
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Marmot
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Aerial view
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Snow flowers
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Frozen lake
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Mincorova
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Last evening with Fr. Thomas
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Evil lock
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Train station farewell
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