9th of July the morning prayers of the monks start at 5:30am and I entered the church at the exact time. They were reading texts from the old testament and it reminded me again of how strong the connection of Christianity and Muslim religion is based on the Jewish roots.
After the morning prayers I got myself into a little conclave back in our room to finally get my diary updated to the very last day. I was a bit proud of myself, that I got so far. Therefore I was again the last one at breakfast. By ten o’clock we were supposed to leave the room, but brother Benedict wasn’t so strict with the rules and we could still finalise our bags packing, which included the motto of “Less-is-More” by separating things, which could be left with my parents.
Quite punctual at the same time my parents parked their car in front of the monastery and we could greet them from our window high above up on the fourth floor of the baroque wing. They planned to accompany us for the two passes of Oberalp and Furka to help us with some of the heavy luggage during the rides not to burn our breaks.
It was a great relief and the bikes felt completely different without the big load. Actual I discovered my bike now less stable as the front wheel was charged more than the back wheel. The air was still cold and the peaks were sugared with some fresh snow after the strong precipitation of the last days.
Leaving the village of Disentis we still stopped by a two stores high house built from bales of straw by the architect Werner Schmidt, who has the exact same name spelled like my uncle. In the village of Sedrun we tried to have a look at the archive designed by Gion Caminada, but unfortunately it was closed. We still had lunch at a Pizzeria before we started the climb up the Oberalp pass.
The higher we got, the less vegetation surrounded us, but the more it intensified its biodiversity by showing the most different Alpine flower arrangements I ever saw right beside the road. To the left we could see the “Vorderrhein” in cascades coming down the cliff walls. Although it’s not directly the real Rhine source at the Operalp pass, they arranged for the tourist the impression of being connected with the end of the Rhine close to Rotterdam, because they set up a copy of the lighthouse tower from the North sea. This represented also the plan to somehow end our tour at the international Architecture Filmfestival of Rotterdam.
Arriving at the pass by bike, my parents were already waiting for us and took the chance to take some pictures of our success. We even got a stamp for the Saint James pilgrim passes and the lady told us due to our project, how many fascinating people come by and tell their incredible stories. The wind outside wasn’t very inviting to stay and we started the downhill immediately in our down jackets and winter gloves.
Once turning into the village of Andermatt we immediately found the hotel, where my parents were staying and fell just asleep on the terrace in the sun, while they moved into their room.
Our rotarian friend Urs Marbet and his wife Ester were so nice hosting us as representation of their Rotary Club Uri / Altdorf. Together with Lucia and Markus we were already three Rotarians and two Innerwheelers joining for a wonderful dinner meeting. With a little tour through the famous “Chedi” we finished the day.
