SW-1

back   index   forward

SWITZERLAND

RECONCILIATION WALK

Auxonne, France to Bari, Italy

Sept -Dec 1996

horizontal rule


Why the Walk    DTS-Lausanne    France    Switzerland    Italy    Before the Walk    After the Walk

horizontal rule









 

9/29 Leysin and Yverdon to Leysin

 

It was this day that we continued walking towards Lausanne, but then spent the evening and several more evenings in a small mountain village Leysin. We travelled back to where our walk left us every day. On the way up, one of our vans (the red one called Michelle) decided it was too hard to climb the mountain road, and started steaming.

 

9/30 Lausanne

Second day of walking through Switzerland to Lausanne. Frederick and Suzanne, and Deborah came last night for supper. Nadia came back from her Canadian trip and will be with us now.

This was one of the first postcards we bought along the trip.  The place on the postcard is where patty and I had our Chalet-a-Gobet baloney sandwiches at least twice sitting at that fountain.

I had decided it was easier to do this and write notes on the back of the cards for the journal.

Today, Richard and I visited the synagogue in Lausanne and the Islamic Center.  The rabbi was enthusiastic about our message, and astonished that we would walk that far with it. At the Islamic Center, we talked with the imam, who was resistant to our message, time and again wanted to mix politics with religion, told us the current atrocities were more important than the Crusades, and why we weren’t asking for forgiveness for them.

10/1 Vevey

Patty and I really enjoyed Vevey and the walk along Lake Geneva towards Montreux.  We had visited several times before on weekends during  our DTS in Lausanne.

     

The lake is beautiful.

  

Vevey is picturesque.

   

Patty along the way.  And Charlie Chaplin and the fork in the lake.

Glen and Henning went to the Islamic Center in Vevey, but it was just an apartment and the imam wasn’t in. Shared with the workers there.

Earlier, in August, we took that boat on the card from Lausanne to Vevey. Patty and I several times enjoyed walking the path in Vevey along the lake, with kiosks selling everything you’d ever want or need.

Beautiful views of the lake and the French mountains opposite. Handed out may tracts in Vevey and Montreux. Went past Chateau Chillon where Patty and I came and visited with Fiona earlier.

 

 

 

10/2 Montreux

Saint-Maurice


 

 

10/4 Martigny

10/4 Aigle to Martigny.

First  card above is for Montreux then there are three for Saint-Maurice. We stopped when walking through Saint-Maurice and spent some time at the church pictured.  We were prayed over by the cure, and at 11:30 had lunch. After lunch the cure shows us the treasures and archeological digs. St Maurice was a Christian commander of a Roman legion in the early 4th century who would not obey orders to kill other Christians. He and his legion (5000 men!) were killed by the Romans. The church/abbey commemorates this event and contains precious gifts from Constantine and others. The 5000 men were supposedly buried here. Sometime later, after running after a man on a bicycle to offer him a tract, I pulled a muscle in my left leg and could not walk with the group for the rest of the day. The man on the bicycle, by the way, was not too favorable towards Jews and Catholics. By comparison, the Roman Catholic cure was very sympathetic, said  that although er believe in Jesus Christ, others who have not heard, or who have not decoded, re judged by the Holy Spirit.

That night, we slept in Martigny in an empty storefront restaurant that will soon be a church (c/o Pierre Alain Vauclair)

10/5 Martigny to Orsierres and Liddes

We left Martigny early this am, and it rained all day.   I couldn't walk because of my knee.  Pierre, the pastor of the new church in Martigny, walked up about 15 km with us earlier in the day. We stopped at a town up the mountain where three valleys meet, and prayed for revival. Apparently, only a handful or two, less than 10, evangelical Christians lived in the three valleys.

Orsierres was about 20 km uphill from Martigny, but many, including Patty, decided to walk an additional 5-6 km.  When we got to the vans to go to Clos St Bernard (St Bernard Hospice) where we were going to spend the night, it started snowing, first a little, then more. It's now about 6:30 pm, -5 Degrees C outside and snowing hard with about 2 inches on the ground.  

horizontal rule

index   forward