Couples' Sortie

What a marvelous time we had with the other couples of the mission! We all gathered in Alsace for 2 days of sharing experiences and ideas with one another. We stayed in the most charming little village, Kaysersberg, which was the birthplace of Albert Schweitzer. Not to be disappointed, we saw our first stork's nest atop some of the roofs there. The village was surrounded by vineyards and had a small river than ran through the middle of town. There was also a watchtower and ruins of a medieval wall that used to enclose the village in the 13th century. We climbed the 315 stairs to the top of the tower early one morning.

We ate at a quaint little sidewalk cafe in Kaysersberg. I couldn't get Elder Dooley to try the choucrout (sauerkraut with sausage and ham), but we had some wonderful quiche with salmon and asparagus. We also ate some wonderful Black Forest cake and apple strudel at a restaurant (gourmand) in Riqueswihr.

One of our Elders had served in Alsace, and he insisted that we needed to visit Monkey Mountain (Montagne des Singes). We were rather dubious about the value of this side trip, but I'm really glad we went. It consists of a mountainside that has been dedicated to the recovery of Barbary Apes. Over 600 apes have been returned to their homeland in northern Africa to date. We were even given a handful of popcorn to feed to the monkeys, who delicately picked it from our hands. We even got to see one of the new babies, born in April! They are born with black fur, which lightens as they grow. The baby was climbing all the tiny tree stumps, but one time some of the older children got rough-housing too close to the baby and the mother swooped through, clutching her baby and shrieking at the other monkeys. She carried the baby to a safer location, away from the other monkeys, but then another mother pulled the two other (kid) monkeys aside and scolded them and cuffed them for playing too close to the baby!

We saw the ultimate Christmas shop in Riqueswihr! It was interdit (forbidden) to take photos in the shop, which was a shame, because it was the Ultimate European Christmas shop! I can't even do justice to try to describe all they had. Everything from nutcrackers to handblown glass ornaments to hand-crafted creches. Of course, it was rather pricey, too, but SO much fun to walk through and look at everything. I bought a couple of small doilies of Alsatian lace.